Haddonfield's Gess achieves her goal in the 3,000

The giant screen that sits high atop the field at the Penn Relays is there for a reason.

On Thursday evening, Haddonfield Memorial junior Briana Gess used it to sneak a peek at Weini Kelati, the Heritage (Leesburg, Va.) junior who flirted with the Relays Record (9 minutes, 15.3 seconds) during the girls' 3,000 meters. Kelati finished in 9:19.91.

"She's just incredible," Gess said. "I was watching her on the screen when I was running."

Gess, competing by herself for the first time at the Relays, finished 12th overall (9:50.95), besting her goal of 10 minutes flat.

"I was definitely a lot more nervous than the last few years," said Gess, who competed in the distance medley as a freshman and then the 4x800 last year. "I feel like when you go in with a team you go in together.

"This time I didn't have a team with me, but I had a bunch of friends [fellow competitors] here, and I tried to think of it as going through it with them."

To prepare, Gess increased her mileage work from 40 miles per week to 70.

"I just wanted to change things up a little bit," she said. "I felt like I was getting into a routine, and it was getting monotonous. It is a much bigger commitment, and I'm tired a lot more often. But I think it's going to start paying off soon."

Jason Russo, Haddonfield's nine-year coach, revealed the secret to at least some of Gess's success.

"Just to have fun," he said. "I think the most important thing is just to have fun. It's easy to let the sport get bigger than it is. It's a high school sport and just enjoy the practice, enjoy the race.

"I think she was pleased with the time. She came off, and she was smiling."

Other results. In the South Jersey Large School girls' 4x400 event, Shakira Darby (57.86), Flora Ahiarakwe (58.32), Iyianna Williams (1:00.09), and Brittany Preston (59.71) led Winslow Township (3:55.97) to victory.

In the small schools 4x400, Zarria Williams, Moriah Hall, Taiah Thornton, and Holly Bednarek led Camden Catholic (4:08.69) to victory.