Several athletes tune-up for Penn at Lock Haven

LOCK HAVEN - The athletes at Friday night's Bald Eagle Invitational came up with several top-10 AA performances.  The meet hosted by Lock Haven also served as a Penn Relays warm-up for a South Williamsport's Katie Jones (pole vault), Athens' Breana Gambrell (long jump) and Shikellamy's Treicy Cedeno (4x800 anchor.)

Seven performances met the MileSplit US Second Team Standard Friday. Leading the list was Hughesville's Heather Merrifield who 45.62 in the 300 intermediate hurdles also broke the meet record set by Lewisburg's Hannah Jones in 2008. Other members of the elite list were Milleville's Morgan Bower who threw 122-0 in the javelin; Gambrell who registered 18-0.25 in the long jump; Clearfield's Matthew Collins in the discus (153-11) and Cameron County's Trae Smith in the boys jav (182-8).

Jones and Thomas dual in pole vault

And then there was the girls pole vault where Jones' elite mark of 12-6 not only won but broke the 2012 record of Central Columbia's Virginia LaMacchia. Coming in second was Central Columbia senior Erika Thomas whose vault of 11-6 is also an elite mark.

The two are now No. 1 and 2 in AA girls.

Jones came achingly close to clearing 13 Friday - which had she been successful would have meant that the boys and girls winning heights at Bald Eagle would have been 13-0.

"I was extremely close," said Jones. "As much as I like 12-6, 13 would have been better."

The South Williamsport junior hit 12-6 on April 15 at Molly Dry so while Jones was happy for the consistency Friday she said, "I want to go higher."

In pole vault Jones said, "You're always going to miss at a higher height. You're always going to be unhappy."

The 2015 AA fourth-place finisher said her misses Friday will fuel her this week at Penn Relays.

"I'm so excited," said Jones. "I want to peak there and at states.

"As much as I wanted 13 today, it will drive me to PR this weekend. "

Milton's Ian Nieves, a Slippery Rock-commit, won the 110 hurdles at LHU (Photo by Barb Krohn)

Nieves wins 110 hurdles handily

Milton senior Ian Nieves finished more than a second faster than his nearest competitor with a 14.90 - just four hundredths of a second shy of the meet record.

Nieves would have undoubtedly had it Friday but for the second row of hurdles being placed on the wrong mark giving the three-steppers several more inches between the first and second hurdles.

It was harder on the rest of the field - none of the other competitors broke 16.

And the Black Panthers senior didn't really care if he broke the record or not.

"Not really," he said. "My goal is to have a good race."

So far this season Nieves is keeping his eye on the prize, taking a cue from 2015 AA 110 hurdles champion Luke Rarig - who graduated from Southern Columbia last spring.

"I said I want to work as hard as him.

"So I've been really working hard on the track and I've been concentrating on my school work at the same time."

Nieves has committed to run for Slippery Rock next year.

The Warrior Run boys took home gold in the boys' 4x800 (Photo by Barb Krohn)

Relays, relays, relays

Starting with the 4x800 through to the 4x400 under the lights, top-10 AA relays times were laid down at Bald Eagle.

The Mifflinburg girls 4x800 (Grace Alexander, Alexa Hackenburg, Audrey Macpherson, Jillian Miller) ran behind AA No. 4 Lewisburg for the first part of the race but Miller took over in the final leg to record a 10:00.74 currently good for AA No. 5.

"That was crazy," said Macpherson who also won the 3,200 Friday. "We didn't see their usual (3, 4) runners"

But Miller said she still thought odds were good her team would face a challenge.

"I wasn't sure," said the Wildcats anchor. "Lewisburg always has something up their sleeves."

The Warrior Run boys 4x800 (Ben Frazier, Cassidy Hoffman, Dallas Blickley, Hunter Confair) won in 8:20.95 and is now ranked seventh in AA.

Unlike Mifflinburg, the Defenders had no team to push them.

"These four boys have been working hard," said Warrior Run running coach Scott Hoffman. "They pretty much had to run the race by themselves."

"All week we were preparing for Altoona and Mifflinburg," said Cassidy Hoffman. "We wanted to show what we can do."

In the girls 4x400 Lewisburg (Emma Bailey, Mackenie Moore, Selena Permyashkin, Olivia Martin) again led for much of the race but lost at the end to Montoursville (Analyee Matzinger, Kayla Trimble, Caroline King, Nicole Weiser) courtesy of Weiser's patented kick. But the two teams' times of 4:11.18 (Montoursville) and 4:13.22 (Lewisburg) rank them No. 6 and 8 in Class AA.

Weisser's kick served her well earlier in the meet when she won the 1,600 (5:19.52) and came in second in the 800 (2:23.28).

Fueled by an impressive third leg from Josh Guthrie the Milton 4x400 (Rafael Rodriguez, Kainen Smith, Guthrie, Tyler Leeser) won in 3:33.75 good for AA No. 9.

Guthrie also won the 300 intermediate hurdles (42.0).

Penn Valley and Athens battled in the girls' 4x100 on Friday (Photo by Barb Krohn)

To 4x100 or not to 4x100? That is the question for Athens

There was no question Friday that Penns Valley senior Destiny Andrus was queen of the sprints, winning the 100 (12.52), 200 (25.99) and anchoring the 4x100 (Marissa Tecko, Maci Ilgen, Isabella Culver, Andrus) which beat Athens (Ariana Gambrell, Shanell Baglini, Rachel Hutchinson, Breana Gambrell) 50.39 to 50.92.

Both team are now ranked. Penns Valley is the No. 3 AA team, Athens No. 6.

But it was the Athens quartet's first time out and the result - with two bad handoffs and an under-the-weather anchor in Breana Gambrell - were tantalizing to Athens coach Ben Gambrell.

But also left him wondering.

"Every girl had to give up something to be in this race," said the Wildcats coach.

For Breana it was the 200 - an event she won at districts. For her sister Ariana it's the triple jump. For Hutchinson it was the 400 and for Baglini the 800.

"But two girls would be giving up almost certain medals at states."

Cedeno tunes up for Penn Relays, Crawley hits goal in 1,600

The Shikellamy girls 4x800 was accepted into the small school Penn Relays field but was unable to coordinate schedules to run as a team.  So anchor Treicy Cedeno (left, photo by Barb Krohn) ran the open 800 and 400 Friday.

Cedeno, who burst on to the scene as a freshmen only to find herself injured her sophomore and junior years, won the 800 (2:21.08) and placed second in the 400 (1:00.70) to Penns Valley's Culver (59.94.)

Cedeno's 800 PR of 2:19 came her freshman year and the senior said, "I'm working hard to beat that this year."

She shook off a start that found her boxed in for much of the first lap.

"My coach told me to get out of the pack and the whole last lap I had the kick.

"I left everything on the track so that was good."

Cedeno is excited to be going to Penn Relays but is realistic about her team's chances.

"We're just excited to get to go - just for the experience."

South Williamsport's Hunter Crawley won the boys 1,600 breaking through the AA state qualifying mark (4:31.13) with his 4:28.55, a personal best.

"That's my PR by about two seconds," said Crawley. "I was just trying to run the state time."

Crawley is now the seventh-ranked AA miler