WISHES DO COME TRUE
If you want a storybook ending, just ask Hempfield Area’s Rachel Serafin what happened minutes before she won the Class AAA girls’ shot put on Friday with a heave of 44-3.25.
The junior got a call from her father, Bob, just as the event was set to begin. But the news wasn’t good. He was on a roadside in Carlisle. His truck had broken down. And he wasn’t going to make it.
“He was devastated because he thought he couldn’t come,“ said Serafin.
Keep in mind, this was the event she was favored to win -- even though she went into it seeded fifth.
One bad District 7 meet aside, where she finished third a week ago, Serafin was an TSTCA indoor state champion in the shot put over the winter. She had every belief that she would add another title to her resume on Friday.
“She had no doubt in her mind,“ Serafin’s coach, Dave Murray said. “I had no doubt in my mind. I knew she was going to win this.”
But she wanted it to be a family affair. That was important.
Time went by during the preliminary throws and she had all but accepted the fact that her father wouldn’t be there.
But then she saw a familiar face. And then her energy started to pick up. And then, only moments after she threw her state title throw, she bounced up and down like a kid in a candy store.
“I was so happy he made it,” said Serafin, who was an outdoor state champion in the discus last year as a sophomore. “It was great because he got to see me in finals. And it was great because that was my big throw time, in finals. I kind of didn’t let loose until finals.”
Serafin, wearing an infectious grin afterward while speaking to reporters, thought the day was too good to be true.
“They’re very close,” Murray said. “It meant a lot. It was huge for him to be here.”
SHE’S MORE THAN YOUR AVERAGE CHAMPION
You think you know Northern Cambria’s Janae Dunchack? You think you know the 2010 high jump champion, who leapt 5-6 to claim her fourth straight PIAA Class AA title?
Maybe on the track you do.
But did you know the senior wants to be a neurological surgeon in the future?
Did you know she’s headed to the Ivy League, to Dartmouth College, where she no doubt will become one of the smartest student athletes you’ll ever meet?
For all you know, she breaks down each attempt at the high jump pit with a complex algorithm.
“My one friend said all you need to know for physics is force equals mass times acceleration,“ said Dunchack, who took physics as a senior and admits that there‘s a certain science to jumping. “He’s like that’s all you need to know.”
Here’s another quick fact: she might not even high jump in college.
Instead, the athlete, who began competing in the sport as a seventh-grader, might become a pentathlete, who are long considered to be some of the most overall sound athletes on the planet.
Here’s the point: If there’s one thing you shouldn’t do, it’s pegging Dunchack into a stereotype. The high jump champ does a lot of things well, not just one -- the senior was also third in the long jump (18-2). And she’s got the 200 to go on Saturday.
“Most of your experience and know-how comes from actually jumping,” she said. “I’ve been doing it so long, I’ve just gotten used to it.”
PERHAPS THIS WAS MEANT TO BE
It had to be some sort of divine sign, some little elbow and nudge from the track Gods above.
How else do you explain Athen Area’s Jarred Gambrall’s 48-11.25 state title leap in the Class AA boys’ triple jump, his second consecutive championship.
“It actually came three times,” the junior said. “Same exact jump. Came on my third, fifth and sixth jump.”
If it was meant to be, it was meant to be.
“When my third jump came up, I pretty much had it in the bag,” said the 6-foot-3-inch Gambrall, who was a small forward on the Athen’s basketball team over the winter.
Perhaps this was the type of performance that opened some eyes on the collegiate level. Gambrall admitted he will pursue track in the future.
“I’m gradually getting better,” he said. “Last year my best jump was 43-5.5. This year my best was 49-2. So I’m gradually getting better.”
SO THIS IS WHAT IT FEELS LIKE
It was difficult to know what Emily Woods was thinking. Was the Hickory High senior nervous? Or was she determined? Was she scared? Or was she confident?
Emily (left) and sister Taylor, with their medals. Taylor finished 5th.
After Elk County Catholic’s Megan Dornish bombed a 135-1 heave on her first throw from Class AA girls’ discus circle, there were logical answers to those questions.
As a two-time runner-up of the Class AA girls’ discus in 2008 and 2009, Woods seemed to be heading down the same path she so adamantly didn’t want to go down. Three-time runner-up.
She flung her first attempt foul, outside of the designated throwing area. Maybe worse than runner-up.
