Girls
Track
Taylor Chapman of Pennridge has run like a girl on a mission this season. At one point, she was top of the state in three events. Although she has lost the lead in one of them, she has a solid lead in two. On December 27, she took the state lead in the 60 meter dash with a time of 7.67. 48 hours later, she goes to New York to work on improving her 200 meter state lead, and improve on it she did. She ran 24.86 in the preliminary round, and then under an hour later, she ran 24.72 to not only win the race but become the US#1 200 meter runner entering 2015!
Field
Aspen Gaita of Stroudsburg was arguably the MVP of District 11 last season. Since then, she has made steps to bring that form into her final indoor season. At the Christmas City Relays, Gaita took on the 2014 state bronze medalist Ariana Przybylowski of Pennridge in the long jump and came away with a narrow one inch victory in 18-4.5, the best of her indoor career!
Boys
Track
The track honor for the holiday break goes to the two guys who electrified New York City last Monday and had the whole state talking about it over 24 hours later. Sam Ritz of Germantown Academy and John Lewis of Cheltenham stole the show at the Marine Corps Holiday Classic in the 800 meter run to the tune of a US#1 and US#2 performance separated by .08 seconds. Although Ritz will go into the record books as the winner and meet record holder, him and Lewis deserve the weekly honor for their performances. They provided the final lasting image of the 2014 calendar year, and the first of the current season.
Field
Ryan Wilkes of Valley View had two big wins over the holiday period to make him the favorite for the 2015 pole vault state championship. At the Christmas City Relays, Wilkes cleared an indoor career best 15-6.75 to go top of the state list. Three days later, he went head to head against the reigning champion Chris Stone of Springfield Montco and cleared 15 feet to earn victory and draw first blood against the champ.
Congratulations to the winners!