La Salle, North Penn excel at Knight Invite
TOWAMENCIN >> On his first and only jump of the competition, Albert House took off and enjoyed the ride.
“I saw myself in the air as I was landing, and I was like ‘woah, I went kinda far.’ I felt really good,” the North Penn senior said Thursday. “I wasn’t really expecting to jump too far today but my legs were pretty fresh.”
Soaring to first place with a long jump of 21 feet, 11 and a half inches, House established both a meet record and again notched a District One Class AAA qualifying mark, helping to lead host North Penn at the Second Annual Knight Invite on Thursday afternoon.
House has been on a mission this spring, and it continued Thursday.
“I didn’t do too well at indoor states,” he said, “so I was just ready to attack it at outdoor states, giving it my all at practices, workouts, meets — just trying to do my best.”
On his first trip down the runway, House got out far and soared to first, and that’s all he would need.
“So I jumped 21-11 on my first jump,” he said, “and went and ran the 100.”
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House also raced to a second-place finish in the 100 dash, crossing in 11.4 seconds. The versatile senior has been a standout in the long jump, triple jump and 100 as well as a contributor on the 4×1 relay.
“Excited to do all of those events at districts,” he said, “especially long jump as my main event.”
House, who PR’d last week with a 22-4, is gunning for 23 feet by the end of the season. His leap of 21-11.5 outdistanced him from St. Joe’s Prep duo Isaiah Ritchie (20-3.75) and Harrison McGuigan (19-11.75), who finished second and third in a field of 31.
It was a big day for La Salle, which had a meet-high nine first-place finishes, including Patrick Grant’s victory in the 800.
“It was nice to get out there and run a fast time,” said Grant, whose time of 1:56.65 was just a couple seconds off the best in the state this spring.
Grant turned it on in the final 200, pushing past Quakertown’s Hudson Delisle (1:57.44) and St. Joe’s Prep’s Stephen McClellan (1:58.67), all of whom cranked out district-qualifying times.
“I think we’re looking really good,” Grant said. “We opened up really well a couple weeks ago, did well here, and I think we’re looking pretty good for the PCL (Philadelphia Catholic League) Championships.
“With this many guys competing at this level,” he said, “I think we could be looking to something good at states.”
Out in the field, Hatboro-Horsham came away with a pair of first-place medals, as Nicholas Marino vaulted 14-6 and Cameron Willison threw the discus 126-5.
Abington’s day was bookended by wins in the 4×8 and 4×4 relays, including a state-best 3:19.73 in the 4×4.
