Indoor Track: Strath Haven girls own 4 x 800 again

It’s been said that diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but gold isn’t a bad substitute.

Just ask Strath Haven’s Bri Irons, Jamie Kenney, Allie Wilson and Kristen Miller or Garnet Valley’s Liz McGroarty. They all claimed gold medals Saturday in the Pennsylvania Track & Field Coaches Association indoor state championships at Penn State.

Irons, Kenney, Wilson and Miller set the state meet record while winning the girls 4 x 800-meter championship, while McGroarty captured the open 800-meter title.

Those victories were part of a big day by Delco athletes. The Cardinal O’Hara boys finished second in the team standings, while Upper Darby and Strath Haven were fifth and seventh, respectively, on the girls side.

The 4 x 800 has been Strath Haven’s race the last few years. It was the third time in the last four years that the Panthers claimed the state title in the event. This time, they did it in grand fashion with a meet-record time of 9 minutes, 9.52 seconds.

The win in the 4 x 800 was the first of two relay medals for the Panthers. Kenney, Wilson and Miller teamed up with Ivy Jones to take second in the 4 x 400 (3:54.73).

McGroarty’s victory was a bit of a surprise. She was in the second of three heats, with the final heat being the seeded heat. Yet she went out and ran a personal best indoor time of 2:14.22 to win her first individual state tile.

McGroarty took charge midway through the second lap of her heat. She moved to the front and slowly pulled away to turn in the best indoor time of her career. With another heat, though, the senior had to sweat it out to see if that time would stand up for the gold medal.

It did. Central Bucks West Maddie Villalba gave it a go, winning the final heat, but her time (2:14.48) was only good enough for second.

McGroarty wasn’t the only Delco athlete to come home with gold. Upper Darby All-Delco Claudine Andre won the high jump with a leap of 5-4. It was the second medal of the day for the senior. She also was individual second in the long jump (18-½).

The Royals’ Ashli Cook placed fourth in the 400 (personal best 58.19 seconds), Ashley Rankine was seventh in the 60 dash (personal best 7.80), and they teamed with Shannon Birch and Khayla Williams for fifth place in the 4 x 200.

In the relay events, Penncrest (Alicia Collier, Briane Artis, Zoe Gable, Katie Arbogast) were seventh in the 4 x 200. Notre Dame (Sophia Recchilango, Julia Dambly, Katie Schneider, Jill Battista) took seventh in the 4 x 400.

Belfatto got Delco’s medal quest off to a good start early when he passed four runners in the final 200 meters to take second in the mile behind Tony Russell of West Chester Henderson. Russell just missed breaking the meet record with a time of 4:12.65. Belfatto crossed the finish line in 4:17.15, two-hundredths of a second in front of Ross Wilson of Council Rock North.

Smart was in the best race of the day. He crossed the finish line in 1:54.34 to break the county indoor record of 1:54.45 set by Sun Valley’s Chris Kessler in 2003. However, that was good enough for fourth place because of the runners who finished in front of him. Kyle Francis of Bensalem won the race with a state indoor record time of 1:50.55.

Smart wasn’t the only Delco runner to medal in the 800. Radnor’s Connor Holm took home a seventh-place medal with time of 1:56.88, his indoor best by more than three seconds. Holm ran the anchor leg on Radnor’s distance medley relay team that finished seventh. That quartet included Patrick Dwyer, Grant Gsell and Watson Hanson.

Mason Weh of Upper Darby took sixth in the 60 hurdles (8.13). He also teamed up with Greg Dix, Ramsey Kerkula and Jared Carter for sixth place in the 4 x 400.

Penncrest (Evan Emanuel, Brendan Hanna, Soham Kamat, Chris Kazanjian) finished sixth in the 4 x 800.