By Tom Robinson, NEPASportsNation.com
LAST UPDATE: 11:06 p.m.
What District 2’s top performers had to say following Friday’s action.
Wyoming Area’s Drew Mruk, the gold medalist in the Class 2A boys javelin:
“When I was getting ready, I tried to envision everything I did last week and just transfer it into this week. It worked.”
Holy Redeemer’s Justice Shoats, a gold medalist last year, after taking second in the Class 2A boys long jump:
“I thought I had a pretty good shot coming down here, but I couldn’t get it done.”
Hazleton Area’s Matthew Cusatis, who placed second in the Class 3A boys triple jump where he led until the last attempt by the last jumper:
“Last jump, no one was expecting that, but that’s what track is.”
Wyoming Area’s Madelyn Keating, who placed third in the Class 2A girls 1600-meter run, the meet’s first event.
“I’m thankful to be on the medal stand. I’m really happy with how I performed.”
12TH UPDATE: 7:17 p.m.
Holy Redeemer, on the strength of second- and fourth-place finishes by Justice Shoats, is the early leader in the Class 2A boys team standings at the PIAA Track and Field Championships.
With just 5 of 18 events – the 1600-meter run and four field events – completed, the Royals have 13 points.
The five teams that had the five event winners are all tied for second with 10 points. Wyoming Area is in that group after Drew Mruk won the javelin title.
Hazleton Area, with the eight points earned by Matthew Cusatis finishing second in the triple jump, is tied for seventh in Class 3A boys.
Just four events are complete in both Class 3A competitions. No District 2 team has scored yet in Class 3A girls.
Butler leads Haverford Township, 14-11, for the Class 3A boys lead.
The four teams with champions are tied for first with 10 points in Class 3A girls.
Wyoming Area is part of a three-way tie for 12th in Class 2A girls. The Lady Warriors got six points when Madelyn Keating finished third in the 1600.
Union-Allegheny Clarion Valley has 18 points to lead Class 2A girls over the four other teams with champions who earned 10 points.
Susquehanna and Montrose have not scored yet, but are positioned to pick up points Saturday. Susquehanna has Tatum Norris seeded first in the 100- and 200-meter dashes. Montrose sent individuals or relay teams through qualifying and into the final in five events.
MORE TO COME
Still more news coming from the first day of state track. Return to this page.
11TH UPDATE: 7:01 p.m.
Track and field athletes made it through the whole scheduled first day of competition, finishing up on the track with 1600-meter qualifying.
The last District 2 results of the day come in those relays after the earlier report that Montrose had made the Class 2A girls final.
Wyoming Area was 14th of 24 in Class 2A boys in 3:32.36.
Blue Ridge was 16th of 24 in Class 2A boys in 3:32.46.
Abington Heights was 23rd of 27 in Class 3A girls in 4:09.93.
North Pocono was 23rd of 26 in Class 3A boys in 3:36.90.
MORE TO COME
The competition is complete but our reporting is not. Return to the blog throughout the evening for more coverage.
10TH UPDATE: 6:36 p.m.
Field events are done for the day.
Using indoor options for pole vault and high jump, then starting the afternoon sessions late after the storm allowed the PIAA to get all 14 scheduled field events for today completed.
There will be 14 more decided Saturday.
Track qualifying is about to conclude.
The final field event was the Class 3A boys pole vault where Crestwood’s Isaac Mertz finished in a three-way tie for 18th out of 20 with a height of 12-6.
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NINTH UPDATE: 5:57 p.m.
Montrose’s Tangi Smith is headed to the state finals in four events after anchoring the 1600 relay team to the fourth-fastest time and the fifth seed in Saturday’s finals.
Heat winners are seeded above the other qualifiers and Montrose lost its heat by one-hundredth of a second to third-seeded Bedford to also wind up behind Trinity, a heat winner with a slower time.
Smith already made the finals in the 100- and 200-meter dashes and as the anchor of the 400 relay team.
Stephanie Summerville, Chloe Diaz and Katie Diaz are the other relay team members. Chloe Diaz also made the final in the 100 hurdles.
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EIGHTH UPDATE: 5:39 p.m.
Jon Seamans from Lakeland is now a finalist in two sprints after his time of 22.76 seconds during Class 2A 200-meter dash qualifying put him fifth for Saturday’s final.
Seamans qualified fourth in the 100 in the morning by winning his heat.
