Perkiomen Valley teams run through 5-0 PAC seasons
ZIEGLERVILLE >> They had a slew of achievements Thursday, all of which put Perkiomen Valley in fine position for what lies ahead.
The Vikings capped their Pioneer Athletic Conference regular season by sweeping past Spring-Ford. Both teams had the first-place finishers — Tyler Clifford for the boys, Summer Watts for the girls. They both scored team wins: The PV boys 15-42 and the girls 17-46, to the end result of both going 5-0 in Liberty Division meets.
And it was all against the backdrop of the program’s Senior Day celebration. It offered a solid head of steam heading into the post-season, and next week’s PAC Championship race.
“All that matters is next week,” Clifford, one of the senior celebrants, said after covering his home course at Perkiomen Valley Middle School-West in a strong 16:07. “This is really big. We haven’t been able to win PACs before, but this time we’re going in with some momentum.
“Winning PACs would be awesome.”
Clifford headed an awesome team effort by PV, which took the first five spots. Ethan Ribelin was second at 16:39, followed by Dylan Danowski (16:50), Calvin Ribelin (16:53) and Kabiru Brown (16:58).
Spring-Ford (3-2) then went 6-7-8-9 with Anthony Bamford (16:58) leading the way. Quinn Smith (17:00), Alex Fink (17:05) and Andrew Carlin (17:06) followed, but the Rams’ fifth runner was bumped down to 17th place behind a PV pack headed by Phil Moyer, 10th in 17:06.
“The boys ran nice,” PV head coach Ryan Sullivan said. “They were down after Paul Short (last weekend), but they came back big today.”
In a twist on the girls’ Senior Day focus, Watts continued to shine in her freshman season. She blew away the field with an 18:50 run, finishing more than a minute ahead of junior teammate Delaney Sullivan (19:51) and Elise Tancini (20:22).
“I was excited for it,” Watts said of her first-year success. “In middle school, I never thought about it.”
Nora Albertson punctuated PV’s lead pack by getting fourth for Spring-Ford (2-3) with a 20:30 run. The Vikes padded their home-course finale with Claudia Brach (20:33), Lindsay Fry (21:19) and Avery Taylor (21:26) going 5-6-7 to secure the team victory ahead of Spring-Ford’s Julia Breisch (21:40), Alyssa Mulhall (22:10), Devon Pytel (22:20) and Kayla Breisch (22:22) finishing 8-9-10-11.
“The girls have been phenomenal,” Sullivan said. “Summer is a superstar. She’s a hard worker and very coachable.
“Our whole freshman class has me excited. I’m hoping we challenge for the PAC (title).”
Clifford admitted to being under the weather up through the Paul Short race, suffering from nausea. But he appeared the picture of health Thursday, and focused on getting his times down around the 15:49 he ran at the 2018 District 1-AAA meet.
“I was taking stomach medication and resting,” he said. “This past week I didn’t run as much. I’m feeling better.”
For PACs, Sullivan sees the Owen J. Roberts boys team as being a challenge, PV’s strong winning run in their dual meet notwithstanding.
“The Owen J. boys have had a great season since we ran them,” he said. “They’re going to be tough.”
NOTES >> Watts on familiarity with PV’s home course: “This is the same course we ran in middle school,” she said. “I like it. It’s easy to not get lost … I use that to my advantage.” … The day’s competition kicked off with both districts’ middle-school boys and girls teams running ahead of the high schools.
