NBNi 2013: 21 PA all-Americans, 2 5k indoor all times and two more top three AT marks

New Balance Indoor Nationals

Jody Ann Evans of Quakertown won her semifinal heat in the 60 meter dash in 7.52 to advance to the finals! Evans would finish 5th in the finals with a time of 7.52, earning her first All American honor! That marked the first time this season that Evans did not finish 1st in a 60 meter dash this season. Kayla Coley of Cheltenham finished 9th in the 60 meter hurdles semifinals in 8.72, just .03 seconds from the finals.

Pennridge girls finished 4th in the 4x200 meter relay final with a time of 1:41.46. Taylor Chapman led off for Pennridge followed by Ariana Przybylowski who kept the team in 4th. Lindsay Sheehan ran the 3rd leg and Natalia Pinkney sealed the 4th place finish.

Norristown boys also finished 4th in the 4x200 meter relay final in 1:29.28, their 5th consecutive 1:29 performance this indoor season. Joe Smith led off and handed off to Mike Brown who handed off to Andrew Dillon who set up Tyrone Leach to finish off and nearly snag 3rd place at the end.

Pennsbury finished 6th in the same race with a time of 1:30.07. Francis Jajua led off in lane 1 and handed off to Anthony Bullaro. Bullaro handed off to Montel Johnson-Troupe who set up Charles Snorweah to seal an All American place.

 

 

 

 

Sara Sargent of Pennsbury (4:52.14) and Kennedy Weisner of Elk County Catholic (4:52.95) finished 4th and 6th in the mile to earn All American certificates! Sargent and Weisner ran in a pack that was well behind the meet record pace that was set, but both had big challenges against some of the nation's best. Weisner led Sargent throughout the race until Sargent went for it all in the final lap with Weisner doing the same. Sargent finished strong while Weisner held on at the very end to clinch her first nationals medal.

 

 

 

 

Jimmy Brooks of Wilson finished 4th in the 400 meter dash with a lifetime best performance of 48.12 to win the 1st heat of a 2 heat final. Brooks made a big move in the 2nd lap and passed 3 people before the final turn to seal the win.

Pennridge boys finished 2nd in the 4x400 meter relay with a tme of 3:17.10, the 3rd fastest 4x400 in PA history behind Abington in 2011 and Penn Wood in 2012. Pennridge stayed in 2nd throughout the relay trying to chase champions Union Catholic. Joseph Logue led off the relay and handed off to John Kim who set up Michael Class in 2nd place and kept it. Nick Stenderowicz made two strong efforts to close the gap but was unable to stop Union Catholic from winning their 3rd relay of the weekend. Stenderowicz split under 48 seconds for the first time indoors.

Swenson girls finised 7th in the 4x400 meter relay in 3:53.54 out of the morning heats. Tichina Rhodes went from 5th to 1st in the 3rd leg to set up Imani Harris Quillen to win the heat. Markeeta Thomas and Amy Hicks ran the 1st two legs.

 

Ben Ritz of Germantown Academy finished 9th in the mile winning his heat in a state leading time of 4:14.67.

Jody Ann Evans of Quakertown won the first heat of the 60 meter dash prelims and tied for the 3rd fastest time of the day with a time of 7.57! Taylor Williams of Hatboro Horsham had the 10th fastest time and advanced to the semifinals with Evans in 7.65. Kayla Coley won her heat in the 60 meter hurdles in 8.85 to earn an automatic qualifying spot in the semifinals. Her teammate Ciara Leonard (8.96) and both Amy Hicks (8.92) and Markeeta Thomas (8.07) of Swenson also advanced to the semifinals. Pennridge won the first heat of the 4x200 meter relay in 1:40.84 and that was 4th best on the day and earned them a trip to the national final! In the 4x1 mile relay, PA came away with two All American teams with Unionville finishing in 3rd place in 20:48. The squad split 5:22 (Bridgette Zerbe), 5:08 (Emily Fisher), 5:18 (Anne Birkenmaier) and 4:59 (Courtney Smith)!

Germantown Friends cruised in the first heat and managed to snag the 5th All American place in 20:57. Splits were 5:22.1 (Bridgit Anderson), 5:22.5 (Caitlin Harrity), 5:12.4 (Sarah Walker) and 5:00.7 (Eliza Lukens-Day)! Brooklynn Broadwater of Springside finished 4th in the freshmen 400 meter dash in 57.93.

To cap off the night, Great Valley girls made up for a tough run in the distance medley relay to finish 5th in the 4x800 meter relay with a 3rd fastest time ever in PA 9:09.15! Great Valley hovered around the back end of the All American places but never lost sight of them and improved on their state winning time by 10 seconds. Splits were 2:15.6 (Crosby Spiess), 2:17.9 (Sarah Kochinsky), 2:19.3 (Anna Willig) and 2:16.4 (Elise Claffey).

Halfway through the final leg, Russell took the lead and held it all the way to the final straightaway when CBA made the final move to win the title. Henderson finished 2nd (17:23.43) while Cardinal O'Hara finished 3rd (17:25.28). Henderson split 4:27 (AJ Chaborek), 4:20.6 (Reiny Barchet), 4:24 (Seamus Collins) and 4:11.5 (Tony Russell). O'Hara split 4:21.8 (Kevin James), 4:22.9 (Ernie Pitone), 4:20.1 (Dan Savage) and 4:21.1 (Jim Belfatto).

FRIDAY

Cyre Virgo went capped off a phenomenal two week stretch with her first national championship, winning the high jump with a US#1 mark of 5-11.25!!! She defeated defending champion Kendall Williams to win the title! She cleared her first four heights on her 1st attempt and won the title on her final attempt. Megan McCloskey of Germantown Academy cleared 5-5.25 to tie for 5th and earn her 1st indoor All American honor!

PA had two medaling distance medley relay sqauds, with Cardinal O'Hara finishing 4th in the boys DMR (10:13.13) and West Chester Henderson finished 5th in the girls race (12:03.65). O'Hara kept themselves in the thick of the race, leading during the first leg and staying in the top six throughout the race. Kevin James led off while Jim Belfatto, Ray Harris and Dan Savage maintained their positioning. Relay splits were 3:08.4 (James), 51.8 (Boyle), 1:56.1 (Belfatto), 4:16.6 (Savage).

The Henderson girls started with a solid lead with Natalie Deacon running 3:36 on her leadoff leg to ultimately put her team in 2nd place. Stephanie Aldrich was the anchor and brought them from out of the All American place into the top five with a 4:55 split, a lifetime best. Relay splits were 3:36.5 (Deacon), 63.7 (Sherry), 2:27.3 (Elmore), 4:55.6 (Aldrich).

In the 5000 meter run, Max Norris came within striking distance of winning a national championship only to be passed in the final 50 meters and had to settle for a silver medal in 14:55.41. The race started out on the conservative side until the lead pack dropped to four with Max featured in the group. Max made several surges to stay in 2nd or even to take the lead and he made his final surge in the final 300 meters of the race. Elijah Anderson from Idaho stayed in touched and passed him in the final 50 meters to take home the title.

Tessa Barrett of Abington Heights finished in 4th place in her 5000 meter run with a time of 16:42.99, which was faster than what the national record was prior to 2011. Barrett looked comfortable throughout the race, going through the first 1600 meters in 5:16, just a few seconds off the 5:12 she went through on the way to her 3000 meter state record. Her and the 3rd place finisher ran most of the race together which helped lead her to such a great performance to cap off a huge 2012-13 indoor season!

Emerging Elite