Pottsgrove boys, girls claim heat-shortened race at Pottstown

POTTSTOWN >> In consideration of Wednesday’s continuing heat wave, the Pottstown/Pottsgrove race was shortened in distance to two miles.

The change certainly didn’t affect the Falcons, who literally packed in a pair of victories over the Trojans. The Pottsgrove boys ran to a 15-46 victory while the girls outdistanced their hosts 15-45.

The Falcon boys had their first five placers cross the line in a time of 11:46, with Bryce Hampton credited in the first spot. On the girls’ side, Naomi Hillen led an even tighter pack — all six of Pottsgrove’s runners leading the order — with a 14:34 clocking more than 20 seconds better than the rest of the field.

“The ones we have, I’m happy with them,” head coach Larry Rechtin said. “They’re working hard, and they’re a nice group.”

Thin numbers figure to be a concern for Pottsgrove this fall. The boys had 11 competitors, but they were among the top 22 finishers in the 27-runner field. As for the girls …

“We don’t have room for missteps,” Rechtin noted.

Pottsgrove had enough sure-footedness on the day to maintain the solid start it got during last Friday’s City Championship race.

The boys placed in seven of the Top 10, Simon Keen, Brandon Henriksen, Gabe Craig and LaRee Hills finishing behind Hampton in that order. Hampton put on a burst of speed at the finish to secure his place.

“The plan was to take it relatively slow, stay with the pack,” he said. “The first mile, I did a 5:45; but around the 1.2-mile mark I didn’t see many other runners. So I slowed down.”

While admitting he would have preferred the race to be 5K in length, Hampton was happy with how it went after an issue in the team’s lid-lifting race.

“I twisted an ankle at the City Championship,” he recalled. “I iced it a lot and took a couple days off. I did a half-run Monday.”

Jaden Smith and Pat Rieker checked in a respective ninth and 10th in times of 12:47 and 12:48 behind the Pottstown trio of Noah Patton (sixth, 11:49), Jamie Sharp (12:01) and Giankirk Kimmell (eighth, 12:16). Aiden McDonald, placing 11th ahead of the Trojans’ Mitchell Aquino and Collin Stone, added more displacer value.

“This is our goal for districts, to run a pack,” Hampton said. “We want to have a lot qualify.”

Hillen did somewhat the opposite, hanging with the lead pack until it reached the downhill point of the Pottstown course. She then pulled away for the win ahead of Calista Faust (14:57), Chloe Sullivan (15:01), Molly Neeson (15:05), Angelia Hollinger (15:10) and Amie Wildermuth (15:20), who went 2-6 in that order ahead of Pottstown leader Winnie Wang.

“We’ve lost numbers, fallouts of people who couldn’t make the workouts,” Hillen said. “We’re trying to keep doing that (pack) in all the dual meets … do that all season.”

“Natalie is really strong up front,” Rechtin added. “Last week she looked great against a lot of good runners. She’s ahead of where we thought she’d be, but there’s a lot of room to improve training-wise.”

Nayeli Cruz was Pottstown’s fastest girl, running a 16:42 to place seventh. Winni Weng (16:54), Naomi Parson (17:36) and Hannah Shankle (18:20) completed the Trojans’ Top 10 rank.

NOTES >> Pottstown head coach Mary Ann Hill, explaining the decision to shorten the race: “We looked at the weather and made an educated decision.” She also pointed out it was the first time the school ran a shorter distance. “We’ve always done 5K as long as I can remember.” … Hampton admitted he’s no fan of running in hot weather. “I’m more acclimated to colder weather, the 60s,” he said. “On a day like this, you have to go slow and try to not pass out.”