Other recently completed results include:
North Pocono’s Colin Kravitz finished 10th of 29 in Class 3A boys 200-meter dash with a time of 22.09 during his qualifying heat. He is already a finalist in the 400.
Scranton Prep’s London Montgomery, a medalist last year, wound up 13th of 28 in the Class 2A 200 in 23.08. Montgomery is a finalist and will medal in the 100 for the second straight year.
Jessica Cervenak from Tunkhannock placed 21st of 29 in the Class 3A girls 200 with a qualifying heat time of 26.08.
Wallenpaupack’s Anastasia Ioppolo was 23rd of 29 in the Class 3A girls triple jump with 34-5. Trinity Johnson from Wyoming Valley West placed 24th of 29 in the same event with 34-0½.
Connor Hilling from Valley View placed 26th of 29 in the Class 3A boys 200 with 23.19 during qualifying.
Pittston Area’s Aria Messner was 27th of 29 in the Class 3A girls triple jump with 33-4¾.
MORE TO COME
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SEVENTH UPDATE: 5:04 p.m.
Two of District 2’s most explosive athletes led the district to continued success through the afternoon session as the first day of competition neared what once seemed like its unlikely completion because of strong thunderstorms that moved through Shippensburg in the late morning and early afternoon.
Susquehanna junior Tatum Norris, one of the meet’s top performers in Day One track qualifying, leads four more track athletes to reach the final since the previous update.
Holy Redeemer senior Justice Shoats secured a third medal while leading a group of three more field event medalists.
Meanwhile, Wallenpaupack’s Anastasia Ioppolo, the only four-event individual gold medalist at the District 2 meet, suffered through another near miss.
Norris lowered her own school record for the third straight time, following up district-record performances in qualifying and the finals last week, by going one-hundredth of a second faster in the 200. Her time of 25.34 seconds was .61 seconds faster than the rest of the field in Class 2A girls, a wide margin for a sprint.
Shoats, the 2021 Class 2A boys state champion in the long jump, placed fourth in the high jump. He already had a second-place long jump medal from this morning and anchored a 400 relay team that clinched a spot in the final and a medal by qualifying with the second-best time to start the afternoon session.
Shoats cleared 6-3 in the high jump, which was held indoors.
Montrose’s Tangi Smith will run against Norris yet again and medal in the 200 dash for the second straight year after qualifying seventh. Smith ran a time of 26.30 in qualifying.
North Pocono’s Colin Kravitz qualified sixth in the Class 3A boys in 48.57, despite going in as just the 14th seed in the 400, compared to his status as the fifth seed in the 200.
Mid Valley’s Nate Zarnowski claimed the eighth spot in the Class 2A boys 300 hurdles in 40.72 relegating 2021 state medalist Nico Sciandra from Wyoming Area to ninth in 41.13.
Sciandra was not the only close call.
Ioppolo was 10th in the 300 hurdles in Class 3A girls, missing by 24-hundredths of a second, after placing ninth, missing the final by four-hundredths of a second, in the 100 hurdles in the morning.
Lakeland’s Lacota Dippre matched Shoats with a fourth-place field medal in Class 2A boys.
Dippre threw the discus 160-2.
Riverside’s Madelyn Perfilio took fifth in the long jump with 17-5¼.
Other afternoon results included:
Sophia Filali from Dallas finishing 11th out of 28 in the Class 3A girls 300 hurdles with a qualifying heat effort of 45.90.
Mid Valley’s Kyle Marcinkevich taking 11th of 25 in the Class 2A boys 400 with a qualifying heat time of 51.25.
Stephanie Summerville from Montrose finishing 12th of 26 in the Class 2A girls 400 with a qualifying heat time of 1:00.25.
Crestwood’s Ethan Shudak placing 13th of 24 in the Class 3A boys shot put with 47-10½.
Tony Minichello from Wyoming Area taking 14th of 25 in the Class 2A girls javelin with 112-11.
Kalie Quaglia from Holy Redeemer finishing 15th of 28 long jumpers in Class 2A girls with 16-7.
Lake-Lehman’s Kalee Raczkowski finishing 15th of 24 with a time of 48.86 during qualifying in the Class 2A girls 300 hurdles.
David Popson from Hanover Area finishing tied for 15th of 28 in the Class 2A boys high jump at 5-10.
Blue Ridge’s Heath Bowker taking 17th of 25 in the Class 2A boys 400 with a qualifying heat effort of 51.54.
