Penncrest’s Higgins eyeing continued success
EAST WHITELAND TWP. >> Penncrest junior Tara Higgins could have spent her spring break taking it easy, but that’s not her style. She used the time off to help some needy people in the West African nation of Ghana.
Higgins and her mother, Lily, spent the week doing volunteer work for Unite for Sight, a non-profit organization that empowers communities worldwide to improve eye health and eliminate preventable blindness.
“It’s the first time I’ve volunteered overseas, but my mother has done it with my brother,” Higgins said. “This was my turn. I did visual acquity (which determines a person’s visual clarity). And I went to outreaches every day. If people needed glasses there were doctors there who would prescribe glasses or medicine. Some people even had cataract surgery that was paid for by the service.”
Higgins and her mother left April 7 and returned a week later.
“The experience was awesome, even though it was hot there,” Higgins said. “We didn’t stop sweating for the whole week. I loved the kids there. They would crowd around me and hug me and try to touch me. One kid actually fell down because there were so many kids trying to get to me. I helped him up and all the other kids saw that I helped him up so they all started to fall down. It was funny.”
The work left little time for training, plus the air quality was not good so she basically took the entire week off. Her coach, Rob Brown, came up with an interesting way to help her get back in shape, quickly. He had her compete in the 1,600-meter run in a quad meet with Haverford, Marple Newtown and Upper Darby last Wednesday.
“That was crazy,” said.
She won the 1,600, of course, with a personal best time of 5 minutes, 35.9 seconds. She also won the 400 (59.0 seconds) and the javelin (109 feet, 3 inches), and was second in the 200 (26.7).
“She doesn’t want to lose,” Brown said. “Me and her dad (Stephen) call her a pit bull. That’s exactly what she is. She can be hurt or she can be tired, but she’ll get on the track and give it everything she’s got. She’s a very special athlete. The last athlete I had like this was Anthony Batch.”
That’s pretty good company. Batch was the
boys track Athlete of the Year in 2008.
The three wins she posted Wednesday were just the beginning of her week. Friday night, Higgins finished seventh and qualified for the District 1 Class 3A championships in the 300 intermediate hurdles.
Higgins followed that up Saturday with victories in the 800 (2:18.44) and the javelin (personal best 122-5) on a cold and rainy day at the Kellerman Relays at Great Valley High School. She also ran a 58.2 leadoff split as she, Morgan King, Isabella Moscatelli and Lauren Cawley took fourth in the 4 x 400 relay.
“I love the 400, Higgins but I also love the 200 because it’s so quick and it lets me catch up with the girls that run the 100,” Higgins said. “I started off as a sprinter. I ran my first 400 in this meet as a freshman. I ran a 62 and people said that I should beinthe4x4soIdidthe 4 x 4. Then Coach Brown told me he needed me in the 800.”
“She wants to do everything,” Brown said. “I think if I trained her for the pole vault she could do 10 feet. We’re leaning toward the heptathlon in college. We’re working on those seven events. She’s thrown the shot put indoors, which is one of the events, so I think she would be very good at it.”
*** Christian Rudawsky, Cameron Strickland, Peter Zekonis and Kyle Berardi have had their sights on Garnet Valley’s school record in the distance medley relay since the season began. Their quest ended when they ran 10:59.35 to take third place and break the school mark by more than six seconds.
“We’ve been about two seconds off of it so we were gunning for it and today we smashed it, berardi It was pouring right before the race and then it slowed down. And it was cold, too. It wasn’t optimal conditions but we gave it our all.”
*** Episcopal Academy broke one school record for sure and may have topped another.
Jake Jorgensen, Jeff Coote, Carson Fischer and Elias Lindgren won the 4 x 800 in a school-record time of 8:06.90. That shattered the previous mark by eight seconds.
Jorgensen, Lindgren, Jermaine Rhoden and Jack Bush took second in the DMR in 10:53. EA coach Zachary Richards said he had to check if that was a school mark.
On the girls’ side, Lauren Weil, Jillian Rotman, Caitlin Jorgensen and Arianna Feliziani won the 4 x 800 and were sixth in the 4 x 400.
*** Radnor’s Peter Cooke had a good day. He won the 1,600 and took second in the 800 with a District 1 qualifying time of 1:59.36.
Daiyan Hawkins, Lamont Lucas, Ben Stallworth and Sam Linder of the Haverford School won the 4 x 100-meter relay.
*** With no 4 x 1,600-meter relay at the Kellerman Relays, Strath Haven coach Bill Coren decided to take Abby Loiselle, Isabel Cardi, Maddie Forbes and Grace Forbes to the Central Bucks Relays in an attempt to break the county record in the event.
The Panthers accomplished their quest, even though Maddie Forbes was a little under the weather.
Loiselle, Cardi and the Forbes sisters ran 20:53.15 to break the school and county mark of 20:55.52 set by Strath Haven’s Ali Wilson, Kristen Miller, Abby Kennedy and Maia Mesyngier in 2014.
“Abby Loiselle ran a 5:19 (split),” Coren said. “Her PR before that was 5:28. Isabel Cardi ran 5:11. Maddie Forbes ran 5:17 and the beast, Grace Forbes, ran 5:04.”
Strath Haven received a push from Pennridge, Coren said.
“Pennridge put their two fast girls first and second so we could have a chance at the record, which was really nice of them,” Coren said. “And they were ahead of us after the second leg.”
The rest of Strath Haven’s team competed at the Kellerman Relays and the Panthers claimed several medals including a firstplace in the 4 x 100-meter throwers relay for the fifth straight year. The team consisted of Gabby McGinn, Ally Laird, Kelly Deihl and Rachel Kent.