Host Avon Grove shines at Ches-Mont National Super Meet

West Grove >> Avon Grove, competing on its home track, enjoyed plenty of first-place finishes in the Ches-Mont National Division Super Meet Wednesday.
“We had some really good performances today,” noted Avon Grove head coach Eric Broadbent at the end of Wednesday’s meet.
Wednesday was the second day of the two-day Ches-Mont National Division Super Meet -– the first day was April 6 at Downingtown West -– and the Red Devils capped Wednesday’s meet by winning the girls 4×400 relay and nearly beating Coatesville in the boys’ 4×400.
The Avon Grove girls 4×400 relay quartet of Bridget Keenan, Payton Smith, Eden Veenema and Leia Conlan electrified the crowd with a first-place finish, coming home in a district-qualifying 4:04.93.
In the final track event of the day, the boys 4×400 relay, the Red Devil foursome of Noah Lennon, Nate Allen, Gavin McGinn and Avinabo Poddar battled Coatesville down the stretch, posting a time of 3:27.22, just shy of Coatesville’s 3:27.16. The 3:27.22 clocking is a school record by more than two seconds.
Earlier in the afternoon, Allen won the boys’ 800 meter run with a time of 1:58.58.
“It was nice to hear everyone cheering as I was running all the way around the track,” said Allen.
Lennon finished first in the boys 300 hurdles with a clocking of 40.84, his second-best time ever.
“I was hoping to break the school record (40.52) in front of the home crowd today,” said Lennon.
Also for the Red Devils, Smith won the girls 300 hurdles with a clocking of 49.06. It was her first 300 hurdle race of the spring.
Avon Grove won three throwing events in a big way, with each of the first place finishers -– Ramsey Hartz, Emma Moss and Olivia Heckman — winning by a solid margin.
Hartz won the boys’ discus with a throw of 157-6 (the second-place finisher was at 119-1); Moss won the girls’ discus with a toss of 112-5 (second place was 83-9); and Heckman won the girls’ javelin with a mark of 104-10 (second place was 77-4).

Avon Grove freshman Lily Schindler finished second in the girls 800 meter race.
In the dual meet scores that were calculated at the end of the meet, the Avon Grove girls won all six of its matches, while the Red Devil boys won five of six (losing to Coatesville 85-65).
Here’s a look at how the other teams performed at the Ches-Mont Na-tional Division Super Meet Wednesday:
Downingtown East, freshman Emily Steinberg finished first in the girls 3200 meter run by more than one minute, posting a time of 11:07.37. It was only the second 3200 meter race of her high school career (the first was the Coatesville Invitational).
“I just tried to run consistently today,” said Steinberg.
Also for D-East, Madison Brown won the girls’ 800 meter run (2:20.00), finishing nearly five seconds ahead of the runnerup.
“I tried to stick to my motto of, ‘Be comfortable with being uncomfortable, and finish on empty,’” said Brown, who finished first in the girls 1600 meter race in the opening day (April 6) of the two-day meet.
D-East’s Brendan Flynn was first in the boys 3200 meter run (9:39.34).
“I was running this race for my cousin Flynn Sullivan, who passed away a year ago today and used to run cross country (in Rhode Island),” said Flynn, who will be competing at track and cross country at Penn State starting this fall.
Coatesville won the boys 4×400 relay with a quartet of Tommy Silvester, Robert Turner, Dave Kelly and Jabari Stocker (3:27.16), narrowly defeating host Avon Grove. Lebron Bessick won the boys 200 meter run (21.63) and Faith Stewart won the girls pole vault (8-0).
West Chester East runner Chinonye Moneme won the girls 200 meter run (25.55), and the Vikings’ Matthew Bergin won the boys high jump (6-2).
For West Chester Henderson, Logan Krapf won the boys javelin (161-7) and Chase Parkinson won the boys triple jump (42-3.5).
For Downingtown West, Jillian Gatland won the girls triple jump (34-9.25). D-West coach Scott Burns noted that the Whippets’ sprinters did well Wednesday. In the boys 200 meter race, Deonsae Dorsey finished second (22.53) behind Coatesville’s Lebron Bessick (21.63), and Whippet teammate Elijah Ford placed third (22.59). In the girls 200 meter race, D-West’s Ryleigh Hearn placed second (25.70) and the Whippets’ Jada Alston was fourth,