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TRACK AND FIELD: Gold rush for Lebanon County at L-L meet.


LANDISVILLE >> There were the usual doses of joy and despair, agony and ecstacy in the air, and surprises both pleasant and unpleasant making their way into the stadium at Hempfield High School on Saturday.

No surprise there. All of the above is to be expected at a high-level competition like the Lancaster-Lebanon League Track and Field Championships.

Thankfully, for Lebanon County competitors, there was a lot more to celebrate than to lament.

After snagging two gold medals on Friday, county athletes added five more on Saturday during the second and final day of the L-L meet at Hempfield.

The Cedar Crest boys 3200 relay of Noah Redcay, Melvin Rios, Matt Royer and Jared Glosser started it all off with a win in the first event of the day, and Elco's Blaine Troutman, Chris Gilbertson, Ryan Rolon and Austin Eldridge put a capper on the festivities by knocking off their big-school counterparts to win the boys 1600 relay.

In between, Northern Lebanon's Damian DiAngelis struck gold in the boys pole vault, Cedar Crest's Destinee Holloman captured the girls long jump and Lebanon's Derin Klick topped a county-heavy field to win the boys 800 via a devastating finishing kick.

The county's gold medal haul would have been an even larger had it not been for an untimely hamstring injury suffered by Annville-Cleona's Reagan Hess midway through the girls 100 dash.

Bursting out of the blocks to an early lead, defending champ Hess felt something catch in her right hamstring midway through the race, forcing her to hobble to a sixth-place finish and then withdraw from the 200-meter dash, long jump and 4x100 relay.

Hess was the top seed in the 100 and long jump and an almost sure-fire medalist in the 200 and 4x100.

The day's range of emotions were probably best summed up by Klick after winning the 800 in 1:57.41 to lead an all-county top five of Cedar Crest's Jesse Cruise and Glosser, along with Northern Lebanon's Tyler McFeaters and Crest's Matt Royer.

"It's horrible, it's the worst," Klick said of the grueling nature of the 800. "I don't know how I do it. It's the worst race ever, but it's the best. The reward comes over the pain."

Unfortunately for Hess, there was only pain, both emotional and physical. And also some doubt, about whether or not she'll heal in time for next weekend's District Three Championships.

"She said felt a ball in the lower part of her hamstring," said A-C coach Jerome Simon of Hess's injury. "And it worked its way up to the middle part of her hamstring and then she just pulled up.

"She hasn't really had any injuries in two years, so this is the first time she's had anything that really bothered her. And she was running good, she had a great start. Hopefully she'll be ready to go next week."

If she is, she'll be seeing a lot of Lebanon County pole vaulters at districts.

On the heels of Lebanon's Erin Winters claiming the girls' title on Friday, DiAngelis made it a clean sweep on Saturday, topping a medal stand that included three Lebanon vaulters — runner-up Erik Peiffer, Jesse Brownstein (fourth) and Huy Luu (fifth).

DiAngelis dedicated the win to veteran NL pole vault guru Jim Weaver, who was absent due to attending to his mother's funeral arrangements.

"It feels pretty good, I didn't expect it," DiAngelis said. "I just had a lucky day. I did it for my coach. He's kind of all of our mentors. We had a good day for him."

DiAngelis' top vault of 13 feet, six inches was shared by Peiffer, Diego Cruz of Lancaster Catholic, and Brownstein, with the Vikings' standout grabbing gold based on fewer misses.

Holloman was a bit of a surprise winner as well, after entering as the third seed.

But the door popped open after top seed Hess withdrew, and Holloman stormed through it with a winning leap of 16 feet, six inches.

"I was pretty sure I was gonna place pretty high," Holloman said, "but (Hess) is good competition. She would push me a lot. I was looking forward to jumping against her. But I'm so glad I got to compete against the other girls here. They're so good."

The desire to compete, and against the more revered big-school programs in the league, drove the Elco 1600 relay to their victory. As did Eldridge's blistering anchor leg that turned back Hempfield by .14 seconds and set a new school record of 3:23.30 for the Raiders.

