Watkins Mill junior Aaron Meadows consoles sophomore Jason Castillo, who was disqualified due to a false start. Watkins Mill ended up struggling to place 20th out of 22 teams.

Junior Daniel Huang is left on the deck after slipping and stumbling in the 100m pre-lims. Despite the stubmle, Huang was able to get back up and run a 14:40, unfortunately finishing second-to-last.

Athletic trainer Meghan Wilkinson treats sophomore Briyel Alao, along with help from freshman Alexa Wingerter and *sophomore Annaelle Dogbe*. Alao cramped during the final leg of the 4x100m relay and had to step off to the side and support herself by holding onto the fence before her teammates helped her over to the infield.

Junior Victoria Irani Webb looks on as freshman Tracey Hounkale attempts the high jump. While Irani Webb finished 12th out of 13th, clearing 4′ 6″, Hounkale recorded a no-height result, meaning she failed to clear any of her opening three heights, rendering her out of the rankings.

The “WJ Hurdle Crew” moves quickly to remove hurdles from the track in preparation for the next race. Despite not running any actual events, these students, most of whom are on the track team, were the unsung heroes of the meet, helping to fix even the slightest displacement of a hurdle after every heat and warm-up.

Spectators and resting athletes fill the stands, protected from the sun by tents sporting their schools’ colors and logos. A total of 26 schools, public and private, from MCPS to Baltimore, attended the meet.

Junior Jack Fiening runs hot on the trail of B-CC runner Tobin Connelly in the 1600m. Fiening would go on to pass Connelly and win both the heat and the entire race by over six seconds, while Connelly finished 10 seconds behind Fiening and fifth overall.

Junior Alessandro Marenco performs A-skips in preparation for the 110m hurdle finals, in which he set a new personal record of 16:71. Marenco finished eighth in both the pre-lims and the finals, as well as second in the 300m hurdles.

Junior Jack Fiening checks his phone while talking with senior Alessandro Marenco and junior Amadeo Apolinar, who were waiting to run their respective legs of the 4x200m relay. Marenco and Apolinar helped the Cats to a sixth-place finish in that race, and the trio would later win the 4x400m along with senior Ryan Fields.

After an exhausting 4x200m relay, junior Sydney Walsh and senior Gianna Granados sit on their heels, with freshman Alexa Wingerter lying down and getting comfortable on the carpet-like turf. With sophomore Annaelle Dogbe leading off, the three closed off the bulk of the race, in the end placing fourth in the 4x200m.

Junior Grace Higgins smiles at her friends on the sidelines as she pushes through the second of four laps of her 1600m. Higgins ended up placing 29th and running a 6:25, just a second behind her PR.

Spring colors and smoke permeate Wildcat field as spectators watch various athletes spring into action in various events. The weather for this meet was perfect, as temperatures around 70 degrees had runners working up a sweat while not overheating them. However, hard work from volunteers manning the grill had the unintended consequence of making it slightly harder for athletes to catch their breath as they had to take in the smoky air.