LORETTO — A hundredth of a second might seem insignificant in a race as long as the 800 meters, but for Bellefonte Area’s Alex Crist, it was a heartbeat to history.
“For distance runners, even split milliseconds count. If you PR (personal record) by a millisecond, it still means a lot,” Crist said.
Gold medals were few and far between for Centre County track and field athletes competing in the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference championships for the very first time on Tuesday, May 7, but two of the three that did win did so in record time at St. Francis University’s DeGol Field.
Just before Crist, Penns Valley’s Abby Stitzer established a new mark in the girls half-mile.
“I just felt really good,” Stitzer said. “I knew that the girls I was running with would be really fast, so I just trusted in my training.”
Indeed, with more than 20 Class 2A schools at the meet, the LHAC meet should serve as a good measuring stick for the upcoming District 6 meet. Add in a strong Class 3A program in Hollidaysburg, and the competition was even more challenging.
Penns Valley had a pair of girls winners, with Chamiqua Gentzel grabbing the gold in the javelin.
No team scoring was observed except to use as tiebreakers for the dual meet championship.
Crist ran away from the field at the end, his time of 1 minute, 59.79 seconds being a little more than 5 seconds faster than Bedford’s Jonathan Gresh.
More importantly, it was a hundredth of a second faster than the previous record. Westmont Hilltop’s Travis Dean ran 1:59.80 in 2010.
“Wow. It means a lot,” Crist said.
Crist did a little scouting before the race and found out his competition’s personal records, ran with them for the first lap or so and then ran away from them.
“It went just as I thought it would. The competition was good,” Crist said. “I knew I could take it.”
Crist said he hoped this would set the tone for the upcoming district meet, which will be run after the Gazette goes to press. Stitzer, too, held similar ambitions.
Not long after finishing second in the 400 with a 1:00.09, Stitzer showed no fatigue and put together a 2:20.09 in the 800. That was a second slower than the personal record she clocked at the Altoona Mountain Lion Classic.
She eclipsed the previous record with a little more room to spare than Crist. Central Cambria’s Abbie George posted the best time before this season with a 2:20.5 in 2022.
Stitzer was planning on running with the pack and relying on her strong finishing kick, but she didn’t need it, already separating from her opponents well before the final stretch. Central Cambria’s Abigail Sheehan was second, more than 6 seconds off Stitzer’s pace.
“I just took the lead and stuck with that,” Stitzer said.
Gentzel established a new personal record with her throw of 114 feet, 1 inch with the javelin. Bellefonte’s Madison Miller was second at 109-4.
No one else in the event threw farther than 103 feet.
Miller also took fifth in the shot put, giving her two of the Lady Raiders’ nine medals. She just missed a medal in the discus.
The Lady Raiders’ 3,200 relay of Alyssa Hopkins, Anna Tyson, Annie Cernuska and Althea Helms was runner-up with a time of 10:00.95 and Helms was second in the 200 with a 26.39.
Helms also took sixth in the triple jump and eighth in the long jump, while Victoria Schellenberg was fifth in the pole vault. Tyson finished eighth in the high jump.
For Penns Valley’s girls, Lillyanna Smith was fourth in the 3,200 and sixth in the 1,600. The Lady Rams 4-by-400 relay was eighth.
Bald Eagle Area’s only girls medal came in the 3,200 relay, where the Eagles were seventh.
BEA’s boys fared better, led by Kaiden Gates and Gavin Brooks taking second and fourth, respectively, in the high jump; Gates jump 6-2. The Eagles’ 3,200 relay also was fourth, and 110 hurdler Beau Taylor finished sixth.
Bellefonte’s Caleb Vinnedge captured a bronze medal in the 1,600 meters with a time of 4:39.87. Red Raider teammate Kaiden Williams was sixth in the event.
Logan Proctor was seventh in the discus.
Two Raider relay teams also made it to the podium: The 3,200 was sixth and the 400 was seventh.
Bellefonte’s outstanding jumper, Zane Hummel, did not compete at the meet.
Penns Valley also had a pair of medal-winning relays, with the 4-by-100 taking fifth and the 4-by-400 coming in seventh.
Individually, McClain Reamer led the Rams with a fourth in the 1,600 and a sixth in the 3,200. Greyson Kimler took fourth in the 300 hurdles, while Chase Shelly garnered seventh in the 110s.
Mid Penn Conference Championships
CHAMBERSBURG — State College sent a skeleton crew to the Mid Penn Conference championships on Saturday, May 11, at the Sponsellor Complex.
Alyssa Lipsky and Lydia Tate were State College’s best finishers, both coming in second in the girls discus and shot put, respectively.
Tate also placed seventh in the javelin, where teammate Clare Banker placed fifth.
The Lady Little Lions’ Josie Younkin took eighth in the girls high jump.
Adam Bell was State College’s best boys finisher, taking fourth in the pole vault. The 3,200 relay took sixth, while Andrew Pak-Blyzniuk was seventh in the discus.
