LANDOVER — Indoor track wasn’t a varsity sport in Harford County until three years ago. Now, it’s produced a state champion.
Both the Harford Tech boys and girls dominated the 1A indoor track state title Wednesday at the Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex, the girls posting a team score of 79 and the boys finishing with 59. Smithsburg (64) and Largo (48) completed the top three on the girls side, while the Liberty boys fell just five short to the Cobras with Largo in third.
Harford Tech coach Darrell Diamond was at the forefront of the push to bring the sport to Harford County, confident the area’s athletes had what it took to compete with the state’s best. He was quickly proved correct.
“It feels fantastic,” said senior Khory Reevey, who finished second in the boys 55-meter hurdle, fourth in the 300-meter run and was a member of the fifth-place 4-by-400 team. “The big counties like Montgomery, Baltimore City, PG, they’ve always been known for sports, especially track and field. I feel like it’s finally time for Harford County to get some notice.”
Before it was a varsity sport, Diamond and other area track coaches got together to train runners over the winter months as a bridge from cross country to outdoor track, but not as an official team that could compete for state titles. No legitimate team meant coaches were volunteers and donations from parents were needed to bus runners to competitions. Diamond said it more closely resembled a club team than a varsity sport.
But slowly, the number of participants grew. Diamond had seen counties smaller than Harford have indoor track as a varsity sport. So why not us, the coach wondered.
His Harford Tech team, which also won the Upper Chesapeake Bay Athletic Conference championships in January, took to Landover as favorites to come out on top. The Cobras’ boys and girls squads both finished second at the state championships last season and looked to improve upon that finish in 2025, 14 years after Diamond’s first impromptu practice.
“They finally finished off the task,” he said. “The team was good then, even when we were volunteering. Once we got support, now we can go to meets regularly, we have a conference championship now. They’re more seasoned now.”
Harford Tech took first in the boys 4-by-800, led by Alexander Wockenfuss, who also won the boys 500-meter and 800-meter runs, and the girls 4-by-200 made up of Winter Evans, Madisyn Bobb, Destiny Baker and Madisen Morgan.
Evans also dominated on the girls side individually, winning the high jump and placing second in the 55-meter hurdles. Isabel Devos took first place in the girls 3,200-meter run and came in third in the girls 1,600-meter run.
Harford Tech also placed two in the top five of the girls 300-meter with Bobb and Baker, and London Youngblood posted a top-five finish in the girls shot put.
“A lot of personal records today,” Diamond said. “A lot of people stepped up. It was pretty balanced all the way across.”
Wednesday’s meet was supposed to take place Feb. 19, but inclement weather pushed the event back seven days. That postponement altered Harford Tech’s training routine, which consisted of a ramp-up process to get runners to be at their best the day of the meet.
“We were all training to try to peak on that day,” Diamond said. “We had to go back and change up some practices. The main thing is just trying to keep everybody sharp.”
Alas, both Cobras squads claimed victory.
Patterson Mill, Havre de Grace, Joppatowne and Perryville also sent representatives to Landover on Wednesday. The Patterson Mill girls came in eighth place, led by 800-meter run winner Leila Sollas, while the Huskies and Warriors’ boys finished in a tie for 15th.
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