There are plenty of changes this spring in Schuykill League track and field.
A few include:
• Lehighton has entered the league and the divisions have realigned, with Pine Grove moving up to Division I and Minersville dropping to Division II;
• The order of the track events at dual meets has changed. In previous years, the 100-110 hurdles were first, followed by the 3,200 relay. Meets now begin with the 3,200 relay, followed by the hurdles.
The biggest change, however, is something area track and field fans won’t see when attending dual meets.
The Schuylkill League has now gone computerized. Specifically, the league has gone “Hy-Tek.”
Hy-Tek is a meet-management program that’s been used for swimming and diving in the league for years. It’s also been used at selective invitationals — depending on what school is hosting the invite — as well as by every other league in District 11. The Colonial League has used it for 10 years. The Mountain Valley Conference, before it folded, six.
Mahanoy Area boys’ track and field coach and athletic director Dave Holmes, who is in charge of the sport for the Schuylkill League, said the use of Hy-Tek has been mandated by District 11. The district has also paid for every school to have a copy and use the program.
As with any change, there’s been growing pains for some of the league’s coaches in learning how to use it.
“The problems are not with the program, the problems are learning the program,” Holmes said. “In the long run, it will be a better process all around.”
The hope is that the switch will make running dual meets quicker. But the big reason for the change to Hy-Tek is there is more accountability with the new system.
For example, at the Schuylkill League seeding meeting in years past, coaches would bring cards with their athletes’ performances on them. The meet would then be seeded and the performance lists generated from the cards, all handwritten out. It was sometimes a long and drawn-out process and the performances weren’t always verifiable.
A similar drawn-out process was used for seeding the District 11 meet. The district has started using Hy-Tek to seed the district meet the past couple of years, but the coaches from the Schuylkill League still had to enter their athletes’ results into the program before the seeding meeting.
With the league now using Hy-Tek full time, all of the dual-meet results are recorded by computer, sent to MileSplit and posted on its website. Those results are for all to see, and all the performances can be verified by clicking on an athlete’s name. The dates of the performances are recorded, too, leaving no question as to the legitimacy of it.
Holmes said that Hy-Tek should eventually end seeding meetings. If that’s the case, I am going to miss the food, even if it was just sandwiches and potato chips, and visiting with the coaches during the league seeding meetings that were held at Blue Mountain.
Posting the results online at MileSplit will also bring more publicity to the league and its athletes.
Holmes knows the switch has not been easy for some. There’s plenty of extra work involved.
For Hy-Tek to work properly, coaches had to type in their rosters into the system before the season began. All of the participants in a dual meet also have to be typed in, and events seeded prior to the start of the meet.
Holmes acknowledged he’s had questions with Hy-Tek, too. When he does, he usually calls Northern Lehigh athletic director Bryan Geist to help him out.
Hy-Tek should make my job easier, too. Hopefully the days of receiving results by fax and email will soon be history. The old methods were sometimes tough to read, and there were, unfortunately, misspelled names or missing information.
That means I can do a better job for you, the reader, and followers of track and field.
Weather plays havoc with schedule ... somewhat
The weather this spring has certainly been an athletic director’s nightmare.
Track and field has been no different, depending on a school’s division.
As of today, the Division I schedule is up to date. However, none of the Division II schools have held league meets yet.
In fact, the only two teams to compete so far are Minersville, which has had non-league meets at Hamburg (March 27) and Pottsville (March 30), and Nativity. The Hilltoppers had a non-league meet at Jim Thorpe on April 1.
Even schools with all-weather tracks can’t seem to get going.
Mahanoy Area was scheduled to host Minersville and Shenandoah Valley last Thursday, but the meet was postponed to April 22. While the track was fine, Holmes said, “the jumping pit is hard as a rock and the throwing areas are a swamp and have not been lined yet. Paint on water doesn’t work well.”
The league schedule is supposed to resume Tuesday,. However, the forecast is calling for a chance of rain Tuesday-Thursday and another round of rainouts will put even more pressure on schools to get their meets in.
