Prebola earns silver for district’s only state medal in Class 3A boys

By Tom Robinson, NEPASportsNation.com

SHIPPENSBURG – Tunkhannock junior Matthew Prebola earned District 2’s only boys medal May 29 in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class 3A Track and Field Championships at Shippensburg University.

Prebola, who turned in the state’s top performance a week earlier during district championships, grabbed a silver medal with a second-place finish for a throw of 195-5 in difficult conditions.

“It was a little bit tougher of a day, but I wasn’t too worried about it,” said Prebola, who exceeded 215 feet on all six throws during the District 2 championships at North Pocono. “What I threw today, I’ll take it.”

Prebola will also take being within one step of the top of the podium with another year left in his high school career. He finished third in the state as a freshman and missed out on the chance to compete as a sophomore when all Pennsylvania spring sports were canceled.

“I was a little disappointed, but I wasn’t too mad,” Prebola said. “With all the weather and stuff, at the end of the day, I gave it everything I had and that’s how I finished.”

District 11 champion Collin Burkhart from Nazareth, the second seed going in, producing a throw of 208-6 in cool, windy, misty conditions.

“He’s an amazing thrower and a great competitor,” Prebola said.

The top eight finishers in each event received state medals and scored points for their teams.

North Pocono, the District 2 team champion, came the closest to adding to the District 2 medal count with the only ninth-place, the only 10^th place and two of the district’s other five finishes in the top dozen.

Chris Kryeski from North Pocono was ninth in the discus, missing eighth place and a medal by three feet.

District 2 had two competitors in the top 12 in the event.

Cole Gorham from Wyoming Valley West was 12^th in both the shot put and discus.

North Pocono, with a team of Colin Kravitz, Owen Foytack, Caleb Kenyon and Aidan Horne, won its 3200-meter relay heat in 8:04.93.

The Trojans, running in the slower heat, needed to beat the time of 5 of the 12 teams in the faster heat in order to earn a medal. They beat out three and settled for 10^th place.

Kenyon, in the 3200, and Kravitz, in the 200, each had a 12^th-place finish individually on a day when they competed in three events.

Le’Jean Berry from Wilkes-Barre Area tied for 11^th in the high jump, one of two events, along with the pole vault, that the PIAA moved inside because of the weather conditions.

State College outscored Butler, 36-30, for the team title.

PIAA CLASS 3A BOYS CHAMPIONSHIPS

(District 2 Results)