NEW YORK — State College Area High School performers brought back two silver medals from the 114th Millrose Games on Saturday, Jan. 29 at the Armory Track and Field Center.
Individually, Shannon Mullin finished second in the girls’ long jump. Mullin’s best leap was 18 feet, 8.75 inches, more than 5 inches better than third place. New York’s Gianna Locci won the event with a distance of 19-6.75.
Mullin exceeded 18 feet on four of her six attempts.
The State College boys’ four-by-800-meter relay team also finished runner-up, finishing in 8 minutes, 2.55 seconds or about 7 seconds behind winner Ridge, N.J. Matthew Staniar, Trent Dinant, Nick Sloff and Sean Adams comprised the Little Lion relay. State actually led at the midpoint of the race but was unable to hold off Ridge in the final 1600.
State’s four-by-800 girls’ team of Marlee Kwasnica, Chloe Poindexter, Amy Devan and Grace Morningstar placed fifth in their race, timing 9:30.66.
The Lady Little Lions were running second through the first leg of the race, which was won by New Jersey’s Union Catholic with a time of 9:19.06.
Mullin, Kwasnica, Morningstar, Adams and the boys’ relays provided the biggest highlights as the school hosted its second indoor track and field invitational on Thursday, Jan. 27 at the Penn State Multisport Facility.
Mullin won the girls’ long and triple jumps with top distances of 17-10 and 37-3, respectively, while Kwasnica edged Morningstar for second in the girls’ 800, 2:20.04 to 2:21.08. Adams, meanwhile, won the boys’ 400 with a time of 50.07, edging teammate Ryan Lindenberg by .33 seconds.
Lindenberg and Adams ran the first and final legs of the winning 1600 relay team that posted a time of 3:27.39. Staniar and Salahudinn Abdul-Hamid ran the middle portions of the race.
Sloff, Abdul-Hamid, Staniar and Dinant also took first in the 4000-meter relay, their time of 10:39.65 being nearly 20 seconds better than second-place Greencastle-Antrim.
The Little Lions also copped two other gold medals. Mitchell Maher was first in the shot put with a distance of 46-0.5. John Sicree beat the field to the tape in the 60 hurdles with a time of 8.73.
Ben Spencer and Tony Tzolov garnered silver for the State boys in the shot put and 800, respectively, while Jackson Bodnar was third in the pole vault and Charles Endres third in the 800.
Three Little Lions produced fourthplace showings: the 800 relay of Nolan Markowski, Dylan Grunwald, Naji Mitchell and Chase Morgan, Reese Steidle in the 60 hurdles and Sam Viglione in the mile.
Landon Leidy (long jump), Dylan Loviscky (triple jump) and Ethan Morningstar (800) were fifth in their respective events.
State College’s Max Bodnar returned home with three medals, taking sixth in the high jump and long jump as well as eighth in the triple jump. Ian Savitski was sixth in the 800 and Samuel Endres eighth in the mile.
Poindexter, Devan, Natalie Koncoski and Makayla Raptosh brought the State College girls gold with a time of 4:21.14 in the 1600 relay. Poindexter also was the runner-up in the girls’ 400 dash.
Zia Bodnar and Sarah Tate brought back silver for the State College girls, too; Bodnar in the shot put and Tate in the 60 hurdles.
Also medaling for the Lady Little Lions were Clare Banker and Irene Garcia, who took bronze in the pole vault and shot put, respectively, and Alex Antoniono, who was fourth in the triple jump, eighth in the long jump and seventh with Chiadika Oputa, Sophie Dillon and Maya Ikenberry in the 1600 relay.
Sanai Abdullah captured two medals, taking fifth in the 200 dash and seventh in the long jump. State’s Caroline Simon was fifth in the shot put, Abby Edelman sixth in the 60 meters, Tanae Hardy seventh in the 400 and Kylie Field eighth in the 60. Mia Iceland, Macy Markle, Rachel Kann and Ashley Mitchell also medaled by placing sixth in the four-by-200.
Penns Valley’s Anna Stitzer turned in the best Centre County showing by a non-State College athlete, taking third in the girls’ mile. Her sister, Abigail, was fifth in the 800.
St. Joseph’s Colin Simander, Taylor James, Josh Hyman and Asa Reynolds came in sixth in the boys’ 4000-meter relay, one position ahead of Bellefonte’s Dan Mussett, Dillon Sette, Alex Mansfield and Chase Ebeling. Reynolds also was seventh in the 800 meters, while Bellefonte’s William Spratt was seventh in the shot put.
