Kingsway sophomore Aubrey Pieronotoni kicked off the Cherokee Distance Invitational in fine fashion Saturday morning, winning the 3,200 in a personal-best 11:06.25.
Pierontoni outran Haddonfield senior Allison Colflesh by 50 meters. Colflesh took second with a huge PR of 11:15.56, and three other runners – Eastern’s Regan Bewley, Collingswood’ Sophie Steidle and Haddonfield’s Helene Usher – ran under 11:30.
All five PR’d.
Pierontoni and Colflesh were together through 2000 meters, Pierontoni in 6:51.9 and Colflesh a step back in 6:52.3. But Pierontoni opened up some space on the sixth lap with a 77 and cruised from there.
Pierontoni lowered her PR from 11:24.31, which she ran indoors at the Bennett Center last month. Her previous outdoor PR was an 11:29.19 as a freshman at states. Pierontoni has shown great range this year, running 2:23.21 for 800 meters, 4:47.40 for 1,500, 5:10.01 for 1,600 and now 11:06 for the 3,200.
Her time is No. 3 in Kingsway history outdoors, behind two of the fastest in state history – Chelsea Ley ran 10:19.31 in 2009 and Rachel Vick 10:29.28 in 2017.
Aubrey ran slightly faster than her sister Allie ran in 2019 at Holmdel – 10:06.98 at the Holmdel Twilight Series.
Colflesh lowered her PR from 11:30.61, which she ran at the 2018 Camden County Championships at Haddon Township.
Bewley, a freshman, ran 11:25.23 in her first-ever outdoor race and her first high school 3,200. She ran 2:33.880 and 5:32.90 indoors.
Steidle, a Collingswood senior, ran 11:25.90, dipping below her PR of 11:27.51 from last year’s indoor Meet of Champions.
And Usher, a sophomore, ran 11:28.35 in her first lifetime outdoor high school race and her first-ever high school 3,200.
Clearview sophomore Abby Waddington and Haddonfield Jess Goode weren’t far back. Waddington ran 11:34.09 for 7th in her first high school race outdoors and Goode, a Haddonfield junior, was just behind in 11:34.66, an enormous PR from her 12:29.39 indoors last winter.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 