North Penn, CB West shine at Jim Kelly Invite

HORSHAM >> The real start of spring finally came for area runners on Saturday.
“The last two meets, we were in under armour and pants,” North Penn’s Jenna Webb said, “so it’s good to be in shorts and a tank top.”
Webb and the Knights took on some of the best competition around at Hatboro-Horsham’s Jim Kelly Invitational, racing to victory in a stacked 4×800-meter relay.
“We were just excited to get out there and get a win,” said Webb, who ran leadoff, followed by Megan Gambogi, Jaime Diedel and a fantastic anchor leg by Natalie Kwortnik. “Each year, we have a lot of good 800 runners. So we can really throw a lot of people in there.”
There were tight races, multiple records were set, and a total of 34 schools competed at the invite, including several from the Suburban One League.
“This was a pretty good representation of our league,” said Webb.

North Penn’s 4×8 was a winner in 9 minutes, 41.11 seconds, and the Knights also took first in the 4×100 (48.94) and shuttle hurdles (1:08.43).
Aaliyah Allen raced to a victory in the 100 dash (12.73) and Alayna Faison took care of the 200. Anais Williams won her heat of the 400 hurdles and placed third overall in a field of 33, crossing in 1:06.55.
“I wanted to focus on running hurdles better, trying to finish the race better,” said Williams, who held off Unionville’s Makayla Bucci. “(In the 400’s), you just have to attack it in the beginning.”

It was a thrilling victory for Hatboro-Horsham’s Stefano Isabella, who was mobbed by his teammates after winning the 1,600 (4:31.71) on his home track.
“I just wanted to stay with the guy in front of me,” said Isabella, who was fastest in an SOL-heavy top five that included Souderton Area’s Josiah Moyer (4:32.82), North Penn’s Samir Razi (4:33.32), Methacton’s Garrett Campbell (4:33.37) out of the Pioneer Athletic Conference and Pennridge’s Diego Lera-Lozano (4:33.42).
Central Bucks West’s distance medley relay foursome of Darby Roth (800), Steph Hitpold (400), Emmi Simon (1,200) and Piper Wilson (1,600) set a meet record (12:17.53) and qualified for the Penn Relays.
And the Bucks were just getting started.
Hitpold won the 400 (58.42), Simon was fastest in the 800 (2:18.17), and Wilson outraced everyone in the 1,600 (5:22.24) with a strong finishing kick.
“After (the DMR) I felt pretty fatigued but I decided I would try and work the open mile, try and stay up with whoever was up there,” Wilson said. “I thought somebody would try and hang onto me and pass me on the last 200 so I wasn’t sure. It ended up working out. I was just like, ‘I’ll just use whatever I have left. It’s my last race of the day.’
“(The DMR) was pretty strong. I love running with them. It’s always a lot of fun.”
The Bucks were also well-represented in the field, with Lauren Hahn winning both the shot put (37-1.5) and the javelin (132-4).
Other local winners on the boys side included Cheltenham’s Mason Jones (110 hurdles), Wissahickon’s Carmen Ostroski (long jump), North Penn’s Starrett Vesper (pole vault), William Tennent’s Fernando Delgado (200) and Pennridge’s 4×400 relay.
Also for the Rams, Andersen Dimon set a meet record in the 400, pushing to a 48.29 finish.