Track and field season seems to go so quickly every year that it's almost inevitable that the season will end and there will be something I wanted to write about but didn't get a chance.
Often, at least in the past few years, it's been about the Line Mountain students who compete in a cooperative program with Upper Dauphin. There have been a number of Eagles who have participated over the years, but since the Trojans compete in District 3 and not District 4, following them in the postseason has been difficult.
But this year, it's kind of hard not to notice the Eagles. There are 23 Line Mountain students competing for Upper Dauphin. In fact, Upper Dauphin coach Todd Rupp reports that there are more Line Mountain girls than Upper Dauphin girls participating this season.
Line Mountain students competing this year are Rayce Boyer, Brook Brzostowski, Kelsey Derrick, Corina Finlan, Rachel Harner, Blair-anne Klinger, Connor Laudenslager, Alyssa Letterman, Michael
Lorenz, Ethan Marquette, John Mojica, Betsy Reichenbach, Rache Savidge, Kortnee Schwartz, Caitlin Scott, Breanna Stuck, Colleen Troutman, Kyle Troutman, Natasha Wetzel, Nathan Wetzel, Jessica Wittig, Cody Yeager and Kyle Zimmerman.
They're not just competing, either. They're performing very well. The Trojans' girls 400-meter relay team is unbeaten this season and set a school record at the recent Shippensburg Invitational and is made up entirely of Line Mountain athletes - Colleen Troutman, Betsy Reichenbach, Brooke Brzostowski, a transfer from Mount Carmel, and Kortnee Schwartz.
Troutman won the both the 100 and 200 in a dual meet against Greenwood this week, and Reichenbach qualified for the District 3 meet in the long jump.
Kyle Troutman has been a big contributor for the boys team but is out right now with a case of mononucleosis. Rayce Boyer is probably the top boys contributor this season, according to Rupp.
"I think it (the co-op program) works pretty well," Rupp said. "We've never had any problems. The kids accept each other. It's nice this year too because we get to compete in AA instead of AAA and we have a chance to do a lot better. There was no way we could compete in District 3 AAA against schools like Cumberland Valley and Central Dauphin."
The Line Mountain kids get on a bus at dismissal time to make the trip to Elizabethville for practice, then make the return trip when practice is over.
Champs again
It's time to congratulate Southern Columbia's boys team again for clinching another Pennsylvania Heartland Athletic Conference Division III championship this season. The Tigers are 8-0 overall and finished the division with a 5-0 record, and now have a 23-meet winning streak stretching back to 2009.
They were joined as division champions by the girls team, which completed its division slate 5-0 and is 7-1 overall. The Tigers host Division II Danville in their final dual meet on Tuesday.
Mount Carmel's boys will go after another Division II title that same day when they host Cenrtal Columbia. The meet was originally scheduled for Central Columbia but the Blue Jays agreed to move the meet to run on Mount Carmel's all-weather track in an effort to get more athletes qualified for the district meet.
Streak over
Speaking of winning streaks, Lewisburg's girls 147-meet winning streak, which went back to 1994, came to an end this week when Selinsgrove defeated the Green Dragons, 93-57, to win the Heartland Division I championship. Lewisburg did win the Division I boys title.
Correction
Our apologies to Mount Carmel runner Nathan Bartos. Apparently we've been confusing him with his younger brother Ethan in reports this season.
(Souders is a sports writer for The News-Item)