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MAMARONECK, N.Y. Mamaroneck High School runner Anima Banks is a veteran of five New York State Indoor Track Championships and is the two-time returning girls 1,000-meter state champion, so her trip to upstate Cornell University this weekend is a familiar one.
I began the season by sitting two seconds from my personal best time, so I was really surprised at how well I did early, said Banks, who is a soccer player in the fall. This has been a very good senior year for me. I am looking forward to the states. The track (at Cornell University) isn't banked very much so times arent always very fast, but Im comfortable there.
At the New Balance Collegiate Invitational in January, Banks recorded the second fastest time in the country this year in the 1,000-meter run and the eighth fastest all time for a U.S. high school girl runner. She has accepted a scholarship offer from Duke, where she will attend next fall.
Banks will bring her experience and three Mamaroneck track teammates to the state meet this weekend as the anchor for the Tigers Section 1 top qualifying 4x800 relay team that includes Shari Rauls, Leonie Rauls and Katie DeVore.
This team is young but weve developed a good chemistry together and were getting better and better, Banks said. Leonie has been to the state meet before and Katie and Shari are going to states for the first time. I run the 1,000 early in the day, so Ill be ready to run the relay relaxed, and hopefully we will do well.
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