Penn Wood’s Turner breaks 16-year-old record at Delco Indoor Championship meet
HAVERFORD >> Penn Wood senior Terri Turner was two years old when the Patriots’ Danielle Rodgers set the Delaware County Girls Indoor Track and Field Championship Meet record in the 400-meter dash in 2001.
At Haverford College at the 2017 Delco indoor championships Tuesday night, Turner’s time of 57.62 seconds bettered Rodgers’ mark of 57.74, which had been the oldest record standing for the meet.
To conclude the meet, Turner teamed with Kyra Carroll, Elicia Moore and Janae Pitt to break another record with a time of 4:01.79, eclipsing the time of 4:05.49 turned in by Strath Haven in 2014.
“I was sick last week and missed the meets in New York and Lehigh,” Turner said. “I was disheartened not being able to run. Today I wanted to come back and be able to do what I know how to do.”
What Turner also knows how to do is perform in the classroom. She is ranked right near the top of her class academically and recently committed to attend Columbia University
“My goals for the next 10 years are to become a lawyer and an Olympian,” Turner said. “The records tonight are nice, but there’s still things we have to do.
“(In the 400) I got out, tried to remain calm and relied on my training. I really believe I’m in the best shape of my life.”
Pitt, a senior who also won the 60-meter hurdles, anchored the 4 x 400 relay team to a meet record after Turner ran the third leg.
“I like what we’ve been doing.” Turner said.
Pitt has been timed in 58 seconds running the open 400.
“I just try to go out and do what we do in practice,” she said.
For Carroll, a junior, there is no shortcut to the success her team has accomplished and hopes to build on.
“We need to practice hard and keep getting tougher,” she said.
Moore, a sophomore, ran the second leg for the 4 x 400 and anchored the team of Turner, Pitt and junior Tatiyana Laylor to the gold medal in the 4 x 200 relay.
“They were talking about records,” Moore said. “We just came here to run.”
Laylor also took first place in the 60-meter dash,
“My start is the strongest part of my race, but I have to keep working on it,” she said.
Penn Wood coach Lenny Jordan had a smile as he walked around handing out medals to his athletes.
“We’re getting there,” he said. “We’ve had some problems with the weather and other things, and we really haven’t been able to do a lot of speed work.
“We’re taking things one day at a time. But they did a great job here tonight.”
Michelle Brown-Jones of Upper Darby took first in the 200-meter dash (26.63 seconds), winning her heat and bettering the time of 26.74 turned in in the final heat by defending champion Nierra Berry of Chichester.
“We train to run for time and to work on our form,” Brown-Jones, a senior who hopes to study nursing and run at Temple University, said. “This year we’ve worked much harder, and things have been going much better.”
Brown-Jones also helped Upper Darby to a second-place finish in the 4 x 200-meter relay.
Academy of Notre Dame sophomore Jessica Schneider outran Elizabeth Mancini of Cardinal O’Hara and defending champion Isabel Cardi of Strath Haven to take first place in the mile run in a state-qualifying time of 5:13.84.
Macini also met the state standard with her time of 5:14.66.
“I’ve only run the mile once this season and I didn’t run it last year indoors,” Schneider, a Wayne resident, said. “I was just trying to focus on running my own race and competing with the other girls.”
Schneider took off on the final turn then raced to the finish line.
“I knew I had to go past (Mancini) then if I wanted to beat her,” Schneider said. “It’s great to know I ran fast enough to qualify for states.”
Schneider came back in the 800-meter run to take fifth place, then finished her night off by helping Notre Dame to second place in the 4 x 800 relay.
Cardi anchored Strath Haven to a 13-second win in the 4 x 800.
“I’ve had flu symptoms the last two days,” Cardi said. “I was a little disappointed about the mile, and we had such a big lead in the (4 x 800).
“I’ve felt good in practices, but it hasn’t translated when I’ve been running much races. Mr. (Bill) Coren (Strath Haven’s head coach) and I are going to come up with some new race strategies.”
Eleanor Mancini of Cardinal O’Hara finished first in the 3,000-meter run in 10:45.69, almost 30 seconds faster than runner-up Abby Loiselle of Strath Haven.
“It’s the first time I’ve run (3,000) this year,” Mancini said. “I’m happy because I think I had my best time.”
In the field events, Meghan Lynch of Ridley won the long jump and Upper Darby’s Victoria Robinson was first in the triple jump.
Cecilia Katcavage of Haverford High was the winner of the shot put, and Schola Ehruuoh of Cardinal O’Hara took the gold medal in the high jump.
