STATE HIGH senior John Sicree clears a hurdle during the District 6, 3A track and field meet held May 19 at Mansion Park in Altoona.
ALTOONA — Trent Dinant’s eyes went back and forth between teammate Sean Adams and the timer. Dinant knew his State College 4-by-800-meter relay was going to states. The question now was the time.
“When Sean crossed the line at 7:49,” Dinant said, “I held my breath.”
Within a few seconds, the time appeared on the scoreboard at Mansion Park Stadium, revealing that Dinant, Adams, Natt Staniar and Nick Sloff had indeed set a District 6 Class 3A track and field championships record on Thursday, May 18.
It was a phenomenal meet for the Little Lions and the State College girls, too, as the two teams combined to amass 17 district gold medals and won team titles. The Lady Little Lions’ Shannon Mullin broke the meet record in the triple jump as one of her two victories.
Ryan Lindenberg punched his ticket to this weekend’s PIAA championship meet at Shippensburg University by winning two individual events and being a part of two winning relays.
Event champions earn the right to compete at the state meet, as do any competitors or relays that meet a predetermined standard in their event.
The State College boys swept the relays in piling up 219 points to best second-place Altoona by almost 70. Lindenberg teamed with Jonathan Mwangi, Dylan Grunwad and Nolan Markowski to post a time of 43.54 seconds and then joined Adams, John Sicree and Staniar to end the night by completing the 4-by-400 in 3 minutes, 26.12 seconds.
It all started, though, with Dinant, Adams, Staniar and Sloff’s performance in the 4-by-800. Their official time was 7:49.35, breaking the record established by State College in 2014 by 44-hundredths of a second.
“It feels amazing to hold a record at such a historic meet. It still has not fully settled into my system. This is far better than any individual record,” Dinant said. “Our team was able to break this record because of the chemistry between athletes. These guys are not just my teammates, but some of my best friends. We have known each other for years and have developed a strong trust between each other.”
Their time was almost 13 seconds better than the state standard. It also was the best time any team in the state posted at its district meet, meaning the Little Lions will go to Shippensburg as the top seed in the event.
“We wanted to run a PA number one very badly,” Dinant said. “Nothing can describe the moment it was announced that our relay broke the old record. I sprinted over to my teammates and we quickly embraced, shocked at what we had just accomplished.”
Lindenberg, Adams, Sloff, Ian Dorefice and Mitch Maher all achieved the qualifying standard at the meet, which is based on the previous year’s results and is a good indicator of a competitor’s chance to medal. Lindenberg did it in both his individual victories, running 22.30 in the finals of the 200-meter dash and 39.68 in the 300-meter hurdles.
Lindenberg scratched from running the 200 at the state meet to focus on his other three events.
“Hitting the state standard in both events makes me confident in where I’m at right now with my training, my speed and my preparation. It gives me confidence in my ability to compete at states, knowing I belong at the meet and I can run a fast time just like everyone else there,” Lindenberg said. “The biggest challenge was definitely trying to do four events that are all clustered near the end of the meet. There was only one event between each of my races, so I knew heading in that I would only get like 30 minutes of rest between each race.”
Adams won the 800 run with a time of 1:55.99, while Sloff completed the 1600 in 4:22.06.
A big favorite in the pole vault, Dorefice lived up to his hype by clearing 15 feet, 0.25 inches, which will make him the third seed at states. Maher, meanwhile, was going to be engaged in a discus battle with Altoona standout thrower Ethan Stroup. Maher won the event and qualified for states on his very first throw, which traveled 158-11.
He’s ranked fourth on the state discus performance sheet.
“Being faced with the possibility of my season and career ending right there at districts, I had no option besides complete confidence. I went in expecting a win or at least a state qualification and I got both,” Maher said. “I feel best about my performance in that I just did what I expected myself to do on the day and I helped the team get the overall win.”
Sicree won the 110 hurdles by running a 15.75 in the finals. Meanwhile, Charles Endres got a gold medal and gave the Little Lion team first-place points by timing 9:41.10 in the 3200 meters.
“I’m most happy that I could score points for the team and contribute to the team win. It was also a special race because it was my last high school race competing with my brother Sam — he’s in 10th grade and he finished as runner-up,” said Endres, the runner-up last year. “I feel like I’m very fit and healthy and I’m just super excited to be able to race against the best in the state.”
Mullin won both the triple and long jumps, while Morningstar captured the 800 and ran the anchor of the winning 3200 relay to key the State College girls, who finished with 186 team points, 49 more than Altoona.
Mullin’s best triple jump of the season entering districts was 39-3.5, a few inches shy of Veronika Karpenko’s meet record 36-6 from 2015. Mullin broke the record on her very first jump by flying 39-11.25, and then she went 39-11.50 on her sixth and final jump.
