Girls' Recap - Carlisle Invitational
Challenge Race
Nothing has been stopping Taryn Parks this season. Not even a pop-up river crossing at Carlisle on Saturday. The Greencastle-Antrim junior won her fourth race of the season and dipped under 18 minutes for the first time in her career.
It was an interesting race on a number of levels. Oakland Catholic's Hannah Schupansky took the race out very hard, opening up a big early gap on Parks. But Schupansky came back to the field, as West Chester Henderson's Jenna Mulhern, a freshman in her first invite 5K seized the lead. Parks took a spill in the water crossing, but recovered nicely.
In the home stretch, it was the veteran Parks who kicked to the win, running 17:59 to edge out Mulhern, who clocked an impressive 18:00. West Chester East's Allyson Clarke was third in 18:13, following up her strong Briarwood win from two weeks ago (also a big PR!). Schupansky came home fourth in 18:23.
The top non-PA girl in the field was Padua Academy (DE)'s Elizabeth Bader (fifth in 18:26), followed by Cedar Crest's Gwyneth Young (sixth in 18:33) and Dallastown's Emily Schuler (seventh in 18:43)
The team race went to US#19 Blacksburg (VA), which put three girls in the top 13 to score1 32 points. The statement, though, from a PA perspective came from the West Chester Henderson girls. Led by Mulhern's single point, Henderson scored 148 points for second place. Courtney Alexander was second across for the Warriors, taking 15th in 19:04.
Padua Academy (DE) was third with 197 points and Millbrook (VA) was fourth with 203 points. State College Area took fifth with 221 points, followed by University High (WV) and then Oakland Catholic.
Champions Race
The Cornwall (NY) put forth a great performance in the Champions Race. paced by eighth grader Karrie Baloga, Cornwall picked up the team title with 57 points. In all, the NY squad put four girls in the top ten. Baloga went 19:02 for the individual title.
The Central Cambria girls kept up their strong season taking second place as a team. Freshman Stella Kuntz was impressive, once again, placing second in 19:07. Paige Wess was sixth in 19:40, coming across second for the Red Devils.
Other strong performances were turned in by Cedar Cliff's Corinne Firestone (fourth in 19:34) and Upper Dublin's Elaina O'Toole (fifth in 19:37).