UPPER DARBY — The first race Olivia Cieslak won Saturday afternoon was for the longest commute to Upper Darby.
Cieslak spent Friday night in New York, competing on Randalls Island. At New Balance’s Trials of Miles at Icahn Stadium, Cieslak won the girls 800 meters in 2:05.05 over a group of leading runners from across the region.
But instead of calling it a weekend, Cieslak wanted to be at the Delco Championships with her Haverford teammates. Her only event was the last lap of the meet, anchoring a Fords win in the 4 x 400 relay. What she really came for was to share in the quarter-mile victory lap with the trophy for a second straight Delcos title.
It’s the balance that Cieslak, the reigning Daily Times Girls Track and Cross Country Athlete of the Year, is balancing in her junior season.
“It’s definitely important to me, in my junior year, to make sure I get those individual races in,” she said. “But also coming out here for my team. We have such a great group of girls. Being able to do it for each other is really great.”
At Penn Relays, for instance, that meant scratching the Fords’ 4 x 400 relay so Cieslak could take a shot at the girls open mile, in which she finished sixth. Saturday, she made essentially the reverse decision, passing up the chance to defend county titles in the 800 and 1,600.
But Haverford was hardly helpless, in the final race or overall, without her. The Fords still collected 117 points, nearly double the counts from a knot of teams behind them. Episcopal Academy came out ahead of that group with 66 points to Chester’s 63 and 60 for Penncrest.
Cieslak made a difference on the relay, but not all by her lonesome. Riona O’Neill and Alyssa Bloxton had the Fords in second place behind Chester midway through. But the big move was made by freshman Ava Cavanaugh. The runner-up in the 400 blasted to the lead, and she handed off to Cieslak to open up the gap. The Fords came in in 3:55.31, Chester second in 4:00.06.
“Chester is a great team,” Cieslak said. “I knew they were going to be right there. I just wanted to give it my all, whatever place I got the baton in. Even if I got it in first, I knew they were going to be right on me, so I wanted to give it my all today.”
Bloxton was third in the 800. Camryn McGeehan and Ryan Dankanis finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 3,200. The Fords finished fourth in the 4 x 800 relay and got huge points with a pair of 2-3 results in the throws. Abigail DeFruscio led Abigail Crowley in the javelin and was third behind Lucy Filkin in the discus. Filkin was fifth in the shot put.
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Sophia Kurtis would be lying if she said she wasn’t looking for Cieslak’s name in the heat sheets.
Once Cieslak was confirmed as absent in the 800, it let the Springfield junior start to think. Maybe, if she ran a best time and showed over two and a quarter minutes what she’s been doing in training, she could augment the satisfaction of a job well done with a gold medal.
Kurtis made the most of the opportunity, going 2:16.81 and pulling away in the final 300 meters to distance the field by eight-tenths.
“It’s partially a relief because I know she’s incredibly fast and I know there’s so many great runners,” Kurtis said. “It’s good to know the other competition because I knew exactly going into the race, obviously everyone in it are great runners. But I knew how to look for and who could push me.”
Radnor’s Courtney Kearns was second. Kurtis was lying in wait early. She knew the tactics of the girls around her in an impressive field, with four of the top eight back from last year (Kearns was fourth, Kurtis fifth then).
Kurtis started Saturday by helping the Cougars win and set a school record in the 4 x 800. She teamed with Sarah Emch, Mikayla Corcoran and Mara Fallon.
That run gave her confidence for the individual event.
“It definitely works as a bit of a jolt in my legs to get myself ready,” Kurtis said. “And also, it’s kind of a different mindset going into the second 800 and knowing this is it, give it your all and I’m done with 800s for the day. Also having the first 800 be with a group of my teammates gave me a good mindset.”
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Thanks to the talented underclassmen last year, all eight individual track event at the girls side of the first combined Delco Championships had returning winners.
It was more daunting in the 3,200, though, for Radnor’s Zoe Margolies. In case the senior had forgotten, she was helpfully reminded by the public address announcer as she stepped to the line that last year’s event was won by the girl at her elbow, Camryn McGeehan of Haverford. Margolies finished third in that event, one of five returning medalists.
“It is a little scary,” Margolies admitted. “I was a little freaked out. But it’s more motivation to me. I know her and I know I can stay with her. I was hoping, like I think I can do this, I think I can outkick her, which I did.”
Margolies didn’t show any nerves. She stayed tacked on to McGeehan when the junior took to the front early, then started to distance her with a lap and a half left. Margolies, a Tufts signee, broke the tape in 11:04.66, nearly 10 seconds clear of Strath Haven’s Chloe Browne.
McGeehan finished fourth in in 11:18.32. Her meet record is 10:46.58.
“It’s my last year, so I think as a senior, I’ve been like, OK, it’s time to take risks,” Margolies said. “It’s time to go for it. And I really wanted to win because it’s my last year. It’s just me like, I can trust myself, I can do this.”
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Beyond Cieslak and McGeehan, the other returning winners from 2023 went 4-for-5. EA’s Saige Forbes repeated in the 100 in 12.12. She was edged out in the 200 by JaNasia Dearry of Chester by a tenth, Dearry going 25.10. Dearry retained her 400 crown in a comfortable 56.10.
The hurdles again belong to Damira Allen of Chester. Allen won the 100 in 15.23 and the 300 in 44.06.
“It’s pretty much the same,” the sophomore said. “Last year, it was more competitive going into it than this year. I didn’t run as fast as last year, but it was still good for the weather.”
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Temperance England came into Delcos hoping she could end up in the top three in her two throwing events. When she ended up winning both, the Notre Dame junior was thrilled.
England won Thursday’s shot put in 35-.5, seven inches ahead of teammate Chidera Madu. She took that confidence into Saturday, navigating slippery conditions to throw the discus 112 feet, winning by more than six feet.
“I did have to make sure nothing got to my head,” England said of the discus. “I needed to make sure I went into it the same way I did on Thursday. Just the same old, get a good one off.”
England waited and learned an immense amount as a sophomore. She was behind two states qualifiers, seniors Mollie Carpenter and Alexa Brown, in the discus and seventh in the shot put. Those two veterans offered lessons she continues with today.
“They taught me to take it slow,” England said, “and they gave me very good competition to learn from.”
