PHOTO: Relay teammates Madison Dewees (center) and Lexie Marcinkowski (left) head down the stretch on the way to finishing third and fifth in the 400-meter dash. Montrose’s Stephanie Summerville (right) placed fourth. (Zachary Allen Photo).
By Tom Robinson, NEPASportsNation.com
MOSCOW – Holy Redeemer took the ultimate team approach to a team title.
The Lady Royals did not have a single individual champion or state qualifier Monday at the District 2 Class 2A Track and Field Championships.
They did, however, thrive in the relays and combine that with the ability to compile points across more events than any other team.
When it was over, that was just enough for Holy Redeemer to edge Wyoming Valley Conference rival and Division 2 champion Lake-Lehman, 91-89 1/3, for the Class 2A girls championship at North Pocono.
Lake-Lehman finished first, second and third in the three relays, but Holy Redeemer put together two firsts and a second to outscore the Lady Knights by four points in those events.
Holy Redeemer’s two wins came from the same four-runner relay combination, in the first final on the track and the final event of the night when the Lady Royals were facing a 2 1/3-point deficit.
Lauren Kane, Lexie Marcinkowski, Anna Capaci, Madison Dewees won the opening 3200-meter relay, coming in 20 seconds below their regular-season best that led to the top seed in the event.
Lake-Lehman lowered its own seed time 18 seconds to keep the 3200 competitive and leave a reminder that there were no guarantees going into the final 1600 where Holy Redeemer was a prohibitive event favorite.
Needing to finish two places ahead of Lake-Lehman to catch up and capture the title, Holy Redeemer did so with another relay win and Montrose beating the Lady Knights out of second place.
Tangi Smith, one of the night’s top performers, made things interesting.
Running the second leg, Smith moved Montrose into the lead at the midway point.
Capaci and Smith were two of the four runners – out of 56 in the event – to turn in laps under 1:02.
As the third Holy Redeemer runner, Capaci put Holy Redeemer back in control and Dewees closed out the title-clinching victory.
Capaci and Dewees each added a third- and fifth-place finish on the track for Holy Redeemer, which got its top individual finish from discus thrower Sydney Rush’s silver medal.
Smith and Riverside hurdler Avery Meredick were the only two athletes to claim two individual golds.
In the 100-meter dash, Smith needed a big comeback to catch Susquehanna’s Tatum Norris, the only second-place finisher to advance, along with the winners, to the May 28 Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class 2A Championships by meeting a predetermined state qualifying standard.
“In the end, I pulled through,” Smith said. “I know I come out of the blocks slow and tend to pick up by the end, but I didn’t think I was going to be able to catch her.”
Meredick helped Riverside produce the most event wins with four while finishing third in the team standings at 63 points.
“Anything better than my sixth place freshman year was all I hoped for,” Meredick said between winning the 100 hurdles and later adding a victory in the 300.
Madelyn Perfilio won the long jump and Lacey Danilovitz the 3200 run for the Lady Vikes.
Tasha Mihalko won two golds, a silver and a bronze. She finished a hectic day with a victory in the triple jump after anchoring a 400 relay win, taking second in the long jump where she led until Perfilio’s final attempt and placing third behind Smith and Norris in the 100.
“Normally triple is the first thing I do, but here they flipped triple and long and that kind of hurt my triple because I was dead when I was triple jumping,” said Mihalko, who still had enough left to pull out the victory and put her team ahead going into the final two events.
Wyoming Area’s Toni Minichello and Bianca Pizano, in the javelin, produced the meet’s only 1-2 finish by teammates.
Lakeland finished fourth with the help of wins by Skylar Arendt (800) and Gabby Case (shot put).
Arendt went out in under 1:09 on the first lap to build a big lead then held off a charge from Carbondale’s Rachel Korty, the 400 champion, Holy Redeemer’s Capaci.
“When you have people behind you, you just have to push yourself, because you have no one to look toward,” Arendt said. “So, I just keep running.”
Elk Lake’s Krista Jones (1600), Holy Cross’ Molly White (high jump), Western Wayne’s Ella Dougher (pole vault) and Mid Valley’s Avery Rebar (discus) were the other winners.
CLASS 2A GIRLS RESULTS
Team standings: Holy Redeemer (HR) 91, Lake-Lehman (LL) 89 1/3; Riverside (Riv) 63; Lakeland 45 1/3; Western Wayne (WW) 39; Montrose (M) 39; Wyoming Area (WA) 34; Holy Cross (HC) 31; Susquehanna (S) 24; Carbondale (CA) 18; Northwest (NW) 17 1/3; Mid Valley (MV) 17; Elk Lake (17), Mountain View (MtV) 16; Lackawanna Trail (LT) 9, Dunmore (D) 8.
100: Tangi Smith (M) 12.56; Tatum Norris (S) 12.64; Tasha Mihalko (LL) 12.84; Abby Springer (D) 12.93; Karissa Spade (HR) 13.00; Adreanna Cunningham (WA) 13.08.
