Penn Relays: Long wait still enjoyable for Haverford girls

PHILADELPHIA — After winning the Central League girls 4 x 400-meter relay Friday morning and qualifying for the Philadelphia Area race at the 127th Penn Relays Saturday, Haverford’s Olivia Cieslak, Aubrey Leneweaver, Riona O’Neill and Morgan Elliott found themselves with nearly six hours to kill.

The Central League race ended a little before noon. The Philadelphia Area race was not scheduled to begin until 5:45 p.m. That left them with a dilemma as what to do to pass the time. Cieslak went home but Leneweaver, O’Neill and Elliott found a unique place to relax and chill out before running again.

“We hung out in Ted Ruger’s office,” O’Neill said. “He’s the dean of Penn’s Law school.”

It’s nice to have connections.

“It was great,” O’Neill said. “It worked out well.”

Unfortunately, it did not help the Fords run any faster. After turning in a 3:54.93 earlier in the day Haverford ran 3:56.65 to finish fifth in the Philadelphia Area race.

“I had a worse start than I did this morning,” Cieslak said. “This was a bigger group and I got boxed in.”

Still, it was a good day for the Fords. The time they ran in the morning was the best by a Pennsylvania team this season and part of that was due to a strategy switch. Leneweaver was moved from the third to the second leg to give the Fords a little more speed and experience at the start of the race.

They have their sights set on the school record (3:51.53, set in 2008) and that’s not out of the realm of possibility. The Fords ran 3:53.15 to finish fourth at the PIAA Class 3A championships last season.

“This was a great experience,” Leneweaver said. “We ran well. I thought we represented our school very well.”

• • •

Penncrest’s Zoe Clark, Olivia Clark, Keeley Aiken and Hannah Puckett also found themselves with time to kill after finishing second to Haverford in the Central League 4 x 400. They ran 4:00.49, which put them in the first alternate position for the Philadelphia Area final.

They found out about an hour after the race that they would be running later in the day after Bonner & Prendergast, which won the Catholic League 4 x 4 in comeback fashion, decided to pull out of the Philadelphia Area race after qualifying for the event.

“We sat around and watched the other races,” Aiken said. “We sat up next to the Villanova people. It was a lot of fun and got us hyped up for our race.”

The Lions finished eighth in the Philadelphia Area race with a time of 4:00.40.

“We’re so close to running a sub-four,” Puckett said after the Central League race. “That was our goal coming in. This was so much fun competing against teams you know down here. Everyone’s rooting for each other. It’s like a family. Haverford is so good. It’s so much fun competing against them. Delcos should be a lot of fun.”

• • •

Chester’s Alasia Mosley, Damira Allen, Kelly Naylor and Janaisa Dearry also had a good day. They won the Suburban A 4 x 400 in 3:58.68. That’s their best time of the season and a top 10 time in the state, according to pa.milesplit.com. It also qualified them for the Philadelphia area race, where they were seventh in 4:00.24.

The Clippers topped Del Val rival Penn Wood (Iesha Mcfarline, Serena Cwan, Kelisa Beckett, Lumesha Mcfarline) for the title. The Patriots finished in 4:01.43.

“We came out here to do the best that we can,” Dearry said.

Naylor was more specific.

“We wanted to break four minutes,” Naylor said. “That was our goal and we did that.”

• • •

Bonner & Prendergast’s Tamasen Allen Bey was nearly four seconds behind Archbishop Wood’s Sofia Krawczyk when Allen Bey got the baton from teammate Allison O’Brien for the anchor leg of the Catholic League 4 x 400.

Allen Bey ended up winning by more than four seconds.

“I just ran my butt off,” Allen Bey said. “We had to do it for each other. We had to do it for us.”

Allen Bey ran a 1:00.15 anchor split to bring the baton home in 4:14.21. Cordelia Adenuga and Ryziah Womack ran the first two legs for the Pandas.

“This was fun,” O’Brien said.

• • •

Notre Dame (Therese Trainer, Rylee Barnhart, Caroline Cullen, Maura Brady) placed second in the Philadelphia Academic 4 x 400 in 4:08.80. Episcopal Academy (Avery Elliott, Kate Smith, Ryann Newcomb, Saige Forbes) finished second in 4:10.55.