Scranton’s Antonio Hairston placing 18th of 24 in the Class 3A boys with a qualifying heat time of 41.07.
Rachael Collins from Honesdale finishing 20th of 27 in the Class 3A girls 400 in 1:00.15.
MORE TO COME
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SIXTH UPDATE: 3:37 p.m.
Every time action starts up today at Shippensburg University, District 2 athletes step forward.
On the restart of track qualifying, the Montrose girls posted the fourth-fastest time in Class 2A in the 400-meter relay.
Then, the Holy Redeemer boys topped that, landing the second seed for Saturday’s Class 2A final in the same event.
Stephanie Summerville, Gracie Dalton, Aspen Smith and Tangi Smith were fourth of 26 teams in 50.37.
Dylan Cassetori, John Kuderka, Zach Perta and Justice Shoats made up the second-fasted of 26 teams with a time of 43.31.
Other 400 relay teams from District 2:
Valley View was 17th of 23 Class 3A boys teams in 43.68.
Wyoming Area was 14th in Class 2A boys in 44.15.
The Pittston Area girls did not finish in Class 3A.
MORE TO COME
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FIFTH UPDATE: 2:40 p.m.
SHIPPENSBURG – District 2 has five finalists in the 100-meter dash, all in Class 2A.
Lakeland’s Jon Seamans, Scranton Prep’s London Montgomery and Wyoming Area’s Aaron Crossley all made the boys final, joining Susquehanna’s Tatum Norris and Montrose’s Tangi Smith, who were the leading and third-fastest qualifier for the girls race.
Seamans won his heat so he is the fourth seed in the finals at 11.28, even though Montgomery, the fifth seed, finished seven-hundredths of a second faster in a different heat.
Crossley was the eighth qualifier in 11.29.
Montrose’s Chloe Diaz is the fourth seed for the Class 2A girls 100 hurdles final after running her qualifying heat in 15.70.
Other results from qualifying attempts in the morning track session:
Wallenpaupack’s Anastasia Ioppolo, District 2’s only four-event individual gold medalist, missed the Class 3A 100 hurdles final by .04 seconds, taking ninth of 25 in 15.60.
Riverside’s Nathan Oliphant was ninth of 27 in the Class 2A boys 110 high hurdles in 15.86.
Gerald Welsted from Blue Ridge was 10th of 31 in the Class 2A boys 100 in 10.34.
Riverside’s Avery Meredick was 12th of 27 in the Class 2A girls 100 hurdles in 15.57.
Wyoming Area’s Usamah Alansari was 13th of 27 in the Class 2A boys 110 high hurdles in 16.08.
Esabella Mendola from Wilkes-Barre Area was 13th of 25 in the Class 3A girls 100 hurdles in 15.79.
Holy Redeemer’s Isabella Granteed was 14th of 26 in the Class 2A girls 100 in 12.96.
Mid Valley’s Jomar Rodriguez was 16th of 31 in the Class 2A boys 100 in 11.45.
West Scranton’s Colin Manley was 23rd of 26 in the Class 3A boys 110 high hurdles.
Valley View’s Connor Hilling placed 27th of 33 in the Class 3A boys 100 in 11.41.
Wyoming Area’s Rocco Pizano was 28th of 31 in the Class 2A boys 100 in 11.66.
Afternoon qualifying is underway, beginning with the 400 relay.
Montrose landed the fourth spot in Class 2A girls, then Holy Redeemer ran the second-fastest qualifying time in Class 2A boys.
More details on the afternoon qualifying coming up.
MORE TO COME
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FOURTH UPDATE: 2:01 p.m.
SHIPPENSBURG – With the Class 3A girls pole vault completed inside, all of the 9 a.m. field events are finished.
There are two sets of field events each day for four total sessions of seven field events each.
Wyoming Area’s Drew Mruk gave District 2 its first champion with a throw of 211-9 in the Class 2A boys javelin.
Mruk already had the title secured when he launched his last throw, surpassing his previous best from last week’s record-setting performance at the District 2 Championships by more than a foot.
District 2 also had two silver medalists from the early session.
As reported earlier, Hazleton Area’s Matthew Cusatis had the lead until the final jump of the Class 3A boys triple jump competition when Chambersburg’s J.J. Kelly went 48-1 to exceed the 47-10¼ by Cusatis, who wound up second.
