Forbes shows speed runs in family with Delcos meet mark

HAVERFORD >> The Delaware County Girls Indoor Track and Field Meet is not a scoring event.

If they had been awarding points at the 2018 meet at Haverford College Wednesday night, a lot of them would have been in the scoring column of the athletes from Strath Haven.

The Panthers had plenty of success on the track, with the team of Maggie Forbes, Alana Mackey, Ava Crawford and Abby Loiselle getting them started by rolling to a 12-second victory in the distance medley relay.

After Dana Hubbell took first place in the 60-meter hurdles, Grace Forbes shattered the meet record in the mile run with her time of 5:01.84. Maria Seykora of The Academy of Notre Dame had set the record at 5:05.49 in 2011.

“I’m content with my time, but it would have been good to have broken five minutes or run 4:58 like I ran last week (at Lehigh),” Forbes said. “(Coach Bill) Coren has been telling me I need to go out slower and be the hunter instead of being the hunted.

“Instead of going out too fast, I had something left and let it all go for the last 500.”

Forbes’ older sister, Maddie, is a freshman at Rice, and the family will be heading to Texas this weekend to visit her and watch her father, Dr. Brian Forbes, run in the Houston Marathon.

“He’s a pediatric opthomologist at (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia) and he’s run a lot of marathons,” Grace said.

Hubbell also placed second in the high jump.

“I just try to run as fast as I can,” Hubbell said. “I’ve really been working on my starts and having better finishes.”

Mayowa Songonuga of Strath Haven took first place in the 200-meter dash (25.98 seconds), with Chester’s Kamani Johns second (26.01) and the Clippers’ Jiya Clayton third (26.17).

“She was running 26s and 27s last year,” Coren said of Songonuga, who is headed to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study data analytics. “In all the years I’ve been coaching, I’ve never had a girl win the 200 at the indoor Delco Meet or the outdoor Delco Meet.

“I’m happy. I think we had a good meet here tonight.”

Haven also got first place in the 4 x 800-meter relay by 25 seconds in 10:19.77. Julia Benner, Crawford, Serena Elia and Loiselle were the members of the winning team.

Jerenita Sokan of Upper Darby was the winner of the 55-meter dash (8.15 seconds), with Brianna Foster of Ridley second (8.27) and Garnet Valley’s Meghan Arters (8.29) third.

“I had injured my hamstring last year and couldn’t run in this meet,” Sokan said. “I did get to run the 4 x 200 at states.

“I’ve been trying to work my way back. I just try to work hard on the straightaway and then finish strong.”

Chester freshman Johns won the 400-meter dash in 59.46 seconds, with Tara Higgins of Penncrest second (1:00.40)

“I was running for time, but I’m not that happy with my time,” Johns said. “This is my first year, and I didn’t know that much about Delcos and all that. I’m just happy I won the championship. I want to make it to states and run faster.”

The Chester team of Clayton, Taniyah Lawler, Makiyiah Poteat and Onicia Ferguson took first place in the 4 x 200-meter relay in 1:49.49.

The Clippers closed out their big night with Clayton, Lawler, Simone Lawrence, and Johns earning first place by three seconds in the 4 x 400 relay (4:06.29). Penn Wood was second, less than a second ahead of Strath Haven.

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Cardinal O’Hara’s Mancini sisters stepped off a plane at 5 p.m. and headed to Haverford College in time to walk away with their share of medals.

Christine Mancini won the 800-meter run in 2:19.00, with Kyra Carroll of Penn Wood second in 2:20.19. Not long afterward, the Lions’ Elizabeth Mancini posted a 14-second victory over Taylor Barkdoll of Strath Haven in the 3,000-meter run. Eleanor Mancini took third in the race.

“We went to Punta Cana for our family vacation,” Christine Mancini, who won the 800 for the second consecutive year, said. “It was a four-hour plane ride home, but I didn’t mind it. I just couldn’t miss Delcos.

“While we were down there, I tried to run some on the treadmill, but everything was in Spanish and in meters, so I had to do some translating.”

Mancini knew Carroll would be challenging her throughout the final lap.

“I’m not as strong as I want to be because I didn’t have a full cross country season,” Mancini said. “I’ve got to keep on building up my strength.”

Elizabeth Mancini, the 2017 PIAA Class 3A cross country champion, enjoyed her time in the sun last week, but also had trouble with the treadmills.

“Those things would shut down after 20 minutes and you had to start them back up,” she said. “Today was only my second meet this season, so I’m getting back in the loop. This was a (personal best time) for me, and now I’ll be getting back to some more speed work.”

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Freshman Grace Zamrowski of Garnet Valley cleared five feet to claim gold in the high jump.

“I’ve been working a lot on my form and lifting a lot,” Zamrowski said. “I was nervous at first about this meet, but I feel a lot better now that I’ve won my event.”

Cecelia Katcavage of Haverford and Springfield’s Symphonie Blalock both threw the shot put 35 feet, 9 1/2 inches, with Katcavage earning the gold medal because of a better second throw (35-6 1/2 to 32-10 1/2).

Haweh Kwaidah of Sun Valley took first place in the long jump (15 feet 1/2 inch), and Meghan Lynch of Ridley was the winner of the triple jump (35 feet) by three feet.