Junior Macy Huber placed 2nd and sophomore Grace Gutowski 3rd, and Paul VI – with three freshman in the top five – won the team title Saturday at the 34th annual Briarwood Invitational.
Huber ran 20:15 over 5,000 meters at Belmont Plateau in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia and Gutowski 20:27, and PVI outscored 2nd-place South Western of Penn Township, York County, Pa., 57-63, to win the girls championship race.
Freshmen Peyton Blake, Morgan Kuzma and Johanna Trampe placed 14th, 18th and 23rd, Blake in 22:13, Kuzma 22:25 and Trampe 22:51. It was the first high school race for each of them.
Washington Township senior Kaylee Russen ran 21:36 for 6th, Woodstown sophomore Lilian Norman was 17th in 22:22, Woodstown freshman Abby Marino 21st in 22:37 and Washington Township senior Rachael Wilson placed 27th in 23:19.
Paul VI also won the freshman race over 3,000 meters, with all five girls running between 14:12 and 15:37. McKayla McHutchinson [7th in 14:12], Juliana Hyde [12th in 14:43], Isabella Pedicelli [13th in 14:44], Francesca Cianfrani [14th in 14:51] and Keira Valvardi [17th in 15:37] formed PVI’s freshman team.
Courtney Waddington and Layla Chain of Washington Township placed 6th and 8th in the freshman race, Waddington in 14:08 and Chain in 14:13.
In the varsity boys race, Paul VI senior Sean Alemi ran 17:17 for 16th place.
Trevor Del Borrello and Nick Ablaza from Paul VI placed 3rd and 5th in the boys freshman race in 10:39 and 10:56.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 