33rd and South Street

Headed across the bridge over to West Philly. This year Penn Relays was Friday and Saturday for us. Friday saw the 4x800m relay start things off in the large school race followed by our 4x100m relay running around lunchtime. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. It was sunny out and in the low 60's for the 4x8 and got up to the mid 70's. This was quite a change from the weather that we had endured for the first part of the season.

We were in the last heat of 4 for the qualifying rounds of the 4x800m. 81 teams had been accepted and the top 12 would advance to the Championship of America race on Saturday. As the girls went out to warm up, I waited inside to watch the first three heats. Things always seem to move quickly with Penn and they started a little early. The girls eventually made their way back in got uniforms and spikes then headed off to check in. As per the norm, my girls were late, at least according to the clerks. I had already watched the first three heats and the first one had 5 teams run faster than we did indoors. Then heat two saw 3 more added to that and then heat 3 had 4 more faster than we had run this year.

So going into our heat 9:21 was the 12th cut off. Something magical had to happen for us to be able to advance since we were the fourth seed in our heat. As soon as the gun went off, Alyssa Suriano got out and settled in to about 4th place through the first lap, then moved up to 3rd. With about 200m to go, she unleashed an amazing kick to go by 2nd and then take over the lead. She handed off to Megan Niglio in first place. What more could you ask of your lead off runner. When they announced her split of 2:16.32, I knew we were on pace to do something special.

Megan ran the first lap untouched until the line, then paced her way right behind the leader losing maybe 6-8 meters to hand off to Sofia Recinto. Megan split 2:22.76. Not her fastest, but still a solid leg. Sofia Recinto was next up slowly closing on the leader throughout the first lap. Catching her coming off the curve then battled with her the entire second lap. They were neck and neck going into the handoff, and Maddie Meder lost a step in the handoff to settle in right behind the leader. Recinto's previous best split was a 2:20.20 from indoor nationals. She clocked a 2:18.95 for her first time ever under 2:20. Maddie stayed right behind for about 220m then decided to make her moving heading into the second turn. She opened up a lead and never looked back. When the dust settled, the clock was stopped at 9:15.02 and Maddie split 2:17.00. That time secured the 11th seed going into the Championship of America race on Saturday. That was the second fastest 4x8 that we have ever run outdoors just off the outdoor school record of 9:14.25 set in the COA race at Penn in 2023. Three of the girls had run lifetime PR's. The funniest reaction was when the newer girls found out that they had just won a Penn Relays Wheel. Those splits were #3, #4, and #6 all time in school history.

SJTrack write up

Next up for us was the 4x100m relay. This would be only the second time they would run together this season. Three of the girls were on last year's record setting relay, but we were now trying to replace Maddie Van Haren, which is very hard to do. Rylan Cieslik, Ajane Hill, Veronica Ashcraft, and Morgan Shank ran 49.67 to place 5th in their heat. That time is the fastest 4x100m relay that Cherokee has ever run at Penn Relays. This is very promising since there was some things to clean up on the relay.

Saturday was a new day for us with the 4x400m relay going off at 12:20 and then the 4x800m COA race at 4:45. The weather was very different from Friday. Now the wind had kicked up and the threat of rain lingered around all day. With the 4x400m relay, we didn't have our top lineup in, but we had a respectable group competing in the SJ large school division. While they were getting ready to run, the meet was moving along ahead of schedule. My guess is they were trying to get ahead of the rain. At this point I was starting to get nervous as I was now looking at how many heats were left to go before the girls, and they had not come back in from the warm up area. Once again they got over to the check in late, but all was good. Veronica Ashcraft was our lead off leg. With a little mix up at the exchange, she handed off to Rylan Cieslik who was about to run her first ever 400m. Veronica split 1:03.80 and Rylan split 1:01.79. Grace Wojciechowski was next up with her first ever experience running at Penn. She clocked a lifetime best of 1:05.8 and Freshman Erin Healy anchored the relay splitting 1:02.9. The team ran 4:14.32 and finished 9th. This was the fastest 4x4 we had run all season.

Keeping an eye on the weather, it looked like the rain was going to be coming down while the 4x8 was running. While they were out warming up, the rain fell the hardest. They all came back pretty soaked as they got ready to head over to the check in area. By the time they checked in, the rain had stopped. You could just imagine what was going through Coach Jarvis' mind. How can we duplicate what they did on Friday. Everyone pr'd and the weather and race was perfect. Now we had to battle the elements and also had to take into consideration that we were the 11th seed out of 12 teams with most of them running considerably faster than we had. We did have one secret weapon. Coach Shaklee was inducted as an honorary official and was down on the infield during the race. He also had former coach Callinan there to yell for the girls while they were racing.

We went with the same line up. The gun went off and Alyssa soon found herself with the back group coming through the 400 in 11th place. She went out in 66.2 which was almost identical to what she did on Friday. She stayed patient and started picking people off through the last 200m's. With a solid push through the line she managed to bring the team up into 7th place splitting 2:17.61, a very solid lead off leg. Megan then took over and got out considerably better than she had on Friday. She kept her composure and toggled between 6th and 9th coming through 400m's in a very tight group. She split 66.6 as she geared up for her last lap. She split 2:20,77 handing off to Sofia Recinto in 9th right behind 8th place. Sofia fell back to 10th then passed 10th going back into 9th with a lap to go. She went out blazing fast with a 65.0 lap. Again keeping her composure she just kept passing teams to get us back into 7th handing it off to Maddie Meder. Sofia ripped a huge pr splitting 2:17.13. Maddie held onto 7th through the first lap opening up with a 65.9 and then lost one spot to cross the line splitting 2:17.99. The clock on the scoreboard stopped at 9:13.67. They finished 8th place over all and set the new outdoor school record in the process. The smiles on their faces as they walked over said it all. That time is #7 in South Jersey History. That ended another amazing two days at Franklin Field. The magic of Penn Relays continues. Hopefully we will be back at Franklin Field for outdoor Nationals. The girls finished the dual meet season losing a close one to RV, the following Monday, 68-72. The next big event for the team is the SJ Elite meet on May 1st.

SJtrack 2nd write up