Area athletes bring home multiple PIAA track and field medals
SHIPPENSBURG – The Beaver County area peaked at the bronze medal level of the PIAA Track and Field medal stand at Shippensburg University this weekend.
After Quaker Valley’s Oumou Thiero claimed a bronze in the 2A girls high jump on Friday, the Quaker Valley 4x800 relay team delivered the lone local boys bronze medal of the weekend on Saturday afternoon.
The Quakers earned a Class 2A bronze medal with an 8:01.10. Jackson Pethel, Jonah Montagnese, River Capek and Clark LaLomia combined for that season-best time.
“It was hot, but we were prepared,” LaLomia said. “I think our time was a little slower [than our goal], but it was a season best, so we can’t be upset with that.”
Midway through the race, the Quakers were in fifth, but Capek moved his way up to fourth when he handed the baton to LaLomia. For a moment, LaLomia fell back to fifth, but he reclaimed fourth quickly and jumped into third in the last 150.
Ellwood City placed sixth with an 8:05.71. Nick Wise, Bradley Custer, Drew Steffler and Colten Crizer put together that medal-winning time.
Mid-West won the gold with a 7:54.27, while Notre Dame Green Pond took silver with a 7:59.82.
Crizer and LaLomia also ran in the solo 800. Crizer was 14th with a 1:58.91, while LaLomia was 21st with a 2:03.14.
Davin Gartley of Quaker Valley won a sixth-place medal in the 110 hurdles despite posting a worse time in finals than in preliminaries. Gartley finished Saturday’s finals with a 14.82, after getting the second-best preliminary time of 14.56 on Friday.
Riverside’s Reece Sullivan did it the hard way but won a seventh-place medal in the 2A boys pole vault. After needing two tries to clear 12-6 and all three attempts to clear 13-0, Sullivan surpassed 13-6 and 14-0 on the first try each. His teammate, Owen Glover, was 13th with a 12-6. In between was Hopewell’s Connor Progar, who was ninth with a 13-6.
Two Quaker Valley reps, Thomas Debelak and Aiden Dywer, competed in the javelin. Debelak was 15thwith a 42-7, while Dywer was 20th with a 41-0 ¾.
Moon’s Tyler Guiunipero was 18th in the 3A 3200 with a 9:28.46.
GIRLS RESULTS
Five was the number of the day for local girls, as three locals left Seth Grove Stadium with fifth-place medals.
Freedom Area’s Aurea Hickenboth turned a smooth start in the 2A girls’ pole vault into a fifth-place medal. Hickenboth cleared 10-0, 10-6 and 11-0 each on the first attempt. Though she never cleared 11-6, those first-try clears earlier were the difference between fifth and seventh place on account of the fewest misses tiebreakers.
It wasn’t by a tiebreaker, but Grace Fritzman of West Allegheny also won a fifth-place medal by a slim margin. Fritzman placed fifth in the 3A 3200 with a 10:38.27, just .17 seconds ahead of sixth place. It was Friztman’s second medal of the state meet, having placed sixth in Friday’s 1600.
Another fifth-place performance was turned in by Quaker Valley’s Jay Olawaiye, who made it onto the medal stand in the 2A girls triple jump. Her 38-5 on the last attempt of preliminaries had her in fourth place heading into finals, though she was knocked down one spot during the last round of the afternoon. Olawiye’s second-best jump was 38-1 ¼ on the middle try of finals. Teammate Emma Currier finished with a 31-11.
Also reaching the medal stand for the Quakers were Vanessa Pickett, Kwilai Karto and Zora Washington along with Olawaiye, as they claimed the seventh-place medal in the 4x100 with a 50.11.
Similar to the Gartley situation above, Shaye Bailey of Freedom Area claimed the seventh-place medal in the 2A 100 with a finals time of 12.35. She had been in Lane 5 with the second-best preliminary time of 12.18 from Friday.
The Quaker Valley 4x800 team of Ellie Cain, Kate Hines, Cecilia Montagnese and Emily Bablak turned in a 10:04.91 for 14th place. Cain was also 11th in the 800 with a 2:23.27.
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Area athletes bring home multiple PIAA track and field medals
