State High Teams Shine at PIAA Track and Field Championships

SHIPPENSBURG — State College Area track and field coach Artie Gilkes has a couple of nicknames for Jesse Myers just to keep him loose.

“I like to give him the business sometimes,” Gilkes said. “He just smiles and laughs or comes back with something funny. That lets us know he doesn’t take himself too seriously.”

Myers, though, is serious business on the track.

Just a sophomore, Myers put himself firmly on the inside track to one of the most-decorated careers in Little Lion track annals, finishing in the top four in three Class 3A events — taking the gold in the 200-meter dash — at the PIAA championships on Friday, May 26, and Saturday, May 27, at Shippensburg University’s Seth Grove Stadium.

“I went into the meet expecting to be in the top eight. However, I did not expect to place as high as I did,” Myers said. “My expectations for myself were to win at least one event, but it still came with a surprise when I had won.”

Keyed by Myers, the State College boys finished second in the Class 3A team standings to Chambersburg, 48-34. The Little Lions 4-by-800 relay team of Henry Adams, Owen Vaira, Sam Viglione and Nick Sloff won a bronze medal, and Sloff also was an individual medalist, placing sixth in the 1600 run.

In addition, another sophomore, Nathan Haas, finished seventh in the discus.

“Our coaching staff really breaks down where we can score points and what the kids need to do to get the job done,” Gilkes said. “Our goal of goals was to finish on the podium, and that requires everyone to buy into what our coaches are instructing. It also helps them have very achievable goals to pursue.”

The State College girls 3200 relay of Marlee Kwasnica, Chloe Poindexter, Amy Devan and Grace Morningstar finished fourth. Several other Centre County athletes competed but didn’t medal — the top eight in each event earn medals.

“Jesse had himself a weekend,” Gilkes said. “All the planning and all the scheming doesn’t matter much if your marquee athletes don’t step up and do marquee things.”

Myers did enough in Friday’s preliminaries to put himself in position for three medals on Saturday, but there wasn’t an inkling that he’d put together the performances he did. He was eighth in both the 100 meters (10.75 seconds) and 400 meters (48.32) and sixth in the 200 (21.49).

Then Myers turned it up a notch with the spotlight the brightest. With little recovery time after he captured the silver medal with a 47.81 400, the Little Lion 10th grader came right back to run a personal-best 21.23 in the 200-meter finals, winning by a tenth of a second over Upper Darby’s Lavar Jackson.

“The 400 takes a way bigger toll on your body than the 200,” Myers said. “I was super pumped when winning the 200, realizing all the hard work had paid off.”

Myers’ Saturday began with a fourth-place showing in the 100 finals. His time was 10.78.

The Little Lions relay was about eight seconds off the pace and in 23rd place when Vaira took the handoff and gained 17 places in the 4-by-800 ranks. Viglione moved State up three more positions, and Sloff brought it home in a time of 7 minutes, 48.47 seconds.

That was good enough to win the slower heat and get third place.

“The relay worked out almost perfectly, because we were able to duke it out with LaSalle even in the slow heat, which really gave us all a challenge that led to a significant drop in our times,” Sloff said.

“When Ovi (Viara) got the stick, there was no holding back. I think the announcer called him ‘a little ball of fire going around the corner,’” Gilkes said.

The Penn State-bound Sloff got State College off to a good start by placing sixth in the mile on Friday, crossing the line in a time of 4:11.40.

“I got a PR in the 1600 by a second, and I am happy with how I placed. The entire race was all very close in time, so it was difficult for everyone to be happy with how the results ended up,” Sloff said. “I was really happy to win the two medals, and it was especially nice to win another 4-by-800 medal because I got to experience it with my teammates.”

Haas overcame shoulder injuries and garnered his first-ever state medal by throwing the disc 158 feet, 11 inches.

“My main goal for the season was just to make it to states and then do the best I could in whatever events I qualified for,” Haas said. “The key to doing well was just remembering what my coaches had taught me and executing those throwing cues every time I got into the discus ring.  Once the technique finally came together, I was able to throw my best throw of the season.”

Seeded seventh, the Lady Little Lions 4-by-800 was in the top five from start to finish and wound up with a time of 9:20.67.

“It’s always nice to improve on your ranking. They went out there and ran a season’s best at the state meet. It’s what they needed to do,” Gilkes said.

Sloff also ran the 800 meters, finishing 18th with a time of 1:57.33. Additionally for the Little Lions, shot putter Ben Spencer placed 15th with a best throw of 49-5.25, two-miler Isaac Opperman placed 25th with a time of 9:36.79 and State’s boys 4-by-100 and 4-by-800 relays both placed 27th, running 44.98 and 3:31.73, respectively, in their preliminary heats.

On the girls side, State College’s other two relays — the 400 and 1600 — were 11th and 26th. The 400 timed 48.81, the 1600 4:20.14.

Individually, Kwasnica was 25th with a time of 5:05.30 and Devan 31st with a 5:17.52 in the 1600 run, while Malia Abdullah was eliminated in the prelims in both the 100 and 200, where she recorded times of 12.37 and 25.69, respectively.

Morningstar was slated to compete in the 800 but scratched.

The Bellefonte girls also sent two girls to compete in Class 3A. Thrower Gabrielle Deitrich was 24th in the discus with a distance of 91-8. Victoria Schellenberg didn’t record a height in the pole vault.

Of the county athletes competing in Class 2A, Penns Valley’s Miles Brooks and Philipsburg-Osceola’s Chad Muckey came closest to reaching the podium, both finishing 11th. Brooks triple jumped 42-5. Muckey traversed the 3200 in 9:31.26.

Muckey also ran the 1600, timing 4:33.12 for 23rd place.

Bald Eagle Area had three field athletes in action. Abby Hoover was 16th in the girls javelin with a best throw of 112-5. Kieran Jodon placed 18th in the boys shot put at 45-3.25, while Kaiden Gates achieved 5-10 in the high jump for 19th place.

Penns Valley’s Micah Good was knocked out in the trials in the 400 and 200. He ran 13th in the 400 meters with a time of 50.88 and was 18th in the 200 meters with a 23.09. Meanwhile, teammate Greyson Kimler had the 20th-best time in the 300 hurdle prelims of 42.80.

For the Lady Rams, Abby Stitzer timed 1:00.49 in the 400-meter trials, the 17th-best time, and Lillyanna Smith was 19th in the 3200 finals at 12:14.33.

The Bellefonte boys had Zane Hummel take 17th with a 41-6.25 triple jump, the 3200 relay take 19th with an 8:32.15, Alex Crist take 24th in the 1600 meters with a 4:34.18 and Sherman Lowry come in 24th in the 110 hurdle trials with a 16.27.

St. Joseph’s Colin Simander was 22nd in the 2A boys 800 meters. His time was 2:02.01.