Worthen of Praise

By KEVIN COONEY
Bucks County Courier Times
April 25th, 2008

2008 Penn Relays: The initial nerves that Tori Worthen felt last year before her first trip to “The Carnival” were still there when Thursday morning arrived.

“This is such a huge meet, so I think it was natural to have them,” said Worthen, a junior at Council Rock-South. “Really, it was just a lot of excitement that I was feeling in getting back out there and having the chance to participate.”

By 4 o'clock, those nervous knots had turned into huge smiles of satisfaction after a job well done.

Worthen took home the silver medal in the high school girls pole vault competition on “Ladies Day” at the 114th Penn Relays before a sun-splashed crowd at Franklin Field.

Worthen's leap of 3.64 meters — just over 12 feet — was bettered only by Abigail Schaffer of Easton, who broke the meet record with a leap of 13 feet, 1/2 inch.

“I'm so excited,” Worthen said. “I came in here wanting to do well and post a good mark. To be able to do that here at this spot is something that's just incredible.”

A few hours later, Worthen took to the infield. Most of the 16 jumpers fell out of the competition at the 12-foot mark, but Worthen was only one of four to clear the mark.

She almost cleared the bar at 12-4 on her second leap, but she hit it with her elbow on the descent.

“Really, I felt like I had good leaps out there,” Worthen said. “In this type of event, you want to say that you came out here and you gave it your best shot. Today, I did.”