Montgomery, Flanagan lead Tatnall and Padua to girls track and field state titles

DOVER – Every year at the state meet the challenge changes for Tatnall sophomore Arianna Montgomery. The results have mainly stayed the same.

The former Junior Olympic champion won four events at the 2022 state meet as an eighth grader: the long jump, 100, 200 and 4x100. She has since added the 100 hurdles to her repertoire, and this year took her state meet test to another level, attempting the 100 hurdles to 100 dash double for the first time.

They were the first two events contested Saturday, held minutes apart under a steady rain. Montgomery won the 100 hurdles, then jogged back to the start line. She placed second in the 100 to Alexis Donovan of Saint Mark's.

After her day ended with a smooth run on Tatnall's winning 4x100 relay, Montgomery gathered her gear next to the long jump pit where on Friday she won her bread and butter event. She wore three first-place medals for the second straight year, her collection now at 10. Jernail Hayes, a 2006 graduate of Glasgow, holds the Delaware record at 14.

For the third year in a row, Montgomery guided Tatnall to the Division II girls title, one of four team state championships decided Friday and Saturday at the annual state meet at Dover High. The Hornets have won at least a share of six of the last seven D-II titles. In the last three, led by Montgomery, the team's sprinting and jumping prowess has matched its traditional distance strength.

Alexis Tarlue finished second to Montgomery in the long jump and 100 hurdles. Simone Bessong took third in the 100 and Tarlue placed fifth. Those three with Maya Gordon won the 4x100, and at last week's county meet with Kiara Davis set the 4x100 state record, running 47.70.

"It's all for the team," Montgomery said. "That's why we all do four events. ... We definitely uplift each other."

Montgomery said team bonding events like a Just Dance party the week of the state meet keep the team connected even though practice is split by event group. With three or four events each, there are plenty of opportunities to rally each other from a sub-par performance. But that wasn't needed much this weekend.

In the distance events, Tatnall's top three ran the majority of each race as the lead pack. Ruby Schwelm won the 3,200 Friday in 10:34.06 with Carlita Kaliher and Katrina Endres placing second and third, respectively. Katie Payne won the 1,600 Saturday in 4:56.59 over Schwelm and Kaliher.

Abby Downin won the 800 in 2:09.60, third in state history. Payne placed second and eighth grader Krissa Woods finished fifth. Darian Harris ran 45.41 to win the 300 hurdles. The team of Harris, Downin, Karen Tanner and Malana Neal won the 4x400 in 3:57.34. Neal, Woods, Payne and Downin also won the 4x800 in 9:33.72.

Montgomery jumped 19-8.5 at last year's state meet, just a quarter of an inch from the state record set by Kayla Woods of Tatnall in 2018. A back injury affected Montgomery's long jump practice this season. Only since the beginning of May has she been able to jump without pain. Montgomery has felt out of rhythm from the weeks away from the pit, but started to feel connected Friday and mustered a season-best jump of 18-5 to win.

"Your runway is everything for your jump," Montgomery said. "If you don't feel comfortable or you're out of rhythm or you're thinking about your runway, your jump isn't going to be good. ... I just had to put faith in myself that I know I can do this."

Montgomery tried the hurdles for the first time last year. She's now 10th-best in state history in the 100 hurdles and did not lose to anyone in Delaware this season. The key to the victory Saturday was a fast trail leg.

"No matter what the rain was, I knew I was going to get out aggressive and my goal was just to win," Montgomery said.

Molly Flanagan of Padua threatens 800 state record

When it became clear the 800 was going to be Molly Flanagan's "thing," a friend told her she should try to set the state record her senior year.

So that time, 2:08.58, run by Tatnall's Reagan Anderson in 2013, has been rattling around her head ever since.

The Padua senior on Saturday made the best challenge of the last decade. Flanagan took the Division I race from the gun and produced the second-fastest time in state history: 2:08.71. Thirteen-hundredths of a second shy of the record.

Downin, the D-II 800 winner from Tatnall, approached Flanagan after the race.

"That was crazy," she said.

Flanagan ran the first 400 in 62.6 seconds. She closed in 66.1.

"I knew if I wanted to hit that time I would have to take it out hard," Flanagan said. "I know I had to take it out hard and just take a risk there and see what would happen and it paid off."

Flanagan entered the season second on the state all-time performance list after running 2:10.34 to win last year's Meet of Champions. She improved her personal best entering Saturday to 2:09.96 at the Trials of Miles at New York's Icahn Stadium in early May.

The Richmond commit is also the state's fastest 400 runner. To win last week's New Castle County championships, Flanagan ran 55.66, ranking her 10th in state history. She said it was a difficult decision to forgo the 400 at the state meet to focus on the 800.

"I kind of felt like I started off a little slow this season," Flanagan said. "I had to trust the process and I've been running like 2:10s pretty consistently between relays and everything. I felt like I had a bigger race in me. It was really exciting to do this today at a meet like this."

