OJR’s relay takes silver; PV’s Warren, Boyertown’s Valenti take bronze at District Championships
CALN >> Perkiomen Valley’s Christina Warren has already enjoyed a tremendous freshman season in track & field this spring. Now, she and a bunch of her Pioneer Athletic Conference girls teammates will take their talents to the grandest stage in the PIAA Championships at Shippensburg University next weekend.
Warren was her busy self during a slick, rainy District 1-AAA meet at Coatesville Friday and Saturday. On Friday, she placed second in the long jump at 18 feet, 2 inches.
On Saturday, Warren followed that up with some more impressive showings including a third place finish in the triple jump at 37-4 along with a 15.23 in the 100-meter high hurdles for sixth place. Warren wound up qualifying for the state meet in all three events.
“Today, my first three jumps were better,” Warren said of the triple jump. “I was coming off the hurdles race. I bumped myself up from fourth to third.”
Perkiomen Valley coach Joe Petsko had some kind words for his brilliant young star.
“Christina has had an outstanding freshman season,” said Petsko. “The District 1 championship meet is a very challenging environment for any athlete, and for Christina to emerge with medals in three events and to qualify for the state championship meet in all three is a great accomplishment. She has an amazing work ethic and attitude, and I am looking forward to seeing what she is able to accomplish next week.”
Perkiomen Valley teammate Annie Glodek started the day off quite well for the Vikings in the opening event, the 3,200-meter run. Glodek recorded a seventh-place finish at 10:54.12, making a late push in the race to qualify for a return trip to states. That will be 2-for-2 this year for Glodek since she also qualified in cross country during the fall.
“It was a good race,” said Glodek. “Luckily, the top eight go to states.”
Boyertown senior Sarafina Valenti came through with a third-place bronze medal in the discus with a throw of 111 feet, 7 inches, in a field where the top six throwers qualified for the state meet.
“Today (Saturday) was a lot better,” said Valenti, who finished seventh in the shot put on Friday.
“It was really not that bad,” said Valenti of the rain. “In the finals it cleared up. The circle wasn’t that bad.”
Valenti was positioned among the first flight of throwers in the discus.
Owen J. Roberts sophomore Morgan Shronk earned her ticket to states with a seventh-place finish in the 400-meter dash at 58.36. It was one of several top performances by the Wildcats throughout the weekend.
“It is really exciting,” said Shronk, who helped lead the Wildcats to the Pioneer Athletic Conference team championship at Phoenixville last weekend. “That has been my goal all along, and I made it this year. I am excited about going. Making the top eight was the hardest. Once I got to today, I was just glad to be back.”
Owen J. Roberts’ 4×800-meter relay came through with a second-place silver medal behind only North Penn. The Wildcats’ run consisted of Megan Bernotas, Emma Torak, Mary Bernotas and Ali Brunton. OJR got big final legs of the race from Mary Bernotas and Brunton to move up to second place in the final standings.
“I am kind of used to running in the rain,” said Brunton. “I have done it so many times. Emma ran a 2:17 in the prelims and that helped our confidence going in.”
The main result is that Owen J. Roberts will be competing against the best the state has to offer at states.
“That was kind of our goal,” said Megan Bernotas. “We knew everybody was good that we were running against here. We have not run together as a relay this year.”
“This was the first time we’ve run this relay this year,” said Mary Bernotas. “We knew it would be really tough to beat North Penn.”
Spring-Ford took 10th at 9:24.83 with a team of Bella Marchini, Emily Smith, Jenna Darlington and Nandini Patel. Perkiomen Valley placed 11th at 9:25.34 with a team of Michele Daniels, Julia Dorley, Glodek and Karleigh White.
Owen J. Roberts sprinter junior Teneisha Myers qualified for states in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes. Myers placed sixth in the 100 (12.47) and then came back with a fifth in the 200 (25.50), joining fourth-place senior Caroline Duffy of Methacton (24.58). Those two longtime rivals will make one last journey together to Shippensburg.
“It was nice to get it out of the way,” Myers said after the 100. “That made it nice. In the semifinals it was raining, but then it stopped. So it was good. Yesterday (Friday), I ran really good times. I wanted to get in a groove to get it right by finals today, and I finally got it. I ran well in my two races.”
Duffy earned a third-pace bronze medal in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles at 44.21.
Duffy and Myers were especially happy after the 200-meter dash toward the end of the meet, when it was official they would both be competing against one another one last time at states.
“We are excited that we are finally going together to states,” said Duffy. “It is so exciting. All the PAC-10 schools did awesome. It was really good.”
“It was the first time we made it to the finals,” said Myers. “Before, we just made it to the semifinals. We both did really well. The conditions weren’t ideal, but everyone still did well.”
Brunton also took seventh place in the 800 at 2:15.64 with all eight runners advancing to states.
Methacton’s 4×100 picked up a fifth-place finish at 48.61. The Warriors’ team consisted of Amy Domenick, Duffy, Rainah Dunham and Lauren Prusacki.
“We did real well all year and wanted to do this at districts,” said Dunham.
Boyertown’s Gillian Kasitz finished ninth in the 1,600 in 5:10.77, but she met the state-qualifying standard to advance.
Cheltenham wound up winning the girls’ team title with 105 points to beat out North Penn (54), Pennsbury (49) and Pennridge and Penn Wood, which tied for fourth place with 30 points.
