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Highlighting the 1st two weekends of June... Easton junior Chanelle Price ran 2:04.24 (first reported as sub-2:04) to win the open 800 at the 2nd Annual Island Games in NY vs. an elite field. It was Paul Springer (left in PTXC photo) in a rabbited mile at the 2nd West Chester Henderson Distance Festival on a hot, humid evening. The race was loaded, and boasted a rabbits for the 1/2 and the 3/4. Springer went :60, 2:01 and 3:04 before a 28 first 200 caught up to him, splitting 67 for a 4:11.17. Results and a photo gallery of each race are posted. Also this weekend, the journey to the USATF Junior Olympics begins with the regional qualifiers for the Mid-Atlantic region. At the 2nd MileStat Track Gala in Virginia, Cumberland Valley junior Juan Steward finished 6th in the 200, going 21.81, his 3rd best ever. Boiling Springs junior Anna Bixler took 4th in the 400 hurdles and 8th in the 100 hurdles. And PA athletes have made the journey to the Golden West Invitational in California. Winning performances at NCAA Division I Outdoor Champs by Nicole Leach and Justin Ryncavage, plus other top performances by PA high school grads. At Sunday's Golden West Invitational in California, Cardinal O'Hara junior Ed Buck was 8th in 4:20.50 in the seeded mile, while Bishop Shanahan junior Chris Bodary was 13th in 4:24.83. Bloomsburg soph Fallon Heddings took 8th in the triple jump, leaping 36-09.50. In the discus, Coughlin senior Erik Kemmerer took 10th with a throw of 150-07. Last weekend at the Eastern States Championships @ Iona Prep in New York, Cardinal O'Hara's Jason Johnson leapt 45-02.5 to win the triple jump. The O'Hara boys were 2nd in the 4x200 in 1:30.72. For the PA girls, it was Archbishop Prendergast 2nd in the 4x1600 in 21:03.00. Prendie's Caitlin Chambers ran 2:21.36 to capture 4th in the 800.
6/3 Eastern States @ Iona Prep, New Rochelle, NY
Cardinal O'Hara's Jason Johnson leapt 45-02.5 to win the triple jump. The O'Hara boys were 2nd in the 4x200 in 1:30.72. For the PA girls, it was Archbishop Prendergast 2nd in the 4x1600 in 21:03.00. Prendie's Caitlin Chambers ran 2:21.36 to capture 4th in the 800.
6/6-9/07 NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships
UCLA's Nicole Leach 54.32 400H, Justin Ryncavage 241-05 Jav NCAA Champions!
Nicole Leach, the 2005 West Catholic grad who is now a sophomore at UCLA, showed patience, poise and power as she maintained momentum through the middle part of the race in the 400 hurdles at NCAA Division I Champs - then pulled away over the homstretch for her 2nd PR in two weeks, posting a 54.32, one of the fastest times in the world this year. Leach also anchored the 4th place UCLA Bruins to a 4th place 3:30.46 in the 4x400, behind winning LSU, who got a strong 3rd leg from her fellow West Catholic grad Latavia Thomas. Their winning time was 3:28.07.
Coughlin grad Justin Ryncavage, a North Carolina senior, won the javelin with a throw of 241-05. LSU sophomore Chad Radgowski (South Park HS), was 6th at 225-11. Also earning all-American certificates were Arizona State (redshirt freshman) Ryan Whiting (Central Dauphin), 4th in the shot put with a throw of 63-07, and Justin Clickett of Virginia Tech (Union City Area HS), 6th with a throw of 62-08.50. Abington HS grad Cowin Mills, ran the 3rd leg for Clemson, which took 7th in the 4x100 in 40.07.
6/08 2nd Annual Pennsylvania Distance Festival @ West Chester Henderson HS
By DENNY DYROFF
Staff Writer, Daily Local News (West Chester)
WEST GOSHEN – The most exciting finish at Friday night’s Second Annual Pennsylvania Distance Classic happened in the women’s mile run. The race was a battle between West Chester Henderson’s Carly Hamond (in PTXC photo) and Boiling Springs’ Kara Millhouse (in PTXC photo below).
Hamond, who was runnerup in the Class AAA 3,200 at this year’s PIAA Championships, crossed first with a time of 5:02.14 while Millhouse, who was state gold medalist last year and state bronze medalist this year in the Class AA 3,200, took the silver medal with a clocking of 5:02.83.
The Henderson junior got out to a good start in the race which also included male runners while Millhouse got boxed in at the start and was in last place at the first turn.
At the 800, Hamond had a comfortable 40-meter lead.
“It was really unusual for me to run with boys,” said Millhouse. “I got boxed in a couple times. I picked it up a lot on the third lap. I felt good so I decided to go.”
Millhouse gradually closed the gap and was within 10 meters coming down the final stretch. But, Hamond stayed strong all the way through the finish.
“I’m not happy with tonight’s race,” said Hamond. “I planned to break five minutes at states but it didn’t happen. I thought I’d be able to get it tonight. Running with boys wasn’t a problem. I got boxed in a few times but it was nothing I hadn’t seen in girls races.”
For Millhouse, the race at Henderson’s J. Oscar Dicks Stadium produced her second-fastest time ever.
