Wissahickon boys, Cheltenham girls dominate SOL American Championships
WHITEMARSH >> It was not really a question of if but by how much the Cheltenham girls and field track team would win by in Saturday afternoon’s Suburban One League American Conference Championships.
The defending PIAA Class AAA champions ran away with the meet — pun intended — by 111 points over Upper Dublin as the Panthers scored 250 points to lift the team titles.
“We just want to come in here and compete hard,” Cheltenham coach Kelly Jensen said. “It doesn’t matter who is here we just have to be physically and mentally ready to compete hard.”
Almost as impressive as the Lady Panthers win Saturday afternoon, the Wissahickon boys team left no doubt as to who the class of the SOL American was as the Trojans defeated second place Upper Dublin by 101.5 points.
“Scoring the meet I thought we would probably win by over 100,” Wissahickon coach Don Betterly said. “But a hamstring pull here, somebody doesn’t show up for a bus, a dropped baton there, that lead can whittle down to zero real quick.”
Wissahickon displayed dominance in almost every area of the meet but its quality really showed through with its sprinters and hurdlers.
Darien Williams and Rasheed Wright finished 1-2 in the 100 and 200-meters with Williams breaking a 32-year old school record as he finished with a time of 21.55, breaking the mark of 21.64 that had stood since 1984.
“Both his 100 and 200 time are top in the state so far this year,” said Betterly of Williams. “That was outstanding.”
Wright would not finish in second place in the 400-meter as he able to win the gold with a winning time of 49.78.
Williams was also a member of the winning 4×100 relay that he ran with teammates Sam Kane, Ethan Dolberry-Wescott and Antuan Lloyd as they finished with a time of 43.49.
The 4×800 relay also took first place as the team of Lukas Marcelis, Andy Harman, Justin Ryan and Cam Christopher posted a winning time of 8:06.98. Christopher and Harman finished 1-2 in the 800-meter posting 1:57.06 and 1:58.37, respectively.
“The 4×800 we were seeded sixth going in but we never ran our top four guys all year,” Betterly said. “I knew we could match up with Upper Dublin if we stayed close we could have a shot.”
Senior Dolberry-Wescott picked up victories in the 300-hurdles and the 110-hurdles with times of 41.29 and 15.19.
In addition to the track, Wissahickon also took care of business in the field jumps.
Daryl Baldwin won the high jump for the Trojans as Yondell Dudley picked up a pair of wins in the shotput and discus.
The Cheltenham girls won all but two track events and was highlighted by several standout performances. Chanel Brissett ran a meet record 13.30 in the 100-meter hurdles, beating her teammate Madison Langley-Walker, who finished second with a time of 14.09.
“She hasn’t been running that many hurdles because we’ve been working on her flat races,” said Jensen of Brissett. “For her to come out and run that time, with some rust because she has not been doing any hurdles, I was very impressed.
“She maybe lightly hit one hurdle. The key right now is to keep a clean race. Same thing with Madison, (she) ran a PR by about .4 seconds and it was the fact that she just hung on to Chanel and they both had clean races.”
In addition to her second place finish in the 100 hurdles, Langley-Walker won the 300-meter hurdles (44.07) and also won the triple jump with a convincing three-plus foot longer jump (38-03.50) than her teammate Shannon Nixon (34-11.00) who took second. Langley-Walker also took home the gold in the long jump with a distance 18-08.00, again leaving no doubt as she jumped over two feet further second place.
Brissett was also a member of the Panthers 4×100 relay team that dominated the event. The foursome made up of Bria Barnes, Brielle Lewis, Alexis Crosby and Brissett won the race in 47.06 unchallenged by and a full three seconds faster than the second place Upper Dublin team that finished with a 50.38.
“With that 4×100 relay if we would have run with those handoffs we probably would have run in the 45s at the Penn Relays,” Jensen said. “We’re just getting our handoffs down better, the chemistry is coming along. I’m about chemistry. It’s not so much about running fast as it is about chemistry between the kids.”
The quartet later finished 1-4 in the 200-meter with Brissett winning the event with a 24.20 followed by Crosby, Barnes and Lewis with 24.95,25.94 and 25.44, respectively.
Crosby and Barnes would take a 1-2 finish in the 400-meter with Springfield’s Sydni Stovall taking third place. Stovall also took second place in the 800-meter, one of two races that Cheltenham didn’t win, that honor belonged to Wissahickon’s Lotte Black.
Lewis, a sophomore, won the 100-meter with a 12.24, ahead of another Cheltenham runner Ciani Fleming who finished third with 12.71. Sandwiched in between Lewis and Fleming was Upper Dublin sophomore Sabrina Taylor whose 12.69 was good enough to just edge out Fleming for second place.
Next up for the Panthers is shot to defend its District-1 title. The Panthers have a young squad but they’re no strangers to big meets and they certainly have the quality of athletes to continue to make some noise this postseason.
“It just shows all the kids hard work come to fruition here and in the next two weeks,” Jensen said. “The goal for me is that they all step up and they all perform.”
