Pennridge races past North Penn

TOWAMENCIN >> His team trailing North Penn in the 4×400-meter relay by just a couple strides, Pennridge’s John Nash took the baton, headed around turn number one, and bolted in front on the first straightaway.

The race to perfection was humming right along.

“Had a little push at the end,” Nash said after the 4×4, which would be anchored home to victory by Austin Howell. “We wanted to get the lead as soon as we could.”

The Rams’ win in the 4×4 polished off an impressive day on the track for Pennridge, which added additional points in the field — including the first-place throwing feats of Griffin McCann — to pull away to a 89-52 victory over the Knights at Crawford Stadium Tuesday.

“Lots of good milers, good sprinters, lots of throws and jumps to rely on,” Nash said of the Rams, who improved to a perfect 6-0 in the Suburban One League Continental Conference.

Three relay wins by Pennridge put the Rams in firm control. The defending conference champs need one more victory — they’re at Hatboro-Horsham May 3 — to finish the dual-meet season unbeaten.

“We’re feeling pretty good. Undefeated so far, and hopefully we can take what we’ve done so far into the postseason and states,” Nash said.

It was a complete day for Alex Dimon, who won the 300 and 110 hurdles for the Rams and led off that 4×4 relay, joined by Nash, Pat O’Brien and Howell.

Howell hammered his way to a victory in the 200 and Tucker Desko took care of the mile, along with a second-place finish in the 3,200. Matt Moyer cleared 6-feet-4 in the high jump for the Rams, who got a tremendous contribution from the discus throwers, with McCann leading a 1-2-3 finish.

Albert House continues to impress for North Penn, winning the 100 dash and the long jump and triple, and Dan Santiago’s determination paid off in a tightly-contested 800.

“I figured, hopefully I have enough kick and get ‘em at the end,” said Santiago, who won the half mile by 15 hundredths of a second. “(Taking it out), I tried to get in front but I got boxed in. Eventually the coaches told me to get on the outside, and I moved up, tried to hang with the third runner.

“I moved up more, tried to hang with (Pennridge’s Jeff Espinal), started dying a little bit in the last 300, but I just tried to kick it at the end and it worked out.”

The Knights travel to Souderton on Tuesday, with the Rams traveling to Hatboro-Horsham.