"It feels amazing, really amazing," Eldridge said.

There was no shortage of silver medalists from the county on Saturday, either.

That group included Logan Reedy of Cedar Crest (girls high jump), fellow Falcon Shanna Sweigart (girls shot put), Lebanon's Jeronimo Rodriguez (boys 400 dash), Northern Lebanon's Dominic Trader (boys triple jump), Crest's Jesse Cruise in the boys 800 and 1600, and Lebanon's Peiffer in the boys pole vault.

Team titles went to the McCaskey boys and the Hempfield girls, with the Cedar Crest boys (3rd) and girls (6th) the top county finishers.

Track and field

Lancaster-Lebanon League Championships

at Hempfield

SATURDAY'S BOYS RESULTS

3,200 relay — 1. Cedar Crest (Redcay, Rios, Royer, Glosser) 8:00.99, 2. McCaskey, 3. Ephrata, 4. Solanco, 5. Lancaster Catholic, 6. Donegal ; 110 hurdles — 1. Billy Cooney (S) 14.61, 2. Parsons (GS), 3. Gilbertson (Elco), 4. Falcon (CV), 5. Auchenbach (NL), 6. McCord (W) ; 100 — 1. Tory Long (H) 11.21, 2. Luciano (M), 3.McIntyre (GS), 4. Harpel (W), 5. Richardson (PM), 6. Miller (CV) ; 1,600 — 1. Nathan Henderson (M) 4:20.76, 2. Je. Cruise (CC), 3. Jo. Cruise (CC), 4. Sunderland (MC), 5. Burkholder (PM), 6. Delany (MT) ; 400 relay — 1. Hempfield (Lathon, Long, Martin, Pogue) 43.11, 2. McCaskey, 3. Conestoga Valley, 4. Cedar Crest, 5. Solanco, 6. Penn Manor; 400 — 1. Ian Harpel (W) 49.41, 2. Rodriguez (L), 3. Lathon (H), 4. Vazquez (MT), 5. McIntyre (GS), 6. Cullen (M) ; 300 hurdles — 1. Billy Cooney (S)38.62, 2. Pogue (H), 3. Achenbach (NL), 4. Tadesse (H), 5. Gilbertson (E), 6. Tejeda (M) ; 800 — 1. Derin Klick (L) 1:57.41, 2. Cruise (CC), 3. Glosser (CC), 4. McFeaters (NL), 5. Royer (CC), 6. Hopkins (M) ; 200 — 1. Tory Long (H)22.52, 2. Lathon (H), 3. Harpel (W), 4. Rodriguez (L), 5. McIntyre (GS), 6. Richardson (PM) ; 1,600 relay — 1. Elco (Troutman, Gilbertson, Rolon, Eldridge) 3:23.30, 2. Hempfield, 3. McCaskey, 4. Manheim Township, 5. Lancaster Mennonite, 6. Lebanon ; Shot put — 1. Cain Resch (M) 53-11, 2. Sadler (D), 3. Wagaman (W), 4. Hoag (MC), 5. Viau (MT), 6. Leonard (NL) ; Discus — 1. David Lucas (W) 192-3, 2. Hoag (MC), 3. Walton (M), 4. Atkinson (PM), 5. Cardina (CV), 6. Vines (NL) ; Triple jump — 1. Eddie Adams (M) 44-3.75, 2. Trader (NL), 3. Shettel (M),4. Whitfield (CV), 5. Lebron (PM), 6. Fitzgerald (LC) ; Pole vault — 1. Damian DiAngelis (NL) 13-6, 2. Peiffer (L) 3. Cruz (LC), 4, Brownstein (L), 5. Luu (L), 6. Long (PM) ;

