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Beth Jacobson takes 5th place in Penn 3000
Special to The Journal
PHILADELPHIA
Leading the pack, 34 strong, through the opening 300 meters, Kennedy's Beth Jacobson settled down in fifth place for the remaining 6 1/2 laps of the Penn Relays girls high school 3000 meter run.
Fighting off numerous challenges, the Kennedy junior hung on to fifth, capturing a medal in 10:14.9.
Janet Smith of Stephens High School in Edison, N.J. ran alone after the first 600 meters, winning the event by over 13 seconds in 9:47.8. Jefferson Heugonot-Wythe's Demarch Robertson of Richmond, Va. finished second.
In Jacobson's initiation to the Penn Relays high school 3000 meters last year, a sluggish lap midway through the race cost her a faster time and a higher place. She finished out of medal contention in sixth place with a 10:17.0.
This time around though, Jacobson pressed her competitors through a quick first lap - 75 seconds...the leaders set the pace, she started repeating 80 second quarters.
"Time-wise it was better than last year," said Coach Alan Bellman after the race on Franklin Field. "But it's about the same as Beth's been running in the dual meets. It would have been nice if she could have gone out faster and stayed with the second and third girls. She may have been able to hang with them.
"With respect to last year, Beth ran a lot better. She didn't go from second to the back. You've got to be happy when you get a medal in a place like this."
Where experience proves the deciding factor in Jacobson's quality finish, lack of it showed in Gaithersburg's Lisa Winter's sluggish performance in the high school 1500 meters.
Winter allowed herself to get boxed in the pack at the gun. Getting buried deeper and deeped with each lap, the senior finished far out of medal contention in last place in her first Penn Relays race.
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