“I got my best time ever in the mile here at this meet last year,” said Millhouse, one of the Bubblers’ all-time best distance runners. “I did a 4:59 last year – but it was a little cooler.”
The most exciting half-race occurred in the mens mile. A pair of Kenyan “rabbits” were put in the race to set the pace for Unionville’s Paul Springer – for the first half-mile. And, that’s just what Phillip Koech and Benson Cheruiyot did. They paced Springer to a 800-meter time of 2:01 and then dropped out of the race.
Springer was all alone for the last half of the race. He pushed and was at 3:05 at the 1,200 mark. His final time was 4:11.17.
“That was a lot slower than what I wanted,” said Springer. “I was trying to go 4:02. The 800 was the time I wanted and the 1,200 was still decent. On the last lap, the heat was getting to me.”
The heat also had an effect on Devon Prep’s Matt Norwood, who took first in the 5,000 with a time of 16:35.
“I was a little worried about the heat,” said Norwood, who is heading to the University of Pittsburgh in the fall. “I didn’t know what to expect. After the first mile, the heat was getting to me.”
In the 3,000 event, Media’s Greg Watson captured the gold medal on the mens side while Claire Duncan, who is a coach at Germantown Friends School, placed first in the womens race. The gold medalists in the 800 were Wissahickon’s Nick Crits and Germantown Friends School’s Jasia Kaulbach.
OTHER NOTABLE PREP PERFORMANCES:
Wissahickon's Nick Crits (1:54.58) closed strong over the final 150 to pass and beat Conestoga Valley's Vince McNally (1:55.65), Liberty's Trevor Van Ackeren (1:55.82), and Northern York's Mike Kimmel (1:55.87). Germantown Friends' Max Kaulbach took 2nd to Springer in the mile in 4:17.14, with Henderson's Chris Aldrich 3rd in 4:20.93 and Germantown Friends' Isaac Ortiz 4th in 4:24.06. Council Rock North grads John Mahoney and Keith Capecci were DNF in the 5000. Mahoney had been acting as a rabbit for Capecci, who tweaked a minor injury. Capecci will compete this coming year for Villanova University.
Photos below: Crits follows McNally at the 400. Kaulbach, Aldrich and Ortiz in the mile. Photos by PTXC.
ENTRIES
Mile
Men
Kenyan Rabbit-3:00-3:02
Chris Aldrich (Henderson)
Max Kaulbach (Germantown Friends)
Jake McKenzie (Germantown Friends)
Isaac Ortiz (Germantown Friends)
Andrew Rotz (Central Dauphin)
Paul Springer (Unionville)
Jason Weller (Boyertown) - Did not run
Women
Kathleen Davies (Saint Basil)
Carly Hamond (Henderson)
Jackie Merrick (Henderson) (Rabbit-3:42)
Kara Millhouse (Boiling Springs)
800m
Men
Rabbit-To be determined (55)
Dylan Isaacson (Penn Charter)
Vince McNally (Conestoga Valley)
Trevor VanAckeren (Liberty)
Tom Waterman (Germantown Friends freshman)
3000m
Mike Brodksy (Unionville 2006)
Eddie Einbender-Luks (Germantown Friends sophomore)
Fenn Hoffman (Germantown Friends)
Gus McKenzie (Germantown Friends)
Bill Moss
5000m
Keith Capecci (Council Rock North 2006)
John Mahoney (Council Rock North 2005)
Capecci and Mahoney are running the 5k with the intention of hitting the Junior Nationals Qualifying standard.
6/09 17th Annual Dayton Track Classic @ University of Dayton, OH
6/09 MileStat.com Elite Track Gala @ Sports Backers Stadium, Richmond, VA
Cumberland Valley junior Juan Steward finished 6th in the 200, going 21.81, his 3rd best ever. Boiling Springs junior Anna Bixler took 4th in the 400 hurdles in 1:07.80 and 8th in the 100 hurdles in 16.08.
REGISTERED
Juan Steward Unattached (Cumberland Valley) 21.60
Diana Filtz Unattached (Penn-Trafford) 18:42.00
Anna Bixler Unattached (Boiling Springs) 15.43
Anna Bixler Unattached (Boiling Springs) 46.02 400H
(in photo by John Herzog, MileStat.com)
6/09 USATF Delaware @ Christiana HS, Newark, DE
6/09-6/10 USATF National Masters Decathlon/Heptathlon Championships, Hoover, AL
6/09 USATF Northern @ Mansfield University of PA
6/09 USATF Philadelphia Area @ Widener University
6/09 USATF South Eastern @ Pottstown High School
6/09 USATF Southern New Jersey @ Willingboro High School, NJ
6/10 2nd Annual Island Games, Unioindale, NY
6/10 Golden West Invitational @ Folsom HS, CA
Cardinal O'Hara junior Ed Buck was 8th in 4:20.50 in the seeded mile, while Bishop Shanahan junior Chris Bodary was 13th in 4:24.83. Bloomsburg soph Fallon Heddings took 8th in the triple jump, leaping 36-09.50. In the discus, Coughlin senior Erik Kemmerer took 10th with a throw of 150-07.
