District 2 officials disappointed Pittston Area administrators when they quickly ruled that there would be no adjustments to the Class 3A girls track and field long jump results.
Pittston Area junior Aria Messner wound up with three gold medals and one silver when Pittston Area’s hopes of overturning a possible measuring error were denied.
The only result of Pittston Area’s protest seems to be that the process for questioning possible errors may be more clear and formal in the years ahead.
Messner did not win a possible fourth gold medal and apparently will not even have an asterisk listing for the jump she produced that would have produced a District 2 meet record if not for the official result listing Hazleton Area’s Karolyn Brito as jumping 19-2.
“We can’t arbitrarily change that because there were questions raised post-event,” District 2 chairman and PIAA Board president Frank Majikes said in an interview a week later.
Majikes said steps were not taken during the meet to allow for a change in the results.
“We’ve learned,” Majikes said. “I’m going to have to put something in next year in the rules and regs. As we set the parameters and the guidelines, that ‘hey, if you have any issues, they’ve got to get to the meet director’.
“We’re look at the guidelines that we put out to the schools and indicate what to do if there are any discrepancies. Sometimes, you don’t think of everything and think common sense will prevail.”
Messner jumped 18-7¼, which would have broken last year’s record jump by Wallenpaupack’s Anastasia Ioppolo by two inches. Messner broke once, exceeded 18 feet on four of her five measured jumps and came within an inch of 18 feet on the other.
In line with the other jumps in her three-year high school career, Brito, who broke three times, was measured at 14-7 and 15-9½ on her last two attempts. Brito represented District 2 at the state meet where her best jump was 15-7½ and she placed 26th out of 27 entries.
Pittston Area coaches wanted the meet’s long jump officiating crew asked about an apparent mismeasurement from the triple jump board, which would have created an error of four feet, changing the 19-2 to 15-2. Coaches and athletes from other schools have told the Sunday Dispatch that they made the same attempt, in some instances in the immediate aftermath of Brito’s first jump, which came minutes into the competition.
Although Struckus was on the infield making inquiries about the discrepancy during the meet, Majikes said he was told by the meet’s top officials that they were unaware of the questions he was raising.
The result for the 13th-seed Brito stood and gave her a district record that has the potential to hold up for years.
“It’s a situation where it just isn’t right,” Pittston Area principal Chris Lazevnick said three days after the meet. “I sent some e-mails just to implore them to look at it and just do the right thing and it’s been denied.
“Their stance is that it’s over and it’s going to stand as is.”
Messner, who won district gold in the high jump, 100-meter dash and 400 relay, missed the state meet after suffering injuries in an automobile accident.
