The Cheltenham girls’ track and field team captured the District One AAA title, one of many SOL teams to put on a strong showing. To view photos of the meet, please visit the Photo Gallery.
By Dave Conard, Special to Suburban One Sports
CALN—Pennridge sophomore Marissa Sheva knew she would have her work cut out for herself in the 1600-meter run Saturday at the PIAA District One Championships held at Coatesville.
After all, during the qualifying heat, she finished more than 10 seconds behind Pennsbury distance phenom Sara Sargent (4:59.25) with a time of 5:10.54, placing her in the second slot to take the gun in the final.
Much to Sheva’s surprise, along with just about every coach up and down the sideline, when the starter pistol fired, she found herself taking the first turn in front of the pack as Sargent had been scratched from the race.
“I was pretty surprised and looking all over for her,” said Sheva. “Then as we got to the line, we heard that she had scratched. I got out to a pretty good start and made my pace on that first lap.
“The second time around my hamstring started to tighten up a bit. I pushed it pretty hard in my 400 heat, so when I saw that I wasn’t probably going to make the time I wanted, I just ran to win this race and didn’t really worry about times.”
Sheva cruised to a first place finishing time of 4:57.12 shaving nearly 14 seconds off of her preliminary time despite battling the muscle flair-up and a hard charge from Unionville sophomore Olivia Young (5:01.80) and older sister Caitlyn Sheva (5:07.28).
“I am very excited about states next week, and I am sure I will have to run my best race out there,” Sheva said. “Hopefully, I’ll get to rest a little bit this week. I have been training pretty hard.”
Another tired pair of legs on Saturday belonged to Cheltenham senior Kayla Coley, as the speedster collected gold medals in both the 100 meter and 300 meter hurdles, while finishing ninth in the long jump with a distance of 17 feet, three inches. She qualified for states in all three events.
“I have to be honest, I am a little tired and glad I’m done for the day,” said Coley. “It’s so great that we have so many girls going to states next week. Our relay did great and I can’t wait to improve on last year out there,”
“My favorite event is the 300 hurdles,” added Coley. “In the 100-meters, there is so much pressure because you can’t make the smallest mistake. In the 300, if you miss a step, you have time to recover. I like to be able to lay out my race and plan where I make my moves.”
Sparked by Coley’s medal haul and the efforts of teammates like sophomore Ciara Leonard, who was edged out at the wire by Coley in the 100-meter hurdles, posting a time of 14:39 compared to the senior’s finish of 14:38, the Panthers claimed the District One overall team championship.
“It was great to have three of us in the finals,” said Leonard. “But it does make it tough to go up against each other like that. I am very happy we are going to states together.”
The Lady Panthers (47.72) edged Pennridge (47.75) to capture gold in the 4x100 relay.
Quakertown senior Jody-Ann Evans had a big day as well, picking up a pair of golds with first place finishes in the 100-meter dash (11.75) and the 200-meter dash (24.28). She will be competing in states in both events.
Continuing what is quickly becoming a District One tradition, again it was a Suburban One League squad snatching the most coveted prize of the day, the 4 x 400 first place honors.
After watching Pennridge set the pace early, it was Central Bucks West that took over the race during the second circuit to dominate the event, cruising to a 3:47.62 time and finishing four seconds ahead of a rallying Penn Wood quartet that finished at 3:51.44.
Of the eight squads competing in the final, all but one qualified for next week’s state meet to be held at Shippensburg University with fourth place Central Bucks East (3:55.09), sixth place Central Bucks South (3:55.87) and seventh place finisher Pennsbury (3:57.63) all meeting the standard.
Central Bucks South junior Taylor Hojnacki fought her way through a tough field in girls’ AAA shot put, launching a throw of 40 feet, 6 ½ inches to win the district championship ahead of runner-up Macey Tanseco (Perkiomen Valley) 40-01.00 and bronze medal winner Tyra Roberts from Bensalem High School (40-00.75).
Hojnacki was also the only competitor in the entire district to qualify for the state championship meet in discus, obliterating the field with a toss of 135 feet, 5 inches, which was more than 18 feet further then second place Rachel Vresilovic (Strath Haven) 116-08.00.
“I never expected to be the only one to qualify for states,” said Hojnacki. “The District is so competitive, and there are so many very strong girls. I felt pretty good today and was overall very happy. To come here and win two district titles is pretty cool.”
West teammate Cait Mautz was golden in the javelin with a throw of 144-07.00.
Abington freshman Sammy Lochner captured silver in the high jump (5-04.00), edging Council Rock South sophomore Shannon Taub and Abington sophomore Victoria Matthews, both of whom also cleared 5-04.00.
Council Rock South senior Amanda Benninghoff easily won the pole vault with a vault of 12-03.50. Pennridge sophomore Ariana Przybylowski won silver in the long jump (18-01.25).
North Penn senior Sydnee Jacques (37-09.00) edged Pennsbury sophomore Uchechi Onouha (37-04.25) to capture first place in the triple jump.
West junior Jamila Branch (55.97) and Pennsbury sophomore Nini Rogers (56.07) finished second and third in the 400-meter dash and qualified for states. Souderton senior Emily Dusellier (2:14.09) was the top SOL finisher in the 800-meter run, finishing fourth and qualifying for states.
Team Rankings (Top 10)
1. Cheltenham (60.50)
2. Pennridge (48)
3. Central Bucks South (43)
4. Unionville (39)
5. Strath Haven (32)
5. Central Bucks West (32)
7. North Penn (31)
8. Owen J. Roberts (30)
8. Pennsbury (30)
10. Upper Darby (28)
For complete meet results and state standards click at http://district-one.net/track_girls.asp
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