Girls D2 Track and Field: McKernan among 5 WVC athletes to win gold

Tired of ads? Subscribers enjoy a distraction-free reading experience.

SCRANTON – The speed-endurance combination of a high-level, 800-meter runner made Wyoming Area junior Ella McKernan a candidate for a transition into the 300-meter hurdles.

McKernan dabbled in learning the event as a sophomore, running it in competition just once.

With her junior season winding down, McKernan showed that her coaches’ hunches were right, capturing the Class 3A title in the event Monday night as the first of two days of competition in the District 2 Track and Field Championships was wrapping up.

And, that endurance was a major factor in the victory.

McKernan tracked down Dallas freshman Julia Natitus, who was unbeaten in dual meets and won both titles in hurdles at last week’s Wyoming Valley Conference Championships.

“I hit the one hurdle and noticed that I started getting myself behind,” McKernan said. “But, I know I have good endurance, so I just kept telling myself to push myself and not slow down.”

McKernan came up on the outside, catching Natitus in the last few hurdles. Natitus wound up falling over the last hurdle and had to settle for fourth after scrambling back to her feet.

Comebacks played a role in three of the five gold medals captured by WVC girls Monday.

Through two of three opening-round attempts in the Class 2A discus, Allyson Brodie from Hanover Area was just trying to remain in contention to be among the nine throwers to earn three more attempts.

Brodie unleashed a throw of 101-3 to reach the finals and ultimately earn the gold medal. She had thrown just 76-7 and 68-11 on the first two tries before registering the only three attempts of more than 100 feet.

The win by Brodie was the only managed by WVC athletes in the seven Class 2A events that were completed.

There were four WVC gold medals in five individual events and six total events in Class 3A.

Morgan Langdon from Dallas won the shot put with 35-4¾.

Langdon’s comeback started earlier. She took the lead on her second attempt and had the event’s best five efforts, exceeding 34 feet each time.

Crestwood’s Sarah Shipton won the pole vault in a tiebreaker over Hannah Lafave from North Pocono. Both cleared 11-6, then missed on their three tries at 12-0, but Shipton did not have any other misses while Lafave needed two tries to get over 11-0.

Shipton bounced back from failing to clear a height at last week’s WVC Championships to repeat her district title. She passed until 10 feet last week, then could not get over the bar at that height in her three tries.

“I definitely had a lot of nerves after no-heighting at conferences,” Shipton said, “but, I got the poles working right.

“ … Once I got some warm-up jumps in, I was feeling pretty confident. I was soaring up there. It was going well.”

Madison Hedglin from Dallas closed strong while finishing second in the 3200-meter run. She met the state qualifying time, making her the only district girls runner-up from the WVC to advance to the May 24-25 PIAA Championships at Shippensburg University via that route.

Hedglin closed the gap late to finish in 11:07.69, less than three seconds behind Anna Pucilowski of Abington Heights in a battle of District 2 Cross Country champions.

The second half of the field events as well as the finals in eight of 11 track events are scheduled for Tuesday.

Natitus fared better earlier in the day. Her time of 15.74 led qualifying in the 100 hurdles.

Aria Messner from Pittston Area led qualifying in the Class 3A 100-meter dash where teammate Jenna Grieco was third. WVC runners earned the top three seeds for Tuesday’s final with Tunkhannock’s Nicole Alguire in the second spot.

Holy Redeemer’s Isabella Granteed led qualifying in the 100 in Class 2A.

Dallas is second to Abington Heights in Class 3A while Lake-Lehman is second to Lakeland in the Class 2A team standings.

Kevin Carroll also contributed to this report.

DISTRICT 2 GIRLS TRACK AND FIELD

Class 3A

Team scoring (through 6 of 18 events): 1, Abington Heights (AH) 40; 2, Dallas (DAL) 36; 3, Delaware Valley (DV) 27; 4, Wyoming Area (WA) 23; 5, Crestwood (CRE) 21; 6, Hazleton Area (HAZ) 19; 7, Wallenpaupack (WAL) 16; 8, Honesdale (HON) 11; 8, North Pocono (NP) 11; 10, West Scranton (WS) 7; 11, Tunkhannock (TUN) 6; 11, Pittston Area (PA) 6; 11, Scranton (SCR) 6; 14, Valley View (VV) 3; 15, Nanticoke (NAN) 2.

3200 relay: 1, Abington Heights (Anna Pucilowski, Emma Horsley, Reese Morgan, Marygrace Sabatini) 9:31.06; 2, Wyoming Area, 9:44.92; 3, Wallenpaupack, 9:50.48; 4, Dallas, 9:51.07; 5, Crestwood, 9:54.02; 6, Valley View, 10:05.32.

