District 1 Girls Track: Radnor’s Henkel earns silver medal in ‘slower’ heat

CALN TWP. — Radnor’s Lucy Henkel was thrown a curve shortly before the Class 3A 1,600-meter run got under way Friday at the District 1 Track & Field Championships.

She thought she was running in the second, or faster, of the two heats. Instead, she found out about two minutes before she took the track that she was in the first heat. Not exactly the kind of news an athlete wants to hear moments before she is to run just the second metric mile of her career.

“I kind of had to roll with it,” Henkel said. “I still did what I came here to do, which was to make states.”

Henkel won her heat in a Radnor school-record time of five minutes, 1.97 seconds. She pretty much led from start to finish. The tough part was waiting around to find out where she’d place … which turned out to be second overall. That automatically earned her a trip to Shippensburg next weekend for the PIAA state championship meet, and earned a huge roar from her Raptors teammates as she received her silver medal.

“They’re great,” Henkel said. “They’re always behind me.”

Henkel wasn’t the only Raptor to come home with a medal. Sophomore Sophia Hill was fourth in the pole vault. Her best was 11-6, a good height on a windy day.

“It was really hard,” Hill said of the wind. “I just kept watching my time. You have a certain amount of time (to vault) and I had to be aware of that and then go the minute the wind dropped even a little bit.”

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Injuries and the coronavirus pandemic prevented Haverford’s Sydney Jones from having a full season in track until this year.

The 6-2 sophomore who also is an outsider hitter on the Fords’ volleyball team has made the most of that opportunity.

Jones jumped a career-best 5-5 to take second place in the Class 3A high jump and earn her first trip to Shippensburg.

“I’m very excited about that,” Jones sasid.

She missed on all three of her attempts at 5-7, which would have equaled the county record that is shared by Upper Darby’s Claudine Andre, Penncrest’s Caitlin Redding and Springfield’s Susan Gaines. She intends to break that and thensome.

“One of my goals is to jump 6-0,” Jones said.

Teammate Olivia Cieslak is also headed for the state meet. She finished second in the 1,600 in a time of 5:03.01.

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Penncrest freshman Ruby Schwelm came away with a pair of medals. She was fourth in the 1,600 (5:09.00) and anchored the team of Hannah Puckett, Kelsie Robinson and Julia Scholtz to second in the 4 x 800.

Strath Haven also advanced in the 4 x 800. Hannah Puckett, Rowe Crawford, Audrey Stevens and Nora Chen took seventh but earned a state berth with a time of 9:21.49. Also for the Panthers, Annalise Kuhn was seventh in the pole vault (10-0) and Hannah Spielman took eighth in the discus (108-5).

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Delco Christian has a 19-point lead on Dock Mennonite (50-31) in the race for the Class 2A team title thanks to victories from Ella Hines, Evezi Omuyeh and Sahdahya Addy.

Hines needed a late kick to hold off Sacred Heart’s Makenzie Fisher in the 1,600. Fisher briefly took the lead with about 50 meters to go.

“She was just fast so I decided to go with her,” Fisher said.

Hines, though, was able to retake the lead and pull out the victory in 5:53.08, just ahead of Fisher, who crossed the finish line in 5:53.33.

“I was scared,” Hines said of Fisher’s late push. “She was going pretty quick. I was kind of out of it for a second and then I got back into it and ran as fast as I could.”

Earlier in the day, Omuyeh won the shot put (31-9) and later than afternoon Addy captured the long jump (17-8). They weren’t the only Knights to put up points. Gabrielle Watson, Ella Clipston, Liza Lee and Bethany Jacox took second in the 4 x 800 (11:05.66). Lee also was sixth in the 1,600. Mikayah Kay (15-3½) and Hallie Kees (14-1½) were fourth and sixth, respectively, in the long jump.

Also in Class 2A, Maiah Madison of Chester Charter Scholars Academy was sixth in the shot put (27-9).