The reward for running through the snow: Fast times for O’Hara, Strath Haven
To go or not to go, that was the question facing area indoor track teams over the weekend as Winter Storm Jonas barreled up the Eastern seaboard and left record snowfall in its wake.
Most teams stayed home, even though two meets in Pennsylvania went on as scheduled, with one minor alteration.
The 14th annual Kevin Dare Invitational at Penn State moved its starting time back to 11 a.m. Saturday morning. Meanwhile, the weekly Delaware Valley Girls Track Coaches Assocation meet went on as scheduled Friday night at Lehigh.
Despite the forecast, four Delco schools made the decision to go as planned.
Cardinal O’Hara and Ridley were among the four teams that made it to Bethlehem. The other two schools were North Penn and Pennridge.
Meanwhile, the boys and girls teams from Strath Haven, and the girls squad from Radnor were among the 16 schools that made it to University Park out of the roughly 54 that were expected to attend.
“I was shocked they let us go,” Strath Haven girls coach Bill Coren said. “There was a lot of talk about not going, and I would have been fine with that. My principal (Dr. MaryJo Yannicone) didn’t want us to go to the Friday meet because it’s not an overnight trip. We go up and come back and she wasn’t comfortable with that. But since we usually stay overnight at Penn State, Dr. Yannicone said we could go as long as the superintendent (Dr. Michael Pladus) was OK with it.”
The teams made arrangements to stay two nights instead of the usual one and left around 1:30 Friday afternoon to beat any possible weather. In all, 32 athletes made the trip, according to Strath Haven boys coach Ed Baghdasarian, 12 boys and 20 girls.
“We were in communication Dr. Yannicone and other people back home the whole time,” Baghdasarian said. “We were told to call Saturday and if everything was OK, we could come home after the meet, but the conditions were too bad we would stay another night. We called after the meet was over and we were told to stay and come back Sunday.”
Baghdasarian said the team left State College around 10:30 Sunday morning and arrived back at Strath Haven around 3:30 that afternoon.
“It was a smooth ride,” Baghdasarian said. “The roads were fine. (Route) 322 and the turnpike were fine. We got back in about the same time it took us to get up there.”
Centre County, where State College is located, did not get hit as hard as other areas. The region received 6-10 inches of snow, according to the National Weather Service.
“It wasn’t that bad up there,” Baghdasarian said.
O’Hara was scheduled to run in both the DVGTCA meet at Lehigh Friday and the New Balance Games at the Armory in New York Saturday, but the storm altered both of those plans. School officials cancelled the trip to the Big Apple and the bus for the team to Lehigh.
However, the team was not prohibited from going, first-year coach Matt DiPretore said. It just had to find a way to get there. Two parents, Rob Mancini and Mark Winter, agreed to drive the team to Lehigh.
“The ride up was easy,” DiPretore said. “We got there in about an hour, which is about the usual time. The ride home was a little slower. It took us about 90 minutes because we took our time to be safe.”
The meet started at 6:30 p.m., was over by 8, and the team was home by 9:30, DiPretore said.
“It was a quick meet, probably the quickest in association history,” DiPretore said.
As for the results, Cardinal O’Hara’s Grace Mancini won the 3,000-meter run in a state championship qualifying time of 10 minutes, 37 seconds. That’s the seventh fastest time in the state this season. Her sisters Christine and Elizabeth won the 400- and 800-meter runs, respectively, in Meet of Champions qualifying times. Christine Mancini won the 400 in 1:01.10, while Elizabeth took the 800 in 2:27.76. The Lions also qualified for the MOC in the 4 x 800.
Ridley’s Maddy Moore won the long jump with a leap of 16 feet, 2 ¾ inches. That was one inch off of her personal best and good enough to qualify for the Meet of Champions. Moore also was second in the 400, while teammate Kelly McGeehan took third in the 800 and qualified for the Meet of Champions.
“Even though there were only four teams it was a really good meet,” DiPretore said. “We were able to run some really good times.”
Strath Haven’s Ahmir Gordon and Claire VanDuyne set school records at Penn State. Gordon was third in the 800 with a time of 1:58.23. He also helped the Panthers take fifth in the 4 x 800 and sixth in 4 x 400. Teammate Andrew Stief was fourth in the hurdles and on the 4 x 400 relay. Jules Lee and Peter Deeb were fourth in the triple jump and shot put, respectively.
VanDuyne took second in the pole vault with a vault of 9-6. All-Delco Maia Mesyngier was second in the 3,000 with the sixth-fastest time in the state (10:32.35). Grace Haase, Maddie Forbes, Taylor Barkdoll and Isabel Cardi won the 4 x 800 in 9:40.57, the second fastest time in the state.
Radnor’s Olivia Cooper took sixth in the 800 and anchored the Raiders to a fourth-place finish in the 4 x 800.
“Two state records were broken,” Coren said. “You had the top girls hurdler and triple jumper and, the top boys shot putter and miler. There were a lot of very good athletes there. It turned out to be a great meet.”
