With multiple championships and countless school records, Haverford Track and Field is having one of its most successful runs in school history. Just months ago, the Girls Cross Country team won the State Championship for the first time in team history. With six runners in the 3A Girls category, they dominated the competition at Hershey with two athletes placing in the top 20 (Olivia Cieslak and Camryn McGeehan). As for Spring Track and Field, the girls team was the 2023 runner-up and 2024 State Champion. Every season, both the boys and girls continue to break school records.
Last weekend, Track and Field continued this success at Penn State during the Indoor State Championships. The boys side was distance-heavy, sending a 4×800 meter relay and a distance medley relay, and winning medals in both events. The 4×800, run by Teddy Foster, Ryan Cleary, Jonathan Awad, and Sean Lawson, ran a time of 7:56.35, taking both the school record of six years and a 5th place medal. This time is also ranked as the 6th best in Pennsylvania and the 24th best in the United States for the current season. As for the distance medley relay, Teddy Foster, Connor Manning, Ryan Cleary, and Sean Lawson ran the second fastest time in school history (10:26.57), just missing the school record when the boys took first place in the 2023 State Championship.
Our athletes showcase their strengths in more ways than medals and records. Despite not competing, many of the boys made the three-hour trip to Penn State to cheer on their teammates, showing the sportsmanship and camaraderie of the Fords. Captain Teddy Foster said, “I think that it’s really great to see how supportive our track community has become… [our teammates] care about everybody. They’re very competitive, and they work really hard because of it, but they’re also willing to celebrate their teammates and show them support.”
The girls team came in 12th place in the 4×400 meter relay. Colette Wagner, Riona O’Neill, Kacey Kraus, and Annie Walker ran a time of 4:03.02, the 12th-fastest current time in Pennsylvania. The 4×4 relay has been one of the girls most successful events in recent years, breaking records and winning medals. Captain Riona O’Neill, who ran the current school record in 2024, said, “I take pride in it. I really love the 4×4. I’ve been running it since freshman year and I love just seeing how the relay evolves, but still being able to succeed no matter who is on it. We really just bring out the best in each other.”
O’Neill’s dedication to the 4×400 relay extends beyond the race itself, as she cherishes the team’s bond and the experience of competing at major meets. “I love the big meets especially because they’re overnight. Just being able to prepare for the meet with my teammates, it’s really reassuring and exciting. And it’s just so exciting, like the big stage and we all just work together to succeed as a team,” she said. To prepare for these large meets, O’Neill and fellow captain Colette Wagner said, “We make sure at big competitions like that to just reassure ourselves by trusting our training and knowing that we’ve been working since before Thanksgiving. Then being able to run at States is just rewarding.”
Captain Olivia Cieslak also ran at the State Championship, dominating the one mile run. With a time of 4:45.98, Cieslak came in first place, the fastest girls’ mile run this season in Pennsylvania and the ninth-fastest in the entire nation. She demolished her own record of 4:52.65, which she set in 2023 at New Balance Indoor Nationals. Earlier this season, Cieslak incredibly broke the 800 meter State record with a time of 2:04 at the Circuit Meet in New York. Committed to run at Stanford University, Cieslak said the last few months of high school track are about having fun. “Doing these big meets can be really pressuring, but [my goal is] just going and running free…to my full potential and enjoying every last moment because it’s ending so soon and it went by so fast.”
But before the spring season begins, Cieslak and the boys have one more meet: New Balance Indoor Nationals 2025. This weekend from March 13-15, they are all hoping to come home from Boston with medals: Cieslak in the 800 meter run, Foster in the open mile, and both of the boys’ relays. “I think for Nationals we just have to trust in our training. I ran a great race coming into States that qualified me, and then having that same kind of strategy is gonna be where it’s at. I feel like I ran a great race, I’m going to have more training coming in, we’re going to taper our training, and I’m going to have a great competition,” said Foster.
As the winter season draws to a close, Haverford Track still has a lot of work to do and medals to win during the spring. O’Neill doesn’t plan on making it easy for other teams, saying, “The final season is really bittersweet, but we definitely want to continue to compete at the same level as we have in years past, Districts and hopefully States. The 4×4, we have a mission, so I’m excited to see it.”
