`He just kept on going’

At first, B-CC Track Coach Chad Young couldn’t believe his eyes. Sophomore Freddy Nzekele shot out to a large lead in the boys’ 4 x 400 relay in the finale at Montgomery County’s Track and Field Championship at Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex.

Nzekele held the lead, and held the lead, and Young held his breath.

“I was just hoping he didn’t go out too hard, and just when you think the field is going to catch him, he just kept on going,” Young said.

Nzekele, in first position (53.64 seconds), passed the baton to senior Trevor Stephens (55.34), but the field caught up to him. Stephens passed it to senior Nana Twum Agyire (54.43), who battled back to second place. Agyire passed it to senior Terrence James.

By now, the whole B-CC team was on its feet in the stands, cheering loudly. Only one runner -- from Churchill -- was in front of James. It wouldn’t last.

James passed him easily and won going away. His time was 52.27, and the team finished in 3:35, the second fastest time by a B-CC boys 4 x 400 relay in the last five years.

“When I put them together, I was thinking they would be good, but not that they would be in contention to win the whole thing,” Young said. “When they ran, everyone was watching, everyone was excited, the place was really loud. With each lap, when they stayed in such good position and contention to win, it became more and more exciting for the whole team. We were all standing together in the stands, cheering. It was really fun.”

The meet, held Monday, had other dramatic races for B-CC as well.

In the girls’ 4 x 800 relay, another sophomore, Brittney Wade, led off.

“Before she got on the track, I told her this is an important race for the team and I hoped she would do well so she could continue to run the 4 x 8 in later meets,” Young said. Wade had only run the 800 meter race a few times, lowering her time from 2:38 to 2:30.

In the relay, she took off, just as Nzekele had.

“I kind of held my breath because she hadn’t run it a whole lot,” Young said. “But she really shined.” She ran it in 2:23, holding the lead and handing the baton to
junior Ava Farrell (2:25), who passed it to junior Grace Reingruber (2:30), who passed it to senior Alex Doll.

Doll (2:23) ran well, Northwest senior Britt Eckerstrom, who like Doll is a soccer standout, ran even better. Eckerstrom (2:12) passed Doll and won the race for Northwest. B-CC finished second.

In other highlights:

* James finished third in the 300 meter race in 36:46. Nzekele came in eighth, in 37.36.

* Doll won the mile race in 5:13. She had gone out strong and held off Walter Johnson runner Camille Bouvet (5:15). Doll also ran the 800-meter race in 2:28, finishing fifth. In that race, sophomore Caroline Leuba finished seventh in 2:30.

* In the two-mile, Farrell ran well, finishing in 11:46 for fourth place.

In all, the girls team finished 8th out of 25 schools, while the boys finished 13th. The next competition is the Georgetown Prep Invitational on Saturday.