Girls State Recap: West Catholic Team Champs & 2 US Top 5 Relays|Schmidt MVP & US#4 800
West Catholic came in as the favorite to win the team championship and they left Penn State as the team champion. West Catholic scored 49 points on the way to victory with Notre Dame Academy finishing 2nd with 37 points, and Chester finishing 3rd with 24 points.
West Catholic’s title run started with a 1-2 finish in the 400 meters over Abington’s Leah Nugent. After a 25.7 opening 200, Nugent took the lead with 100 meters to go, only to have Chante Moore and Michelle Davis pass on the inside AND outside of her in the final 30 meters. Moore won the race with a US#3 time of 55.14, while Davis finished in a US#4 time of 55.17. In the 200, both Moore (24.79 T-US#16) and Davis (24.82 T-US#19) were 3rd and 4th respectively behind two time reigning 200 meter champion Rayiana Johnson of Chester (24.55 US#8) and Lydia Ali of Radnor (24.79 T-US#16). West Catholic would then go on win both sprint relays. West Catholic took the lead after the 2nd leg and went on to set a meet record in the 4x200 with a US#2 time of 1:40.01 and finished off the day winning the 4x400 meter relay. After a 55 second opening leg gave West Catholic the early lead, they would never relinquish it, winning in a US#3 time of 3:52.03.
Shanae Bailey slipped at the start of the 60 meter hurdle final, but managed to rebound and win the event over Plymouth Whitemarsh’s Emerald Walden 8.92-8.96. In the 60 meter dash, the top four places were separated by .05 seconds, with Tymerah Burgess winning the event in 7.66, with was .02 better than current state meet record holder Rayiana Johnson and Lydia Ali.
In the one mile run, after freshman Sara Sargent of Pennsbury led the field through a blazing pace (70.8 quarter, 2:27.1 half, 3:44.6 three-quarter), sophomore Angel Piccirillo of Homer Center overtook defending mile champion Chloe Schmidt of State College in the final 100 meters to win the race in a US#8 time of 4:56.37. Schmidt would recover nicely on her way to the girls athlete of the meet award. It started with her wire-to-wire victory in the 800 meters in a US#4 time of 2:11.54 (32.2 200, 64.2 400, 1:40.3 600), and then it continued into the 4x800 relay, with Schmidt anchoring her team in 2:13.0 to take the relay from 11th to 5th place.
Conestoga completed the 3-peat in the 4x800 with Kacie O’Neil anchoring the team to victory for the second straight year with a time of 9:25.69, overtaking Villa Maria Academy, who had the lead entering the final leg. In the distance medley, St. Basil’s Academy’s Liz Barrett and Strath Haven’s Michaela Whitelaw ran with each other for about six laps before Barrett took over the lead and led her team to victory with a time of 12:26.41, a US#20 performance. In the 3000 meters, Katie Kindead of Central Bucks East had the lead after 1000 meters and maintained it until Sara Sargent made a big charge to overtake Kinkead in the final 30 meters to win the race in 10:01.67, a US#8 performance.
In the field events, Rachel Serafin of Hempfield Area had the lead from her very first throw and never looked back, winning the event with a US#3 mark of 47-03-75. Brittany Howell of Cheltenham took the win in the long jump on her final attempt with her mark of 18-06.50, overtaking Courtney Kedra of Phoenixville, who fouled on her final attempt to win the event. As for the triple jump, freshman Diamond Hodge won her first state title in her first state meet with a mark of 38-03.75, with was .75 better than Paul Robeson senior Iyisha Weaver. The high jump featured four girls clearing 5-4, with Methacton’s Amy Galvin being awarded the state title on misses. Lauren Terstappen of Phoenixville cleared 12 feet even to win the pole vault on misses over Whitehall’s Brooke Hamscher.
