Pictured above: Wyoming Area’s Drew Mruk, competing in District 2 Championships last week, is the top seed in the javelin as he pursues a second state title. (Tim Drewes Photo)
By Tom Robinson, NEPASportsNation.com
FINAL UPDATE
SHIPPENSBURG – Hazleton Area’s Matthew Cusatis and Susquehanna’s Tatum Norris were not taking success in this year’s state meet for granted.
Norris won three medals last season, including two golds and a silver. Cusatis won two medals in Class 3A, including a silver.
Cusatis repeated his silver in the triple jump despite fouling on five of his six attempts.
“This year, there was some better competition and a lot of guys jumping very well,” Cusatis said. “I came out here just with the mindset that I’m trying to get on that medal stand.
“Getting on that medal stand is a competition by itself.”
Norris entered the meet seeded lower in each of her three repeat events and adding her new event, the long jump.
On the first day, Norris exceeded her seeding position in all three events, earning a fourth-place medal in the long jump where she was seeded 21st. She led qualifying in the 100-meter dash and was second in the 200 where she also won her heat.
“The sprints are up in the air because everything can change; it’s down to hundredths of seconds,” Norris said. “The sprints and the long jump, I definitely thought were challenging. Even the pole vault, nothing is certain.”
Norris is tied for the fourth seed in the pole vault with Dunmore’s Maura Michalczyk, who she beat on a tiebreaker for the District 2 title.
The entire Class 2A girls pole vault competition is Saturday.
Norris got started toward a potential 100 repeat with a career-best 12.05.
“It was a time I didn’t think I could do,” she said.
That completes Friday’s coverage. We’ll be back with updates throughout Saturday’s competition.
UPDATED: 5:45 p.m.
SHIPPENSBURG – We will be back later with some more information, but it is time to pack up from Shippensburg University where the first day ran more than an hour longer than scheduled.
The final event of the day was qualifying for the 1600 relay. No District 2 team made the final.
Holy Redeemer was 18th of 25 in Class 2A girls in 4:13.26.
Abington Heights placed 22nd of 27 in Class 3A girls with a time of 4:08.19.
Dunmore was 25th of 27 in Class 2A boys in 3:36.92.
Valley View ran a time of 3:29.01 for 24th of 29 in Class 3A boys.
UPDATED: 4:44 p.m.
SHIPPENSBURG – Tatum Norris has now earned state medals in four different events.
The Binghamton University-bound Susquehanna senior added the long jump this year and finished third in the state in Class 2A with an early jump of 17-3. She was just a half-inch out of third.
Norris won gold medals in the 100- and 200-meter dashes last season and silver in the pole vault. That produced enough team points to make the Lady Sabers state team champions without anyone else scoring.
Norris again could be in position to pile up points, She qualified with the fastest 100 time and second-fastest 200 to get into Saturday’s finals. And, she is seeded to medal again in the pole vault.
The long jump medal for Norris was part of the afternoon batch of field events.
Hazleton Area’s Sophia Shults was 14th (36-½) and Wyoming Area’s Taylor Gashi was 23rd (34-1¾) in the Class 3A girls triple jump.
Nikolai Williams from Abington Heights was 16th of 25 in the Class 3A shot put with 48-10½.
Lakeland’s Lyndon Bello was 16th of 24 in the Class 2A boys discus with 129-0.
Mid Valley high jumper Dylan Holt was tied for 21st of 24 in Class 2A boys by clearing 5-8.
Western Wayne’s Paige Lee was 23rd of 25 Class 2A girls javelin throwers with 102-6.
Norris joins Hazleton Area’s Matthew Cusatis, who in the morning posted his second straight Class 3A boys triple jump silver medal, as the only two medalists.
Several other District 2 athletes have secured medals by qualifying to be among eight finalists in their events Saturday.
MORE TO COME
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UPDATED: 4:02 p.m.
SHIPPENSBURG – Susquehanna’s Tatum Norris and North Pocono’s Colin Kravitz are matching efforts in the sprints.
Norris, in the Class 2A girls 100-meter dash, and Kravitz, in the Class 3A boys 400-meter dash, each led all qualifiers earlier today to go into Saturday’s finals as the number-one seed in Lane 4 for those events.
Both sprinters went out in the 200 and won their qualifying heats again. This time, each finished second overall, putting them in Lane 5 for the finals.
Norris, the defending state champion in both the 100 and 200, was second out of 26 entries with a time of 25.02.
Kravitz was second of 38 in 21.57.