Justice Shoats from Holy Redeemer also earned a silver medal, taking second in the Class 2A long jump, the event in which he won a state title a year ago.
The top eight in each event earn medals and score points for their teams.
Other field results from the morning:
Scranton’s Felicity Martin was 11th of 33 in the Class 3A girls shot put with 36-4½. She entered the meet as the 30th seed.
Crestwood’s Julia Lazo placed 12th of 22 in the Class 3A girls pole vault by clearing 11-0.
Blaise Sokach-Minnick from Wyoming Area was 13th of 24 in the javelin with 149-10.
Usamah Alansari from Wyoming Area was 14th of 25 in the Class 2A long jump with 20-4.
Western Wayne’s Ella Dougher was 24th of 27 in the Class 2A girls high jump at 4-10.
Alexis Hawley from Montrose was one of five Class 2A girls discus throwers who did not post a distance. She fouled on all three attempts.
MORE TO COME
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THIRD UPDATE: 1:45 p.m.
SHIPPENSBURG – While track qualifying and the other five afternoon field events were on hold because of weather, the PIAA moved the high jump inside, where the pole vault had already been moved in the middle of the morning session.
That meant the Class 2A boys high jump, where Holy Redeemer’s Justice Shoats is tied for the top seed at 6-foot-6, got an early start and is well underway.
The rest of the scheduled afternoon action is now set to resume at 2 p.m.
We are also ready to resume reporting. Coming up right away, more recaps of this morning’s action, along with monitoring what happens in the newly contested events this afternoon.
MORE TO COME
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SECOND UPDATE: 12:14 p.m.
SHIPPENSBURG – The state meet is in what will be a lengthy delay for a major thunderstorm. It came at a natural break between morning and afternoon events.
Updates will be slowed from this end in an attempt to preserve electronics from the conditions.
Time to pack up.
More to come later.
FIRST UPDATE: 10:58 a.m.
SHIPPENSBURG – The state championships are less than two hours old and District 2 already has a silver medalist and a number-one qualifier for the finals.
Hazleton Area’s Matthew Cusatis carried the lead into the final jump, but had to settle for second place in Class 3A boys in the first field event to be completed.
That is part of a trend of District 2 excelling in the first official events of the meet.
The district’s Class 2A girls earned three of the first eight medals awarded with their finishes in the 1600-meter run.
In the first qualifying efforts of the meet, Susquehanna’s Tatum Norris ran away from the pack, winning her heat and beating everyone in the Class 2A 100-meter dash by .34 seconds in 12.34.
Montrose’s Tangi Smith qualified third in 12.69, just one-hundredth out of the second spot.
Norris and Smith will run side-by-side in Lanes 4 and 3 in Saturday’s final.
The 1600 is the only track event to go to the finals today.
The Class 2A girls were the only medalists from District 2.
The other results were:
Dunmore’s Tommy Clark 16th of 28 in 4:29.87 and Holy Redeemer’s Tom Brady
28th in 4:55.61 in Class 2A boys.
Scranton Prep’s Rita Collins 28th of 30 in 5:26.70 in Class 3A girls.
Aidan LaTourette from Honesdale 30th of 30 in 4:23.68 in Class 3A boys.
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28th in 4:55.61 in Class 2A boys.
Scranton Prep’s Rita Collins 28th of 30 in 5:26.70 in Class 3A girls.
Aidan LaTourette from Honesdale 30th of 30 in 4:23.68 in Class 3A boys.
MORE TO COME
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INITIAL POST: 10:10 a.m.
SHIPPENSBURG – District 2 athletes immediately established their presence when the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Track and Field Championships got underway ahead of an ominous forecast at Shippensburg University.
The first event contested – and the day’s only track final – was the 1600-meter run.
Class 2A girls are always first.
District 2’s three highly seeded entries all came through with medals, giving the district three of the first eight to arrive at the medal stand this weekend.
Wyoming Area’s Madelyn Keating led the way in a school record 5:02.07 for third place.
Krista Jones from Elk Lake was sixth in 5:07.90.
Kate Korty, a Forest City freshman competing for Carbondale in a cooperative sponsorship, took eighth in 5:08.09.
A few drops started midway through the first event. A drizzle continues.
The Class 3A girls pole vault, which includes Crestwood’s Julia Lazo got started in the infield, but was then moved indoors because of wind and the threat of worsening conditions as the competition continues.
Contestants packed up their poles and headed inside.
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