Fillies breeze to 101-49 win at Connellsville
John F. Brothers | Herald-Standard
Laurel Highlands’ Hannah Chisler won the girls 100-meter hurdles with a time of 18.09 seconds Thursday afternoon in the Section 2-AAA meet against Connellsville at Connellsville Stadium.
Laurel Highlands' Ashley Galderisi breaks the tape in the girls 100 meter dash during Thursday's Section 2-AAA meet at Connellsville Stadium.
John F. Brothers | Herald-Standard
Laurel Highlands’ Brynn Lilley (right) takes the handoff from her teammate during the girls 3200-meter relay in the Section 2-AAA meet at Connellsville’s Falcon Stadium on March 31.
CONNELLSVILLE — The Laurel Highlands girls were just too strong and too deep as the visiting Fillies opened the Section 2-AAA schedule with a 101-49 win at Connellsville.
The rains that threatened the meet never really came, giving way to sunny, yet very windy conditions, as the meet progressed.
The Fillies’ Casey Phelan wasn’t really bothered by the weather and didn’t need much time to secure five points by winning the pole vault with a jump of 8-6.
“I stopped. I wanted to get a height to win and call it a day,” said the junior. “Nothing really exciting.”
Phelan is coming off a strong indoor season and believes she’ll carry the momentum right through to the end of May.
“It’s tough to get used to the elements. But, there’s really not much difference,” Phelan said of the transition from indoor to outdoor.
Phelan finished seventh last year in the WPIAL finals, but has her sights set much higher this year.
“I want to vault 13-3. The school record is 13-2½,” said Phelan. “My goal is 13-3 by the end of the season.
“I’ve done a lot of sprint training Coach (Bob) Costello. That’s brought up my speed. Coach (Gerry) Pegg has helped me with my strength training. I needed speed and strength.
Phelan only vaults, but keeps busy, otherwise.
“I train with the sprinters. I keeps it exciting. There’s always something I can do.”
The Fillies’ Ashley Galderisi had another solid meet, winning the 100 (13.09) and 200 (26.94) as well as running legs on the victorious 1,600 and 400 relays.
Hannah Chisler (100 high hurdles), Bailey Rohm (1,600, 3,200), Abby Miller (high jump), Delanie Hostetler-Greco (shot put), Kate Sutton (javelin), Ashley Krause (300 intermediate hurdles), Erica Tarr (long jump), and Haley Sutton (triple jump) all had first-place finishes for Laurel Highlands.
The Lady Falcons (0-1, 0-3) opened the meet with Michaela Coughenour, Alexes Koslosky, Ally Wilson and Rachael Grimm winning the 3,200 relay in 11:24.51.
Grimm came back to win the 400 in 1:04.66. Allison Hauer finished first in the 800 in 2:56.88, and Nicole Wood had the top throw of 107-7 in the discus.
Grimm, only a freshman, felt she had a good start to the season.
“I ran the anchor leg in the 3,200 relay. It was a good time,” said Grimm. “The 1:04 in the 400 was good and my time in the 1,600 relay was good.”
Grimm wanted to leave the stadium with some personal bests, but ran around the times she’s already posted in the early season.
“I was close in the 400,” said Grimm. “I wanted to get my 400 time to 1:02. I need to work on my starts out of the blocks.”
She’s also transitioning to high school competition.
“I’m learning that I can’t always be first. I have to work at it each time,” added Grimm.