Boys Track and Field: Lake-Lehman surges to early lead in District 2 Championships

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SCRANTON — It’s shaping up to be a fight to the finish in Class 2A, but the Lake-Lehman boys have to like where they’re at with the first day of the District 2 championship meet in the books.

The Black Knights won three of the seven 2A boys gold medals awarded on Monday and sit in first place in the team standings, with their 43.5-point total putting them ahead of defending team champs Mid Valley and third-place Riverside.

The hometown Knights of Scranton High School hold the 3A team lead, picking up a win in the final race of the day, the 3,200-meter run, to separate themselves from Wyoming Area and Pittston Area.

The majority of the finals are set for today at Scranton Memorial Stadium, with 11 more 2A finals and 12 more in Class 3A.

Strong start puts Lake-Lehman on top of 2A standings

The Black Knights didn’t waste any time getting themselves on the board Monday.

In the first Class 2A final of the championships, Lake-Lehman breezed to a first-place finish in the 3,200 relay to earn the gold and 10 championship points.

The team of Stephen Martin, Nicco Diana, Finn Cronin and Ben Wnuk clocked in with a time of 8:14.87, nearly five seconds clear of silver medalist Holy Cross.

“We are feeling great, we’ve been training for this all year so we’re very pleased with our performances,” Martin said.

Lake-Lehman would earn two more gold medals before the day was through, both around the neck of jumper Seth Berry.

Berry first defended his district title in the long jump, clearing 22 feet, 4.25 inches to win the gold. He would be back in the pit a short while later to compete in the high jump, an event he admitted he was not as familiar with.

It didn’t matter, as Berry was able to edge out Matthew Lyons from Holy Cross to win his second gold of the day, and Lake-Lehman’s third of the championships.

“I’m not a high jumper really, this is my first year doing it,” Berry said. “It’s been a good day, I’m jumping well.”

Berry will have two more chances to add to his medal haul on Tuesday, with the triple jump and the 400 relay. Greyson Dieffenbacher also medaled for Lehman in the high jump, finishing in sixth place.

Finn Cronin added a fourth-place medal in the 300 hurdles and Reilley Kirkutis placed third in the javelin for Lake-Lehman.

Riverside won two individual gold medals. Will Taylor winning the javelin and Daniel Danilovitz repeating as district champ in the 3,200 run.

Western Wayne’s Robert Carrelle won the 300 hurdles to round out the 2A gold medal winners on Monday.

Preliminary heats were run in the 100 and 200 dashes along with the 110 hurdles as well on Monday.

Mid Valley’s Victor Holt set the top time in both the 100 and 200 dashes, and Riverside’s Cael Krushnowski posted the time to beat in the 110 hurdles.

The WVC was shut out entirely of the 110 hurdles final, and will send just one runner each to the finals of the 100 and 200 dashes: Lake-Lehman’s Miller Mattie in the 100 dash with a fifth-place qualifying time, and Matthew Stilp of Holy Redeemer in the 200, finishing in fourth place in the prelims.

Four gold medals for WVC in Class 3A competition

Though it’s Scranton topping the standings after the first day of competition, several Wyoming Valley Conference athletes were able to score gold on the first day of the Class 3A championships.

For starters, the Pittston Area 3,200 relay team completed a WVC boys sweep of the event with a gold medal performance.

Caden Boettger, Brady Tucker, Jakob Mead and Preston Klem clocked in with a time of 8:08.68, holding off Abington Heights by less than a second. The Patriots scored 19 total team points on Monday, landing them in third place.

Three more 3A gold medals were won by WVC competitors, all coming in the field portion of the competition.

Tunkhannock’s Andrew Lupinski held off a strong challenge from Wyoming Area freshman Luke Kopetchny to win gold in the triple jump.

Darren Seiwell would get Hazleton Area, the winners of last week’s WVC championship meet, into the winner’s circle with a dominant showing in the pole vault.

Seiwell cleared 13 feet even to edge out Crestwood’s Hayden Martincheck and bring home the gold for Hazleton Area.

“It’s been my goal since the start of the season, I’m honored to be able to achieve that goal,” Seiwell said, pausing for a beat to embrace Martincheck after the medal ceremony. “I have respect for everybody here, they’re all great vaulters and I’m honored to be able to vault with them today.”

Berwick’s Harrison Snyder, a bronze medalist in the shot put last year, was able to outshine the competition and win gold in the event this year, the final WVC gold medal of the day on Monday.

Scranton was able to take the team lead from Wyoming Area after the fifth event of the day, and a gold-medal run in the 3200 run from Aidan Graff helped the Knights put some cushion between them and the Warriors.

Wyoming Area didn’t have any gold medalists on the boys side, but were able to end the day with 21 team points thanks to a strong overall performance.

Kopetchny’s silver in the triple jump was the strongest Wyoming Area finish of the day, followed by fourth-place finishes from John Turner in the shot put and Austin Muniz in the pole vault.

In Monday’s prelims, Crestwood’s George Jennings and Berwick’s Ty Wilkerson set first-place qualifying times in the 100 and 200 dashes.

Wilkerson ran a 11.24 100 dash, edging out Crestwood’s Jaden Shedlock by 0.01 seconds with Jennings qualifying in third. All eight spots in the 100 dash finals were won by WVC sprinters.

Jennings would set the time to beat in the 200 with a 22.44 mark, Wilkerson right behind in second place.

