Paul VI graduate Cara Doyle, who had a high school hurdles PR of 17.40, is now a freshman at Misericordia and the top hurdler in her conference.
Doyle ran 15.00 last week with a legal 1.2 meters-per-second tailwind to win the 100-meter hurdles by nearly two seconds at the Misericordia Invitational in Dallas, Pa.
In only her 4th outdoor hurdles race in college, she’s now No. 3 in school history behind co-school record holders Reilly Wagner [14.46 in 2017] and Hilari Norris [14.46 in 2014].
Wagner holds the school’s freshman record with a 14.93 as part of a heptathlon in Westfield, Mass., in the spring of 2016, so Doyle is 7-100ths of a second away from that mark.
Doyle’s high school PR of 17.40 came at Cherokee last April. But she had a breakthrough early in indoor season when she placed 3rd in the Middle Atlantic Conference Championships over the 60-meter highs in 9.33 (after a 9.32 in the trials). That’s 4th-fastest in school history.
Doyle, from Woolwich Township, ran a four-second 400 PR of 1:01.85 in her first college outdoor race in Lexington, Va., last month, then ran a five-second 400 hurdles PR of 1:05.95 a week later in Chester, Pa., where she also PR’d in the highs at 15.42 before dropping all the way down to 15.00 this past week.
Doyle is the fastest freshman in the MAC since 2021, when Laura Matthews of Stevens Institute and Morris Hills High ran 14.61.
Misericordia will race in the Centennial/MAC 1,600-meter relay at the 129th annual Penn Relays at 7:20 p.m. Friday. Doyle is listed as the 3rd leg.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 