PHOTO: Mid Valley’s Kyle Marcinkevich on the way to 1600 relay win. (Zachary Allen Photo)
By Tom Robinson, NEPASportsNation.com
MOSCOW – An already special season reached a new level Monday night when the Mid Valley boys added the first District 2 Class 2A track and field championship in school history to their list of accomplishments.
Kyle Marcinkevich and Christian Snee joined Josh Angelo in claiming individual gold medals and also were part of the Spartans winning two of the meet’s three relay events.
“We’re constantly looking at the team points and we just want to be number one no matter what,” Marcinkevich said after his win in the 400-meter dash, but before Mid Valley put the finishing touches on its team title.
The Spartans clinched right before the final event, but did not stop there. The 1600 relay team, with Marcinkevich as anchor, provided the exclamation point with the win to push the final margin to 84-63 over Scranton Prep and Wyoming Area, which tied for second.
“The team pushes each other really well, so I have to do it for them, too,” Marcinkevich said of his individual victory.
Snee led off the opening win in the 3200 relay, then added a victory in the 1600, surging into the lead early in the final lap.
Angelo won the shot put.
Zachary Popko was part of both relay wins.
Marcinkevich also added a silver medal in the 200, earning another spot in the state meet with the top two in each event qualifying for the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class 2A Championships May 28 at Shippensburg University. However, he chose to scratch from that event at the state meet to concentrate on the 400 and 1600 relay.
Mid Valley, the No. 1 Small School boys team in the Riverfront Sports Super Six Power Rankings of District 2 teams, also won the Lackawanna Track Conference Division 3 title this season, ending Lakeland’s dominance of the division. Monday’s victory halted a streak of seven straight district titles by the Chiefs.
Michael Bennici, Popko and Collin Pacyna followed Snee in the 3200 relay win.
Gabriel Pacyna and Vincenzo Iacavazzi joined Popko and Marcinkevich on the 1600 relay.
Jack Lynett set a meet record in the pole vault, Thomas Dickinson won the javelin by 17½ feet and London Montgomery put in a big day in the sprints to lead Scranton Prep to the tie for second in the team standings with Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2 champion Wyoming Area.
Montgomery won the 200, anchored the winning 400 relay and finished second in the 100 to become a three-event stater qualifier.
Lynett cleared 14-2 in the pole vault, an inch higher than Western Wayne’s Ryan Atcavage in 2017. He also finished second in the triple jump, but scratched from the state meet.
Nico Sciandra’s win in the 300 hurdles led the way for Wyoming Area.
“Looking over the times of the other kids throughout the week, I was prepared for it to be a very close race,” said Sciandra, the top seed in the fast heat where all six hurdlers went in with top teams within a second of each other. “There was very little separation through my entire heat and it was just a phenomenal race out of everybody.”
Drew Mruk was second in both the shot put and the javelin while Michael Branley joined him as a state qualifier with a second in the 1600.
The LTC wound up with five of the top six teams and 14 of the 18 event winners.
Holy Cross, led by Thomas Lee’s win in the 800, was fourth. Dunmore was fifth and Blue Ridge sixth.
Dunmore joined Holy Redeemer in producing two individual winners each.
Dylan Aquino took the 110 high hurdles and Cristian Buckley the 100, giving Dunmore the first two titles when the finals started up on the track after early qualilfying.
Chris Hine won the 3200 and Justice Shoats the long jump for Holy Redeemer.
Ryan Mills led the way for Blue Ridge with a triple jump win.
Northwest’s Hunter Gmiter won the high jump and Lakeland’s Lacota Dippre won the discus.
Riverside’s Brandon Reed qualified for the state meet with second-place finishes in both the 400 and triple jump.
Nanticoke’s Sincere Shiloh will replace Lynett in the triple jump at Shippensburg while Blue Ridge’s Gerald Welsted will replace Marcinkevich in the 200.
CLASS 2A BOYS RESULTS
Team standings: Mid Valley (MV) 83, Scranton Prep (SP) 62; Wyoming Area (WA) 62; Holy Cross (HC) 53; Dunmore (D) 41; Blue Ridge (BR) 37; Lake-Lehman (LL) 32; Riverside (Riv) 31; Holy Redeemer (HR) 29; Montrose (M) 21; Lakeland (L) 21; Nanticoke (N) 19; Northwest (NW) 18; Carbondale (CA) 15; Western Wayne (WW) 12; Elk Lake (EL) 8; Lackawanna Trail (LT) 8; Susquehanna (S) 4; Hanover Area (HA) 2.
100: Cristian Buckley (D) 11.05; London Montgomery (SP) 11.14; Gerald Welsted (BR) 11.32; Dominic Palmatier (M) 11.37; Doug Walsh (HC) 11.40; Jon Seamans (L) 11.42.