Holy Redeemer’s hard luck continued as Isabella Granteed finished ninth in Class 2A girls, missing the eighth spot in the finals – as well as the medal and team points that go with it – by three-hundredths of a second.
Wyoming Seminary’s Chief Montalvo was 15th of 27 in 22.81.
Rachael Collins from Honesdale finished 29th of 31 in Class 3A girls in 26.61.
MORE TO COME
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UPDATED: 3:18 p.m.
SHIPPENSBURG – Dallas hurdlers led District 2 at 300 meters where the district was unable to advance anyone to Saturday’s finals.
Sophia Filali placed 14th of 28 in Class 3A girls n 46.33 while Peter Federici was 15th of 25 in Class 3A boys in 41.04.
Mid Valley’s Cody Michaels ran a faster time, finishing in 40.90, but placed 16th of 28 in Class 2A boys.
Montrose’s Chloe Diaz, who qualified for the 100-meter final earlier, was 18th of 25 in Class 2A girls in 49.89.
Wilkes-Barre Area’s Jamory Lane Lee was disqualified from the Class 3A boys race.
MORE TO COME
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UPDATED: 2:49 p.m.
SHIPPENSBURG – North Pocono’s Colin Kravitz was the fastest qualifier in the Class 3A 400-meter dash, leading a strong showing by District 2 champions in the event.
Kravitz led the 29 entries with a qualifying time of 47.78 seconds. That puts him in Lane 4 for Saturday’s final and clinches a state medal.
Holy Redeemer’s Jacob Hunter also won his heat and goes into the final as the third-leading qualifier from the 24 Class 2A boys entries in 49.86 seconds.
The two District 2 girls in the event just missed being among the eight medalists and finalists.
Holy Redeemer’s Avery Kozerski was ninth of 27 in Class 2A, missing the eighth spot by four-hundredths of a second in 59.28.
Rachael Collins from Honesdale was 10th of 29 in Class 3A, finishing three-hundredths out of eighth.
MORE TO COME
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UPDATED: 2:35 p.m.
SHIPPENSBURG – Both Holy Redeemer 400-meter relay teams finished 13th in the state during qualifying this afternoon to determine the eight finalists in each race.
The Holy Redeemer girls were second in their heat and 13th out of 29 total entries in 50.32 seconds.
Holy Redeemer was 13 of 28 in Class 2A boys in 44.11.
Delaware Valley placed 23rd of 33 Class 3A boys teams in 43.78.
Pittston Area was 24th of 28 in Class 3A girls in 52.92.
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UPDATED: 1:53 p.m.
SHIPPENSBURG – Matthew Cusatis led going into the final and wound up finishing second in the state in the Class 3A boys triple jump for the second straight year.
Cusatis fouled on five of his six attempts, but his second jump was good and covered 45-10. That not only was enough to get him one of the nine finalist spots, but gave him the lead until Chambersburg sophomore J.J. Kelly exceeded that distance on all three of his tries in the final.
Kelly’s winning jump went 47-7.
Cusatis still has the high jump remaining Saturday.
Each of the field events was completed for one class and gender and is doing the same this afternoon and again Saturday morning and afternoon.
Cusatis was the only District 2 medalist in the first session of field events while a pair of girls thrower finished 10th.
The top eight in each event earn medals and team points.
Lakeland’s Anna Liuzzo, with a 112-0 in the Class 2A discus, and Hazleton Area’s Ashley Bueso, with 37-5¼ in the Class 3A shot put, each were 10th out of 24 entries in their events.
Lake-Lehman’s Seth Berry was 15th of 28 Class 2A boys long jumpers with 20-7¼.
Sarah Shipton from Crestwood was 18th of 21 in the Class 3A girls pole vault with 10-3.
Riverside’s Will Taylor was 23rd of 25 in the Class 2A boys javelin with a throw of 136-11.
Lake-Lehman’s Kathryn Morgan was one of three high jumpers in the Class 2A field of 29 who did not clear a height.
Qualifying continues on the track and the second set of field events are well into their competition.
MORE TO COME
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UPDATED: 12:15 p.m.
SHIPPENSBURG – District 2 will have two state finalists in Class 2A in the sprint hurdles Saturday.
Chloe Diaz from Montrose qualified fifth out of 25 in the girls 100-meter hurdles with a time of 15.46.
The top eight go to the finals, score team points and earn state medals.
Nathan Oliphant from Riverside just made it as the eighth qualifier out of 31 in the boys 110 high hurdles. He finished in 14.96.
West Scranton’s Colin Manley placed 18th of 31 in Class 3A 110 hurdles in 15.20.
