DISTRICT 2 TRACK AND FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Both Wyoming Area teams won Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2 titles with perfect records this season.

Now, both are positioned to battle for Class 2A titles in the District 2 Track and Field Championships that are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday at Scranton Memorial Stadium.

Based on an analysis of the seeds, which were released by the district early this week, the Wyoming Area girls should be in an extremely tight race with Lackawanna Track Conference Division 4 champion Montrose while the Wyoming Area boys rate a slight favorite over LTC Division 3 champion Mid Valley.

Montrose and Riverside, another potential threat despite a small roster, each have top seeds in four girls events. Montrose has three number-two seeds while Riverside, which won the Class 2A girls title at the Robert Spagna LTC Championships, has two.

Wyoming Area counters with three top seeds, four second seeds and the projection to score in 14 of 18 events based on having athletes seeded in the top eight.

Only Lake-Lehman, which joins Lakeland and Holy Redeemer as the other strong teams in the Class 2A girls field, matches Wyoming Area with athletes seeded to score in 14 events.

Madelyn Keating in the top seed in the 800- and 1600-meter runs and part of the top-seeded 3200 relay team for Wyoming Area. She is also seeded second in the 3200.

Rosalind Tart, in the shot put, and the 400 and 1600 relay teams are also seeded second.

Wyoming Area and Mid Valley have the chance to separate themselves from the Class 2A boys field with only Holy Redeemer likely to be capable of keeping pace.

Drew Mruk is the top seed in both the shot put and javelin. Aaron Crossley, in the 100-meter dash, and Rocco Pizano, in the triple jump, are both top-seeded individually and as part of the 400 relay team.

Usamah Alansari shares the top seed time in the 100 hurdles and is also part of the 400 relay team.

Mruk and Blaise Sokach-Minnick are 1-2 going into the javelin, giving a chance of big points there and in the pole vault where Kendall Heck and Nicholas Scalzo are seeded second and third while Nick George is tied for seventh.

Nico Sciandra is second in the 300 hurdles and Alansari is tied for second in the high jump.

The Pittston Area girls project to be in the top third of the Class 3A field where LTC division champions Wallenpaupack and Abington Heights are favored above Dallas and Crestwood.

Aria Messner is the top seed in the high jump by less than an inch over Pittston resident Avery McNulty from Scranton Prep.

McNulty has cleared 5-4¼ and is coming off a Spagna LTC meet where she tied the record in the high jump at 5-4 while finishing second on a tiebreaker and won the javelin. She is seeded fifth in the district in the javelin.

Pittston Area also has the top-seeded 400 relay team with likely help from Messner, who is the second seed in the long jump and triple jump.

Messner is seeded second in those events behind four-event Spagna champion Anastasia Ioppolo from Wallenpaupack. Ioppolo is also the top seed in the 100 hurdles and third in the 300 hurdles.

North Pocono is the clear favorite to repeat in Class 3A boys where Valley View and Crestwood figure to be the top threats.

Pittston Area’s highest seed is Preston Klem, who is third in the 400.

Instead of separate Class 2A and 3A meets this season, the district has all athletes together. The field finals are split equally between the two days with limited track finals on Day One, which has qualifying heats in the shorter events. The bulk of the track finals are on Day Two.

If Monday is rained out, the district will likely moved to two consecutive days, using Tuesday-Wednesday or Wednesday-Thursday for the meets, following the same format of which events go on the first and second days.