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TRACK & FIELD: 3 area athletes bring home a total of 4 gold medals


CHAMBERSBURG >> There was one big thing on a lot of students' minds Saturday afternoon: Prom.

But for a number of track & field athletes, there was something they had to get through first. Trojan Stadium in Chambersburg played host to the Mid Penn Conference championships, and three locals brought home four gold medals.

"My mind was definitely focusing on just staying in this meet," Chambersburg's Kelton Chastulik said. "I was trying not to think about anything else; I wasn't letting myself think about tonight, but instead just staying where I needed to be."

Chastulik's focus paid off – he won a pair of gold medals, capturing victory in both the shot put and the discus.

Other area winners were Waynesboro's Lilly Harnish in the high jump and James Buchanan's Peter Hughey in the 400.

In the shot, Chastulik was seeded first overall by three feet, and he quickly pounced on a strong throw. Heading into his final throw of the day, he already knew he had won.

"I would've won on my first throw, but my highest mark was actually my last throw," Chastulik said. "Already knowing I was going to win though, that definitely took the pressure off."

His winning mark was 48-7.75. Chastulik has now won the shot put twice in as many years.

But the story wasn't as simple in the discus.

"I was pressured really hard, because in my warmups, I kept sector fouling," Chastulik said. "Then on my first throw, I sector fouled, and even in the finals, I sector fouled. I was just getting angry with myself. My coach told me to shade a little bit to the left, which I did, and it helped a lot."

On his fifth throw, Chastulik sailed the discus 151-1 for the victory, and even though he called it a "lucky throw," Chastulik was still pleased.

"I don't want to take the credit; I like to give it to my coaches," he said. "They work so hard with me, and I try to work as hard as possible. This is pretty great, though. Especially thinking about last year, in the discus, I didn't even get close to placing, so its awesome to get two first places."

He wasn't the only one to take home multiple medals, either. Harnish won the high jump and placed eighth in the triple jump, while Hughey also had a first- and an eighth-place (in the 100) finish.

Harnish has recently come back from an injury, which she said gave her a lot of motivation to do well.

"I sprained my ankle in like the last 10 little minutes of basketball practice," Harnish said. "Coming back from it, I've been very frustrated because I just had to wait. I knew I could get into districts, but it was frustrating not being able to jump as high as I know I can."

It wasn't a problem on Saturday, though. She easily cleared 5-6 on her first attempt to take first place.

"I think I finally got back in the swing of my approach, that was the main thing," Harnish said. "I've had the height for the last few weeks, but my approach has been pretty bad. That really kicked in for me today, and I was feeling it."

Her mark of 35-8.50 in the triple jump earned her an eighth-place medal.

Hughey also had some extra motivation. He placed eighth in the 100 dash with a time of 11.41, which he said he was "displeased" with. But once again, he made up for it in the 400. Hughey was the only runner with a sub-49, and he won the race in a season-best 48.78.

"In the past, I've saved my kick for the last 100 or so," Hughey said. "But I've realized that it's really not as efficient as trying to use it the whole last 200. That's generally what I've been trying to do is keep up the same pace for most of the race."

One of the biggest surprises of the day came in the form of Jenay Faulkner, of Greencastle-Antrim. Seeded just 14th heading into Saturday's shot put competition, Faulkner had a personal best by nearly five feet. She produced a throw of 38-0.5 to take the silver medal.

"I mean, I wanted first, but it does feel good, though," Faulkner said. "I worked on my form a lot over the last couple weeks coming up to this, so I was hoping for a PR; of course, I didn't think it was going to be that much."

Shippensburg also got a highlight-worthy performance from Jordan Turner. After failing to make the 110 hurdle finals by one one-hundredths of a second, Turner made up for it in the 300.

"It's not my favorite event, so I try to use it as a warm-up generally," Turner said of the 110. "Ninth place is frustrating; I was the same at Pan Ram, but I use that to my advantage in my other hurdle event."