Mullin didn’t quite get a PR in the long jump, her winning 18-8.25 about 4 inches shy of her best previous jump of the year, but it was good enough that she’ll be the first seed in both events at Seth Grove Stadium.
Mullin fouled on her first two long jump attempts, then posted her winning distance on her last try in the trials.
“She looked like a deer in headlights, but she got it together, moved her steps back and hit the board with a couple inches to spare,” State College jumping coach Artie Gilkes said. “Very, very clutch.”
Morningstar, Marlee Kwasnica, Chloe Poindexter and Natalie Koncoski gave the Lady Little Lions their first win of the meet by finishing the 4-by-800 in 9:41.01. Morningstar then came back and claimed individual gold with a 2:20.34 in the
800.
“I was having a little bit of an off day, it was not my best, but not my worst. I find it challenging to hit a good time without competition, but nonetheless, I was able to execute the first lap as planned. My Coach and I agreed that I should go for a fast start: this is going to be important for competing in states,” Morningstar said. “I look forward to some fast competition (at states) to hopefully pull me along to a PR for the season.”
State’s Sarah Tate and Victoria Walker also captured gold medals. Tate ran her best time of the year — 15.90 — to come from the second seed to win the 100 hurdles.
“I was incredibly happy with my performance at districts and I left Mansion Park feeling accomplished. Three PRs in one day with one gold and two silvers makes for a fun race day,” Tate said. “The biggest thing I struggled with this season was my start. I think I had my best start all season during the (100) finals and it felt really good.”
Walker also came through with a 1:00.04 to win the 400 meters.
“I feel proud of my performance. I took a pretty long break from the 400 meters, and the Mid Penn championships was my first open 400 since my freshman indoor season,” Walker said. “It feels pretty great winning gold.”
Those finishing in the top eight medaled and scored for their teams.
Dinant (second, 1600), Tony Tzolov (second, 800), Nathan Haas (third, javelin; seventh, discus), Maher (third, shot put), Jesse Myers (third, 100), Holden Roth (third, 110 hurdles; fourth, 300 hurdles), Sicree (third, 300 hurdles), Sam Bell (fourth, pole vault), Max Bodner (fourth, high jump), Markowski (fourth, 100; fifth, 200), Ben Spencer (fourth, discus; fourth, shot put), Staniar (fourth, 800), Duncan Loviscky (fifth, triple jump), Owen Vaira (fifth, 1600), Sam Viglione (sixth, 3200), David Brown (seventh, 110 hurdles) and Landon Leidy (eighth, long jump) also reached the podium for the State College boys.
The 1600 relay (second), Sanai Abdullah (second, 100; third, 200), Mia Iceland (second, pole vault), Kwasnica (second, 1600; second, 3200), Poindexter (second, 400), Tate (second, 300 hurdles),Irene Garcia (third, discus; seventh, shot put), Koncoski (third, 800), Alex Steward (third, pole vault), Claire Hicks (fourth, pole vault), the 400 relay (fifth), Clare Banker (fifth, javelin), Abigail Bigger (fifth, 800; sixth, 1600), Maya Ikenberry (fifth, 3200), Reese Kramer (fifth, 300 hurdles; eighth, 100 hurdles), Alex Antoniono (sixth, 400; eighth, long jump), Kylie Field (sixth, 200), Elizabeth Blizzard (seventh, discus), Annamae Leitzinger (seventh, high jump), Devyani Wadhia (seventh, 1600) and Moe’a Howell (eighth, 100) rounded out the medalists for the Lady Little Lions.
The Bellefonte boys finished fifth with 47.5 points. Scoring for the Raiders were: the 400 and 1600 relays (both third), Eric Bennett (third, 800), William Brininger (fourth, javelin), Chase Ebeling (fourth, 1600), Caleb Vinnedge (fourth, 3200), William Spratt (fifth, discus), Jacob Hummel (sixth, 100), Wyatt Lowry (seventh, javelin), Landyn Miller (seventh, triple jump), Ryan Miller (seventh, pole vault), Grady Garrison (eighth, 400) and Sherman Lowry (eighth, 110 hurdles).
The Lady Raiders wound up with 37 points and in eighth place. Ella Underwood (third, javelin), the 3200 relay (fourth), Gabrielle Deitrich (fourth, discus), Kerri Shutika (fourth, 100 hurdles; fifth, 200), the 400 relay (sixth), Sara Proctor (sixth, long jump), the 1600 relay (seventh), Emma Liadis (seventh, 3200), Annie Cernuska (eighth, 800) and Josie Underwood (eighth, triple jump) placed for the Bellefonte girls.
