Giavanna Innamorati goes over the final hurdle on the way to a second-place finish in the 300 Thursday night against Dallas. Earlier in the day, Innamorati broke her own school record in the 100 hurdles while winning in 15.0 seconds.
                                 Tom Robinson | Sunday Dispatch

Giavanna Innamorati goes over the final hurdle on the way to a second-place finish in the 300 Thursday night against Dallas. Earlier in the day, Innamorati broke her own school record in the 100 hurdles while winning in 15.0 seconds.

Tom Robinson | Sunday Dispatch

YATESVILLE – Pittston Area put itself in position to compete for the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 girls track and field title on the final day of the regular season, but could not match up to the combination of a dominant distance effort and four wins by sprinter Alondra Church, who led Dallas to a 97-53 victory.

“We were coming into the season with 20 freshmen who didn’t have an eighth-grade year and they really didn’t know where they were going,” Lady Patriots coach Joe Struckus said. “So, it was definitely a successful season to say the least.”

The meet was postponed earlier, setting up both teams at 5-0 going into Thursday’s meet, but with Dallas beating teams by a wider margin as the season progressed.

“I pretty much saw a lot of what was happening,” Struckus said. “We were watching Dallas as the season progressed and saw what they were doing.

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“We knew coming in than the things they were going to do.”

Dallas scored 31 of 32 possible points in distance events (800, 1600, 3200, 3200 relay) and Church made sure the Mountaineers outscored a strong Pittston Area sprinting group.

“Our weakness is distance and they exploited that,” Struckus said, “and, that was probably the best sprinting team we’ve seen.”

Giavanna Innamorati lowered her Pittston Area school record in the 100-meter hurdles with a win in 15.0 seconds.

Aria Messner led the way for the Lady Patriots with wins in the long jump and triple jump along with a leg on the winning 400-meter relay team that also included Innamorati.

Leah Zambetti won the discus.

The final standings were: Dallas 6-0, Pittston Area 5-1, Crestwood 4-2, Berwick 3-3, Hazleton Area 2-4, Wyoming Valley West 1-5, Wilkes-Barre Area 0-6.

Pittston Area 96, Hazleton Area 54

Pittston Area set the stage for the championship showdown with Tuesday’s road win.

Amber Jenkins won the shot put, discus and javelin to lead the Lady Patriots to a 25-2 advantage in the throwing events.

Sprinter Jakiya Kroon won two individual and two relay events.

Jumper Aria Messner and hurdler Giavanna Innamorati each won two individual events along with being part of a relay win by doubling as sprinters.

Mikayla Zabrowski won the 800 and 3200 relay while Samantha Ruszin and Rowan Lazevnick each were on two winning relays.