First Posted: 5/25/2013

Pittston Area senior Ronnie D’Eliseo followed up his four gold-medal effort in the District 2 championships by capturing fourth-place medals in both of his individual events this weekend in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Track and Field Championships at Shippensburg University.

Wyoming Area’s Trent Grove also earned a fourth-place medal in the javelin.

Both were competing in the Class AAA portion of the meet.

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D’Eliseo took fourth in the 110-meter high hurdles and 300-meter hurdles during Saturday’s Class AAA boys finals in each event.

He ran the 110 in 14.31 seconds – just two-hundredths away from a bronze medal but a new Pittston Area school record – and the 300 in 38.83 seconds. The top eight finishers in each event received state medals and earned points for their teams.

D’Eliseo made it through two rounds of qualifying in the 110-meter high hurdles and one in the 300-meter hurdles to reach the finals.

The action started for D’Eliseo early in Friday’s preliminary round competition when he posted the 12th-best time of 28 entries in the 110 hurdles.

His 14.97 seconds was good enough to be one of 16 to reach Saturday morning’s semifinals. Making the finals in the event, however, required a better effort, which D’Eliseo was able to produce.

A 14.45 was the fifth-best time in the semifinals, moving D’Eliseo into the finals. By then, D’Eliseo had already locked up his spot in the 300-meter hurdles finals.

During the only round of qualifying Friday afternoon, D’Eliseo won his heat. The District 2 record-holder in the event won the heat in 40.21 seconds, clinching the state berth. The time made D’Eliseo the last seed among eight finalists.

Grove and Wyoming Area teammate Nick O’Brien were in the last set of field event qualifiers Saturday afternoon.

Both are seniors who were also part of the Warriors baseball team that reached the District 2 Class AAA semifinals. Grove used a throw of 180-8 to take fourth place.

O’Brien was 16th of 30 competitors with a heave of 165-1. He placed third among the six District 2 throwers who made it to Shippensburg in the event, a first for the district in Class AAA boys.

The remainder of the local competitors finished their seasons Friday when half of the field events were held in their entirety and qualifying rounds were held in track events.

Wyoming Area’s Haley Stackhouse tied for 14th in the high jump by clearing 5-0. Marcyssa Brown of Wyoming Area and Olivia Giambra of Pittston Area placed 18th and 22nd in the long jump.

Brown jumped 17-1 ¼ and Giambra 16-10 ¾.

The Pittston Area boys finished 21st of 34 teams in the 400-meter relay in 45.39 seconds and 25th of 26 teams in the 1600 relay in 3:45.15.

Pittston Area was 22nd of 28 teams in the 3200-meter relay in 10:02.02.

Madison Mimnaugh of the Lady Patriots was 23rd of 33 entrants in the 1600-meter run in 5:15.62 while teammate Taylor Powers was 28th of 30 in the 100-meter dash in 12.91 seconds.

The Pittston Area and Wyoming Area athletes qualified for the state Class AAA competition with performances at the District 2 Championships where they either won titles or met the state qualifying standards.