District 1 Track and Field: Upset win in 800 highlights Albright’s day

CALN TWP. — Eric Albright had a very simple strategy in the boys Class 3A 800-meter run at the District 1 Track & Field Championships at Coatesville Area High School Saturday afternoon.

The Maryland-bound senior from Garnet Valley decided he was going to stay with Pottstown’s Darrius Smallwood and take his chances. It was a sound strategy since Smallwood came into the event ranked first in the state, according to pa.milesplit.com.

Albright also wanted to keep an eye on Holden Emery of Central Bucks East, who came in ranked fifth in the state.

The only problem was the race did not start the way Albright expected.

“I thought it was going to come out really fast,” said Albright, who entered the race ranked sixth in the state in the event. “I knew Darius was really killing these times in dual meets and stuff. I thought he was going to come out in a 54- or a 55-(second pace). He came around at 57-58, which was kind of slow.”

At that point, Albright decided to take control of the race and quickly moved ahead of Smallwood on the final lap and held off Emery down the stretch to claim the gold medal and earn a trip to the PIAA Championships in Shippensburg with a personal best time of 1:53.57, which was just a few tenths off the school record.

“I knew if I wanted a good time I would have to kick it so I started running down the backstretch,” Albright said. “Holden was with me. I ended up getting on the inside of the turn, which was nice, and just brought it home.”

Albright had his choice of races. He was ranked third in District 1 Class 3A in the 400 and fourth in the 1,600 as well as third in the 800.

“I did the 800 because it’s my favorite race and I felt like it was the event I had the best shot in,” Albright said.

Shortly before Albright’s run to gold, Penncrest’s Daniel Munro capped a three-medal day with a fourth-place finish in the 300 hurdles (41.08 seconds). Earlier in the day Munro took fourth in the pole vault (13-6) and fifth in the 110 hurdles (15.44). He qualified for the state meet in all three events and will compete in all of them.

“The 300 hurdles, I qualified, but it wasn’t my best time ever,” Munro said. “In the 110s, I PR’d in the prelims (15.21) and was the No. 1 seed. The pole vault was unfortunate timing. They started 15 minutes earlier than I thought they would so I had less time to warm up and less time in between so I was a little more tired than expected.”

Strath Haven’s Enrico Faccio qualified for the state meet in both hurdles. He was second in the 110 (15.34) and fifth in the 300 (41.88). Munro, Faccio and Ridley’s Kristian Praizner, who was sixth in the 300 hurdles, but did not meet the state-qualifying time, have developed a friendship and a healthy rivalry over the season.

Radnor’s Max Dooley is headed to states in two events. Dooley needed a push in the last 50 meters to secure fourth place and an automatic berth in the 1,600 with a personal best time of 4:20.47.

“I just gave it everything I had,” said Dooley, who will attend North Carolina and is looking to walk on to the track team. “I began to pick it up because that’s when the race starts to narrow down. I had something left so I put it all on the track.”

Dooley capped his day when he ran the third leg of Radnor’s 4 x 400-meter relay team that finished second in 3:22.64. He ran with Colin Cheshire, Gavin Williams and Chris Belz, who brought the baton home just ahead of Penn Wood anchor Kouto Anyika. For Belz, the silver medal was a bit of redemption after a disappointing eighth-place finish in the 800. Radnor came within a second of breaking the school record.

“It makes the day so much better for me,” Belz said. “I have the prom tonight and I was going to be all sad going into that, but now I’m going to be super excited.”

Penn Wood came into the 4 x 400 as the 10th seed and came out of the first heat to earn a trip to Shippensburg. Lucky Tan, Makhi Parker, Langston Richman and Anyika finished in 3:22.86, knocking nearly four seconds off their qualifying time (3:26.13).

Upper Darby’s George Okyne won three medals. He took fourth in the 200 (22.28) to book a trip to states. He also teamed with Lavar Jackson, Andre Henneghan and Fred McCray for sixth in the 4 x 100. Okyne and McCray joined Muzi Carroll and Sean Maxwell for sixth in the 4 x 400. Neither relay qualified for states.

Haverford earned the first medal and first trip to the state meet with a fourth-place finish in the 4 x 800. That quartet consisted of Ethan Fingerhut, Quentin Ryan, Alexson Songol and Patrick Lawson, who also finished seventh in the 1,600, but did not qualify for the PIAA Championships.

“We’re still in hard training,” Lawson said. “We’re doing workouts this week (gearing up for the PIAA Championships). That’s our focus. Next week is our meet.”

In Class 2A, Delco Christian took second in both the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 relays, and third in the 4 x 800. Jude Metricarti and Jason Shaw were on both the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400.