Sophia Filali from Dallas placed 20th of 27 in Class 3A 100 hurdles in 15.83.
MORE TO COME
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UPDATED: 10:59 a.m.
SHIPPENSBURG – Defending state champion Tatum Norris from Susquehanna is the top qualifier for Saturday’s finals in the 100-meter dash, clinching her first medal of the meet after taking two golds and a silver last season.
The eight finalists earn medals and score points for their team, providing they finish the race.
Norris came in as just the 14th seed of 27 this year, but that was misleading because District 2 ran the 100-meter dash into the wind, hurting all times and keeping a strong group of sprinters from meeting any state qualifying standards.
District 2 sent only its four champions to Shippensburg in the event and only Norris is going to Saturday’s finals. She ran 12.05 in qualifying.
The 100 dash is the first event to complete qualifying on the track today.
Chief Montalvo from Wyoming Seminary finished 11th of 36 in Class 2A boys in 11:13.
Honesdale’s Rachael Collins was 29th of 30 in Class 3A girls in 12.94.
Crestwood’s Jaden Shedlock was 32nd of 35 in Class 3A boys in 11.23.
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POSTED: 10:30 a.m.
SHIPPENSBURG – Madelyn Keating won her heat in the 1600-meter run, but fell short of the medal stand.
The Wyoming Area senior was District 2’s top finish in the event, the only final that will be run on the track today.
Keating was a bronze medalist last year in Class 2A. Running with the slower half of the field in the first of two heats, Keating’s time of 4:57.51 was good for 13th out of 35 overall runners in Class 3A.
Anna Prusak from Wyoming Seminary, a district runner-up who got a state chance because Riverside’s Lacey Danilovitz scratched to concentrate on the 3200, was 18th of 25 in Class 2A in 5:32.19.
Dunmore’s Tommy Clark was 21st of 30 in Class 2A boys in 4:31.60.
Aidan Latourette from Honesdale placed 30th of 32 in Class 3A boys in 4:55.22.
The rest of the day’s action on the track will be qualifying heats, starting with the 100-meter dash, which is on the track now.
MORE TO COME
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POSTED: 9:50 a.m.
SHIPPENSBURG – The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Track and Field Championships got underway this morning at 9 at Shippensburg University.
Drew Mruk, a 2022 state Class 2A champion from Wyoming Area, is District 2’s lone top seed in the meet.
Mruk is the number-one seed in Class 3A after the Warriors moved up with the big schools in this two-year enrollment cycle.
There are three District 2 athletes seeded in the top eight in the Class 3A boys javelin. Nicholas Franceschelli from North Pocono is tied for the third seed and Samuell Guzman from Hazleton Area is seventh.
While Mruk is seeded to again finish first, Hazleton Area’s Matthew Cusatis is seeded second in the Class 3A triple jump after finishing in that place a year ago.
Cusatis, in the triple jump, is one of the athletes competing in this morning’s set of field events.
The field events are split evenly into four sections, morning and afternoon, Friday and Saturday.
Cusatis is also one of seven athletes tied for the sixth seed in the high jump.
Wyatt Johnson from Elk Lake is another second-seeded triple jumper. He competes in Class 2A.
The top eight finishers in each event earn individual medals and team points.
The PIAA uses district performances to seed athletes for the state meet.
The Holy Redeemer 3200 relay team is seeded third in Class 2A girls.
Karolyn Brito from Hazleton Area is tied for the third seed in the Class 3A long jump.
Mid Valley’s Gabe Pacyna is seeded fourth in the Class 2A boys 800 run.
Susquehanna’s Tatum Norris is tied for the fourth seed in the Class 2A girls pole vault after finishing second last season. She is also the fifth seed in the 200 dash, which she won, along with the 100, last season.
Lakeland’s Anna Liuzzo is also a Class 2A girls fifth seed while competing in the discus.
Sixth seeds are: Wilkes-Barre Area’s Jamory Lane Lee in the Class 3A boys 300 hurdles, Crestwood’s Grayce Grazio in the Class 3A girls high jump, Lake-Lehman’s Kalee Raczkowski in the Class 2A girls 800. Grazio is in a five-way tie for that spot.
Hazleton Area’s Sophia Shults is the seventh seed in the Class 3A girls triple jump.
Eighth seeds are: Valley View’s Jacob Nielsen in the Class 3A triple jump, Honesdale’s Rachael Collins in the Class 3A girls 400 and Riverside’s Lacey Danilovitz in the Class 2A 3200 run.
MORE TO COME
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