W.C. East foursome beats goal

Coatesville girls win Ches-Mont 4x100

West Chester East’s Allyson Clarke, Hanna Kelly, Kerri Rafter and Mikayla Lewin had a simple goal heading into the first heat of the girls small school 4 x 800-meter relay at the 123rd Penn Relays Carnival.

West Chester East’s Allyson Clarke, Hanna Kelly, Kerri Rafter and Mikayla Lewin had a simple goal heading into the first heat of the girls small school 4 x 800-meter relay at the 123rd Penn Relays Carnival Thursday morning at Franklin Field.

They wanted to break 9:40. Mission accomplished. The quartet ran a season best 9:36.94 to finish 10th in its heat. That was not good enough to bring the Vikings back for Friday’s Championship of America final, but meeting its goal was enough to satisfy the members of the team.

“We’ve been around 9:44 all season so this means a lot,” Lewin said.

The time was especially gratifying for Lewin. She was part of the team that qualified for the indoor state championship meet. However, she was not able to compete because of a stomach bug that cause her to lose eighth pounds.

“I felt I let my team down when I couldn’t run at indoor states,” Lewin said. “I wanted to make it up to them.”

Downingtown East put a rather unique foursome on the track for the second heat of the large schools 4 x 800. Sisters Caroline and Charlotte Roumpz ran the lead off and anchor legs, while twins Maddy and Lexi Van Blunk took care of the two middle legs. The Cougars ran a season-best time of 9:34.02.

Coatesville girls won the Ches-Mont 4 x 400 in an event-record time of 3:51.91. That broke the mark of 3:53.00 set by Coatesville in 2012. The team also qualified for Saturday’s Philadelphia area final

The team was sophomore Sammie Miller, senior Makayla Eberly, her sophomore sister Arianna Eberly and sophomore Porsha Miles

The three sophomores and Jordyn Worthington also qualified for Saturday’s Tri-State 4 x 100.

“It was really cool,” said Makayla Eberly. “We won it last year and we wanted to win it again.”

Eberly and Miller are holdovers from last year’s team.

Emma Planck of Downingtown West was 11th in the High School mile run.

Evelyn Berecz of Downingtown East placed 12th in the triple jump at 37-4 ½. Villa Maria’s Erin Zimmerman finished fifth in the javelin with a heave of 149-11.