BOYS TRACK AND FIELD: West Scranton makes history in Class 3A; Mid Valley defends in Class 2A

SCRANTON — A buzz circulated on the Scranton Veterans Memorial Stadium infield.

With a quick rush of first-place finishes that had West Scranton Invaders track athletes parading to the top step of the award platform, the Invaders were on the cusp of program history.

With teammates encouraging Taron Knight-Guerrier, he powered to a second-place finish in the final race Tuesday night. Then, after the Invaders received the Robert Spagna Championship Class 3A team title plaque, he darted on a long-awaited victory lap.

Colin Manley and Amir Robinson each won two gold medals in their individual events, and West Scranton scored 85 points to claim the first track championship of any kind since 1986 and the first conference meet title since 1962, when only four teams competed for the crown.

West Scranton finished ahead of city rival Scranton, which had 75 points, and Abington Heights finished with 65.

"I am so proud of our West Scranton track and field student athletes," West Scranton coach Paul Devine said. "They bought in on Day 1 three years ago.

"All of their hard work and determination paid off."

Mid Valley defended its Class 2A title by scoring 67 points. Victor Holt won the 200-meter dash and ran as part of the 400-meter relay to lead the Spartans.

Dunmore finished second with 52 points, and Holy Cross had 45 to finish third.

"I am very happy that we were able to pull this out," Holt said. "Everyone really wanted this one and did their best. We grinded and got it done."

This night belonged to West Scranton.

From the first races and jumps, the Invaders secured outstanding winning performances and built momentum.

Manley won the 110 hurdles for the second straight season. He darted to a time of 14.63, then had to wait to claim his gold medal as the two preliminary heats re-ran because of a hurdle location error.

"I think this is amazing," Manley said. "Our coaches have really been hounding us to do our workouts hard and fast, and it all worked out for us."

Robinson sprinted to an 11.29 to win the 100. Not long after that triumph, Robinson also had gold draped around his neck by winning the long jump with a leap of 20 feet, 8.75 inches.

"This means so much to me," Robinson said. "I have been working nonstop every day. I wanted to get my best time every week, and it paid off in both of my events."

That gold rush and Knight-Guerrier's fifth-place finish in the 100 gave West Scranton 34 team points in three straight events.

Manley won a second gold in the 300 hurdles. He ran a career-best and school-record time of 40.20.

Knight-Guerrier won a silver in the 400; Lucio Ridore won a bronze in the high jump; Robinson finished fourth in the 200; Quincy Mosley finished fifth in the 400; Jacob Covage placed in the top eight in the 800; and the 1,600 relay team finished second to Abington Heights and had a time of 3:29.52.

Mid Valley won its third straight team championship.

Holt also won a silver (11.31) and Kramer won bronze (11.43) in the 100, and they joined Mason Vinansky and Jordan Chmielewski on the winning 400 relay. Holt added a silver in the long jump (20-5.5), and Chmielewski won silver in the pole vault for the Spartans.

"It feels great to win," Holt said. "But we can't relax. We have to kick it into gear and keep rolling."

Other conference champions

Wallenpaupack's Ben Ostroski won the discus (153-9); Scranton's Aidan Graff won the 1,600; Holy Cross' Matt Lyons won the high jump (6-4) and Kevin Vincent won the triple jump (42-8½); Dunmore's Cory Domiano (49.78) and Tommy Clark won the 800 (1:58.84); Valley View's Rob Nolan won the javelin (184-10); Tom Fiorelli won the shot put (48-7); Riverside's Daniel Danilovitz won the 3,200 (9:35.95); and Western Wayne's Robert Carrelle won the pole vault (12-6).