With little time to spare, Padua senior completes perfect day in individual events

LANDOVER, Md. – After overwhelming the field to win her first-ever indoor state championship in the 400 meters, Juliana Balon sprawled on the edge of the track.

Her mother, Christine, hugged her. Someone yelled out, "The 400 is no joke." Balon agreed. Then her coach, Nehemiah Kent, gave her a reminder resonant with many athletes Saturday afternoon at Prince George's Sports and Learning Center.

"You don't have time."

Contested in one day, the DIAA Indoor Track and Field Championships don't leave room for rest or relaxation. That was never more apparent than in the girls championship in which Tatnall and Balon's Padua stretched their rosters as far as possible, asking their top athletes to compete in three or four events for team points. No one was asked to do more than Balon.

Just after noon, Balon posted the fastest time in qualifying for the 55-meter dash. At 1:02 p.m., she made her first attempt in the long jump. By 2:05 p.m., she had won the 55 final and was back in the sand pit. On her next jump, she reached 18-4.50, the winning mark by more than 5 inches.

In the 400 at 3:20 p.m., Balon gapped the field by two seconds from the outside lane.

Just off the track, her mom untied her purple Nike spikes. Balon found a spot on the wall next to a folded set of bleachers to prop her legs above her head. She closed her eyes for a few moments. She rose and jogged the outer rim of the track barefoot. Her spikes then came back on and at 3:50 p.m. Balon walked back to lane six.

She exhaled in the blocks. Twenty-five seconds later, she won again becoming the first girl to win four individual events at the Delaware indoor state meet in more than 20 years.

"I understood what God wanted me to do, and it felt like it was these four opens to really challenge myself and show other people it can be done," Balon said.

Several girls have won four events at the state indoor meet, but only four had done so in all individual events and none since Glasgow's Kamilah Salaam in 2003. In each of the previous two years, Balon won the 55, 200 and long jump and was a member of Padua's gold medal 4x400.

She told her coaches she would do whatever was needed for Padua's best shot at the team title. That meant leaving the relay to her teammates (they won in a meet record time of 3:58.63) and going outside of her comfort zone to take on the 400. Balon said her training for the 400 comes "only in meets" as her focus at practice is on the long jump and the short sprints. She didn't know how her body would respond to the 400 and the tight turnaround to the 200.

"I was just trying to run for my life," Balon said.

The meet represented a "bittersweet" circular ending for the Miami (Fla.)-bound senior. Balon began her track and field career running club meets at the age of 11 with Delaware Elite. Through that experience, Balon has developed deep ties with several athletes on opposing teams. The PG S&L Center, which has become the most frequent host of Delaware's state championship over the past decade, conjured old memories as the site of many of those early club meets.

"It's just great to have so many friends from so many different teams," Balon said. "It just feels like one big team and Delaware is cheering me on. It's definitely something I'm going to miss."

Balon will end her high school indoor track and field career with 14 state meet gold medals and two second-place finishes. Her gold medal count is second all-time to Delcastle's Rhondale Jones, who tallied 15 wins from 1995 to 1998.

"It would be hard to break down her practice," said Mekiyah Earnest, the triple jump state champion and a teammate of Balon at Padua. "She has specific things for everything she does. You would think she's a professional at this point."

Top-line sprinters and distance runners pace Tatnall to victory

Padua ultimately fell short of its team goal. Tatnall won its second straight title, 33 points ahead of the Pandas. Middletown placed third.

Seven athletes contributed more than 70% of Tatnall's team points, a trio of sprinters and long jumpers and a quartet of distance runners.

Early in the day, sophomores Arianna Montgomery and Kiara Davis and senior Alexis Tarlue finished first, second and fourth respectively in the 55-meter hurdles. The group embraced at the finish line and then jogged back to the start line for the 55-meter dash moments later. After placing in the top six in the dash, they all returned to the long jump pit. There, Montgomery, Davis and Tarlue finished second, third and fifth, respectively.

"Everyone was just trying to be a team player," Davis said.

Tatnall's distance runners didn't start building up until late December because the school's cross-country season extended to the first weekend in December at the Nike Cross Nationals. Junior Katie Payne, who with teammate Ruby Schwelm tackled the 1,600, 800, 3,200 triple, felt "rusty" Saturday. Still, they scored points in each event. Notably, Payne made a late pass into second in the 3,200 and Schwelm, a freestyle sprinter in her first indoor track and field season, pulled off a similar move to place third in the 800.

Senior Carlita Kaliher won the 3,200 meters in 10:44.01, the fifth-best time in state history. Kaliher missed the winter track season last year after suffering a broken femur at the cross-country state meet that sidelined her for three months. Abby Downin placed fourth in the 1,600 and fifth in the 800. The Hornets were without their fifth cross-country scorer Katrina Endres due to injury.

"My teammates showed a lot of perseverance and determination today," Kaliher said.

Walsh displays dominance in distance events

After the first lap of the 1,600 went out closer to 2-mile pace than mile pace, Isabelle Walsh of Middletown started to feel a little "antsy." She took the lead, and soon after, a single file line of five Tatnall and Padua runners emerged behind her. But none ever came close to making a pass.

The Villanova-bound senior cinched down the pace every lap, finishing the last 400 in 67.15 to set a meet record of 4:51.92.

"I needed to turn up the heat a bit," she said after the race.

Later in the 800, Walsh trailed Padua's Mary Flanagan through three laps. She took over the lead just after the bell and won in another meet record, 2:11.32. The time was eight-tenths shy of Walsh's indoor state record run in early January at The Armory in New York.

A former figure skater, Walsh said she fell short of her time goal in the 1,600. At the Millrose Games next Sunday at The Armory, Walsh will have a chance to improve upon her second-place standing on the state all-time performance list.

Middletown had two other individual event champions: Simone Cooper in shot put and Taylor Stone in high jump. It's Stone's first season contesting the event after moving from Kansas to Middletown ahead of her junior year.

Padua junior Elce Walsh won her third straight state championship in the pole vault. The Pandas 4x800 team of Alessandra DeAscanis, Madelyn Mead, Kelsey Wolff and Flanagan ran a meet record time of 9:30.72. Mead and Flanagan combined with Anna Bockius and Sophia Holgado for the meet record in the 4x400.

The Saint Mark's relay of Arianna Donovan, Reagan Garibaldi, DeLaira Muzzi and Alexis Donovan won the 4x200.

Contact Brandon Holveck at bholveck@delawareonline.com. Follow him on X and Instagram @holveck_brandon. Follow him on TikTok @bholveck.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware indoor track and field 2024: Balon shines; Tatnall wins title