Finch Leaps Into Record Books
By Joey Kamide
She has taken the state's track and field scene by storm now for three years, literally leaping onto the scene right out of the gate as a freshman during the 2004-05 indoor season.
Now, Centreville junior Brittni Finch walks, er, runs and jumps, around with a target on her back.
Finch, already a two-time first-team All-Met selection by The Washington Post, will enter the Northern Region meet at George Mason University later this month already holding 11 regional titles between the indoor and outdoor seasons.
At the Group AAA state indoor meet last year, she broke the state record in the long jump with a leap of 19 feet, 10.25 inches - the third-highest in the country in 2006 - and she will enter the event in March as the odds-on favorite to repeat.
The record-breaking leap, which eclipsed the previous mark by two inches, even caught Finch by surprise. "I couldn't even believe that I went that far," she said. "I still wonder if they got it wrong or something. I was exhausted at that point, and just tried to jump as far as I could."
These accomplishments, Wildcats coach Roy Ferri says, come as a result of Finch's burning desire to be the best at anything she does. "The basic thing about her is she's a pretty good competitor. She'll compete with anyone," the coach said. "The tougher the competition, the more she focuses. And she expects to win."
"It's something that has always been in me," Finch said of her desire to succeed. "To have this idea that to be the best, you can never get up. That probably kicked in at about seventh grade [while competing as a middle schooler in Texas].
"From that point, we realized how fast I was, and realized that this is what I wanted to do."
Ferri said the only thing holding his prize athlete back is a tendency to let her performance drop if faced with inferior competition at a meet. "If it's a meet with a bunch of girls that she's already beaten, then you're not going to be as fired up," Ferri said. "The problem is trying to find ways to push yourself."
While her coach said she has made strides towards fixing that, Finch continues to impress in the big meets. In December, she won the long jump (17, feet, 10 inches) and the triple jump (36-10) at the F.I.T. Invitational in Landover, MD, then won both events and helped the Wildcats' 4x400 relay team to the title at the Southern Maryland Mega Meet in early January. Ferri said Finch continues to improve on her 400 time, where the coach said she used to be the team's weak link. "One of her goals was to run the 400 better," Ferri said. "And she's run it pretty well. We'll find out how well in the next month."
Over the next month, the regional and state meets, as well as the Nike Indoor Nationals, loom. Finch, who has already garnered interest from top college programs from across the country and would one day like to compete for the University of Texas, will be competing in five events - the 55-meter dash, long jump, triple jump and the 4x200 and 4x400 relays - at those events. Wins in all five at regionals would eclipse by one the four she won at the event a year ago.
And as far as breaking her own state record in the long jump? "When I was 15 or 16, that would be something that would really mess up my head," Finch said. "But now, I'll be looking at myself as just another person I have to beat."
