Cedar Crest boys win 19th straight county title

Though it was yet another dominating day for Cedar Crest in the 2016 Lebanon County Boys Track and Field Meet, there were some other solid individual performances, a record set, and even two photo finishes. Here’s a full recap of a very exciting day Saturday at Lebanon High School.

Cedar Crest wins 19th team title

It was pretty clear who the team to beat was – or in this case, still is. But that team still remains yet to be beaten for now almost two decades. And they won in pretty convincing fashion, doubling up the rest of the field.

The Falcons cruised to their 19th straight team title with 164 points. Palmyra finished second with 85 points, while Lebanon was third with 82 points, then Elco with 81, Northern Lebanon with 71, and Annville-Cleona with 69. Cedar Crest coach Rob Bare however, knows keeping the impressive streak alive will continue to get tougher.

“Even though the pressure gets to me personally a little more each year, what’s cool about the streak is hearing from the kids that graduated years ago to wish us luck,” Bare said. “But one day the streak will end, and the team that wins it will be more than deserving. But to be 19 years – it’s longer than any of these kids have been alive and that’s really neat. Everyone’s always up for the challenge, and it’s been fun.”

Even though Bare has been the one who’s led the way during this streak in his 23rd year as Falcons coach, he says it’s someone special, who’s been going through a much more grueling battle, that motivates his teams year in and year out.

“This week I brought in my wife, whose battled cancer the last 12 years, and she’s has been a huge inspiration to the team,” Bare said. “She’s a huge part of what I’m able to do to get out and be with these great kids every day. She talked about to the team about persevering, and there was not a dry eye to be seen.”

Horn named Outstanding Male Athlete

Another nice piece of hardware went to the Falcons, and to an athlete who can add it to his own rapidly growing trophy case.

The Falcons’ Evan Horn put together another big-time performance, winning three events including the javelin with a 178-2, the long jump with a leap of 21’ 7,” and was part of the win in 44.0 seconds for the 4 x 100 m relay team with Blake Thomson, Luke Allwein, and Kobe Bolanos. Horn was also second in the 100 dash with a time of 11.3, edged out by Elco’s Ethan Anspach who finished with a time of 10.9, in one of two photo finishes.

Horn also pulled all this off coming off competing in Friday’s Penn Relays in Philadelphia.

“In the 23 years I’ve coached, and I’ve coached some real good kids, but when you look at what he had to do yesterday, comes here today (Saturday) and wins three events, he’s a competitor,” Bare said. “The thing I’m going to miss about him is when I put him in an event, I know he’s going to give me everything he has. His competitiveness is once in a lifetime.”

And Sunday, Horn was set to play football in the annual East-West All-Star Game.

Klick sets county and school record

Another big highlight of the day was Lebanon's Derin Klick, who set the county and school record in the 800 meter run with a time of 1:54.3, after just missing it by 0.3 seconds last year. Klick certainly took care of business this time, beating the record by three seconds. He beat out Cedar Crest’s Matt Royer by five seconds, who finished in 1:59.7.

“It was huge. I’ve been thinking about the race all week and how it was going to play out,” Klick said. “When I just missed it last year it sort of set a fire for this year. I’ve pretty much set a new standard for myself.”

Vines wins two in final county meet

Though he didn’t feel they were his best performances, Northern Lebanon’s Matt Vines took the shot put and discus for the first time, in what his final county meet of his career. Vines won the shot put with a throw of 49’ 4 3/4,” and won the discus with a throw of 151-10.

“It’s awesome. I didn’t throw the way I wanted to, but it’s better than what I’ve been throwing in competition lately,” Vines said. “I was pretty confident coming into the shot put, but I was a little more nervous about the discus. My disc was really slippery, so I went to my backup disc. The circle was also more slippery than what I’ve been used to this year.”

Another photo finish

The other photo finish came in the last race of the day in the 1600 meter relay, where Cedar Crest’s team of Matt Royer, Thomson, Jesse Cruise, and Kobe Bolanos edged out Elco in 3:26.6.

Other notes

Cedar Crest’s Luke Allwein won the 110m hurdles in 15.2.

Lebanon dominated in the pole vault, as Huy Luu took first place with a jump of 13’ 9,” while his teammate Jesse Brownstien took second with an even jump of 13.’