Mike Vukovcan The Hopewell Track and Field team traveled to Wexford on Thursday for a “last chance” meet to qualify for the WPIAL Championships.
The WPIAL takes the top 24 boys in AAA, and the top 16 girls in AA to the championship meet next week, and the Hopewell athletes are taking every opportunity available to improve their standings on those lists. The meet at Pine-Richland was one of the last of those opportunities, and the Vikings took full advantage, coming away with a lot of personal and season best times and marks.
The girls 4×800 relay of Madison Inderelst, Keira Mann, Skylar Elias and Caylee Sundy came into the meet ranked 14th in AA but would need to improve their time to avoid getting bumped off the WPIAL list. They succeeded in dropping 14 seconds off their best time of the season, running 11:00.32 and moving into the 10th position. Inderelst and Sundy ran their best splits of the season, and Madi later ran a PB of 2:34.05 in the open 800m.
In the hurdles, freshman Tessa Burgess came into the meet needing to drop nearly half a second from her 100h to get into the Top 16. She did just that, improving from 17.80 to 17.46 and moving into the 14th spot. Burgess has made remarkable progress this season and is now beginning to show supreme confidence in her technique and the work she has done.
Senior Zach Lucas ran a new personal best time in the 110m hurdles as well, improving from 15.62 to 15.44 and moving up to 10th on the WPIAL AAA list.
Senior Emma Palmieri and junior Maya Richburg came out of the blocks on fire in the 100m dash. Palmieri improved her season best time from 12.82 to 12.49, and Richburg dropped hers from 12.95 to 12.56, securing her spot in the WPIAL Championships. They are closing in on Kalley Barker’s school record of 12.38, set back in 2007. They both ran hot times in the 200m dash as well. Palmieri improved her school record time to 25.60, and Richburg matched her PRB with 26.77.
In the 400m, Palmieri and fellow senior Zach Kovell ran their fastest times of the season. Emma ran 58.20, which ranks second in the WPIAL AA list. Kovell ran 50.88 improving his standing to 20th out of the 24 that will qualify for the AAA boys.
Senior Reese Murray ran a new personal best time in the 300m hurdles with 50.93. She is just a few tenths of a second from qualifying in the top 16 of AA.
