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TRACK AND FIELD: Evan Horn, Cedar Crest 3200 relay add to Lebanon County postseason gold rush


SHIPPENSBURG >> How do you like your district championships?

Are you a fan of dominating, no-doubt-about-it victories or do you prefer a little drama to be interjected into the proceedings?

Either way, the Cedar Crest boys track and field team had you covered on Saturday during the final day of the District Three Track and Field Championships at Shippensburg University.

The Falcons came away with two gold medal efforts, and produced them in distinctly different fashion.

First came a wire-to-wire triumph from Jared Glosser, Jordan Cruise, Matt Royer and Jesse Cruise in the AAA 3200 relay.

That was followed later in the day by Evan Horn's win in the AAA javelin, which, as it did at the Lancaster-Lebanon League meet last week, came on the Falcon junior sensation's final throw of the day. Horn's clutch performance spoiled a major upset bid from Palmyra's Alex Hoffsmith, who led until the final round despite entering the event seeded 12th.

The drama/no-drama wins highlighted another successful postseason performance from county athletes. Included in that was a record-setting, but silver-medal effort from Lebanon pole vaulter Erin Winters, who along with Bishop McDevitt's Tesia Kempski established a new AAA standard of 12 feet, four inches. Kempski was awarded the title on fewer misses at the record height.

Palmyra's 3200 relay of Miranda Salvo, Jess Dembrowski, Maria Tukis aand Katie Dembrowski also struck silver, in the AAA girls 3200 relay, finishing just behind a record-setting effort from Wilson.

Nobody, however, finished behind the Crest boys' 3200 relay, which grabbed an early lead via a strong opening leg from Glosser and never came close to surrendering it.

"I thought we all ran really, really smart," Glosser said of the relay that clocked a sizzling 7:54.01. "We got the lead and (kept it). I think it's something we can build on (for next week's state meet)."

The Falcons also snared gold at the L-L meet, albeit with Noah Redcay and Melvin Rios subbing for the Cruises. Depth, anyone?

Glosser not only credited he and his fellow half-milers, but also head coach Rob Bare and his staff.

"Our coaches pushed us to where we had to be," Glosser said.

Meanwhile, Horn shoved himself into the winner's circle with a second straight do-or-die performance, this time with a throw of 179-8 that beat upset-minded Hoffsmith by a mere five inches.

"I don't like it, but I'll take it," Horn said with a shake of the head, of having to come through on his final throw again. "It's interesting, for sure. Hopefully I won't make it so close next time."

Though Horn had some technique issues that hampered him early in the competition, the biggest reason he needed to come up with the goods on his final throw was Hoffsmith, who came out of relative anonymity to nearly stun the entire field.

"At the county meet he threw pretty well, too," Horn said of Hoffsmith. "I hadn't even heard of him until then. He's getting good. Hopefully he can PR (set a personal record) next week, too, and we can go 1-2 again."

Winters didn't PR on Saturday, but, like Horn, she did come up big when the pressure was greatest.

En route to a championshjp-like runner-up finish, Winters cleared 11-6 on her final attempt, and did the same at the new record height she and Kempski now share.

"It was awesome," Winters said, brushing aside any potential disappointment at not winning gold. "I didn't even know we were going for the record at first.

"No disappointment. I could have done things technically better but I'm all right with how the results turned out."

Especially considering a subpar finish, by her standards, was possible when clearing 11-6 was in doubt.

"She knows how to make the adjustments, and she can make the adjustments," Winters' coach, Steve Richards said. "It takes a lot mentally to stay focused enough and stay in the zone enough. And she did. She did what she had to do."

As did a number of other county competitors on Saturday.

Third-place finishes belonged to Lebanon's Jeronimo Rodriguez (boys AAA 400 dash), Northern Lebanon's Dakota Leonhard (boys AAA shot put) and Annville-Cleona's Jon Zechman (boys AA 300 hurdles).

Also earning medals were: Boys AAA— Elco's 1600 relay of Blaine Troutman, Chris Gilbertson, Ryan Rolon and Austin Eldridge (5th), Jesse Cruise (6th, 800), Jordan Cruise (8th, 1600) and Northern Lebanon's Nicholas Auchenbach (7th, 300 hurdles.

Boys medallists in AA from Annville-Cleona were : Derek Bosworth of Annville-Cleona (4th, 110 hurdles, 6th long jump), Nathan Ulrich (4th, high jump) Stanley Miller of A-C (7th long jump, 8th 100 dash) and A-C's 3200 relay of Anthony Frattarole, Matt Darok, Caleb Wenger and Zechman (8th).

Class AAA girls making it to the medal stand were Salvo, Dembrowski, Tukis and Dembrowski in the 3200 (2nd) and 1600 relays (seventh) and Palmyra's Camryn Simpson in the triple jump (8th). In addition, Cedar Crest's Destinee Holloman was 7th in the 100 dash.

Class AA girls medals went to Annville-Cleona's Courtney Conners (5th, 800), Timeshah Clark (6th, 100 dash), Morgan Zimmerman (7th 200 dash) and A-C's 400 relay of Clark, Zimmerman, Tori Malloy and Veronica Merone. Also, Northern Lebanon's Morgan Phillips took 6th in the javelin.