Area athletes shine at popular meet
By Justin Feil
PHILADELPHIA — Area competitors left the Penn Relays encouraged by what they saw at the unofficial midway point of the spring track and field season.
Cory Abernathy and Katie Kellner highlighted the individual performances with top-10 finishes, while teams saw their relays respond to the usually strong competition in one of the most popular Penn Relays ever.
Abernathy, a junior at West Windsor-Plainsboro North, finished sixth in the boys’ shot put with a school-record 57-feet-8¼. It was his first time competing at Penn Relays, which drew the fifth largest crowd in meet history with more than 110,000 over the three days.
”He threw great,” said Knight boys coach Brian Gould. “He got in there with some big guys and competed and wasn’t intimidated. He’s been working hard and keeps getting better and better.
”He finished sixth, one spot out of a medal. He broke his own record. He’s disappointed to be on the outside of the medals, but he threw great. The more impressive part was his character. He keeps getting better and better and he’s not satisfied.”
Kellner, a senior at West Windsor-Plainsboro South, ran 9:55.87 for 10th place in the girls 3,000 meters.
”I’m really happy,” Kellner said. “I just wanted to break 10. That was my goal. I was training for that pretty much this whole season. I saw the first mile was about 5:10 and I thought I could do it as long as I didn’t die. I was really happy to run 9:55 since that’s a good amount under 10.”
Kellner used experience gained over the last 12 months to return to the Penn Relays and improve significantly on her 10:11.95 clocking that placed her 19th last year.
”I think I’m just a lot more prepared for the competition,” she said. “Last year, I got boxed in right at the start and it was faster than I thought it would be. And I’d never been in a race with that much competition before. After Foot Locker and everything, I was definitely ready for more competitive races and I knew what I was doing.”
Montgomery High junior Jillian Prentice finished 18th in her first appearance in the race with a time of 10:23.33. Kellner hopes to compete at Franklin Field on an even tougher stage next year as a freshman at Cornell, though her first priority is to build on Thursday’s run as she heads into her final six weeks of scholastic competition.
”I think this is pretty big,” Kellner said. “Along with Meet of Champs, this is probably the biggest race of the season. It’s definitely the most competitive race.”
The WW-P North boys distance medley came to the relays as the top seed, but had to settle for second when Upper Dublin outkicked the Knights over the final 200 meters to win by slightly less than three seconds.
”Our guys tried their hardest,” Gould said. “Upper Dublin was a little bit better. At this point, we have to look forward. We got some good competition. The guys look really good and they’re ready for the big meets.”
The Knights return to dual meet action on Wednesday against Hamilton and Ewing, then the next week face Hopewell Valley before the start of the Mercer County Championships. WW-P North’s 4×400 relay also competed and ran 3:28.83 Saturday.
”We were in a fast heat,” Gould said. “There’s great competition. You can’t find better competition in April anywhere other than Penn.”
The Knight boys ran 44.97 for third in their 4×100 heat. The Knight girls also had a strong showing in their relays. They ran 12:29.39 for 16th in the distance medley championship. They ran 4:23.15 in the 4×400. They ran 51.31 in the 4×100.
”They did really well,” said Knight girls coach Monica Biro. “Our 4×1 at county relays, they broke the record. They re-broke the record. They’ve been working hard on getting everything down and trusting each other. The 4×4, we put in some new girls. They’re young girls and they all PR’d. They saw some good competition.
”The girls DMR shattered our school record by about 20 seconds. It was a great field. That’s something we come to Penn Relays for. They were excited to run and come out and break the school record by that much. They’re definitely not satisfied. They’re looking for counties and sectionals to do better.”
The Montgomery girls 4×400 of Danny Sciotto, Asanti Bess, Nora Heck and Jessica Perone ran 4:11.50 to win its heat, while the 4×100 ran 51.76. Laura Ng competed in the pole vault. The Cougar boys’ 4×400 ran 3:45.17, its 4×100 ran 49.34.
The Pirates’ Katie Calder, Ashley Delemos, Gabby Hunter and Emily Mauro ran 4:04.97 to hold of Hopewell and win their 4×400 heat. The girls’ 4×100 ran 52.21. The WW-P South boys 4×400 was second in its heat in 3:30.33.
The Princeton girls finished second in their 4×400 heat in 4:11.72 while the boys 4×400 ran 3:36.79.
”I was thrilled with our girls,” said PHS girls coach Jim Smirk. “The best we’ve had this year was 4:15. To come in and run 4:11.7 at Penn Relays was fantastic. Across the board, everyone was really competitive.
”The biggest thing about going down to Penn was when I went to the pen before the race, our four girls were cool at ice. They didn’t shy away from the venue. To them, it was the opportunity that was important. If you can bring that through to your championship season, you can see that same level of performance.”
The Hun girls ran 53.79 for 4×100 and 4:26.82 in the 4×400, the boys ran 46.56 in the 4×100 and 3:47.18 in the 4×400. Stuart Country Day ran 54.04 for 4×100 and 4:35.24 in the 4×400.

