This past Friday and Saturday, the Richard Montgomery track team made a strong showing at the 11th Annual Viking invitational held at Walter Johnson High School. With impressive performances from both the boys and the girls’ teams, Richard Montgomery competed well in hurdles, distance, sprinting, jumping and even throws.

The Viking Invitational was comprised of two days this year, an elite Friday night meet and a full day of events this Saturday. RM athletes competed in both days and were able to quickly rack up points.

On Friday night, Richard Montgomery entered three athletes to compete: juniors Drew Byrd and  Rohann Asfaw, and senior Emily Newcombe. Each running well, the three were able to score in their respective races. Byrd ran an impressive time of 11.38 in the 100m dash to take second in his event, followed by Newcombe who finished the girl’s mile with a personal record time of 5:24.83 in the girl’s mile, placing sixth. Asfaw then won the boy’s mile with a time of 4:21.7, fighting off Wootton’s Colin Sybing.

On the following Saturday, Richard Montgomery brought their top two athletes to compete in the individual events, as well as their A relays. The meet began with the hurdles, followed by the 100 meter dash, where sophomore Avery Reeves placed 11th overall.

The meet then continued to the 3200m relay where history was made. While the girls relay (Lauren Zhou, Cynthia Kipserem, Emily Newcombe, Samantha Quiros) placed eighth overall, the boys went on to place fourth. Led by freshman Mark Unger, the relay was off to a quick start. Unger ran a 1:57.4 split, the fastest recorded time a freshman had ever run at this meet. Rohann Asfaw then followed, running his leg of the relay with a time under two minutes as well. With a strong start, runners Mac Morgan and Samad Iqbal were able to finish the relay with a time of 8:07.95, qualifying for the prestigious Penn Relays.

Following the finals of the 100m dash and the hurdle events, Richard Montgomery saw several personal records in the 1600m run. Senior Cynthia Kipserem ran her fastest time of the season, 5:42.85, followed by senior Michael Riederer, who finished with a  personal record of 4:53.73 winning his heat. Soon after, RM saw impressive performances from freshman Lauren Zhou and sophomore Eloise Dufka, followed by senior Alex Page in the 400m dash, all of them again setting new personal records.

The 300m hurdles then followed the 3200m, in which RM saw an incredible performance by junior Tylen Hebron in a time of 41.10 finishing third, as well as a personal record by Simon Liu of 44.66.

Mark Unger soon made history once again, breaking the record for a freshman in the individual 800m with a time that ranks him tenth in the nation for freshmen, 1:59.87.

The meet then continued with Richard Montgomery winning third in the boys 400m relay (Drew Byrd, Avery Reeves, Zion Tyler, Enrique Zuniga) and ending with yet another incredible performance as the girls relay qualified to run in the Penn Relays in the 1600m relay with an impressive time of 4:18.63.

In addition to track events, Byrd  placed third in long jump with a jump of 20’ 8”, senior Daniel Alexander won third in high jump with 5’ 8”, and sophomore Heather Konan set a new personal record in the triple jump with 29’ 7”. In addition, freshman Kristina Mickens set a new personal record with a throw in shot put of 22’ 9” while senior Jhordan Greene threw an impressive 34’ 5”.

Overall, Richard Montgomery saw great performances all around and was able to gauge how well they compare to the rest of the county. This Tuesday, the boy’s team will compete for the division championship against BCC in arguably the most competitive division.