Final Team Standings

1. McCaskey 107, 2. Hempfield 64, 3. Cedar Crest 62, 4. Warwick 55, 5. Solanco 42, 6. Lebanon 37.5, 7. Northern Lebanon 36, 8. Conestoga Valley 25, 9. Manheim Central 24, 10. Manheim Township 21, 11. Elco, Garden Spot 18, 13. Penn Manor 15.5, 14. Ephrata 13, 15. Donegal, Lancaster Catholic 9, 17. Lancaster Mennonite 2

SATURDAY'S GIRLS RESULTS

3,200 relay — 1. Ephrata (Mahlandt, Morgan, Mahlandt, Schaller ) 9:41.96, 2. Donegal, 3. Manheim Township, 4. Hempfield, 5. Lampeter-Strasburg, 6. Cedar Crest ; 100 hurdles — 1. Stephanie Wahl (Cocalico), 2. Petit Ton (GS), 3. Braun (PM), 4. Hong (M), 5. Gamble (H), 6. Katelan (H); 100 — 1. Danielle Bland (H) 12.38, 2. Petit Ton (GS), 3. Liebl (Eph), 4. Holloman (CC), 5. German (MT), 6. Hess (AC) ; 1,600 — 1.Brianna Thomas (H) 5:06.68, 2. Zamrin (C), 3. Crum (S), 4, Newman (MT), 5. Stoner (D), 6. Morgan (E) ; 400 relay — 1. Hempfield (Bland, Gamble, Klag, Nottoli) 48.88, 2. Ephrata, 3. Penn Manor, 4. McCaskey, 5. Cedar Crest, 6. Donegal ; 400 — 1. Sarah Klag (H) 56.94 2. Forney (CV), 3. Stoltzfus (LS), 4. German (MT), 5. Fernald (D), 6. Hummel (MT ; 300 hurdles — 1. Nesta Petit Ton (GS) 46.24, 2. Gamble (H), 3. Bollinger (MC), 4. Eberly (S), 5. Voigt (Eph), 6. Weaver (Eph) ; 800 — 1. Meredith Newman (MT) 2:17.66, 2. Mahlandt (Eph), 3. Allport (S), 4. Schaller (Eph), 5. Bomberger (W), 6. Tirado (M) ; 200 — 1. Danielle Bland (H) 25.88, 2. Forney (CV), 3.Petit Ton (GS), 4. Gibson (PM),5. Klag (H), 6. German (MT) ; ; 1,600 relay — 1. Manheim Township ( Mason, Newman, Gurdak, German)4:01.74, 2. Conestoga Valley, 3. Hempfield, 4. Donegal, 5. Ephrata, 6. Manheim Central ; Shot put — 1. Emily Stauffer (C) 43-10, 2. Sweigart, 3. Rohrer (H), 4. Loose (H), 5. Striver (M), 6. Zimmerman (MT) ; Long jump — 1. Destinee Holloman (H) 16-6, 2. Wahl (C), 3. Knowlton (LC), 4. Liebl (Eph), 5. Johnson (MT), 6. Bookert (H) ; High jump — 1. Sheridan McNeill (W) 5-2, 2. Reedy (CC), Mongeau (LS), 4. Bronkema (LM), 5. Keller (E), 6. Goldsmith (H) ; Javelin — 1. McKenzie Hainley (C) 127-01. 2. Lawville (C), 3. Rohrer (H), 4. Phillips (NL), 5. Strausbaugh (MC), 6. Robinson (S)

Final Team Standings

1. Hempfield 105, 2. Cocalico 64, 3. Ephrata 54, 4. Manheim Township 49, 5. Penn Manor 35, 6. Cedar Crest 33, 7. Garden Spot 32, 8. Solanco 31, 9. Conestoga Valley 26, 10. McCaskey 24, 11. Warwick 22, 12. Donegal 17, 13. Lancaster Catholic 16, 14. Lampeter-Strasburg 15, 15. Lebanon 14, 16. Manheim Central 9, 17. Lancaster Mennonite, Northern Lebanon 4, 19. Elco 2, 20. Annville-Cleona, Columbia 1