Ella McKernan, on the inside, takes off on the way to a 1-2 Wyoming Area finish in the 800-meter run at Thursday’s Wyoming Valley Conference Championships. Hannah Stoss, partially visible behind McKernan in Lane 3, finished second, behind only her teammate.
With Pittston Area’s Aria Messner and Wyoming Area’s Madelyn Keating leading the way, Greater Pittston athletes account for the top seeds for seven of 18 events in Class 3A for the District 2 Track and Field Championships, which are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday at Scranton Memorial Stadium.
Messner is the top seed in the 100-meter dash with a season-best time of 12.56 and in the long jump with a distance of 18-4. She also shares the top seed in the high jump after clearing 5-4 and is likely to anchor the 400 relay team, which also shares a number-one seed with a time of 50.69 seconds.
Keating is the top seed in the 800 (2:14) and 1600 (4:59) runs, along with being one of the scheduled runners on the top-seeded 3200 relay team. She is seeded second in the 3200.
WVC CHAMPIONSHIPS
HAZLE TWP. – Aria Messner and Madelyn Keating warmed up for their District 2 title shots and state qualifying chances that go with it by being some of the top performers Thursday when the first Wyoming Valley Conference Track and Field Championship Meet was conducted at Hazleton Area.
Pittston Area’s Messner won the 100-meter dash and long jump to join Dallas hurdler Sophia Filali and Nanticoke thrower Sophia Lukowski as the only girls to win two individual gold medals.
Keating and Wyoming Area teammate Ella McKernan were the others to capture two golds with each getting one as part of the 3200 relay team. Keating also won the 3200 while McKernan and Hannah Stoss formed a 1-2 finish in the 800.
Wyoming Area finished third of 14 teams with 71 points. Pittston Area was fifth with 60.
Crestwood beat out Dallas, 113-105, for the team title.
The top three in each event earned medals while the top eight scored points for their teams.
Stoss and Nina Angeli joined Keating and McKernan for the relay win.
McKernan and Stoss also medaled in the 1600 relay when Wyoming Area placed second with a team that included Alexys Moore and Samara Campenni.
Taylor Gashi’s silver in the triple jump and Bianca Pizano’s bronze in the javelin accounted for the team’s other medals.
Gashi took fifth in the high jump while Wyoming Area also got points from a sixth-place finish in the 400 relay and a pair of seventh-place hurdles finishes by Lucia Campenni.
In addition to her two gold medals, Messner had two silvers with second-place finishes in the high jump and 400 relay.
Jessica Ostrowski, Jenna Grieco and Ali Butcher joined Messner on the medal-winning relay team.
Pittston Area also finished fifth in the 3200 relay and sixth in the 1600 relay.
Others scoring points for the Lady Patriots were: Maddie Jackubowski, fifth, 300 hurdles; Sadie Gregory, fifth, triple jump; Gianna DiPietropaolo, sixth, 100 hurdles; Elinor Schardien, sixth, pole vault; Jenna Grieco, seventh, 100; and Olivia Scalese, eighth, 1600.
LOOKING BACK
The Wyoming Area 3200-meter girls relay team set a school record of 9:39.51 while winning the Henderson Invitational in West Chester May 5.
Bianca Pizano was fifth in the javelin to lead the Wyoming Area entries in the Olympian Invitational at Jim Thorpe the night before.
