Eagles Compete at Henderson Invitational

The Shanahan Winter Track team had a stellar day at the Henderson Invitational at the Ott Center on the University of PA campus on Saturday. The 18 participating Shanahan athletes posted 18 personal bests with four performances earning a top 5 finish at the meet.

Here are our personal bests and top 5 finishes:

Our milers got the day started on the right foot with 4 personal-best performances. The team was led by Connor Todd’s 4:38.84 (PR by 6 seconds) which was good for 12th place overall (#2 sophomore) in the field of 88 runners. Sophomore Aengus Langan followed with a 9-second personal best of 5:06.21 to easily win his heat. Freshmen Ben John (5:16.18) and Dennis O’Rourke (5:18.14) also recorded PRs.

As the milers were running, our pole vaulters were busy posting personal records. Freshman Gina Thibault vaulted 8’2” to top her previous best of 7’6” and place 4th. Sophomore Ethan Katz tied his personal best with a vault of 9’0”.

In the center of the track, our sprinters piled up some impressive performances. On the girls’ side, both junior Lauren Serpentine (8.80) and freshman Gwen Herbert (8.96) eclipsed their previous best marks. For the boys, senior Colin Cregan placed 3rd in the field of 83 boys with a time of 7.09 seconds. Other personal bests came from senior Greg Palaia (7.53), junior Tommy Simpson (7.89), and sophomore John Simpson (8.11) who shattered his best by 0.54 seconds).

Our longer jumpers also had a nice day with Aiden Civitella coming in 4th place with a leap of 20’5” and Gwen Herbert beating her previous best by almost a foot with a leap of 14’6”.

Two of our 800-meter runners demolished their personal bests only 75 minutes after racing in the mile. Connor Todd replicated his #12 finish (#2 sophomore) from the mile. His time of 2:07.11 easily surpassed his previous best of 2:10.98. Ben John PR’d by over seven seconds to finish in 2:28.61.

John Simpson, our only competitor in the high jump, equaled his personal best of 5-6.

Both of our 200m runners cranked out personal bests. Sophomore Ethan Katz lowered his PB from 27:04 to 26.43.

The 4x200 relay team closed out the day with a 4th place finish in a time of 1:31.23. The relay team members are Aidan Civitella, Greg Palaia, and Colin Cregan. Their season best time of 1:30.27 ranks them #16 in the State with the top 20 qualifying for the state championship on March 1.

Full results are here: Henderson Invitational at the Ott Center Meet Manager