The City League (PIAA District 8) Championships were fielded Friday and Saturday, May 10-11, at Oliver High School in Pittsburgh.
Tiffany Abney of Merion Mercy, dominated her events, winning the 200 in 24.9, the 400 in 56.2 and the 300 Hurdles in 46.0
The PCL's Divisional Championships provide a preview of the League Championships later in May, and it's starting to look like a Cardinal O'Hara sweep of the 2001-2002 year.
In the Northern Division Championships, it's the Bishop McDevitt boys that dominated, while for the girls, it was an easy win for Archbishop Ryan.
The WPIAL holds qualifiers for their district championships nine days in advance, with the top six in an event automatically moving on. There are three AAA qualifiers (North, Central, South), and two AA qualifiers (North, South). Most top athletes do their best simply to remain healthy, without expending too much effort. That's hard to imagine with an 800 time of 1:53.55 in the AAA Southern meet, but after his 1:50 two weeks ago, Sam Bair is simply in a class by himself. He also went 4:25 for a relaxed 1600 qualifier.
Gina Volpicelli of Hanover entered four events and won four events, taking the 200 in 26.4, the 400 in 59.5, the 100 Hurdles in 15.9 and the 300 Hurdles in 49.1.
Penn Relays' qualifiers Dane Miller of Schuylkill Valley and Jon Hart of Wyomissing, went one-two in the Shot Put, with Miller going 59-10.25 and Hart with a 58-03 performance.
During January, February and March, many fans of PA T&F were talking about Merion Mercy's Evelyn Dwyer. It's her senior year, so people expected a big effort. Well, she's baaaaack, and served notice at the Lower Merion Invitational, running alone and posting a state-leading 2:11.96 800.
In today's meet, Abington's Takia Brooks had a nice double in the 100 (12.0) and 200 (24.7), to go along with their 3:56.2 4x400 relay.
Strath Haven's Josh Hannum, the sprinter-soon-to-be-a-Nittany Lion, went under 11 three times in two days, the fastest in Friday's Preliminaries at 10.7.
In a two-day format that helps prepare the athletes for similar trials and preliminaries at the upcoming District and State meets, Delaware County's girls' teams use the opportunity to test stategies.
The performances were affected on a very windy night on the hills above Lock Haven.
Alan (as in Webb) and Dathan (as in Ritzenhein) reset the bar for American distance high schoolers. Now PA is listening, as Sam (as in Bair) (left during his record run in a photo by James K. Wood) and Dan (as in Mazzocco) (at indoor states) have the best 1600-3200 in the state in many years.
Wissahickon freshman Krista Simkins showed a bit of what she was going to do to the girls' sprints several weeks at Villa Maria.
Some great performances on the track and in the field during a rare mid-week invitational on the new track at Plymouth-Whitemarsh high school.
On a glorious (but dehydrating) kind of day, hundreds of southeastern PA athletes converged on Springfield, Delaware County and launched some strong performances.
Surprise! Sheena Gordon wins four events. And all four were among the best in the country.
Sprint star Jaren Hayes helps his team to victory with a win in the 100 (10.8), and anchoring his team's 4x100 to a meet record of 43.4.
Gateway invited many of western PA's top top teams, and then proceeded to win both the boys and girls competitions.
Seth Fox of Ford City won the short sprints, taking the 100 in 11.44 and the 200 in 23.44.
Julia Pudlin graduates in June, but her prep running career is history, (and what a history it is.)
Freedom's Ashley Kaufmann improved her state-leading Javelin mark by over six feet with a toss of 150.09.
Wissahickon girls continued their march toward a strong season, setting four meet records in track relays, winning seven events overall.
78 teams with more than 1200 athletes on an unsettled full day (9-6) at Shippensburg University.
The top guys' sprinters seem to be in District III, as Hayes and Diggs went head-to-head at Shippensburg, and Marcel Coleman of Susquehanna held off challenges from three Central Dauphin athletes to capture both the 100 and 200 at the Pan Ram Invitational. Coleman's 10.88 100 was .22 up on 2nd (Brent Wise, CD, and Ardon Bansford, CD-11.15).
Andy Weilacher made his debut after over four months in rehab following a serious back injury that also injured teammate Matt Allenson.
State AA XC Champ Jesi Christiansen of Greenville won the 3200 in 11:28.51, and was 2nd in the 1600 in 5:25.35 to Lindsayy Havko of Mercyhurst Prep, who went 5:20.57.
Great Valley held their first invitational on the fast blue track at the Malvern school, and met some stiff competition from the Ridley girls in the field, and the Glen Mills boys everywhere they turned.