At the end of the indoor season, Flanagan and her Padua teammates passed on opportunities to run fast individual times and ran the fastest indoor 4x800, 4x400 and distance medley relay times in state history. Flanagan was again part of a record-breaking relay in the outdoor season, following Anna Bockius, Sophia Holgado and Kelsey Wolff as the Pandas set the 4x800 state record at Penn Relays, running 8:55.59.

Flanagan will have one more shot at the 800 state record at Wednesday's Meet of Champions, which brings together competitors from D-I and D-II. Active runners hold four of the top five spots on the all-time performance list and eight of the top 20.

Flanagan contributed three wins as Padua won its 10th consecutive Division I team title. Bockius, Holgado, Wolff and Flanagan won a comfortable 4x800 Friday night in 9:36.73. Bockius, Holgado and Flanagan with Madelyn Mead won the 4x400 in 3:53.83.

The members of the state record 4x800 combined to score 56 points in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200. Padua placed two runners in the top three of each event.

Juliana Balon won the 100 (12.26) and 200 (24.98) and placed second in the 400 and the long jump. She will end her high school career with 10 state meet wins in individual events.

Elce Walsh won the pole vault, clearing 11-3. Mekiyah Earnest won the triple jump with a jump of 37-5.5 and placed third in the long jump. Libby Neiburg finished third in the high jump and Alexa Frick finished third in the discus and fourth in the shot put. Madelyn Mead placed fourth in the 400.

Middletown's Isabelle Walsh takes reins in distance events

Like Flanagan, Middletown's Isabelle Walsh entered the state meet with the plan of taking out her races strong.

"It's normally how I run these things," she said.

After she threw down a 71-second first lap, no one touched Walsh in Friday's D-I 3,200. She remained consistent, clicking off 77- to 79-second laps while running alone in the lead. She didn't realize how fast her time was until she saw the clock on the final straight.

Walsh ran 10:15.24 and won by 37 seconds. She is now the second-fastest 2-miler in state history behind Delaware record holder Haley Pierce of Tatnall. Pierce ran 10:11.80 at the Henderson Invitational in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Walsh's race is by a wide margin the fastest on Delaware soil.

"My focus wasn't the record. I've had it in the back of my head, but I've really wanted to go after the 16 record," Walsh said.

In the 1,600, Walsh is also second to Pierce, who ran 4:41.19 at the 2011 New Castle County championships. Walsh ran a full mile at the Trials of Miles meet in 4:43.39.

Walsh again pressed from the front in Saturday's D-I 1,600. She slipped off record pace in the second lap, but dominated the field, running 4:48.86 to win by nine seconds. Walsh later placed third in the 800 in 2:14.02 behind Flanagan and Bockius.

The Villanova-bound senior was one of three individual event winners for second-place Middletown. Simone Cooper, who is heading to Maryland in the fall, won the shot put (40-7) and discus (132-03) for the second straight year.

Taylor Stone won the high jump with a personal best of 5-4, placed third in the 100 hurdles and placed second in the 300 hurdles. Stone started running hurdles for the first time this year.

"All of my jumps, I didn't even skim the bar," Stone said. "I was like, 'OK, I can do this. You have it in you.'"

Notes from around the track

• Newark's Annil McIntosh said stepping up to the 800 for the first time this season helped her endurance in the 400. She used a strong kick in the final 100 to take the win in D-I in a school record time of 56.41.

• The Saint Mark's 4x200 team of Arianna Donovan, Alexis Donovan, Angel Rizzo and Reagan Garibaldi continued its winning ways, following last week's county meet win with a four-second victory in D-II. Alexis Donovan also won the 100 in 12.40, and Garibaldi took the 200 in 24.95, the fastest time in the state this year.

• Ava Malgiero of Saint Mark's jumped 34-5.25 to win the D-II triple jump. Teammate Ellie Brown cleared 8-6 and shared the pole vault win with Ursuline's Sadey McPherson. The Spartans finished second in D-II as a team.

• Ursuline's Danielle Wooten moved to 14th all-time in the 400 after running 55.96 to win the D-II race.

• After getting disqualified in the 4x200, the Polytech team of Marayah Walker, Kristian Dorsett, Zion Greene and Nyah Ballard won the D-I 4x100 in 49.12. Middletown won the D-I 4x200 in 1:48.31.

• Kirja Hickman of Lake Forest won the D-II shot put (39-5) and discus (119-04). Sussex Academy's Katya Geyer won the D-II high jump (5-0).

• Dover freshman Kaprice Pointer won the D-I long jump with a 9-foot personal best of 18-9.25. Aaliyah Turpin of Smyrna won the D-I 100 hurdles (14.72) and Kam'Dyn Thomas of St. Georges won the D-I 300 hurdles (45.41).

Brandon Holveck reports on high school sports for The News Journal. Contact him at bholveck@delawareonline.com.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware state track and field meet: Tatnall and Padua win