Mount track and field rolling through league meets

by Tom Utescher
Posted 4/27/23

The track and field team at Mount St. Joseph's appears to be in a strong position to capture its third straight Athletic Association of Catholic Academies championship.

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Mount track and field rolling through league meets

Posted

The track and field team at Mount St. Joseph's appears to be in a strong position to capture its third straight Athletic Association of Catholic Academies championship.

The Magic have won all of their league meets, most recently last Tuesday while hosting Gwynedd Mercy Academy and Villa Joseph Marie. Mount St. Joe won six of the eight track events, three of the six field events, and all three relay races.

The Magic have no pole vault pit on campus, or they would've won that event as well with sophomore Veronica Vacca, who set the national record for freshmen last year. Some athletes sat out on Tuesday to prepare for large invitationals, such as junior Ella Woehlcke, the PIAA District 1 cross country champion last fall.

Neither she nor senior Maggie Murphy participated in the individual distance races as they usually do, helping the Magic win the 4 x 800 relay instead.

In the open 800, MSJ senior Katie Bakley won in 2:32.53, edging out Gwynedd's Lucie Van Hoof. Mount head coach Kitty McClernand wanted to give some young distance runners a chance to participate, and freshman Jenna Miller came in fifth in the 800. Ninth grader Lydia Moy won the 1600 (5:54.71) and her classmate Allison Seweryn placed second, and in the 3200 (won by Gwynedd) another freshman, Lily McMullin, finished fourth. Senior Elizabeth Carey was fifth in the 3200.

In the sprints, Coach McClernand noted, "Ella Vogel and Lily Bradfield [both juniors] are really stepping up, and they're both close to qualifying for Districts."

At Tuesday's meet Vogel won both the 100 (13:40) and 200-meter dash (27.35), and in the 100 freshman Kristen Savage came in second while one of the team's most versatile athletes, Faith DeCarlo, placed fifth. Bradfield was held out of perhaps her strongest event, the 400, but took second in the 200, where Savage was fifth.

Senior Erin Maguire won the 400 (1:07.61), while sophomores Abby Leckrone and Grace Daly finished fourth and fifth, respectably, separated by one quarter of a second.

Junior Constance Huber won the 100-meter high hurdles (18.55) and was second in the 300 intermediates. In the 100's, the Mount took four of the top five places, thanks to the depth provided by sophomores Mary Cherico (second) and Jess Staas (fourth) and junior Emily Fisher (fifth). Cherico came in fourth in the 300's, and sophomore Sienna Noh was fifth.

In the field events DeCarlo, who has qualified for the District 1 meet in the high jump and pole vault, won the high jump at 4'8", while junior Pauline Rawson was fourth.

Freshman Morgan Cross won the long jump at 15' 11.25" to lead a one-through-five sweep for the Magic. Following her, in order, were seniors Julia Donahue and Liz Sadorf, and freshmen Kaitlyn Cunningham and Sophia Hartzel. In the triple jump, Cunningham, Hartzel, and Sadorf placed second, third, and fourth.

Junior Ella Sennick won the discus (82'3"), with junior Saanai Jones in third place and sophomore Marin Stensrud in fourth.

Gwynedd Mercy athletes won the javelin and shotput, but the Mount scooped up the next four places in each event. In the javelin, Stensrud was second ahead of DeCarlo, Sennick, and freshman Alexa Buist, while Jones was runner-up in the shot and was followed by Sennick, sophomore Caitlin Scanlon and junior Sine Thompson.

"It's good to see the young girls doing well in the jumps," McClernand said, "because we'll have some good jumpers graduating this year.

"We've got 70 girls on the team, and they all get along," she continued.

"It's nice having a lot of girls, because in track you never know who's going to develop."