Winter Sports Preview: McLean

It’s a fitting metaphor that the bar has been set fairly high for the McLean High School indoor track and field team. Last season the boys team won both the District for both indoor and outdoor track. It was the school’s first-ever indoor title, and the first outdoor district crown since 1970.

2005 marks McLean’s 50th Anniversary and Head Coach John Jones hopes his program will leave an impression on those parents and alumni who will be returning to the school.

“It would be nice, on the 50th anniversary, to win a district title, especially back to back, so when the alumni come back they’d get to see that,” Jones says.

Under Jones’ tutelage the program has improved markedly, culminating in last year’s district victory. But Jones credits the kids for the accomplishment and points a basic element of athletics as the key to the team’s achievement. “I think that the success of the program has to do with the fact that the kids work hard,” Jones says. “They have goals. It’s not just beating every team in the district. It’s keeping their nose to the grindstone. And it’s paid off.”

Jones isn’t simply quoting clichés when he talks about the team working hard. The team practices outdoors all throughout the winter. If it’s cold, they practice outside. If it snows, they shovel, then they practice outside. Regardless of this Karate Kid/Rocky IV kind of cross-training, the results have been effective.

And speaking of cross-training, Jones preaches versatility in his squad, schooling them in as many events as possible. “On this team everyone learns to hurdle, distance runners, throwers, they all learn how to hurdle,” Jones says. “With the exception of the throwers, everyone pole vaults at one point of another.”

That diversity gives Jones flexibility when it comes to entering his athletes into events and a number of his top stars run the gamut of both track and field events.

“My goal is to help these people find their niche,” Jones says. “Victor Lee, who graduated last year, refused to hurdle and pole vault. Sophomore year he started to mess around and senior year he was district champion in the pole vault and was runner-up in the hurdles.” For the boys team, repeating as District champions will be no small feat. Both the boys and girls teams saw some of their top performers graduate. Among the losses were distance runners Todd Arnts, Michael Young (now running at Bowdoin) and Jamie Butcher (Longwood). Sprinter April Landreth will be notably absent this year from the girls team, along with hurdler Julianne Twining. The team will also miss the intangibles embodied Lee, an athlete that Jones referred to as the team’s leader and motivator.

“We used to have a mantra especially during the indoor season that there’s no victory without Victor Lee,” Jones says. “He was the force behind the team’s attitude that allowed us to win the indoor and outdoor title. He was an incredible leader. I’m hoping a few kids will emerge to take that role this year.”

The Highlanders will also have to replace Chris Kuruppu (Boston University), a member of the district-champion 4x400m relay team. That challenge will belong to Joe Sullivan, who will join Doug Zimmer, Salar Mohandsie and Julian Patterson, the three returning members of the relay. Expectations for that group are particularly high, with Jones believing that a victory at the State level is within reach. Individually, Patterson is the reigning 500m district champion, while Mohandsie is the 200m champ. Jones is also looking for improved performances from sprinters Ben Keck and Ben Weissman.

Michael Miracle is another name to watch this year, according to Jones. He’ll compete in the 1600m and 1000m after winning the cross country team’s Most Valuable Player award this fall. The same goes for Alanna White, the girls cross country MVP, who will compete in the mile and 1000m this winter.

While the focus will likely be on the boys squad as they attempt to repeat as district champs, the girls team will challenge opponents as well, with several individual runners looking to make a mark. They’ll be led by junior Megan Ney, one of the team’s uber-athletes who will compete in the high jump and a variety of other field events in addition to the 55m dash, and 300m.

Like their male counterparts, the girls 4x400m relay team will challenge for the district title. Sophomores Stephanie Osei-Tutu and Allie Kinghorn join Ney and Allie’s sister, senior Lauren Kinghorn. “They’ll rank fairly high in the region and try and rank in the top three and go to States,” Jones says. Last year the girls relay team was fourth, just missing a berth at the State meet by less than a second.

While their eyes will remain fixed on the end of the season meets, the Highlanders will meet some stiff competition during regular season meets along the way from Fairfax, Marshall and Langley. Langley has already defeated the boys team by 15 points this season, while the McLean girls edged the Saxons by two.

But just like every season, the season will be defined by the team’s performance at the end of the schedule. “Our boys team has the goal of repeating as district champions and also to become regional champions. We’re looking to score and be no worse than the top five at the state meet,” Jones says. “The boys [4x400] relay wants to be the state champions.

“On the girls side they have the realistic goal of being in the top three in district as a team and then to try to be in the top half of the region. “It would be nice if the young girls on the team could progress as the young guys did last year and we could win two district titles at the same time. That would really put McLean on the map in Virginia.”