`He took his anger out on shot put’

When B-CC senior Chuck Banks started preparing for Wednesday’s shot put competition in the Montgomery County track and field championship, a judge stopped him. She said he could not compete because he had signed up too late. Banks ran to find Coach Chad Young, and the two of them argued on his behalf.

After huddling with other coaches, the judge allowed Banks to compete. ``Chuck was pretty annoyed by the situation and took his anger out on his throwing,’’ Young said. ``He threw 45 feet something.’’

Rain postponed the meet until Thursday. Banks wasn’t late this time. He threw 46 feet, 11 inches – more than a foot better than his personal record.

``He took his anger out on the shot put,’’ Young said. ``He’s an emotional guy. To throw more than a foot past your PR is quite something – especially as far as he is throwing.’’

At the county meet, Banks wasn’t the team's only highlight. Senior Kate Leuba joined the girls 4 x 800 team for the first time in a year, giving it a huge boast toward a fourth place finish in 9 minutes, 47 seconds.

``She’s a senior, so I wanted to give her a chance to run in the state meet if we can get there,’’ Young said. ``She ran 2:28, which is close to her PR. She’s picking up where she left off and looked really strong on her leg.’’

Sophomore Ava Farrell, who anchored the relay, ran her fastest 800 of the year in 2:24; sophomore Grace Reingruber also ran her fastest 800 split in 2:25; and senior Paige Donnelly ran 2:27.

For Leuba, the 4 x 800 was only one of her three races at the meet. In the 4 x 200, she joined senior Nia Harrington, freshman Brittney Wade, and junior Katie Williams to run a 1:50, good for eighth place.

In the 4 x 400, Leuba, Donnelly, Wade and sophomore Hallie Jester combined to run 4:18 to finish in 11th place. The time was the fastest 4 x 400 of the year for the team by seven seconds, and Wade’s 60-second lap was the fastest individual time of the year by any B-CC runner.

In the longest run of the meet, the 3,200-meter race, Young took aside Farrell to talk about strategy.

``We talked a little bit, about the girls she was running with, and we set a goal in mind for the first mile -- 5:50. She kind of likes to go out a little slower, but this time she wasn’t looking at her watch, she just ran, and she did a 5:50 first mile,’’ Young said. ``She looked comfortable, and she started to slow down a tiny bit, but the field was slowing down, too, and gradually she began creeping up in the field, and started passing people. One girl in Clarksburg who had beaten her almost every time was ahead of her, and then Ava went by her. The girl jumped on Ava’s shoulder and passed her back and created a gap in the last 100 meters. But somehow Ava found the power and surged one more time, and passed her.’’

Farrell finished in 6th place, running 11:38 , or 11 seconds faster than she had ever done before.

In the boys 1600 meter race, senior Chris Henderson had been running steadily better in past weeks. He set a PR of 4:51 two weeks ago, and then ran 4:44 during the past weekend. On Thursday, he ran faster stiill, 4:41. ``He has really dropped his time,’’ Young said. ``That is always fun to watch, and he seemed excited.’’

In the boys’ 800 meter race, junior Trevor Stephens and Henderson ran together, with Stephens (2:04) finishing ahead of Henderson (2:05).

Junior Terrence James, one of the county’s fastest 200 meter runners, didn’t run in the county meet because of a balky ankle.

The county B meet will be held Saturday at Whitman High school. The regional meet is being held Wednesday and Thursday at Whitman. At the regionals, athletes have to make qualifying times or finish in the top four to compete in the state meet.

``A lot of people are running faster right now,’’ Young said. ``And it’s a good time of the year to run faster.’’