300 hurdles: 1, Ella McKernan, WA, 45.00; 2, Ella Smith, WALL, 47.52; 3, Eyinah Smith, SCR, 47.65; 4, Julia Natitus, DAL, 47.80; 5, Emily Stefani, WS, 49.40; 6, Julia Schuster, AH, 49.74.

3200: 1, Anna Pucilowski, AH, 11:05.09; 2, Madison Hedglin, DAL, 11:07.69 (state qualifier); 3, Brenna Dahlgren, HON, 1:21.11; 4, Ellie Kozich, CRE, 11:31.52; 5, Sarah Williams, DAL, 11:33.42; 6, Milana Daiute, HAZ, 11:33.97.

Shot put: 1, Morgan Langdon, DAL, 35-4¾; 2, Rainna Carr, DV, 33-10½; 3, Lourianna Alston, TUNK, 32-1¾; 4, Caterina Catizone, DV, 31-10¾; 5, Juleisy Tejada, HAZ, 31-3½; 6, Sahmira Menifee, WS, 30-4½.

Pole vault: 1, Sarah Shipton, CRE, 11-6; 2, Hannah Lafave, NP, 11-6; 3, Liliana Coe, DV, 11-0; 4, Rozalyn Mikulak, HON, 9-6; 5, Tomara Seid, AH, 9-6; 6, Elinor Schardien, PA, 9-0; 6, Evelyn Kruczek, CRE, 9-0; 6, Mariah Wolff, NP, 9-0.

Triple jump: 1, Sophia Shults, HAZ, 36-11¼; 2, Lilianna Coe, DV, 36-9; 3, Tomara Seid, AH, 36-8¾; 4, Taylor Gashi, WA, 36-0¼; 5, Gabriela DaSilva, DAL, 34-11; 6, Sadie Gregory, PA, 34-11.

Class 2A

Team scoring (through 7 of 18 events): 1, Lakeland (LAKE) 47; 2, Lake-Lehman (LL) 35; 3, Western Wayne (WW) 27; 3, Elk Lake (EL) 27; 5, Montrose (MON) 23; 6, Mid Valley (MV) 22; 7, Mountain View (MTV) 17; 8, Hanover Area (HAN) 13; 8, Holy Redeemer (HR) 13; 10, Blue Ridge (BR) 10; 11, Holy Cross (HC) 9; 11, Riverside (RIV) 9, 13, Dunmore (DUN) 6; 14, Lackawanna Trail (LT) 5, 14, Carbondale (CAR) 5; 16, Susquehanna (SUS) 5.

3200 relay: 1, Lakeland (Emily Black, Faith Wormuth, Deanna Wormuth, Kirsten Navich) 10:07.22; 2, Holy Redeemer, 10:16.27; 3, Lake-Lehman, 10:31.85; 4, Elk Lake, 10:32.18; 5, Montrose, 10:42.94; 6, Mid Valley, 10:51.49.

300 hurdles: 1, Chloe Diaz, MON, 46.30; 2, Natalie Talluto, MV, 46.47 (state qualifier); 3, Kaylyn Davis, LAKE, 48.64; 4, Kyra Chepolis, HR, 48.92; 5, Ivy Bishop, SUS, 50.61; 6, Makenzie Chearney, WW, 51.80.

3200: 1, Carissa Flynn, MTV, 11:26.05; 2, Emily Black, LAKE, 11:34.24; 3, Annika Von Ahnen, MV, 11:40.48; 4, Corinne Flynn, MTV, 12:23.06; 5, Alana Palmaioli, LL, 12:27.94; 6, Dana Saccone, EL, 12:41.03.

Long jump: 1, Olivia Haines, WW, 17-0¼; 2, Sophia Lenza, WW, 16-11; 3, Braelyn Reed, RIV, 16-2½; 4, Maura Michalczyk, DUN, 15-10¾; 5, Eva Carachilo, HC, 15-9; 6, Grace Barbuti, RIV, 15-7¼.

High jump: 1, Naomi Rude, LAKE, 4-10; 2, Sarah Gorham, BR, 4-10; 2, Lydia Vivian, LL, 4-10; 4, Meridith Neenan, EL, 4-8; 5, Skyla McGuire, WW, 4-8; 6, Lily Matthews, HAN, 4-6.

Discus: 1, Allyson Brodie, HAN, 101-3; 2, Gianna Tewksbury, EL, 99-10; 3, Kiana Lester, EL, 93-4; 4, Savanna Wilson, MV, 90-10; 5, Stephanie Mildner, WW, 85-5; 6, Abby Matysik, LL, 85-2.

Javelin: 1, Kaylyn Davis, LAKE, 117-1; 2, Sadie Jones, MONT, 109-0; 3, Madison Stiffler, WW, 106-6; 4, Megan Cosklo, CARB, 100-10; 5, Natalie Archangeli, HC, 98-7; 6, Delcia Biscotto, L-L, 96-10.