Turner did exactly that. He raced out to a third-place finish in 300 with a school record-breaking time of 40.47.

The previous school record, which had been held since 1982, was 40.30, but it was a hand-held time, unlike Saturday's.

"I was looking to break the school record today," Turner said. "My coach told me the week that we were at Pan Ram that I needed to attack the hurdles more, and I think I did that much better today."

The Greyhounds also got a pair of third-place finishes from David Boarts in the high jump (6-0) and Zach Greenwalt in the pole vault (13-0). Waynesboro's Christopher Payne also cleared 13-0 for the first time ever and ended up tying for fourth.

Chambersburg had a slew of splendid performances.

Sammi Lowery was third in the pole vault with a height of 11-6, which broke her own school record of 11-3.

Abby Yourkavitch lived up to expectations, claiming silver in the 3,200 (11:14.92). Nate Long brought home a bronze medal in the javelin (171-5.6), and Kaylee Mowery earned fifth in the 1,600 (5:13.70).

Miana Harrison surpassed her seed time, earning a seventh-place medal in the 400 (59.52), and Cirsten Kelly placed seventh in the 200 (25.69). The pair then teamed up with Camryn Greenlee and Rachael Berman to take fourth in the 4x100 relay (49.88).

On the boys side, Chris Wurtz, Alex Aquino-Flores, Kevin Madrigal and Tanner Amsley teamed up to take fourth in the 4x800 with a time of 8:06.99.

Greencastle also got a very strong day from Liam Okal. He claimed third in the 100 (1.07), fifth in the 200 (22.73) and was a member of the 4x400 team that placed seventh (3:31.56).

Mid Penn Conference Championships at Trojan Stadium

BOYS

Team Standings

1.Carlisle 93, 2.CD East 88, 3.Milton Hershey 63, 4.(tie) Lower Dauphin, State College 52, 6.Camp Hill 42, 7.Cumberland Valley 40, 8.Bishop McDevitt 38.5, 9.Chambersburg 34, 10.Hershey 31, 11.Susquehanna Twp. 22, 12.Shippensburg 18, 13.(tie) Mifflin County, Palmyra, Red Land 16, 16.Mechanicsburg 15, 17.Greencastle-Antrim 12, 18.James Buchanan 11, 19.Cedar Cliff 10, 20.Harrisburg 9, 21.Northern York 7, 22.(tie) East Pennsboro, Middletown 5, 24.Waynesboro 4.5, 25.(tie) Trinity, Boiling Springs 2.

Individual results

4x800 relay — 1.Carlisle 8:00.33, 4.Chambersburg (Chris Wurtz, Kevin Madrigal, Alex Aquino-Flores, Tanner Amsley) 8:06.99; 110 hurdles — 1.Charles Bowman Jr. (CD East) 14.53; 100 — 1.Chris Craig (CV) 11.12, 3.Liam Okal (Greencastle-Antrim) 11.28, 8.Peter Hughey (JB) 11.26; 1,600 — 1.Zach Brehm (Car) 4:17.86; 4x100 relay — 1.CDE 42.46; 400 — 1.Peter Hughey (JB) 48.78; 300 hurdles — 1.Bowman Jr. (CDE) 38.71, 3.Jordan Turner (Shippensburg) 40.47, 9.Chris Bowman (GA) 42.48; 800 — 1.Zach Brehm (Car) 1:54.78, 9.Tanner Amsley (Chbg) 2:02.26; 200 — 1.Craig (CV) 22.14, 5.Okal (GA) 22.73; 3,200 — 1.Sean Weidner (Lower Dauphin) 9:33.79; 4x400 relay — 1.CD East 3:20.25, 7.G-A (Bowman, Josh Ehko, Luke Kayga, Okal) 3:31.87; Shot put — 1.Kelton Chastulik (Chbg) 48-7.75, 9.Nate Long (Chbg) 43-4.25, 10.Bobby Rider (G-A) 43-2; Discus — 1.Chastulik (Chbg) 151-1, 9.Campbell Parker (G-A) 130-3, 10.Nery Gordiano (Chbg) 126-11; Triple jump — 1.Deshawn Millington (Car) 47-4; Long jump — 1.Isa Paschall (Car) 23-9.25; High jump — 1.Rodeo Thompson (Her) 6-3, 3.David Boarts (Ship) 6-0, 7.Kendall Keepler (Chbg) 5-10; Pole vault — 1.Griffin Thompson (State College) 14-6, 3.Zach Greenawalt (Ship) 13-0, 4.(tie) Christopher Payne (Way) 13-0, 7.(tie) Evan Vink (Chbg) 12-6; Javelin — 1.Alex Hoffsmith (Pal) 174-11, 3.Long (Chbg) 171-5.

