Nana Twum Agyire, a B-CC junior, started out the outdoor track season with burning intensity – maybe too much so. He injured his leg and couldn’t run for several weeks. So he learned how to throw the discus and shot put. He kept working, kept in shape, kept going to be ready when able.
The time came Saturday, in the Montgomery County `B’ championship track and field event held at Whitman High School. He was ready to run again, and Coach Chad Young entered him in the 400 meter dash, penciling in an expected finish of 62 seconds.
Agyire sped around the track, finishing in 55.5 seconds, 8th place overall.
``He improved his last time by seven seconds out of the blue,’’ Young said. ``He is one of the hardest workers on the team and did a great job to get himself race ready. He’s relentless with this desire to be good at things.’’
Agyire, who is originally from Ghana, wasn’t through. He ran in the 100 meter dash and barely qualified for the final heat – finishing 15th out of 15, in 12 seconds flat. But in the finals, he tied for third overall, finishing in 11.6 seconds.
The meet, which attracted 25 teams, is for athletes who did not quite make the top tier of their school’s team. Coaches love it – the competition allows also-rans in other meets to be champions, and it also brings a mix of ages competing at near the same level together at a time when many are peaking from weeks of training.
For B-CC, the meet brought some pleasant surprises, and again showed the depth of a strong girls team.
But with the boys, some highlights:
* Senior Andrew Crouch ran the 3200-meter run in 11:17, a personal record;
* In the 800 meter race, junior Lucas Morrison finished 5th in 2:12; followed by freshman Thomas Horton in 2:14. (Horton, said Young, went out hard in both the 800 and 1600; ``perhaps he was a little over-confident, but he learned a lot.’’ Horton finished the 1600 in 4:59.)
Also, freshman Greg Picard, running his first 800, went out a little too quickly, but ``it was a good learning experience,’’ Young said. Picard finished in 2:38.
And another freshman, Gavin Donnelly, ran a 2:27 800, his personal best. Young had estimated his finish at 2:40. ``He looked pretty comfortable on the track, and competed extremely well,’’ Young said. ``I thought it was his best race of the season so far. He looked like a runner out there, ready to race.’’ Donnelly had earlier run a 59-second 400, six seconds faster than his previous best time
* In the 1600, senior Nick Richter finished in 4:58, and junior Lucas Morrison ran 5:01. ``They all improved quite a lot in last few weeks,’’ Young said.
The boys finished 16th out of 25 teams, with 6.5 points.
The girls finished second, only behind Clarksburg, with 77.66 points.
For the girls, the fun started early:
* In the 100-meter dash, four girls qualified for the finals. Sophomore Nimie Ndubisi was second in 13.3; Fatoumatta Tunkara, a junior, and Shayna Nash, a freshman, tied at 13.8; and freshman Jamie Potter finished in 14.2.
* In the girls 4 x 800, their dominance showed. B-CC entered four teams, and they finished 1, 2, 6, and 8th overall. Leading the way was freshman Caroline Leuba, who had a banner day.
The A team -- Leuba (2:30), sophomore Laila Shehata (2:31), freshman Laura Nakasaka (2:40), and senior Darcy O’Connor (2:43) -- finished in 10:24, easily beating the field.
The B team – freshman Cami Yeutter (2:33), sophomore Alison Thomas (2:41), freshman Elena Crouch (2:59) and junior Minna Jacobson (2:49) – finished second in 11:06.
``Cami had an injury in the spring, and didn’t join our team halfway through,’’ Young said. ``So, she’s been running only for a month. She had been running the 200 and 400 and I told her last week that I was going to put her in the 800, and she’s been really nervous. But of all the 12 girls, she had the third fastest time. She’s now a candidate to be part of future 4 x 8 teams.’’
* In the open 800, Leuba finished first, in 2:30 again, out of 54 runners.
* In the 400 meter dash, Shehata finished third in 1:03, while freshman Eugenia Wilson finished fifth in 1:05.9.
* In the 200 meter dash, Wilson finished first in 27.6. Freshman Jamie Potter finished fifth in 28.7, while Nash, another freshman, finished sixth in 28.8. Tied for eighth: sophomores Emily Roy and Amy Heaton in 28.9.
Next up: The regional meet, at Whitman, next Wednesday and Thursday.
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