200: London Montgomery (SP) 22.50; Kyle Marcinkevich (MV) 22.96; Gerald Welsted (BR) 23.59; Dominic Palmatier (M) 23.68; Justice Shoats (HR) 23.88; Jon Seamans (L) 24.57.
400: Kyle Marcinkevich (MV) 51.54; Brandon Reed (Riv) 51.82; Zachary Popko (MV) 52.76; Doug Walsh (HC) 53.17; Henry Rogers (M) 53.71; Heath Bowker (BR) 54.24.
800: Thomas Lee (HC) 2:02.99; Dylan Way (EL) 2:05.08; Ronnie Prislupski (HC) 2:05.09; Casey Weaver (LL) 2:06.24; Derek Pierontoni (NW) 2:06.99; Matthew Korty (CA) 2:07.39.
1600: Christian Snee (MV) 4:38.88; Michael Branley (WA) 4:40.30; Chandler Longstreth (LL) 4:41.65; Austin Gow (S) 4:45.40; Vincenzo Iacavazzi (MV) 4:46.44; Michael Novak (MV) 4:46.79.
3200: Chris Hine (HR) 9:35.93; Kevin Jumper (HC) 9:42.13; Nick Hockenbury (LL) 9:59.03; Daniel Danilovitz (Riv) 10:01.00; Michael Branley (WA) 10:10.28; Joseph Cardillo (D) 10:14.14.
110 hurdles: Dylan Aquino (D) 15.82; Nathan Oliphant (Riv) 15.99; Nathan Zarnowski (MV) 16.20; David Reilly (Dun) 16.35; Chase Nolan (L) 16.82; Usamah Alansari (WA) 18.20.
300 hurdles: Nico Sciandra (WA) 41.23; Tyler Rozanski (LT) 41.74; Jesse DeLousia (BR) 42.17; Nathan Zarnowski (MV) 42.54; Ryan McAndrew (SP) 42.84; Jesse Rogers (M) 42.87.
400 relay: Scranton Prep (Sam Castellani, Aden Johnson, Ryan McAndrew, London Montgomery) 44.80; Dunmore 44.99; Wyoming Area 45.11; Lakeland 45.34; Montrose 45.48; Holy Redeemer 46.03.
1600 relay: Mid Valley (Gabriel Pacyna, Vincenzo Iacavazzi, Zachary Popko, Kyle Marcinkevich). 3:34.03; Montrose 3:35.04; Wyoming Area 3:39.67; Blue Ridge 3:40.92; Northwest 3:42.97; Hanover Area 3:45.68.
3200 relay: Mid Valley (Christian Snee, Michael Bennici, Zachary Popko, Collin Pacyna) 8:25.64; Holy Cross 8:25.79; Holy Redeemer 8:41.18; Wyoming Area 8:42.99; Scranton Prep 8:51.18; Hanover Area 8:52.12.
Long jump: Justice Shoats (HR) 21-8 ½; Brandon Reed (Riv) 20-10; Joe Fox (N) 20-9; Doug Walsh (HC) 19-9; Ryan Mills (BR) 19-6; Sam Castellani (BR) 19-3 ¾.
Triple jump: Ryan Mills (BR) 42-9 ¼; Jack Lynett (SP) 41-0 ½; Sincere Shiloh (N) 40-6 ¼; Pat Bennie (HC) 40-3; Rocco Pizano (WA) 39-6 ¼; Devin Sherwood (BR) 38-4.
High jump: Hunter Gmiter (NW) 5-11; Bailey Grizzanti (CA) 5-9; Pat Bennie (HC) 5-9; tie Adrian Gonzalas (Riv) 5-7; Sincere Shiloh (N) 5-7; Nathan McAndrew (HC) 5-7.
Pole vault: Jack Lynett (SP) 14-2; Nick Barillo (WW) 12-9; Bailey Grizzanti (CA) 12-9; Richie Reed (WW) 12-3; Jeremiah Wolo (MV) 11-3; Jacob Birtch (BR) 10-9.
Shot put: Josh Angelo (MV) 49-5; Drew Mruk (WA) 44-2 ½; Sean Hanley (LL) 43-2 ¾; Jacob Simoson (LL) 43-0 ½; John Pashinski (N) 43-0 ¼; Mason Ormsby (L) 41-0.
Discus: Lacota Dippre (L) 148-4; Peter Sabia (D) 133-1; Sean Hanley (LL) 131-11; Josh Angelo (MV) 126-2; Casey Williams (L) 123-5; Drew Mruk (WA) 119-11.
Javelin: Thomas Dickinson (SP) 192-7; Drew Mruk (WA) 175-1; Blaise Sokash-Minnick (WA) 169-6; Liam Reinard (NW) 163-5; Michael Marcella (N) 150-6; Ayden Brendt (SP) 142-11.
