Track: Strath Haven girls ‘content’ with impressive showing at Penn Relays

PHILADELPHIA >> The goal for Strath Haven’s Grace Forbes, Maggie Forbes, Abby Loiselle and Taylor Barkdoll was simple, Friday.

All they wanted to do in the high school girls 4 x 800 Championship of America at the 124th Penn Relays was run a little faster than in Thursday’s qualifying race.

To that end, the Panthers accomplished their mission with a time of 9 minutes, 18.30 seconds. That was good enough for ninth place and better than they ran a day earlier (9:19.84). It wasn’t a vast improvement, but the Panthers will take it.

Grace Forbes summed up Strath Haven’s performance in one word.

“Content,” the junior said.

Strath Haven coach Bill Coren changed the lineup to accomplish that goal. Maggie Forbes ran the leadoff leg Thursday, followed by Loiselle, Barkdoll and then Grace Forbes. This time, Grace Forbes led off, followed by her younger sister, Loiselle and Barkdoll.

“You ran great,” Coren told the team afterward. “Every one of you ran your hearts out.”

The toughest part for the Panthers was the wait. The meet was running 10 minutes ahead of schedule when the group went to warm up. By the time they finished getting loose the carnival was 20 minutes behind schedule.

“It just messes you up psychologically,” Loiselle said. “You finish your warmup and mentally you’re ready to run, then you have to stand around and wait. That’s tough.”

“You’re loose and then you tighten up,” Maggie Forbes said. “It takes you a little while to get loose again.”

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