SHIPPENSBURG - Area boys didn't win any gold medals Saturday at the PIAA Class AA State Track and Field Championships but that didn't lessen the fact they still had a pretty good day.
Southern Columbia's Luke Rarig placed third in the 110-meter high hurdles and added an eighth in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles, and teammate Cody Pavlick became a two-time medalist with a fourth in the discus.
Mount Carmel's David Fletcher and Southern's Andrew Steely ran the race of their lives in the 800-meter final, finishing fourth and seventh, respectively, and Mount Carmel's Nate Bartos ran a personal best in placing seventh in the 3200.
Rarig ran 14.62 seconds in the 110 high hurdles, finishing behind Palmerton's Austin Shupp (14.23) and Delaware Valley Charter's Donaldo Benjamine (14.54). He then toughed it through for eighth in the 300 hurdles, with his bad left ankle causing him some problems, in 40.76. Benjamin and Shupp flip-flopped their high hurdles finishes in that race, with Benjamin running 37.53.
"I felt like I had a shot at second until the last two hurdles," Rarig said of the 110 race. "I got a little tired and Austin pretty well had first locked up from the beginning."
Rarig wasn't expecting as much in the 300s, because he has to rely more on pure speed than technique but he was still happy to place.
"I usually do my steps much more consistently in the 110s because it's one-two-three, one-two-three. If I have to lead with my left leg in the 300s, it (the ankle) bothers me. I knew I didn't have a chance at first by the first hurdle but I thought sixth was possible, but I didn't have much left in the tank."
The only real negative for Rarig was his performance in the long jump. He had two sub-par jumps measured and a pretty good jump on which he fouled. He took 20th officially at 19-¾. Northern Bedford's Blake Over won at 22-4. Had Rarig matched his personal best of 21-11½, he'd have placed third.
"Three years now I've come down here for the long jump and I still have yet to do good. I don't know what I have to do," he said. "I have no idea."
Up three spots
Pavlick moved up three spots on the medal podium from his seventh-place finish of 2013 with a throw of 151 feet, 11 inches. He had the throw in the finals after throwing 149-1 in his flight.
Austin Sheridan of Riverside (District 10) won with a throw of 168-10, followed by the Hickory duo of Luke Lewis (162-0) and Austin Aikins (154-3).
"I couldn't have asked for a better day to throw, especially compared to last year," Pavlick said. "I wish I could have done a little better but I'm happy. I'm proud to represent the school the school the way I did."
The two-time district champ will attend Bloomsburg University but is unsure whether he will play football, compete in track or try both or neither.
"I'm still kind of up in the air about that."
Fast race
Fletcher and Steely each ran personal bests in the 800 final, with Fletcher setting a Mount Carmel school record at 1:55.98, and Steely running 1:57.49. Beaver Falls sophomore Domenic Perretta, who also won the 1600, won the race in 1:54.01. Another District 4 runner, Lewisburg's Nick Scullin, placed fifth.
Fletcher and Steely finished one-two in their heat Friday but it was the slower heat. But neither overanalyzed what they had to do in the final.
"I just knew I had to run fast," said Fletcher, a sophomore. "Our heat was kind of slow but I was hoping that would give me more energy. I had a real good start, probably the best start I've ever had. The first lap was like 56 seconds."
"I tried to go by people three or four times," said Steely, a senior, "but every time I did someone got in front of me. So I stayed outside and just decided to run as fast as I can. Ultimately, it's just running around in a circle. That's something I haven't really done too well the last two years."
Another best
Bartos ran a personal best of 9 minutes, 39.95 seconds in finishing seventh in the 3200. Lake-Lehman sophomore Dominic Hockenbury won in 9:17.18, a staggering 24 seconds faster than his seed time. South Williamsport's Griffin Molino, whom Bartos beat for the district title, finished just ahead of the Mount Carmel junior this time in 9:37.89.
"The first lap was real quick and I kind of fell behind after awhile, and then I just
tried to catch up with everybody," Bartos said. "They (lap times) were kind of sporadic. At the end I was really tired. I think the pace was starting to affect me and I felt out out of energy. I felt coming up on me and I just tried to pick up the pace.
"I'm very happy. I wanted to get a lower time but I'm happy with what I got."
Shamokin's Chris Petraskie cleared 6 feet, 2 inches to finish in a six-way tie for 14th place in the AAA high jump. Coatesville's Tra-C Davis won with a jump of 6-10.