photos by Devin Fonrose

photos by Devin Fonrose

SPRINGFIELD, PA – There were two major programs at the track and field PCL Championships at Cardinal O’Hara High School Saturday that managed to separate themselves from the rest of the heats.  La Salle won the aggregate boys’ events (211 points), clinching the Catholic League Men’s Track title, while Cardinal O’Hara clinched the girls’ title (117 points).

La Salle dominated, winning the Boys Triple Jump, Boys 4x100 Meter Relay, and the Boys 1 Mile Run to name a few. La Salle head coach Marty Madeira praised his team’s overall performance.

“We scored over 100 points in the field event,” Madeira said. “We’ve done better than we expected, especially in the 4x1 team. That was our third team; that was our C team and we won the Catholic league with our C team.”

While La Salle has been a persistent machine on the track, Roman Catholic is a budding school loaded with freshmen, some of which who won events Saturday. Miles Jarvis and Ali Fisher spearheaded Roman Catholic in the relays. However, they struggled at the start.

“We messed up our first and second handoff but our second leg caught up for us,” Jarvis said.

“It was fun,” Fisher said. “I couldn’t really see the first or second, but through the third and fourth it felt solid.”

The experience to compete against other “A” teams who are comprised of seniors can only be a plus for Roman Catholic. Head coach Bob Fortunato uses Philadelphia as a “training ground” and believes his team could be dominant in a couple of years.

“I think in two years we’ll compete for a championship here and at the state level,” Fortunato said. “Most of our teams that ran at the Penn Relays were freshmen.”

If Roman Catholic becomes a Philadelphia Catholic League power in track and field, it’ll be due to the abundance of freshmen and their growth as a team. Another standout was Saint Joseph’s Prep sophomore Miles Green, who won multiple events (300 hurdles, 400) Saturday.