200: Tangi Smith (M) 26.27; Tatum Norris (S) 26.29; Isabella Granteed (HR) 26.71; Abby Springer (D) 26.91; Karissa Spade (HR) 27.56; Eva Carachilo (HC) 27.62.
400: Rachel Korty (CA) 1:00.86; Eva Carachilo (HC) 1:01.83; Madison Dewees (HR) 1:02.05; Stephanie Summerville (M) 1:02.83; Lexie Marcinkowski (HR) 1:03.38; Makayla Wagner (EL) 1:03.54.
800: Skylar Arendt (L) 2:21.90; Rachel Korty (CA) 2:22.31; Anna Capaci (HR) 2:23.46; Grace O’Donnell (LL) 2:28.91; Madison Dewees (HR) 2:32.20; Samara Campenni (WA) 2:33.85.
1600: Krista Jones (EL) 5:18.78; Carissa Flynn (MtV) 5:26.68; Lacey Danilovitz (Riv) 5:27.33; Lexie Marcinkowski (HR) 5:33.51; Anna Capaci (HR) 5:35.95; Madison Kammer (WW) 5:37.34.
3200: Lacey Danilovitz (Riv) 12:01.20; Carissa Flynn (MtV) 12:03.27; Kaitlyn Farrell (HC) 12:04.45; Hailey Estus (WW) 12:23.80; Aubriana Marranca (WA) 12:38.75; Frankie Basalyga IHR) 12:43.61.
100 hurdles: Avery Meredick (Riv) 16.18; Lizzy Blaski (LL) 16.25; Victoria Zuletvicz (NW) 16.77; Lydia Vivian (LL) 17.25; Madison O’Donnell (L) 17.62; Ella Dougher (WW) 18.40.
300 hurdles: Avery Meredick (Riv) 47.98; Lizzy Blaski (LL) 48.18; Kalee Raczkowski (LL) 49.46; Kyra Hayden (HR) 50.13; Sofia Gonzales (WA) 51.45; Molly White (HC) 51.65.
400 relay: Lake-Lehman (Autumn Palka, Gabby Shonis, Keera Naugle, Tasha Mihalko) 50.85; Holy Redeemer 51.15; Montrose 51.82; Western Wayne 52.50; Wyoming Area 53.22; Riverside 53.44.
1600 relay: Holy Redeemer (Lauren Kane, Lexie Marcinkowski, Anna Capaci, Madison Dewees) 4:11.90; Montrose 4:17.02; Lake-Lehman 4:20.91; Lakeland 4:21.92; Elk Lake 4:23.42; Western Wayne 4:24.82.
3200 relay: Holy Redeemer (Lauren Kane, Lexie Marcinkowski, Madison Dewees, Anna Capaci) 9:55.17; Lake-Lehman 10:02.33; Western Wayne 10:06.06; Lakeland 10:24.80; Wyoming Area 10:40.96; Montrose 10:51.07.
Long jump: Madelynn Perfilio (Riv) 16-8 ½; Tasha Mihalko (LL) 16-5 ½; Kalie Quaglia (HR) 16-4; Dannica Wagner (EL) 15-9 ¾; Autumn Palka (LL) 15-4; Eva Carachilo (HC) 15-0 ½.
Triple jump: Tasha Mihalko (LL) 34-7; Madelyn Perfilio (Riv) 33-11; Kalie Quaglia (HR) 33-6 ¾; Mya Schimelfenig (HC) 32-0; Rosalind Tart (WA) 31-11; Madison O’Donnell (L) 31-2.
High jump: Molly White (HC) 4-10; Paige Olanovich (Riv) 4-10; Ella Pavlovich (WW) 4-8; tie Elizabeth Pittsman (L), Lydia Vivian (LL) and Samy Schwartz (NW) 4-6.
Pole vault: Ella Dougher (WW) 10-6; Victoria Zultevicz (NW) 8-6; Sydney Bryla (L) 8-6; tie Amanda McGurk (LL) 8-0 and Anna Wisnewski (WA) 8-0; Lily Kelleher (WA) 8-0.
Shot put: Gabby Case (L) 31-6 ½; Bethany Burns (Sus) 30-11; Avery Rebar (MV) 30-4; Sydney Rush (HR) 30-2; Ella Axtell (LT) 29-1 ½; Kaelyn Crawford (NW) 28-11.
Discus: Avery Rebar (MV) 114-4; Sydney Rush (HR) 112-0; Ashtyn Mecca (LT) 105-1; Gabby Case (L) 104-2; Olivia Warholic (L) 99-4; Nadia Toth (LT) 94-11.
Javelin: Toni Minichello (WA) 112-0; Bianca Pizano (WA) 108-5; Skylar Long (WW) 99-9; Faye Post (LL) 99-2; Sydney Rush (HR) 97-1; Avery Rebar (MV) 96-7.