Olympian event begins
area invite schedule
The season’s first big local invitational is Friday when Jim Thorpe hosts the 7th annual Olympian Invitational. The field will include 18 girls’ teams, 17 boys’ teams, as well as a few athletes competing independently. Blue Mountain, Lehighton, Pine Grove, Panther Valley, Mahanoy Area, Minersville, Shenandoah Valley, Schuylkill Haven, Tamaqua and Weatherly, along with host Jim Thorpe, are the Schuylkill League teams scheduled to compete.
I will be providing updates from the meet on my Twitter account Friday night.
Marian, Pine Grove and Pottsville are scheduled to send athletes to the Pan-Ram Invitational on Saturday at Central Dauphin Middle School in Harrisburg.
Honor roll returns
The first weekly honor roll of the spring can be found adjacent to this story. It includes the performances from the first two weeks of the season.
(Carnahan is the track and field beat writer for The Republican-Herald. Follow him on Twitter @mdcarnahan71)
Schuylkill League Track and Field Honor Roll
March 25-April 4
Boys
100 — Elliot Clark (North Schuylkill) 11.04
200 — Ben Hinkel (Minersville) 23.24
400 — Cameron Greenawalt (Blue Mountain) 52.64
800 — Dylan Bucior (Jim Thorpe) 2:09.00
1,600 — Dylan Bucior (Jim Thorpe) 4:48.59
3,200 — Jacob Saxon (Jim Thorpe) 10:41.85
110 HH — Chris Karlonis (North Schuylkill) and Mathew Strubinger (Lehighton) 16.44
300 IH — Craig Serfass (Lehighton) 42.64
400 relay — Pottsville (James Close, Jed Dunkel, Evan Bernitsky, Kevin Hampford) 46.44
1,600 relay — Pottsville (Kevin Hampford, Christian Witman, James Close, Nate Varano) 3:44.04
3,200 relay — Jim Thopre (Ben Saxon, Dylan Bucior, Jacob Saxon, Johnathan Condly) 8:49.56
High jump — Rayan Green (Jim Thorpe) 6-4
Long jump — Tyler Crum (Lehighton) 22-1.5
Triple jump — Rayan Green (Jim Thorpe) 43-9
Shot put — Derek Reber (Blue Mountain) 44-0.5
Discus — Grayson Umbenhauer (Blue Mountain) 131-3
Javelin — Justus Schultz (Pottsville) 152-2
Pole vault — Adrian Dohmann (Blue Mountain) 12-0
Girls
100 — Sarah Lombel (Pottsville) 12.44
200 — McKayla Lally (Pine Grove) 23.34
400 — McKayla Lally (Pine Grove) 1:03.54
800 — Emily Leymeister (Blue Mountain) 2:37.14
1,600 — Monika Shimko (Tamaqua) 5:47.24
3,200 — Courtney Dukmen (Blue Mountain) 13:12.14
100 H — Madeline Frew (Pine Grove) 16.84
300 IH — Madeline Frew (Pine Grove) 49.74
400 relay — Pottsville (Marielle Przywara, Alyssa Kondrack, Sarah Lombel, Madison Sherakas) 52.24
1,600 relay — Pine Grove (Rachel Edge, Madeline Frew, Cierra Geiger, McKayla Lally) 4:22.84
3,200 relay — Pottsville (Gabrielle Evans, Brenna Nagle, Hannah Evans, Rebecca Sites) 10:57.63
High jump — Carly Gregas (North Schuylkill) 5-2
Long jump — Riley Durishin (Lehighton) 15-6
Triple jump — Madeline Frew (Pine Grove) 33-5.25
Shot put — Brooke Cope (Jim Thorpe) 33-4.25
Discus — Mallory Sanders (Blue Mountain) 88-11
Javelin — Paige Demetriades (Tamaqua) 139-6
Pole vault — Katie Glore (Minersville) and Collen Hoffman (Jim Thorpe) 9-0
NOTE: All hand-held times have been converted to FAT (Fully Automatic Timing). Performances are based on results reported to The Republican-Herald.