Practice meet: Winning with their legs - and minds

At the Georgetown Prep practice meet Tuesday, B-CC track and field coach Chad Young thought his team might be tired. Some had participated at the Montgomery Invitational, which stretched for nearly 12 hours on Saturday, and he had pushed them hard during Monday’s practice – a combined five miles with different workouts. But several runners responded with strong performances at Tuesday's meet, impressing the coach.

In the top-seeded girls’ two-mile race, sophomores Ava Farrell (11 minutes, 50 seconds) and Hallie Jester (12:02) set personal records, finishing in the top six overall. In the slower two-mile heat, sophomore Claire Cohen also set an indoor PR, finishing in 13:02. ``Claire led her race from start to finish and paced herself extremely well. She looked really great on the track,’’ Young said.

Senior shotputter Chuck Banks also performed much better Tuesday than in Saturday's competition, throwing the shot put slightly more than 40 feet, finishing second.

And in the girls’ 300-meter race, sophomore Hannah Levin won her heat, finishing in 44:25 – an impressive two seconds faster than any of her teammates. ``She was wearing brand-new spikes, and after the race, she came over to me and saying how light they felt,’’ Young said. ``She was very excited.’’

But for the coach, perhaps the best moment from the practice meet – it drew about 10 teams from the area and no official times were kept – was the last event: the Scramble Relay, a Georgetown Prep special.

It worked like this: Eight runners -- four girls and four boys – per team each ran a 200-meter leg; instead of passing off a baton, they handed off an envelope, each of which contained a letter; at the end of the race, the team ripped open the eight envelopes and spelled an eight-letter word; the first team to guess the correct word won.

B-CC finished fourth across the finish line.

But they won the Scramble. Their word: TEMPO RUN.

``They were really quick to get the word,’’ Young said.

He enjoyed watching the eight, plus a few others, gather around and excitedly try to solve the puzzle. And he especially enjoyed seeing who ran. The team included three runners who have been injured this year – juniors Patrick Frampus and Philip Catterall and senior Kate Leuba.

``They hadn’t been able to participate, but they ran their one lap, and helped their team to victory,’’ he said. ``It was great to see.’’

The next race will be the county championship, held Jan. 25.