High school track meets have different purposes throughout the year. The Katie Jenkins Invitational, held Friday and Saturday at Sherwood High School and featuring about 15 Montgomery County teams, serves as a tune-up for the county meet. The varsity county meet is Tuesday, while the JV county meet is next Saturday.
But the invitational also had another purpose for B-CC’s outdoor track team: It became an important showcase for a number of emerging talented athletes on the team.
Coach Chad Young highlighted several performances, including:
* Freshman Nichelle Reid, now the team’s top 100-meter sprinter, ran two qualifying races and then the final, finishing 5th overall in 13.03 seconds. “It was cool watching her compete,” Young said. “She’s really emerged as a top 100-meter runner.”
* The girls’ 4 x 800 meter relay won first place in 10 minutes, 36 seconds, beating the second place team by 10 seconds. The team had only one holdover from the Penn Relays squad. “It shows our team has a lot of depth,” Young said. The team: junior Hallie Jester (2:36); and sophomores Cammi Yeutter (2:32), Carolina Leuba (2:38); and Shayna Nash (2:46). Young was particularly appreciative that Nash, who is typically a 100- and 200-meter runner) filled in when junior Grace Reingruber could not run.
* The boys’ 4 x 800 meter relay – Young called them the “4 by 8 of the future” – ran well, finishing 9th overall in 9:17. The team featured junior Aiden Hennessey (2:21); and three freshmen -- Peter Horton (2:16), Alex Riishojgaard (2:17), and Kenneth Norris (2:21). “This team has shown a lot of improvement,” Young said.
* In the two-mile races for boys and girls, lightning postponed the competition on Friday night – for the girls the race was called off after four laps. The races were held Saturday and B-CC athletes won both. Sophomores Ava Farrell finished in 11:41 and Laura Nakasaka in 12:05 for the top two places; it was Farrell’s fastest time of the season and for Nakasaka it was a personal record. In the boys’ race, senior Eliot Gerson ran a PR as well, finishing first in 9:46.
* Senior Terrence James ran the 200-meter race as a tune-up and did well, winning in 22.78.
* And in the 300 meter hurdles, freshman Nolan Ebner, who has been working with coach Alex Gray and shown improvement all year, finished 6th in 46.27. “By far, it was his best finish of the year,” Young said. Ebner will be one of the few freshmen to compete Tuesday in the county varsity meet.
One more item in the category of something to look forward to:
All year, three freshmen have traveling twice a week to Gaithersburg to take lessons on pole vaulting from a certified pole vaulting coach. The three – Conrad Jones, Sam Hainbach, Lucas Beck – will compete in the county meet on Monday. (It is being held a day before the other events). Young is looking forward to it. “They heard about the opportunity to try the pole vault and the three of them were very interested in giving it a try. I haven’t seen them compete, and it’s something we’re very excited about,” he said.
On Tuesday, the county competition will start at 4 p.m. at Walter Johnson High School.
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