Sachar stars in OJR’s sweep of Boyertown
The sky could be the limit for Savanna Sachar.
And that limit may not hold up, the way she’s performing in the pole vault for Owen J. Roberts.
Sachar added to her expanding credentials in the event during the Wildcats’ meet with Boyertown April 19. The senior, a state qualifier last spring, set a school record by clearing the 11 foot, three-inch mark – nine inches higher than her previous personal record – in the course of the Owen J. Roberts girls’ team winning their Pioneer Athletic Conference Liberty Division dual over the Bears, 110-40.
“It (mark) felt like a dream,” Sachar said, “because I was really trying to aim for 11-0 by the end of the season. So to reach it so soon into the season ... I’m really happy that I was able to go beyond 11-0 and get 11-3.”
The record was the highest point of the day’s action, which saw the OJR boys top the Bears 80-70. Both OJR teams went to 3-0 in their Liberty standings, good for a share of first place with two more divisional meets yet to run.
“Now I’m going to keep going higher and higher, reach for the stars,” Sachar said.
A couple adjustments to her technique contributed to Sachar eclipsing the 10-6 she hit two weeks earlier. Her record jump was also more than three feet higher than the rest of the field.
“I moved back to a sevenstep (approach), and it makes me have more time to run and build up power to be able to get over,” she said. “I also went up to a bigger pole, so that I would be able to get over high heights, too.”
“It’s impressive,” Owen J. head coach Tim Marcoe added. “Going over 11 feet is really cool for her.”
Another circumstance served to enhance Sachar’s record.
“We had gotten new mats, and this is the first meet we used them,” Marcoe noted. “So getting a record made the expense
worthwhile.”
On the track, the OJR girls got a sweep of the hurdles from Katelyn Bernotas, who went 48.44 in the 300 intermediates and 17.3 in the 100 lows. Teneisha Myers headed the sprints with her firsts in the 100 (12.44) and 200 (25.81), and Ally Brunton won the 1,600 (5:12) while running the anchor leg of Roberts’ winning 4x400 relay to complete a sweep of first places on the track.
“We wanted to make sure we won,” Marcoe said of a 1,600 which pitted Brunton against Boyertown’s distance-running star Gillian Kasitz. “We told Ally to go for her. She knows how Gillian goes out.”
Rae Rae Taylor (triple jump, 33-5) and Sharai Taylor (shot put, 32-2) won other field events for Owen J. Boyertown, aided by a pair of firsts from Rebecca Hemingway in the high jump (5-4) and long jump and Haven Kelly’s winning 119-4 javelin throw, kept OJR to a closer 37-26 point spread in the field.
“I’m happy,” Marcoe said. “We want to keep progressing, to put ourselves in good situations.”
On the boys’ side, OJR got double-win efforts from three competitors. One of the more notable showings came from Liam Conway, who bested the 1,600 field and ran a come-frombehind anchor leg in the 4x800 relay.
Conway took the baton in the 4x8 approximately 20 yards behind Boyertown, but a big kick put him in position to cap the foursome’s 8:18 clocking. Coming back to run the 1,600 two races later, he kept pace with Boyertown’s Dominic DeRafelo before kicking into a higher gear on the last lap, going on to win the race in 4:26 ahead of DeRafelo’s 4:30.5.
“This was the first time I ran the 4x8,” Conway said. “I was so happy with how we did.”
Conway earned himself an early finish to the day’s proceedings, not being required to run the 3,200. DeRafelo won the event in 9:54, followed closely in second place by OJR’s Andrew Malmstrom (9:56.3).
“If we needed me to run, I’d do it,” he said. “I need to keep my body as good as I can.”
“Anchoring the 4x8 ... that was big,” Marcoe added. “He exerted a lot of energy, then came back to run the 1,600. Dominic really pushed him, which made me nervous about him in the 3,200.”
The Wildcats’ Scott Honicker swept the hurdles with a 43.84 in the 300 intermediates and a 16.7 in the 100 highs. Aidan Heyward took the shot put and discus with respective throws of 43-1 and 140-0.
Marshall Bergstresser gave Owen J. a first in the 100 (11.65) while Andrew Vance (triple jump, 36-9¼) and Jake Canale (pole vault, 10-6) won in the field.
“We wanted to win this meet,” Conway said, “because it certainly shows us we’ll be able to win the PAC.”
Along with DeRafelo, Boyertown got firsts on the track from Payton Stanziani in the 400 (52.44), Josh Endy in the 800 (2:04) and Max Miller in the 200 (23.72). Evan Giannetti was the Bears’ lone double-winner with firsts in the long jump (17-9½) and javelin (174-2), and Ethan Michaels topped the high jump (5-6).