“I was nervous, just feeling that I had to get a good throw before the rain comes.”
But then No. 2 came up. A 139-0 heave. Not bad.
“I knew her 135 didn’t scare me,” Woods said. “That wasn’t what I was aiming for. I was aiming for way above that.”
And then, on her third throw, after a massive 142-7 heave from Middletown’s Aubree Ray put the pressure back on Woods, the senior pumped through a 148-10 bomb, which gave her the title she so desired.
The finals came, but no one beat the mark.
“It’s a great feeling,” she said. “It almost feels like why couldn’t I have done this last year. But I’m really enjoying it.”
Sure enough, the throw gave her an impressive honor. She became the Pennsylvania state leader in the discus, surpassing Jeia Gilliam of Wyoming Valley West … Middle School.
“I’m happy I don’t have to be here next year,” she said, rather comically.
CAPTURING A SURREAL MOMENT -- NEARLY 13 FEET ABOVE GROUND
On Friday the most visceral, heart pounding cheers came for Wilson Area’s Allison Vanek, who broke an 11-year old PIAA Class AA record in the pole vault.
She cleared 12-7, but not first before she cleared 12-3 and 12-5. The 12-3 jump tied the record, previously held by Fairview’s Kim Stuyvesant in 2000.
Every time she cleared after she tied the record, the crowd collectively held their breath, waiting for the senior to do things they had never seen done before. The oohs and aahs reverberated through the stands, energizing a meet which to that point had been pretty quiet.
“PRing today was great,” Vanek said. “I’m really thankful for my coaches and my dad. That really boosted my confidence. I was much more relaxed, because I had been in a bigger meet before. Not just the fact that I won it, but the fact that I was in a big meet.”
Just one year ago, Vanek came away disappointed. She secured a second-place effort, losing a jump-off to Bermudian Springs’ Georgia Williams.
But in the days after the disappointment, the senior was given clear advice from her father.
“My dad gave me the talk about ’You need to work twice as hard this year’ and I did,” she said. “I worked. I got my technique down. Not so much my lifting and running but more of my technique.”
In 2010 alone, she’s hit above 12 feet on eight occasions, including Fridays.
“The fact that I was over 12-5 and -6 two or three times during the season, I knew I could do it,” she said. “I thought I could bring it today.”
SIX YEARS OF PAIN, ONE DAY OF GLORY
Six years ago, when Pennridge’s Annie Holland was in fifth grade, she injured her left foot.
Specifically, it was a stress fracture.
On Friday, it still was bothering her.
But it didn’t stop her from claiming her first PIAA Class AAA title in the high jump. The junior secured a height 5-8, beating out Upper Dublin’s Taylor Morgan, who finished in second with a leap of 5-7.
“I’ve been dealing with for six years,” Holland said. “It started first when I was playing soccer.”
She never chose to directly deal with it, she said, because doctors told her that if she got surgery that there would be a low success rate. She didn’t want to ruin her foot, so she opted not to.
Ever since, she’s dealt with the pain in some capacity. At the District 1 meet, she chose to jump three times. Once she hit the state qualifying standard of 5-3, she stopped.
Perhaps that’s why she came in without as much of a peep at 5-3. But it didn’t take long for her to establish her dominance.
“My main thing for me is the visualization,” she said. “I try to picture myself hitting my jumps on the first try.”
A FITTING END TO A DAY
Altoona’s Brady Gehret had a time in his head, though he wasn’t sure whether he could make that time happen.
45.7 seconds later, he proved himself wrong.
“We had to move,“ said Gehret, who’s incredible anchor on Altoona’s 4 x 400 relay team allowed the team to move on to the finals on Saturday. “We knew our time was 3:18.02. We haven’t done that since Penn Relays. So all of our guys stepped up huge.”
Altoona finished with an exhilarating 3:16.93 and was one of two other teams to hit 3:16 going into Saturday. Oddly enough, Altoona’s wasn’t even the fastest. Cheltenham (3:16.02) and Cardinal O’Hara (3:16.05) go into tomorrow as better seeds.
But still, Gehret’s 400 split was remarkable.
Had it stood up during the 400-meter dash, it would have been a new state record -- the mark stands at 46.27 and it has been held since 1983.
In matter-of-fact form, Gehret provided a simple answer. How’d he run that fast?
“In the 4 x 4 I just go until I catch one person and the next person,“ he said. “I just keep going until I can’t.”