PA mixed it up with NJ on Wednesday.
The Lawrenceville School's Lavino Fieldhouse hosted its second meet of the season with the 14th Ed Poreda Invitational. On the four lane banks, we saw some solid races turned in.
To start the meet off, Pennsbury's Dasia Pressley put down the state's top time in the 55 meters, winning in a 7.09 to win handily. On the boys side, Coatesville's Terrence Laird won the 55 dash in 6.54, a PA#5. Archbishop Ryan's Monte Guess then took the 55 hurdles in a 7.50, only trailing Upper Darby's Mason Weh in the state in that event.
In the boys DMR, there was a nice battle between Eastern Regional (NJ) and Neshaminy. Neshaminy's Rusty Kujdych caught Eastern Regional's anchor leg early on, but he came back to steal the win. Neshaminy's time ties West Chester Henderson's PA#5 10:42.64.
Pennsbury took the girls DMR in 12:38, a PA#5. The team consisted on Mary Webb, Maddie Sauer, Meri Twomey, and Hannah Molloy. In the 4x800, the Falcons swapped out Webb for Olivia Sargent, who anchored Pennsbury to a PA#2 9:39.26. Sargent ran down the fourth leg from Union Catholic and out-kicked her down the stretch for the win. UC was second in 9:40.29.
The boys 4x800 turned out to be one of the night's most exciting races (video coming soon). Central Bucks West team of Carter Zerweck, Jake Claricurzio, Alec Hofer, and Rock Fortna ran a PA#2 8:02 to outlast Union Catholic. The Bucks anchor Fortna, who ran the open mile earlier, and Union Catholic's anchor dueled it out on the final few laps. Fortna won the battle, splitting a 1:57. Watch the interview with the Bucks, minus Claricurzio below:
In the mile, Jake Brophy made his open return to the track scene. The CB East senior ran a DMR a few weeks back at Lawrenceville, and jumped in the mile and 4x800 tonight. The field sat on Brophy from the gun, and he took the wire-to-wire win in a 4:22.89, which puts him at PA#4. Fortna was second in PA#6 4:24.34. Brophy spoke with us afterwards:
The Germantown Friends girls finished second in the SMR in a new state-leading time of 4:11. Sarah Walker, a few weeks removed from her win at the Yale Track Classic, anchored the team, splitting a 2:12. Their time is also a US#7. Three-quarters of that team spoke with us after the meet.
In the girls' 4x200, there was a great race between two Suburban One League squads, Central Bucks East and Pennsbury. CB East won the drag race to the finish in a 1:46.08. Pennsbury was just .01 back at 1:46.09 for second place in what of the most exciting races of the meet.
In the triple jump, Bensalem's Caleb Appiah-Owusu took the win in a new PA#2 44-10, a nice PR for him. Dondre Pittman of Coatesville won the high jump at 6-4, but he nearly tied the current PA#1, just missing from 6-6.
Morgan Duncan of CB East finished third in the girls' triple jump in a PA#7 36-0.