A-C's Reagan Hess thrives at Roddick Invitational
Reagan Hess already had a boatload of accomplishments on the grounds of Grove Stadium at Shippensburg University.
The Annville-Cleona senior has done very well in District 3 and PIAA track & field meets at the facility, but she has been particularly successful during her four years of competing in the Jack Roddick Invitational.
In fact, she's been perfect.
Hess earned goal medals in each of the three events she entered Saturday - the Class 2A 100, 200 and long jump. That raises her total to 15 events entered at the Roddick and 15 first-place finishes.
"I'm definitely used to this track and I think it's an advantage," Hess said.
Lebanon County produced two other first-place finishes: Derin Klick of Lebanon won the 3A boys 800 and Cedar Crest's Ariel Jones captured the girls 3A high jump.
In Hess's first event, the 100, she blew the field away, winning in 12.18, nearly a full second better than the runner-up. That time broke her own meet record of 12.27, set in 2014.
She later added the 200 by running a 26.0, which was 1.21 faster than the second-place runner.
"I wasn't thinking about the records," said Hess, who will compete for Slippery Rock next spring. "I just wanted to get a good start out of the blocks and make sure I finished as fast as I could."
In between those dashes, Hess picked up a dominating first place in the long jump. She hit 18-9.75 to win by a foot and a half over the runner-up.
In an 800 race in which the top eight runners broke 2:00, the Cedars' Klick was the best of the bunch with his time of 1:56.22. He held off Nick Feffer of State College (1:56.82) to reach the finish line first.
"I thought I had a pretty good chance because I’ve run against most of these guys before and know they are all good," Klick said. "I decided to take the lead early, so I started my kick the last 50 meters of the first lap."
Jones cleared 5-6 fairly early in the high jump competition and ended up winning by four inches. She decided to skip her final few attempts to rest up for the long jump later in the meet, where she placed seventh.
"That's the first I've made 5-6 this year, so that's good," Jones said. "I want to break the (school) record I set last year of 5-7. I think I have a chance to maybe win states, but I have to work on my form."
Seven other county athletes earned top-five places, including Palmyra jumper Camryn Simpson, who was third in the 3A long and triple jumps. She hit 17-11 in the long jump and 36-7 in the triple.
Also in 3A, Palmyra's Kirstin West was the runner-up in the javelin (127-0), Crest's Shayla Bonzelet was third in the 400 (57.58) and the Falcons' Hannah Woelfling placed fifth in the high jump (5-0).
In 2A, A-C's Doyle Shertzer placed second in the boys 2000 steeplechase with a time of 7:32.79, teammate Eriley Torres placed third in the girls shot put (32-11) and the Dutchmen's Kayla Long was third in the pole vault (9-0).