State High wins PIAA track and field team championship

SHIPPENSBURG — State College Area High School’s Brady Bigger arrived at the PIAA Class 3A Track and Field Championships looked for high medals in four events, but there was something even higher on the Little Lion senior distance runner’s agenda.

“I think the biggest achievement, or at least the one that meant the most to me, was winning the team title,” Bigger said. “None of us won any individual events, although we were close, so being able to be on top of the podium at the end of the day, as a team, was really nice.”

Bigger placed in four events to power State College to first place in the team rankings by the end of the meet on Saturday, May 29 at Shippensburg University’s Seth Grove Stadium. Little Lions reached the medal stand in seven events — taking the silver in the four-by-800-meter and four-by-100-meter relays, also getting a silver from high jumper Conrad Moore and receiving a bronze from Bigger in the 1600 meters — to finish with 36 team points, six more than second-place Butler.

Bigger also took sixth in the 800 meters, while pole vaulter Ian Dorefice was seventh and the State 1600 relay finished eighth to round out the medalists for the Little Lions. The State College girls landed on the medal stand four times, with Shannon Mullin taking second in the triple jump, the 3200 relay placing fifth and Grace Morningstar and Jordan Reed garnering seventh place in the 800 and 3200, respectively.

Centre County produced several top finishers in Friday, May 28’s Class 2A portion of the meet, as well, with St. Joseph’s Clare Marsh taking silver in the 100 hurdles, teammate Kathleen Simander coming in third in the 800, the WolfPack boys’ four-by-800 relay finishing second, Penns Valley’s Colton Sands and Brendan Colwell placing third and fifth, respectively, in the 1600 meters and Penns Valley’s Leah Beben finishing eighth in the high jump.

State College boys’ coach Artie Gilkes said the team championship was the Little Lions’ primary goal for months.

“It feels really good. It feels really good for all the guys and all the parents. It was what we were setting out to do last spring (before the COVID pandemic shut down scholastic sports),” Gilkes said.

“Even before we got to the state meet, just the process of our day-to-day practice, guys never missed where they were supposed to be. They did the little things — the daily health screenings, they got their temperature checked, wear their masks, show up at the right spots at the right time, can’t be there for more than 15 minutes — all those things they did from Day 1 to the final day created a hardened discipline.”

Fittingly, Bigger was the biggest individual contributor in the final leg of that journey. He handled the anchor leg of the 3200 relay with Bennett Norton, Sean Adams and Mathew Staniar that posted a second-place time of 7 minutes, 55.69 seconds, ran the third leg of a 1600 relay that also included Staniar, Adams and Nolan Markowski that ran 3:25.37 to finish in eighth, crossed the finish line in 4:18.23 to take third in the 1600 and ran 1:55.92 to take sixth in the 800.

Making that all the more impressive was that the meet was held in one day this year rather than over two.

“Running four events was a bit ambitious, and I was a bit nervous about if for sure,” Bigger said. “I’d done it at districts and it was also pretty difficult. I tried to take it one race at a time, focusing on giving my best in each race and not trying to strategically save effort for later races. We wanted to try and win the four-by-eight, then I wanted to be top three to five in the mile and 800. For the four-byfour, we really just wanted to medal.”

Bigger wasn’t quite able to match his season-best of 4:16.92 in the mile, but it made little difference as the two racers who finished ahead of his both notched national honor roll times that were sub-4:10.

“I wanted to run my own race but be prepared for a bit of a tactical competition as well. I wanted to be up there but also didn’t know that I’d be able to hang onto Gary (Martin of Archbishop Wood, the eventual gold medalist),” Bigger said.

“The top two took off, and then it was a tight race for third. There was a lot of talent in the heat, and it went back and forth. It wasn’t too terribly tactical in the end, but it did become a bit of a sit-and-kick type race, as I waited until about 200 meters to go to make a final offensive move.”

Lewisburg denied State College the gold in the 3200 relay by about a second and a half.

“It was still a good race and we can’t be too disappointed losing to such a talented team as Lewisburg,” Bigger said.

One might think a silver medal was something to be happy about. That wasn’t the case for Moore.

“I feel a little disappointed that I won silver because going in I was ranked first and was familiar with my competition, I was really focused on the gold,” Moore said.

Moore just missed high jump gold. He and Shippensburg’s Dakota Arana both achieved 6 feet, 4 inches, but Arana ended up in the top spot on the tiebreaker of fewer missed attempts. Moore had cleared as high as 6-10 this season.

A Penn recruit, Moore dealt with adversity late in the season by not really getting challenged by his opposition. Then, at states, because of the rain, his event was moved indoors and he had to jump in sneakers instead of spikes.

“For me personally it really changed the event and messed up my steps since my speed was different approaching the bar as I didn’t have spikes,” Moore said.

“One of my all-time goals was winning the gold medal at states, and falling short this year isn’t a great feeling. Up until the state meet I thought I was performing well so I felt good about how I was doing and I hoped it would help push me over the edge to win.”

Lindenberg teamed up with Carson Franks, Nolan Markowski and Eni Ogunranti to register a time of 42.57 in the 400 relay. Red Lion won the event by .29 seconds.

“The 4×1 is a very competitive race and one slight mistake could actually drop you from first place to

last. To me it really means a lot especially for us as a team to accomplish what we did especially under those conditions,” Ogunranti said.

“We got there prepared and determined to put our names out there as one of the fastest teams in the state which was what we did. I believe that since we were able to push each other at practice, we were able to help ourselves get a lot better.”

