Fast 1600s all over the place!
Alison Willingmyre of Wilson ran a PA#1 over 1600 meters at Hempfield on Saturday (Photo by Don Rich)
This was the weekend of the 1600 for the PA girls. Counting Mady Clahane's 5:08 in a dual meet earlier in the week, 11 out of the 12 top 1600 spots in the state are new! The fastest 1600 of the day came out of Hempfield, as Wilson's Alison Willingmyre ran a state leading 5:03.23 for the win. That's just off Willingmyre's PR from Henderson last year. Then there was a hot heat at the Jim Kelly Invitational at Hatboro-Horsham. We had huge PRs all around. North Penn's Phoebe Clowser took the win and a new PA#2 with a 5:03.62. Meanwhile, giant personal bests came from Hatboro's Nicole Neborg and Abington's Kelly Jawork. Neborg is now PA#9, while Jawork is PA#12.
At the TSTCA Outdoor Championships, Vincentian Academy's Marianne Abdalah took the win in a PA#3 5:04.21. Oakland Catholic's Lauren Finikiotis was second in a PA#8 5:08.98. Dallas' Ally Rome took to Perkiomen Valley's Viking Invitational to win and run a 5:05.15, good enough for PA#4. At her home invite, Chambersburg's Abby Yourkavitch continued her great start to her outdoor season, winning the 1600 in a PA#5 5:06.35. The indoor mile champion Gabrielle Wilkinson of Friends' Central made her invite debut. She ran a PA#10 in the 1600 of 5:10.01 for the win at Villa Maria's Hurricane Classic. But that wasn't her most impressive result of the day. She doubled back to win the 3200 meters in a new PA#1 of 10:45.47.