Anima Banks: Pursuing Her Peak

In two home track meets this spring, Duke senior Anima Banks ran her team's fastest 1,500 meters of the season, finished among the leaders in a 400-meter time trial and chipped in to handle the anchor leg of a 4x400 relay.

Good stuff, yes — but for Banks those forays served as mere tune-ups for what lies ahead. Now that the April preliminaries have passed and the major championship meets of May and June are at hand, Banks is locked in on her specialty, the 800 meters — and on closing her career with an unforgettable flourish.

Banks has been running the 800 since she first took up track at Mamaroneck (N.Y.) High School as a ninth grader. In the eight years since then she has progressed from a state champion to college record-holder to All-American. Her senior year at Duke has been her best yet — and she has designs on making it even better during her final few meets in a Blue Devil uniform.

“I've always wanted to get a title,” Banks noted before a midseason workout at sun-splashed Morris Williams Stadium. “I think a conference title is a really, really cool thing to have under your belt, so I'm definitely going for that. The ACC has always been highly competitive in the 800, so if you can do that it's a good indication of what you can do in the long term.”

Banks has always been highly competitive in that ACC cauldron, making the 800 finals all four years of her indoor career and the first three of her outdoor career. Of those seven opportunities to battle for the league title, she's placed third three times and second once — proof of her consistent excellence, as well as fuel for her desire to finally cross the line first at the 2016 ACC meet May 15 in Tallahassee.

From there, Banks' focus will become national in scope. The NCAA outdoor championships loom in June, with the U.S. Olympic Trials to follow in July. She has experienced the taste of NCAA competition — both sweet and unsavory — several times thus far; the Olympic Trials became a goal only this season, as her improving times started to suggest she had a shot at reaching the qualifying standard of 2:03 in her event.

Banks was running on the outskirts of that neighborhood when she was clocking 2:07s as a freshman. But she made noteworthy gains by chopping about a second per year off her PR, before enjoying a substantial breakthrough by hitting 2:03.41 at the Valentine Invitational in Boston this past February. Not only did it set a new Duke indoor record, but it reinforced what teammate Madison Granger refers to as Banks' positive feedback loop: the more she achieves, the more intensely she trains and the more she commits to the lifestyle necessary to maintain and build on that success.

“We both visited Duke together when we were seniors in high school, so it's been a long ride together,” said Granger, who specializes in the 1,500 meters. “I've seen her really step into this role as an elite athlete. I think she's an extremely talented runner and has always been a hard worker, but over the course of her four years she's really come to understand just how good she is.

“Her mantra for the last year or two has been 'national caliber mentality' and I think that phrase describes the standard she's been holding herself to more and more.”

That standard covers everything from training and competition to recovery, nutrition, sleep and a disciplined lifestyle routine. “She's completely all in and understanding that it's not just what you do from 3:00 to 5:00 at practice. That's just the start,” said her coach, Christine Engel. “She's in a good spot psychologically and embracing all the opportunities she has this year.”

Banks concurs. “This year mentally I'm in the best place I've ever been. When everything comes together, that's when you see your breakthrough in the 800 and I think that's definitely defined my senior year.

“In terms of the lifestyle, track is No. 1 in my mind. That has made all the difference, honestly. Track is a sport where everything you do, there will be numeric proof of it. It's nice seeing all the hard work translate into seconds off my time, and that's living proof that track is a lifestyle.”

Banks experienced the Dickensian side of the lifestyle when she closed her 2016 indoor season by qualifying for the NCAA championships in March. It was the best of times in the semifinals when she torched a 2:04.67, the second best mark of her life, to reach the finals. But it then became the worst of times when she was clipped from behind and fell during the national championship race. She got back on her feet to claim the eighth place finish and All-America status, but she was left wondering what might have been had she been able to stay upright.

“It was the hardest thing I've ever had to deal with in terms of my athletic career,” she explained. “Going into that meet — in terms of nerves, in terms of shape, in terms of fitness — that was the best I've ever felt. And qualifying for the finals was just… if I had told myself in September that I was going to be running in the finals in nationals, I don't know if I would have believed it, so getting there was an achievement in itself.

“But once I was there, I was like, 'I can do this.' I was vying for the title. So falling in the last 75 meters is probably the hardest thing I've ever had to deal with. I'm still really upset about it. But it's really good motivation for outdoors, because I'm definitely not complacent with anything I've accomplished in the last couple months and I definitely want much more than what happened indoors.”

Engel watched that NCAA race unfold and said there was very little Banks could have done differently to avoid the spill. She was running wide, in Lane 3, away from the congestion of the rail, and had executed her game plan perfectly before she was sent sprawling. An official's flag went up and the footage was reviewed, but the contact was not deemed flagrant. “Just unfortunate, one of those things that happen in competition,” Engel said.

“It was a very difficult, emotional time following that race,” she added. “Being an All-American is so tough to do, and to make the final of the 800 especially is so competitive. A tenth of a second here or there and you're in or you're out. To make that final was an extraordinary high for her, something she really focused on this year, and then to go down, it was heartbreaking and very emotional for her.

“But I told her, you get the opportunity to stand on the podium as an All-American (an honor that goes to the top eight finishers in each event). Even though it may not be the place you were going to get had you stayed on your feet, you're still an All-American so try to remember this moment.”

Banks credits Engel's coaching and guidance for much of the progress she has enjoyed over the past two seasons. “I really trust everything she does for me, and I think she trusts me just as much,” Banks said. “She's given me this personal responsibility for my success, which I think is really crucial. There's only so much a coach can do in terms of motivation. By giving me the chance to be self-motivated, it's pushed me way harder.”

Banks also reflects on the impact former teammate Cydney Ross has played in her development. Ross, a fifth-year senior when Banks was a freshman, won the ACC indoor and outdoor 800 titles in 2013 and earned first-team All-America honors both indoors and outdoors. Banks trained and competed alongside her all year, including at nationals, and now realizes just how much she absorbed from the way Ross handled the ups and downs of a long season.

Engel says she hopes Banks has had a similar influence as a role model for many of the young runners in Duke's middle distance corps. “Somebody who is competing at a high level and doing all the right things, you want the younger girls to emulate that and for that to become the standard,” said Engel, who resigned from her position during the recent spring semester exam break. “The standard being that you are competing for ACC titles and trying to get to the national championship and be All-American. It raises that level so that's the expectation, and all those things you do behind the scenes hopefully becomes the culture of the team — not something that stands out, but is the every day.”

Banks stood out at the Spec Towns Invitational in early April when she won both the 800 and the 1,500. In most of the other regular season meets, she ran the 1,500 to build her strength or the 400 to fine-tune her speed for the event she has long considered her baby, the 800.

With all the major meets now at hand, Engel feels Banks is firing on all cylinders physically, mentally and psychologically as she begins her chase for titles and her pursuit of the 2:03 that would extend her career to the Olympic Trials.

“In September I thought to myself, 'It's my senior year, and it's an Olympic Trials year, it's kind of a sign,'” Banks said. “So that's when I started setting my sights on that. As indoors progressed and I ran the 2:03.4, that dream became closer and closer to reality. So that's basically what's been motivating me this entire year. That would be the perfect end to my eight years of running, I think.”