Phantoms find right balance
Nine Phoenixville Area High School senior girls cross country runners were honored during Senior Day festivities following a Pioneer Athletic Conference meet against Upper Merion on Oct. 13 at TCHS Pickering to close out the 2016 regular season.
This year’s senior crew included Kendall Beatty, Johnnie Cunningham, Alaina DeLeone, Marcella Donatelli, Enola Hihi, Kdlly Kopera, Natalie Rubino, Natalee Serwatka and Makenna Walsh. The girls were escorted by their parents.
The Phantom girls are now coached by first-year head coach Colleen Murphy. Her assistant is Eric Sprinkle.
Undefeated Upper Merion (5-0 Frontier Division) defeated the Phantoms, 20-47. Phoenixville ended up 3-2 in divisional competition in the PAC.
Serwatka, who is in just her second year running cross country, took individual top honors by winning the race with a time of 20:33 on the 3.1-mile course. The Vikings claimed the next eight spots before Phantom junior Emma Visnov came in 10th at 22:11.
Phoenixville’s other top runners this season included junior VictoriaWright, sophomoreMary Grimshaw, sophomore Karley Dibofsky, junior Emerson Deblasis and sophomore Julia Hihi.
With that type of promising young runners, the future ap-
pears bright for coachMurphy’s Phantoms.
“They’ve done really well all season,” said Murphy. “They have gotten progressively better.”
Murphy said Phoenixville’s best overall race came during the recent Paul Short Invitational.
“Everybody PR’d,” said Murphy. “Everybody pushed.
“Natalee has gotten progressively better. She is our best runner, but we’re very young. We’re hoping Natalee can make it to states in a couple weeks.”
The Pioneer Athletic Conference Championships were held Oct. 20 at Heebner Park. After that comes the District One meet on Oct. 28 to determine which runners qualify for the PIAA state championship meet.
Murphy also had high hopes for Wright and Visnov during postseason competition.
“We’ve done reallywell in our division,” said Murphy. “They have come through Natalee Serwatka, second from right, leads a group of Phoenixville runners during a meet this season. (Submitted photo - Phoenixville athletics)
every time. Every race has been competitive the whole season.
Although this is Murphy’s initial year of coaching cross country at Phoenixville, she has been employed as a math teacher in the school district for the past four years. Murphy ran cross country while
she was in high school and attending Bishop McDevitt HS in the Harrisburg area. Murphy spent her collegiate years at Villanova University, which is how she wound up in the suburban Philadelphia area as a teacher and coach.
Her husband helped coach the Phoenixville
track and field team during the spring. His area of concentration is the pole vault. So since theMurphys have been together with the Phantom student-athletes for four years, they have developed a knowledge of one another as well as a good working relationship.
“We have one freshman (Sara Sabo) who is running very well,” Murphy said of the first-year runner.
“It is really exciting that these girls will be coming back,” said Murphy. “They are going to be good with more experience and pushing each other.”
Serwatka gained valuable experience while running against Upper Merion’s solid pack, which was led byMorganMorton, who finished with a secondplace time of 20:55.
“I want to run well at districts andmake it to states,” said Serwatka.
The top five teams automatically qualify for the state championships as well as the next highest 25 individual finishers, giving District One a total of 50 contestants for the state championships.
“My times have definitely improved from week to week, especially at this course,” said Serwatka. “At the Paul Short, I ran better this year than I did last year. Last year I got my PR at districts (19:38). Hopefully, I will run faster this year. Especially running with more girls, I will go faster.”
She talked about compet- ing against Upper Merion.
“They (Vikings) are a good team,” said Serwatka. “They have a lot of girls that run similar times to me.”
Serwatka has always consideredherself a runner, but not as a cross country runner at this high level. Next year Serwatka plans to attend college and study nutrition and exercise science.
“I have trained really hard this summer and last summer going into the season,” said Serwatka.
There were 24 girls on the Phoenixville roster this season.
Cunninghamis the only senior who has been on the team for four years. She plans to attend college to pursue a biology degree and enter the medical field. ... DeLeone ran cross country for the first time this year. She is the daughter of Linda and John DeLeone. Linda is the secretary to Phoenixville Director of Student Activities & Athletics, Matt Gionta. Alaina plans to attend college to study communication, business and journalism. ... Donated and Walsh are also in their first year with the squad.