District 2 Class 2A Boys Track and Field Championships

Team Standings (7 of 18 events scored): 1. Lake-Lehman (LL) 43.5; 2. Mid Valley (MV) 39; 3. Riverside (RIV) 37; 4. Holy Cross (HC) 31; 5. Dunmore (DUN) 28; 6. Western Wayne (WW) 21.5; 7. Elk Lake (ELK) 18; T8 Lakeland (LAK) 16; T8. Montrose (MON) 16; 10. Susquehanna (SUS) 12; 11. Holy Redeemer (HR) 4; T12. Carbondale (CAR) 3; T12. Lackawanna Trail (LT) 3; 14. Mountain View (MTV) 1.

3200 Relay: 1. Lake-Lehman (Stephen Martin, Nicco Diana, Finn Cronin, Ben Wnuk) 8:14.87; 2. Holy Cross 8:19.31; 3. Mid Valley 8:25.84; 4. Montrose 8:37.17; 5. Susquehanna 8:38.25; 6. Lakeland 8:38.51.

Javelin: 1. Will Taylor (RIV) 170-10; 2. Chad Hoskins (RIV) 149-11; 3. Reilley Kirkutis (LL) 135-3; 4. Sean Gallagher (DUN) 133-6; 5. Gavin Rapoch (MV) 133-2; 6. Matthew Lyons (HC) 130-10.

Long Jump: 1. Seth Berry (LL) 22-4.25; 2. Sean Gallagher (DUN) 21-1; 3. Wyatt Johnson (ELK) 19-11; 4. Victor Holt (MV) 19-10.5; 5. Connor Oshinski (RIV) 19-9.5; 6. Maximus Kuwaye (MON) 19-7.

Discus: 1. Lyndon Bello (LAK) 148-1; 2. Hayden Mundrake (WW) 138-10; 3. Leland Wudarski (HC) 138-4; 4. Robert Mattioli (MV) 138-1; 5. Nicholas Jackson (MV) 137-6; 6. Cody Ormes (CAR) 134-7.

High Jump: 1. Seth Berry (LL) 6-1; 2. Matthew Lyons (HC) 6-1; 3. Jakob Lesher (MV) 6-1; 4. Kevin Vincent (HC) 6-1; 5. Connor Oshinski (RIV) 5-9; T6. Greyson Dieffenbacher (LL) 5-7; T6. John Pyatt (WW) 5-7.

300 Hurdles: 1. Robert Carrelle (WW) 41.35; 2. Cole Fangio (DUN) 41.76; 3. Gabe Franek (DUN) 42.82; 4. Finn Cronin (LL) 43.10; 5. Ryder Hobart (SUS) 43.73; 6. Tyler Atticks (LAK) 43.77.

3200 Run: 1. Daniel Danilovitz (RIV) 9:23.27; 2. Kendel Jones (HC) 9:27.37 (State Qual.); 3. Lorenzo Christian (MON) 10:02.36; 4. Matthew Repecki (MV) 10:08.31; 5. Parker Upright (ELK) 10:09.68; 6. Brayden Clarke (LT) 10:11.71.

Class 3A Track and Field Championships

Team Standings (6 of 18 events scored): 1. Scranton (SCR) 37.5; 2. Wyoming Area (WA) 21; 3. Pittston Area (PA) 19; 4. Valley View (VV) 18; T5. Crestwood (CRE) 16; T5. Hazleton Area (HAZ) 16; T7. Delaware Valley (DV) 15; T7. Abington Heights (AH) 15; 9. Dallas (DAL) 14; 10. Berwick (BER) 13; T11. Scranton Prep (SP) 11; T11. West Scranton (WSC) 11; 13. Tunkhannock (TUN) 10; 14. Wallenpaupack (WAL) 9; 15. Honesdale (HON) 4; 16. North Pocono (NP) 3; 17. Wilkes-Barre Area (WBA) 1.5.

3200 Relay: 1. Pittston Area (Caden Boettger, Brady Tucker, Jakob Mead, Preston Klem) 8:08.68; 2. Abington Heights 8:09.22; 3. Delaware Valley 8:19.47; 4. Crestwood 8:19.49; 5. Valley View 8:30.46; 6. North Pocono 8:30.90.

Triple Jump: 1. Andrew Lupinski (TUN) 44-1; 2. Luke Kopetchny (WA) 43-1; 3. John Roberto (SCR) 42-7.75; 4. Lucas Lopresto (PA) 42-6; 5. Tristen Smith (SCR) 41-10.5 6. Logan Geskey (DAL) 41-3,25.

Shot Put: 1. Harrison Snyder (BER) 52-1; 2. Tom Fiorelli (VV) 50-6; 3. Chino Gonzalez (SP) 47-8.5; 4. John Turner (WA) 47-0; 5. Tyler Yakaboski (WAL) 46-8.75; 6. Josh Mruk (WA) 46-8.

Pole Vault: 1. Darren Seiwell (HAZ) 13-0; 2. Hayden Martincheck (CRE) 12-6; 3. Adrien Johns (SCR) 11-6; 4. Austin Muniz (WA) 11-6; 5. Robert Quinn (HON) 11-0; 6 Luke Peters (BER) 11-0.

300 Hurdles: 1. Colin Manley (WSC) 40.26; 2. Jhaven Sims-Pagan (SCR) 40.55; 3. Joseph Mazaika (HAZ) 41.15; 4. John Farrell (AH) 41.53; 5. Gage Leffler (PA) 42.10; 6. Owen Wolff (WAL) 42.84.

3200 Run: 1. Aidan Graff (SCR) 9:31.14; 2. Bryce Phillips (DAL) 9:52.07; 3. Ethan Williams (VV) 9:57.98; 4. Colin Comerford (SP) 10:01.78; 5. Michael Donlon (DV) 10:11.29; 6. Ben Bailor (DV) 10:13.65.