CALN \u2014 Josh Sharp effectively ran two opposite races Saturday.<\/p>\n
In the 800 meters, no one was catching the Upper Darby senior. As the anchor of the Royals\u2019 4 x 400, Sharp got to play the chaser.<\/p>\n
Sharp followed a win in the 800 with a runner-up result in the relay at the District 1 Class 3A Championships at Coatesville, taking his team from fourth to second on the anchor to reach states.<\/p>\n
In the 800, Sharp went out fast and dared the field to catch him. No one did. The Penn State signee won in 1:50.82, a margin of 2.5 seconds over the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely wanted to take those guys out, because I know most of the field is basically distance guys,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I know my 400 speed is pretty good, so I just wanted to take the field out, and that\u2019s what I did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Closest to him was Penn Wood\u2019s Ricky Mason, who finished second in 1:53.35. Sean Lawson, part of Haverford\u2019s victorious 4 x 800 relay Friday, took sixth in 1:54.06 and made the state standard.<\/p>\n
In the 4 x 400, Sharp took the baton in fourth in the final heat. He navigated traffic, then galloped past a pair on the backstretch. His split of 47.52 was the fastest in the field, quicker than that of Downingtown West\u2019s winning anchor. But Rowen O\u2019Brien had nearly two seconds of cushion that Sharp didn\u2019t bridge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just saying, go, go, go,\u201d Sharp said. \u201cThere really wasn\u2019t much in my mind. \u2026 It felt fun. It wasn\u2019t my fastest split. That wind on the backstretch was killing me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Upper Darby finished second in 3:15.82. Josiah Gray, David Benda and Charlie Hegarty, who was ninth in the 800, comprised the team. Upper Darby also qualified its 4 x 100 of Amir Hill, Saafir Bolden, Daniel Chukwu and Danicious Tosah in sixth place.<\/p>\n
Having company at states is a thrill for Sharp.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means everything, to be honest,\u201d he said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t get there last time. I kind of went by myself. But it means everything because I know how hard these guys work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Penn Wood finished third in the 4 x 400, Desmond Cole, Tawfeeq Fountain and David Gayflor joining Mason in 3:18.29. Mason, Gayflor and Fountain qualified eighth in the 4 x 800.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
The triple jump had a distinct Delco flair, though with a touch of disappointment.<\/p>\n
Five of nine finalists and seven of the top 12 hail from Delco. Four head to states, though it was nearly five.<\/p>\n
Zach Chandler of Strath Haven finished second with a leap of 46-3 in the fifth round. It wasn\u2019t enough to pass Spring-Ford\u2019s David Judisch, who leapt 46-11.25 despite no legal jumps in three finals rounds.<\/p>\n
Chandler was fifth in Friday\u2019s long jump.<\/p>\n
Nicholas Schneider of Garnet Valley was third in 45-8. Teammate Cole Hoffacker, who ran in the gold-medal 4 x 100, was fifth in 45-5.75. Chester\u2019s Justin Scott is headed to states by finishing seventh in 45-2.5.<\/p>\n
But the down note comes from Strath Haven\u2019s Noah White, who tied with Perkiomen Valley\u2019s Ethan Pile for the eighth-best leap in 45-0.75. That hits the state standard, but a tiebreaker is required since District 1 gets just eight berths. Pile\u2019s second-best leap of 43-11.5 bested White\u2019s 43-10.75 for the edge.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
NOTES >> Strath Haven\u2019s 4 x 100 qualified seventh in 42.65 with the quartet of Landon Barlow, Gabriel Vite, Luke Glavicic and Derrick Bradley. Bradley was fourth in the 100 and fifth in the 200. \u2026 Delco hurdlers will be well represented at states. Chukwu finished second in the 110 in 13.97. It\u2019s a personal best and the PA No. 2 time, trailing only Saturday\u2019s winner Cyrus Saunders of Neshaminy in 13.79. Upper Darby teammate Kenny Virtue is states bound after finishing fifth in a 14.74. Ryan Gallagher of Penncrest was sixth and under the states standard in 14.76. In the 300, Gallagher finished third in 38.03. \u2026 Marple Newtown\u2019s Alexander Williams is headed to states after a best time of 48.80 in the 400 placed him seventh. It\u2019s the 24th-best time in the state this year. \u2026 Delco Christian\u2019s Luke Confino hit the state standard at 15.07 in winning the Class 2A 110-meter hurdles. It\u2019s a best time. His PB 39.90 in the 300 hurdles won and sends him to states.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CALN \u2014 Josh Sharp effectively ran two opposite races Saturday. In the 800 meters, no one was catching…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[212,305,725,28,726,210,147,149,148,150],"class_list":["post-197185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upper-darby","tag-delaware-county","tag-high-school-sports","tag-pa-prep-live","tag-pennsylvania","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-dtd","tag-upper-darby","tag-upper-darby-headlines","tag-upper-darby-news","tag-upper-darby-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}