Dorefice got to the medal stand by vaulting 14-6, which was close to his season-best of 15-0.

Just a junior, Mullin beat her season-best by more than half a foot to win the silver in the triple jump with a distance of 38-1.25.

“It definitely feels pretty good. I went into the triple jump not really expecting to medal,” Mullin said.

“I knew I would have to pull out something pretty big to pull something off. It feels really good, especially being my first outdoor season competing in the jumps for State High. I definitely feel pretty accomplished.”

Mullin got her silver-medal distance on her second attempt in the finals. That was a foot and a half beyond her best jump of the preliminaries that enabled her to advance.

“(The key) was definitely in my first two phases because, typically, I tend to be overrotated,” said Mullin, a former sprinter who described her relationship with the triple jump as one of love and hate.

“Once I took off and hit my first phase, I could just feel it was going to be a pretty big one.”

Morningstar and Reed comprised the Lady Little Lions’ four-by-800 team along with Marlee Kwasnica and Karsyn Kane. They were the only team in the first heat to place, winning their race by 9 seconds and beating their District 6 time by six-hundredths of a second with a 9:35.63.

Morningstar ran 2:16.68 for her seventh place in the 800, while Reed reached that position on the medal stand by recording a 10:55.34 in the 3200.

Marsh has been on a mission in the hurdles all year and came up just 13-hundredth of a second from gold in the 100-meter distance. Her time of 14.86 in the finals was her fastest ever.

“It was awesome. You run with the fastest girls in the state and the hope when you get on that line is you’re all going to make each other run faster,” Marsh said.

“That’s exactly what happened to me in the 100 hurdles. That’s the best race I’ve ever run in that event. It was honestly a dream of mine years ago to run a sub-15.”

Marsh ran 15.07 in the prelims. She’ll continue running at Catholic University in Washington D.C. as she pursues a political science degree. She was recruited by some Division I and Division II colleges. She began hurdling in seventh grade because of her long legs after taking up track at the urging of her father, a former college track and field athlete.

“I’ve rewatched (the 100 race) a few times. My dad has filmed every race I’ve run pretty much in my high school career. It’s just surreal,” Marsh said of her silver medal. “I’ve worked so hard the last four years to get that place.”

Jonah Clark anchored the St. Joseph’s 3200 relay that opened with Asa Reynolds, Brendan Scanlon and Josh Hershbine to a finish of 8:07.05, almost 7 seconds ahead of its pace at the District 6 meet. Central Cambria won the race as the only team to post a sub-8-minute time.

“We were seeded sixth so being able to upset that many teams and grab the silver was really cool. I know me and the rest of the four-by-eight team were really excited after we finished,” Clark said.

“The Saint Joseph’s guys track team has been flying under the radar for a while so to be able to really lay the hammer down and make a name for ourselves was really satisfying. To place that high, all four of us had to run a really good leg. We had significant drops in relay splits, especially by our second and third legs.”

Sands won his medal by posting a time of 4:17.28. His teammate, Brendan Colwell, wasn’t far behind at 4:20.11.

“I knew there were a lot of good guys in the field, and I knew there was a pretty tight pack around that 4:18 to 4:20 range. I figured it would be a little tentative going out, and it was. That’s kind of what I wanted to do. I wanted to go out slow and pick it up the last two laps, and that’s what happened,” Sands said.

“I just kind of executed my game plan and put myself in position on that last lap. Coming onto the homestretch, I was sitting second and I was going to go for the gold medal. I thought I had it, but Colton McCoy came out of nowhere and passed both me and Luke Seymour.”

Simander, the Navy recruit, ran the girls’ half-mile in 2:16.88 to capture her bronze medal. Her time was three-hundredths of a second faster than she ran at the District 6 championships.

Simander actually finished second in the fast heat to gold medalist Melissa Riggins, who finished in 2:10.62. However, Penn State recruit Cori McCormick, won the first heat with a time of 2:15.94, beating her time from the District 11 meet by 8 seconds.

In past years, when the meet was two days, the heats would serve as preliminaries and the top finishers would advance to one race on the second day.

This year, though, the heats served as timed finals.

State College boys who competed but didn’t finish in the top eight needed to medal or score included Franks (ninth, 200; 14th, 100), Ogunranti (11th, 100; 15th, 200), Lindenberg (15th, 300 hurdles) and Mitchell Maher (15th, discus). State girls who didn’t place in events were Mullin (ninth, long jump), Kwasnica (11th, 1600), Mia Iceland (12th, pole vault) and Victoria Lesher (21st, discus).

Centre County Class 2A performers that missed out on medals included Colwell (ninth) and Sands (14th) in the 800), Penns Valley’s Anna Stitzer in the 3200 (ninth) and 1600 (17th), Penns Valley’s Cami Upcraft in the high jump (ninth), Clark in the 800 (15th), Bald Eagle Area’s Sarah Holler in the shot put (15th), Marsh in the 300 hurdles (16th), Penns Valley’s Thad Smith (17th) and Dan Kelly (21st) in the 3200), BEA’s Owen Irvin in the triple jump (18th), Penns Valley’s Colin Niewinski in the javelin (19th) and Beben in the triple jump (20th).

“They did the little things — the daily health screenings, they got their temperature checked, wear their masks, show up at the right spots at the right time, can’t be there for more than 15 minutes — all those things they did from Day 1 to the final day created a hardened discipline.”
Artie Gilkes
head coach