SUNBURY - Southern Columbia's Matt Moore had the kind of day at Saturday's District 4 Class AA track and field championships that most high school athletes dream of.
Mount Carmel's Josh Maloney has had that kind of day before, but not this time.
Moore, a junior, swept the hurdles races Saturday at Shikellamy High School, beating the guy he's been measuring himself against all season, and also placed fourth in the 100 meters and third with the Tigers' 400-meter relay team.
Maloney, who had won a total of five gold medals in the previous two championship meets, was the bad luck boy of this one. He pulled a muscle in his right hamstring during the 100-meter final and didn't race the rest of the day.
Maloney's high school career might not end on that inglorious note, however. Depending on how quickly and well he heals, he'll likely take the trip to next weekend's PIAA state championships at Shippensburg University as an alternate on Mount Carmel's qualifying 1600-meter relay team.
Moore was the only area boys champion but a total of 10 athletes, in seven events, will head to Shippensburg. Also qualifying were Mount Carmel's 3200-meter relay team of Dylan Lawrence, Chris Monahan, Mikael Hause and Justin Skavery, Hause in the 1600-meter run, and the Mount Carmel 1600-meter relay team of Dondre Glasper, Hause, Meyrick Lamb and Lawrence; and Southern Columbia's Tom Schetroma in the shot put, Brett Duell in the pole vault and Andrew Steely in the 1600.
Moore won the 110-meter high hurdles in 14.95 seconds, then repeated in the 300-meter intermediates with a time of 40.38 seconds. In between, he had his fourth in the 100 (11.53) and helped the Tigers go third in the 400-meter relay. He accounted for 26.5 of Southern's 63 points, as the Tigers finished fourth in the team standings behind champion Lewisburg (107), Northeast Bradford (71) and Athens (64). Mount Carmel was fifth with 47 points.
Moore beat Athens' Kyle Pane, who won the event at the Mount Carmel Invitational, in the highs. At Mount Carmel, Moore was not listed among the finalists due to a computer glitch even though he won his heat.
"I've been thinking about this race ever since that happened," said Moore. "I really wanted to race Pane at Mount Carmel because he had the better time but it just didn't happen. The first race was really easy for me today."
Pane was second in 15.08 to Moore' 14.95.
Moore struggled a little more in the longer race, especially with the final hurdle, which he basically just jumped over instead of hurdled. Luckily, he had a big enough lead that it didn't hurt him. Moore won in 40.38 seconds, with Lewisburg's Brandon Smith second at 40.91.
"That last hurdle was pretty rough," Moore said, chuckling. "I started hurting coming out of the turn. Toward the end I heard someone hit a hurdle to my left, so I knew someone was close."
Moore is making his first trip to the state meet, but he's not just going to get the lay of the land.
"I'm really excited. This is the first time I'm going to perform at that level and my goals are to win it all," he said. "I always set high goals."
Maloney's day was over about 15 meters into the 100 final. Moments earlier, a coach had complained to the head official about starting blocks slipping (athletes were not allowed to stand behind the blocks to steady them), and Maloney said that was the root of his problem.
"My block slipped and I got a bad start," he said. "I tried to make that up as quick as I could and I heard it pop."
Maloney grabbed the back of his leg, hopped a few meters and then jogged to the finish line to get a time and earn points before being helped off the track. Later, the senior said he had trouble just walking on the leg.
"He hurt it at our dual meet with Danville," Mount Carmel coach Mike Farronato said. "I shouldn't have let him run the 100 today but he wanted to."
Mount Carmel started the day well, with the 3200-meter relay team finishing second to Lewisburg's record-breaking time of 7 minutes, 56.83 seconds in 8:09.32. Hause and Southern's Steely then qualified on their own in the 1600, finishing second and fourth, respectively, in 4:27.77 and 4:30.21. Wellsboro's Jordan Jackson won the race in 4:25.77.
Schetroma threw a career best of 51 feet, 3 inches in the shot put to finish second to Bloomsburg's Mike Recla (55-4½) and was also fourth in the discus.
Mount Carmel's 1600 relay team, with Maloney cheering it on from the infield, was in chase mode with Lewisburg again, with the Green Dragons coming home in 3:25.27 and the Red Tornadoes second in 3:28.01.
Duell was the day's final qualifier, hitting 13-6 in the pole vault for second to Central Columbia's Donny Scatena (14-0).
Other area placewinners were:
Third - Mount Carmel's Eric Joraskie, discus.
Fourth - Mount Carmel's Meyrick Lamb, 400.
Fifth - Mount Carmel's Elijah Duran, triple jump; Southern's Jake Morton, 110 high hurdles.
Seventh - Maloney and Mount Carmel's Ian Kanezo, high jump; Jacob Kleman, 200; Alec Zsido, pole vault, and 400-meter relay team.
Eighth - Southern's Bryan Gedman, discus.
Athens' Jared Gambrell was a triple winner and broke two district records. He won the 100 in 10.97. He did 23-6½ in the long jump, breaking Southern Columbia graduate Bryan Delsite's 1989 record of 22-11. Gambrell broke his own 2009 record in the triple jump at 49-6. He did 47-10 two years ago.
Recla was also a double winner, winning the discus (163-9) as well as the shot put. Danville's Mike Wright won the 200 and 400, and Northeast Bradford's Rob Robbins set a record of 212-8 in the javelin.