Successful Track Coach Credits Olympic Weightlifting

Successful Track Coach Credits Olympic Weightlifting
By Joshua R. Smith

FREDERICK -- Track coaches are notorious for number-crunching during meets, trying to calculate team points as events go by. On Friday at the Frederick County Track and Field Championships, though, Thomas Johnson girls coach Becky Abrecht kept herself out of the loop. I stopped counting because it makes me nervous," she said.

Her jitters subsided when Linganore coach John Grim -- whose team was locked in a duel with the Patriots for the lead all day -- approached her late in the meet. "Congratulations," he said.

Abrecht and the Patriots wouldn't celebrate until it was official, and darkness fell on Tuscarora High's stadium before the announcer revealed the final score: TJ 145, Linganore 126.

Seated on the track, the Patriots erupted in screams, having captured their first team county title.

"We wanted this so bad," said TJ's Brooke Beal, who won the 800, ran on the winning 1,600 relay team and scored in two other events.

Led by senior sprinter Terence Kerns, TJ's boys completed the sweep, crushing the field with 148 points -- 53 more than runner-up Brunswick.

The girls, however, stole the show, edging the talented Lancers, who boast a crew of solid sprinters and jumpers, paced by Melissa Turowski and Chowan Brightful.

Linganore just wasn't as deep as TJ.

Patriot athletes like Beal, long-jump champion Najjiyya Franklin-Huff (24 individual points), Cenarda Jackson, Taylor Shaw, Maxann Keller, Katie Frey, Aimee Shafer and Emily Vannoy scored in multiple events to help pull off the stunner.

"It's huge for me, and I hope it's huge for them," Abrecht said. "We talked about how if we win this, we have this legacy."

The team's depth was elemental, and a few of TJ's contributors compete in wildly differing events, such as Beal and Keller -- who is perhaps the team's most valuable contributor.

Keller, a diminutive blonde, was busy all day, running on the fourth-place 3,200-relay team, taking second in the 300 hurdles, third in the high jump and third in the triple jump.

Beal, Liz Metz, Shaw and Lauren Wilmer made up the winning 1,600 relay, as Shaw ran a terrific final leg, passing Linganore for the victory.

"We just got little extra points that mattered," Beal said. "It all added up."

Kerns paces TJ boys

The strength of the Patriot boys -- and Kerns, in particular -- propelled them to their first crown since 1999.

In arguably the day's most exciting race, the 1,600 relay, anchor-leg Kerns battled with Brunswick's Quinton Jones, shoulder-to-shoulder, for the final 120 meters. Kerns won by a neck, and he nodded his head several times while jogging to a stop.

Yes, the Patriots were convincing on Friday.

"I saw this stick come out of nowhere," Kerns said of Jones' baton. "Something got into me the last 10 meters. I said, 'I can't let this team down.'"

There was never a threat of that happening. Kerns, a senior headed to West Virginia on a football scholarship, repeated his titles in the 100 (11.15) and 200 (22.42), placed second in the 400 and held off Jones in the 1,600 relay.

"He had that last little kick," Jones said. "He's a fast kid."

Kerns was joined on the relay by Todd Phillips, Sam Chado and D.J. Scott.

TJ's Taylor Hubbard (second in 100, 200) was a valuable sidekick to Kerns, while Chris Johnson won the 300 hurdles. The Patriots' Jeremy Kurtz, Drew Hawley, Frank Weller and Tredale Kennedy were other top contributors.

"The guys have a lot of confidence," said Patriots coach Randy Jones, who attributes his team's success to an Olympic weightlifting program many of his athletes participate in. "The goal was double digits in every event."

Notes

* Linganore senior Kyle Ryan returned from an ankle injury to handily win the 1,600 (4:31.93) and 3,200 (10:02.8). "I'm only about 70 percent," said Ryan, who hadn't run in a meet in several weeks. "I'm not all the way up to where I want to be, but it's championship season. I had to get out there and do something."

* Linganore's blazing 400 and 800 relay teams of Jeremiah Cook, Patrick Balderson, Jesse Gibson and Kyle Pineda also swept its races.

* Frederick senior Jordan Dyson leaped to victory in the high jump with a height of 6-8, which, he was told, tied the meet record. "When I jumped," he said, " I was like, 'I'm flying.'" After landing his successful leap, a Tuscarora athlete helping at the event was awed. "Amazing," she said.

* Maybe the biggest cheer of the day was heard when Middletown's Matt Kepler cleared 13-0 in the pole vault for a personal best. Not to be outdone, Brunswick's Matt Baum made it over on his second attempt at the height, although Kepler won the event. Both vaulters did their own special dances on the pit after making it over.

* Brunswick's Russell Hoyt left no doubt that he is the county's top long and triple jumper, sweeping those events.

* Other boys winners: 3,200 relay--Urbana (Vance Thompson, Nick Huang, Danny Mulhern, Ellery Murdock); 110 hurdles--Quentin Ferguson, Frederick (15.05); 400--Andrew Trettel, Brunswick (51.98); 800--Nick Stine, Urbana (2:01.12); Shot put--Adam Deiseroth, Linganore (47-4); Discus--Ben Horner, Brunswick.

* Tuscarora freshman sprinter Victoria Kennedy won her first county title by beating one of her best friends for the first time in the 100 (12.46). She edged Brunswick's Rachel McCallum, who went on to win the 200 (25.69) in a stacked field.

* Linganore junior Turowski continued to lower her fantastic 400 time even more, winning the race in 57.74. Meanwhile, her freshman teammate Brightful was businesslike in her three victories (100 hurdles, high jump, 400 relay), especially the hurdles, where she edged Frederick star Kiondra Fisher.

* Other girls winners: 3,200 relay--Urbana (Nelly Hoppes, Megan Lewis, Kelly Fauth, Leslie Aird); 1,600--Aird, Urbana, 5:35.14; 800 relay--Tuscarora (Crystal Fogg, Jasmine Ingram, Karina Campbell, Courtney Gray); 3,200--Cortney Crouse, Linganore (12:33); 300 hurdles--Rachael Shapelow, Walkersville (48.28); 400 relay--Linganore (Amanda Yates, Lauren Quinn, Turowski, Brightful); Shot put--Kim Maley, Linganore; Triple jump--Fisher, Frederick; Discus--Rebecca Purcell, Urbana (100-08); Pole vault--Kate Vessa, Urbana, 8-6.

For more information about Olympic-style lifting see: www.olympictraining.co.nr