State Championship: Nerves, then high performances

Nervous and pumped up, B-CC’s elite track and field team members competed extraordinarily well Tuesday at the 4A state championship at Prince George’s Sports Complex. Each placed in their event.

The girls’ 4 x 800 relay team –sophomores Grace Reingruber, Hallie Jester and Ava Farrell running the first three legs and senior Paige Donnelly running the last – finished fifth overall in 9 minutes, 52 seconds – their best time of the season. Sprinter Terrence James finished sixth in the 300 meter run in 36.71 seconds, close to his personal best. And shot putter Chuck Banks threw the shot put 45 feet, 6 inches – a whopping two feet farther than he’s ever thrown – for seventh place.

Afterward, the athletes were ecstatic.

``I was really nervous, like, oh man, I’m running against the fastest guys, but I’m fast, too, or else I wouldn’t have made it here,’’ said James, a junior, who was competing in his first state championship. ``Before I ran, I did my stretches harder than I have ever done the whole year. I was still nervous at the starting line, but when I started, all that nervousness went away.

``I ran as fast as I could,’’ he said.

Banks arrived with his team at 2 p.m. and then waited five hours before his event. Coach Chad Young told him to stretch. Instead, Banks turned up his iPod.

``I turned to music that would motivate me, and I got pumped back up in time to throw,’’ said Banks, a senior, who also was competing in his first state championship.

Banks had basically taught himself techniques in the shot put during the year (Coaches Young and Nathan Herchenroeder have running backgrounds), and for his throw on Tuesday, he felt all he had learned came together at once.

``I had talked to some of the guys, the other shot putters, and they would tell me to get low, explode, and get your hips around,’’ Banks said. ``It didn’t hit me, it didn’t click -- until today. You need to swing your arm and get your hips twisted and you get more velocity and more strength behind the ball. It was really weird. I was actually kind of like, OK, this is working out.’’

The first event Tuesday afternoon was the girls’ relay. Last week, the girls had run their slowest time of the year for the regional meet, and even though the track was poor, Coach Young said he could tell the relay team was nervous – perhaps laden with a little self-doubt.

The pack started out fast, and Reingruber, mindful of her pace, backed off a little bit. ``She was running her own race and she was smart to stick back a little bit,’’ Young said. She ran a 2:29 leg, handing off the baton to Jester with the team ``in a good position,’’ Young said, in about 10th place.

Jester took off. ``Hallie closed the gap in three laps or so, and surged ahead of a pack of about four girls,’’ Young said. She ran her leg in 2:27. Next was Farrell, who started out even faster, causing Young to become a little nervous.

``I was a little worried she could keep it up,’’ Young said. ``But she did.’’ She ran a 2:26 leg, putting the team in fourth position. Next was Donnelly, ``who ran a great leg also, in 2:27, and made sure she extended the gap with the rest of the field.’’ A runner passed her near the end, giving the team a fifth place finish. Said Young: ``It was the team’s strongest performance of the year, no doubt. They all ran extremely well.’’

James' competition followed the girls' race. He ran in the second of three heats for the 300-meter race, starting in the fifth lane – the far outside – one of four runners. ``He went out a little quick,’’ Young said. ``I’m always a little concerned when they go out too fast, fearful whether they will be able to hang on. He was able to, and he ran extremely well.’’

Last up was Banks. ``He was definitely anxious and ready to go,’’ Young said. ``Each time he throws now it seems it’s a longer distance – it’s a testament to his hard work, talking to other coaches and athletes, and trying to learn as much from them as possible. Nathan and I are clearly not expert shot putters. He’s done a lot of work on his own.’’

The meet marked the end of the indoor season. Outdoor season starts March 1, with the first scrimmage set for March 20.

Young said the indoor season was a big success, and he believes the runners and field athletes will continue to get in better shape for the outdoor season.

James and Banks both can’t wait – and they have already set high goals for themselves.

Said James: ``I feel like I should have prepared more, come to practice more (for indoor season.) If I had a little more practice, I could have done even better. My commitment grew more during the year. I was seeing I could actually be good at this stuff. I started trying harder and I started doing better. Coach always tell me that, come to practice, you have to practice. He’s right. For outdoor, I’m going to get ready. I’m going to all the practices, and I’m just going to run harder. I’m going to go to states, too.’’

Banks: ``I threw my personal best today. But I should do better. You can always do better. I’m definitely doing outdoor. You’ll definitely see me at states. I’m going to be focusing on shot putting and be ready. I can be in top three.’’

Regional meet: `They did a double-take to be sure'

Both B-CC junior Terrence James and senior Chuck Banks were hoping for the best, but they weren’t sure. They kept walking over to the wall where organizers at the Maryland 4A West regional track meet on Wednesday were posting places. The top four would go to the state finals. The others were done.

Finally, officials posted the results.

James, No. 3 in the 300 meters.

Banks, No. 3 in the shot put.

They had made it – they had qualified for the state 4A finals next Tuesday at 3 p.m. at the Prince George’s Sports Complex. For both, it was the first time making state finals.

``It was a breakout performance for TJ and Chuck,’’ said coach Chad Young. ``They kept walking over the wall, two, three times to check. When they posted the results, they did a double-take to be sure. They were pretty excited.’’

Banks threw the shot put 43 feet, 2.75 inches – just a couple inches from his personal best. ``He brings his emotion and competitiveness to the shot put, and both of those qualities combined helped him in his performance.’’

James ran 38:39 seconds, finishing second in his heat. Twenty-four runners competed in eight heats, and James had to wait until all had finished – and the organizers sorted out the results.

B-CC’s other state qualifier was the girls’ 4 x 800 relay team consisting of senior Paige Donnelly and sophomores Ava Farrell, Grace Reingruber, and Hallie Jester. Their time was 10 minutes, 32 seconds, good for fourth place. The time was much slower than their best races, which Young attributed largely to the poor surface at the Baltimore Armory.

Young also said he expected the girls team to run a better race in the state meet. ``I think the extra week now, and now that the snow is a little more out of the way and less of a distraction, they will do better. They will be running on a nice surface at PG and they will run a lot smoother this time. I think they are ready to roll.’’

Overall in the regional meet, the boys team scored 12 points, finishing 10th, while the girls also had 12 points, finishing eighth.

Four athletes barely missed qualifying for the states, finishing either in fifth or sixth place, just out of the running.

Farrell finished fifth in the two-mile, running 12:27, and Jester finished fifth in the mile in 5:43.

Julia Hardgrove, a junior, finished fifth overall in the 55 meter hurdles, running 9.4 seconds in the qualifying meet, and 9.6 seconds in the final. ``It was a great performance by her on a bad surface,’’ Young said. She was just 0.35 seconds out of fourth place.

And Casey Shamma, a senior, whom Young described as one of his hardest workers on the team, finished 7th in the 55 meter sprint qualifying race, in 6.78 seconds. Young said he finished 5th or 6th in the finals; an error in the official scoring made his time and place unclear. ``It was really impressive,’’ Young said of Shamma’s performance. ``Just like Julia, he really pulled through in a big meet.’’