Smith, 2 relay teams land medals

By Tom Robinson, NEPASportsNation.com

SHIPPENSBURG – Montrose’s Tangi Smith won the only individual medal and the Wyoming Valley Conference’s top two teams produced relay medals for District 2 in the girls portion of Friday’s Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class 2A Track and Field Championships at Shippensburg University.

Smith reached the final by winning her qualifying heat, then rallied from the back of the pack in the final, passing two other competitors on the way to a sixth-place finish in the 100-meter dash.

The top District 2 finish was turned in by the 3200 relay team from District 2 team champion Holy Redeemer. The Royals finished fourth.

Lake-Lehman, the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2 champion, had the other medalist with its 400 relay team placing seventh.

Smith won her qualifying heat in 12.46 seconds, the third-fastest time out of 25 entries.

Susquehanna’s Tatum Norris, running right next to Smith, missed the final by one-hundredth of a second and one place in 12.56. She finished ninth with the top eight going to the finals, earning state medals and scoring points for their teams.

In the final, Smith found herself chasing everyone else before finishing in 12.62.

The slower start out of the blocks gave Smith an idea what to work on in the future. She also trailed Norris until late in the District 2 final before making up for a slow start.

“I definitely need to work on my blocks; that’s always been a struggle that I have,” said Smith, who also competed in the 200 where she finished 11th. “This summer and then, into next season, that’s what I’ll be focusing on.”

The Holy Redeemer relay combination of Lauren Kane, Lexie Marcinkowski, Madison Dewees and Anna Capaci won one medal and added a second top-10 finish.

The Lady Royals were fourth in the 3200 in 9:47.16, then 10^th in the 1600 in 4:11.71.

Capaci and Dewees were part of the Holy Redeemer 1600 relay team that earned a state silver medal at the 2019 championships.

Lake-Lehman’s 400 relay team of Autumn Palka, Gabby Shonis, Keera Naugle and Tasha Mihalko placed seventh in 50.88.

With three members of the state-qualifying 2019 team joined by sophomore Palko, the Lady Knights established a strong lineup early and were not beaten until the state meet.

“I feel like we just clicked as a team,” Shonis said. “Our handoffs were good, right from the beginning. Our times kept dropping each time.”

Elk Lake’s Krista Jones nearly pulled off a medal while running in the slower of two heats. She wound up second in her 1600 run heat and ninth overall, beating the times put up by 5 of the 12 runners seeded into the faster heat.

After leading for most of her heat, Jones was passed late by eventual sixth-place finisher Olivia Roberts from Punxsutawney.

Jones missed eighth place by less than a second with a time of 5:12.10.

Lakeland’s Skyla Arendt also was ninth. She missed her medal by 27-hundredths with a time of 2:19.28.

Ella Dougher from Western Wayne was part of a 10^th-place tie in the pole vault, clearing 10-0.

PIAA CLASS 2A GIRLS CHAMPIONSHIPS

(District 2 Results)