Penn Relays: Penncrest makes the most of surprise opportunity

PHILADELPHIA — It was an unexpectedly busy day for Penncrest’s Kelsie Robinson, Ruby Schwelm and Julia Scholtz.

The trio ran a pair of relays in the span of about an hour Friday afternoon at the 126th Penn Relays.

First, Robinson, Schwelm and Scholtz teamed up with Hannah Puckett for a ninth-place finish in the girls 4 x 800-meter Championship of America. About an hour later Robinson, Schwelm, Scholtz and Zoe Clark were last-second replacements in the Philadelphia area 4 x 400 championship. They placed eighth in that race.

“Everyone was on the line and we asked if we were in and they said yeah,” Scholtz said. “We got up there and the race started. We’re exhausted but we had a lot of fun.”

The Lions ran 9:32.47 in the 4 x 800 and 4:03.41 in the 4 x 400. It was only the second time Robinson, Schwelm, Scholtz and Puckett ran together in the 4 x 8. The first time came in Thursday’s qualifying round, when the group ran 9:30.76.

“I thought we ran well,” said Schwelm, the 2021 Daily Times Runner of the Year in cross country.

“We definitely could have run better,” Robinson said. “We were trying to break the school record (9:25.00 set in 1996).”

Schwelm, Robinson, Puckett and Scholtz will have a chance to break that mark in the coming weeks. The Penn Relays are the start of the championship season, with Delcos next week, followed by the Central League championships, District 1 championships and, potentially, the PIAA championships.

“The main goal was to have fun, and we did,” Puckett said. “It was such a cool experience.”

Haverford (Olivia Cieslak, Erin Olsavsky, Aubrey Leneweaver, Morgan Elliott) topped a large Delco contingent in the Philadelphia area 4 x 400. The Fords were fourth overall in 3:56.27. That was nearly a second better than they ran in the qualifying round on Thursday.

Ridley (Sydney Kusner, Adira Kitzinger, Jarae Fontaine, Emma Winward) took sixth in 4:01.27. Chester (A’lasia Mosley, Alina LaForest, Daleeh Alexander, Janaisa Dearry) placed ninth in 4:03.55.

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A little hiccup with warmups didn’t prevent Haverford’s Gabriel Zwilling, Ethan Fingerhut, Quentin Ryan and Patrick Lawson from qualifying for the Championship of American in the boys 4 x 800-meter relay.

The group was warming up outside of Franklin Field but had a little trouble getting back into the stadium because they did not have the cards athletes need to get into the facility. Once they finagled their way back inside, they weren’t allowed to warmup in the infield.

“Yeah, security was pretty crazy,” Lawson said.

Running in the fast heat, the Fords turned in the third-fastest time in the preliminary round (7:58.61) and the best of any Pennsylvania team, to qualify. Only Jamaica College and West Springfield (Va.) ran faster in trials.

“Making the Championship of America is a dream,” Zwilling said.

Penncrest (Brendan Hefferan, Kadin Salaria, Ben Holst-Rightley, Rory McAfee) also made the final. The Lions were fourth in their heat in 8:04.18. The Championship of America race is scheduled to start at 4:50 Saturday afternoon.

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For the second time in less than a week and the third time this season, Episcopal Academy’s Avery Elliott, Cami Beaulieu, Mia Garber and Saige Forbes broke the school record in the 4 x 100. The Churchwomen finished fourth in the National 4 x 100-meter final in 49.11, breaking the 49.41 set last week at the Kellerman Invitational.

“We were pumped,” Garber said. “Running down here was such an adrenaline rush.”

And they’re not done. The next goal is to break 49 seconds.

“We’re going to try,” Beaulieu said.

The girls weren’t the only EA team to break a school record. Sean Jones, Neo Vossschulte, Chris Purnell and Mekhi Rodgers broke the school mark in the 4 x 100 to qualify for Saturday’s Northeast final. The foursome ran 42.80 to break the mark of 42.92 that the quartet set at Kellerman.

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Michael Woolery’s goal in the boys Championship of America mile run was to go under 4:10.

The Episcopal Academy sophomore didn’t hit his mark. He placed 12th in 4:30.92.

“The race went out too fast,” Woolery said. “I wasn’t ready for it.”

That wasn’t a surprise, considering who was entered. Archbishop Wood senior Gary Martin, the defending PIAA champ in the 1,600 and 3,200 and the state indoor champ in the mile, was trying to become the first high school boy to break the four-minute mark at the relays.

Martin didn’t achieve that goal, but he did shatter the meet record with a time of 4:01.04. The previous mark was 4:04.47 by Sean McGorty of Chantilly (Va.) in 2013.

“It was a great experience,” Woolery said. “It was a fantastic field There were so many great runners here. It was great to run down here.”

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Patrick Donaher of the Haverford School was ninth in the shot put (53- ¼). It’s the sixth time Donaher has been over 53 feet this season.