SHIPPENSBURG — A state record-setting performance was needed to beat Abby Norwillo Friday.
For the second straight year, Pittston Area’s Norwillo came home from the pole vault at the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Track and Field Championships with a silver medal in Class 3A girls.
Norwillo cleared 12-6 to finish behind Mackenzie Horn of Manheim Township.
“I really did want that gold,” said Norwillo, who also finished second in the pole vault in the state’s indoor season this winter. “I woke up every morning working, determined, training for that gold.
“It didn’t happen, But it’s my third state silver. I can’t be unhappy about that.”
Horn cleared 13 feet on her first attempt, then went on to set a new Class 3A standard by making it over the bar at 13-3. Norwillo, meanwhile, struggled with the wind – it actually blew the bar off the poles prior to her first attempt at 13 feet – and messed with her tries throughout three misses at that height.
“In the beginning of the meet, it was just a matter of waiting for the wind to die down,” said Norwillo, who will pole vault for the University of Pennsylvania next season. “At the end of the meet, you really need everything to be perfect.”
Still, it was a near-perfect finish for Norwillo, a senior who earned a bronze and two consecutive silvers during her three straight trips to the medal stand in the spring outdoor championships.
“I am very happy,” Norwillo said of her final vaults at Pittston Area. “This is a nice way to end it, back on the medal stand at Shippensburg. I really wouldn’t have changed anything with my attempts today, which is a great feeling.”
Friday’s competition at Shippensburg University included the completion of half the field events and qualifying heats for every track event except the 3200-meter run, which competes just once. All the track finals and the other half of the field events were scheduled for Saturday.
Wyoming Area’s Marc Anthony Minichello, in the boys javelin, and Shelby Stackhouse, in the girls high jump, were scheduled to compete Saturday.
Pittston Area’s Philip Cocco was 22nd out of 23 in the Class 3A boys shot put Friday with a distance of 45-3 ½.
Holy Cross senior Lexi Walsh, an Old Forge resident and Temple University recruit, finished 14th out of 25 in the Class 2A girls 1600-meter run where the top 12 made Saturday’s final. She finished in 5:22.21.
King Rose, an Old Forge senior competing for Riverside as part of a cooperative sponsorship of the sport between the two schools, was 21st of 27 in the Class 2A discus with 127-1. Rose was also in Saturday afternoon’s shot put.