GIRLS

Team Standings

1.Harrisburg 90, 2.Susquehanna Twp. 84, 3.Cumberland Valley 65, 4.State College 59, 5.Carlisle 52, 6.Cedar Cliff 32, 7.Chambersburg 28, 8.(tie) Milton Hershey, Mechanicsburg 27, 10.Bishop McDevitt 26, 11.Palmyra 21, 12.Hershey 20, 13.(tie) Trinity, Boiling Springs 19, 15.(tie) East Pennsboro, Northern York 17, 17.Red Land 16, 18.CD East 14, 19.(tie) Waynesboro, Big Spring 11, 21.Greencastle-Antrim 9, 22.(tie) Lower Dauphin, Mifflin County, Middletown 8, 25.Central Dauphin 7, 26.Camp Hill 4, 27.James Buchanan 3.

Individual results

4x800 relay — 1.Palmyra (Jess Dembrowski, Katie Dembrowski, Miranda Salvo, Maria Tukis) 9:27.3; 100 hurdles — 1.Sierra Brabham-Lawrence (Har) 14.32; 100 — 1.Ty'Asia Dansbury (Harrisburg) 12.32; 1,600 — 1.Mady Clahane (CV) 5:01.49, 5.Kaylee Mowery (Chbg) 5:13.70, 10.Lauren Hirneisen (GA) 5:18.46; 4x100 relay — 1.Susquehanna Township 47.34, 4.Chbg (Camryn Greelee, Cirsten Kelly, Rachael Berman, Miana Harrison) 49.88, 8.G-A (Kiarra Jackson, Jordan Pizzaro, Alexis Sibbio, Megan Swam) 50.96; 400 — 1.Ty'Asia Dansbury (Har) 55.76, 7.Harrison (Chbg) 59.52 ; 300 hurdles — 1.Brabham-Lawrence (Har) 43.84; 800 — 1.Maddie Kole (Car) 2:18.79; 200 — 1.Dansbury (Har) 24.21, 7.Cirsten Kelly (Chbg) 25.69; 3,200 — 1.Clahane (CV) 10:41.82, 2.Abby Yourkavitch (Chbg) 11:14.92, 10.Cadie Kiser (Chbg) 11:56.46; 4x400 relay — 1.Har 3:52.07; Shot put — 1.Sydney Alderman (Red Land) 39-3, 2.Jenay Faulkner (GA) 38-0.5, 8.Reagan Winebrenner (Chbg) 33-4.25 ; Discus — 1.Keyairah Pinkey (Har) 123-07, 9.Rachel Bartlett (GA) 97-8; Triple jump — 1.Brabham-Lawrence (Har) 38-2.75, 8.Harnish (Way) 35-8.5; Long jump — 1.Dazjanique Williams (Cedar Cliff) 19-0.5, 10.Kristina Donato (Way) 16-9.25; High jump — 1.Lilly Harnish (Way) 5-6, 5.(tie) Jenna Carbaugh (JB) 5-0; Pole vault — 1.Tesia Kempsi (Bishop McDevitt) 12-0, 3.Sammi Lowery (Chbg) 11-6, 10.(tie) Hailey Alger (JB) 9-6; Javelin — 1.Sara Phelan (Bishop McDevitt) 127-11.