Love hurdles in to achieving goal at Catholic League Champs

MARPLE — Besides winning the 110- and 300-meter hurdles, Kyle Love had one major goal he wanted to accomplish when he arrived at Cardinal O’Hara Saturday for the Catholic League Track & Field Championships.

The sophomore from Bonner & Prendergast wanted to record his best times in both events.

Love fell a little short of that objective, but he still went home with a huge smile on his face. Love won both events and was named the male Track Athlete of the Meet for his effort.

“I had a lot of confidence coming in, and that confidence helped me,” Love said. “It feels great. I accomplished a goal. It’s a step up.”

Love won the 110 hurdles in 15.54 seconds and took the 300 in 40.18. That performance highlighted a strong day for the Friars, who finished fourth in the team competition. La Salle easily outpointed St. Joseph’s Prep, 192-79, to claim its fifth straight league title. Archbishop Wood’s Levi Mayer earned Field Athlete of the Meet for winning the shot put and discus.

Love wasn’t the only Friar to claim gold. Enoobong Eka held off a late charge from St. Joseph’s Prep to win the 4 x 400-meter relay. Rasheed Thomas, Nwabueze Onyemachi and Jarrett Moses gave Eka the cushion he needed to bring home the baton in first place.

“I couldn’t have done it without my teammates,” Eka said. “They did a great job to get the lead, and it was up to me to get across the line first.”

Eka also took third in the 400. Onyemachi was fifth in the 100 and was on the 4 x 100 relay squad that placed fifth. Chilekasi Adele placed third in the shot put.

Archbishop Carroll’s Malachi Hansen also had a good day. He won the triple jump with a personal-best leap of 41-10, placed third in the long jump with another PR (20-7) and was fifth in the high jump (5-8).

On the girls side, Hannah Bierling closed out the Catholic League portion of her career at Bonner & Prendergast in style. The Ursinus-bound senior successfully defended her title in the discus, took second in the shot put and third in the javelin to pace the Pandas to fourth place. She set personal bests in the discus (99-8) and javelin (98-11).

“I’ve been focusing on discus recently because I wanted to come back from Delco’s after I didn’t do to well there,” said Bierling, who finished 10th in the county championships. “I’m happy with how it worked out.”

Teammate Taylor Johnson also had a strong outing. Johnson was third in the 200, sixth in the 100 and was on a pair of medal-winning relay teams. Johnson teamed up with Wrehdi Juwle, Briella Black and Liz Oladosu for third in the 4 x 100-meter relay. Johnson closed out the day by anchoring the team of Destiny Pierre-Mathieu, Omotayo Ogunbiyi and Jackie Engler to a second-place finish in the 4 x 400 relay.

Oladosu was third in the 100 hurdles. Pierre-Mathieu was sixth in the 400. Elise Schumacher finished sixth in the 3,200 and was on the 4 x 800 relay team that placed sixth. Jasmine Powell finished fifth in the shot put and sixth in the discus.

Cardinal O’Hara All-Delco Christine Mancini turned in quite an effort in her final meet on her home track. The La Salle-bound senior shaved nearly four seconds off her personal best to win the mile (5:08.49). She also captured the 800 in 2:14.59 and anchored the 4 x 400 squad to a third-place finish.

“I definitely wanted to win on our turf and for my team,” Mancini said.

She had to come from behind to edge Neumann-Goretti’s Kami-Joi Hickson to win both of her gold medals. Mancini had the lead in the mile for most of the race, but Hickson passed her with about 200 meters to go. Mancini regained the lead about 100 meters later and held on for the win. She needed a late push in the 800 to edge Hickson by one-hundredth of a second.

“I’m very familiar with how the Neumann-Goretti girls run,” Mancini said. “They have strong finishes, and I’ve been working all season to make sure my finish is stronger. … Last year the two Neumann girls passed me at the end and that was the worst feeling. I learned from that.”

Teammate Rachel Bonfini won three individual medals to help the Lions finish fifth in the team competition. She was second in the high jump and fifth in the long jump and 100 hurdles. Abby Quinn took fifth in the 100. Tara Sheehan placed sixth in the mile. Katie Till anchored the team of Catherine Haas, Sydney McWilliams and Ann Brown to fourth in the 4 x 800.

Eva Webb paced Archbishop Carroll with a third-place finish in the 100. She also anchored the team of Ami Balogun-Victor, Rachel Gord-Martin and Amira Woodlin to fourth in the 4 x 100. Mary DeSimone took fifth in the mile. Julia DeRita placed fourth in the triple jump. Sydney Haye was sixth in the long jump and Emma Sponholtz took fifth in the javelin.

Neumann-Goretti won the girls title for the second year in a row. Mykala Perry was named the female Track Athlete of the Meet. Kelsey Sebwe of Archbishop Ryan took home the Field Athlete of the Meet award