It’s the time of the year I look forward to the most in track and field.
It has to be the case for the coaches, athletes and fans, too.
The postseason is upon us, starting with the Schuylkill League meet Wednesday at Blue Mountain High School’s Eagles’ Nest.
But before looking ahead, let’s look back to what was an exciting dual-meet season in the Schuylkill League.
There are two items that stand out for me from the past six weeks.
The first is just how tight and competitive the dual meets were in Division I, especially among the division contenders. The season featured two ties — Lehighton at Blue Mountain boys April 1 and Tamaqua at Jim Thorpe girls on April 15 — and plenty of key meets were decided by one or two events.
Jim Thorpe (boys) and Blue Mountain (girls) emerged as the Division I champs, but nothing was easy for both.
Score-wise, the closest meet for the Olympians, whose division title was the first in program history, was a 76-74 victory over Lehighton on March 27. It was the season opener for both and the league debut for the Indians.
Jim Thorpe (7-0, 6-0 D-I) then beat Blue Mountain 81-69 on April 13 and finished with a thrilling 77-73 win over Pottsville on April 29. The meet came down to the final event, the 1,600-meter relay, won by Jim Thorpe’s Dylan Bucior, Chalid Small-Stokes, Ben Saxon and Samuel Gilkes in 3:32.74. That was .17 of a second better than the Crimson Tide’s time of 3:32.91.
In addition to their tie, the Eagle boys beat Pottsville 78-72 on April 15 that featured one of the strangest endings for a dual meet I can remember. The 300 hurdles were re-run after the hurdles were set too low the first time around. Blue Mountain’s John Dolbin, who won the first race, took first the second time, too, clinching the victory for the Eagles.
That meant the Crimson Tide lost both of their dual meets this season by a combined 10 points.
The Blue Mountain girls (6-0, 6-0 D-I), under first-year coach Paige Lurwick, were involved in four tight meets this season. It started with a victory at Pine Grove (75-66) on March 25, then Lehighton (78-70) on April 1 and Pottsville (78-72) on April 15, and finished with a 77-73 victory at Tamaqua on April 29.
In its first year in the league, Lehighton (3-3, 3-3) was involved in three meets decided by 10 points or less, a 78-72 win over Jim Thorpe on March 27, and losses to the Eagles on April 1 and 79-71 against Tamaqua on April 7.
Pine Grove also beat North Schuylkill 73-68 on April 13 for its only victory of the season.
Marian continued its dominance in Division II boys with another championship. The Colts’ title was their fourth straight and seventh in the past eight years.
The Fillies won their first outright title since 2013 after sharing it last year with Pine Grove and Schuylkill Haven.
But what stood out for me was the number of “mini-Division II invites” that featured four or more teams at a time held this season at Mahanoy Area. The Golden Bears hosted three of them: April 13, 27 and 29. Multiple-team meets are common in other leagues in District 11 as well as at the collegiate level.
Mahanoy Area was scheduled to host multiple-team meets when the season started, but the number of teams for each meet grew as the spring went along to get postponements in.
Holding meets such as these is good and bad. On the downside, it does take away opportunities for athletes to compete. Instead of having a potential six dual meets in a seven-team division, the number of meets is now down to three or four.
On the plus side, however, it does, in the case of Mahanoy Area’s Alumni Field, give athletes the opportunity to run more often, and surely get better performances, on the Golden Bears’ all-weather track.
Of course, none of this would have been possible without Hy-Tek’s computer scoring coming into the league. It made holding and scoring multiple-team meets easier.
With Mahanoy Area hosting three multiple-team meets this past season, it got me wondering: What is an ideal number of times for athletes to compete during the season?
This started a couple weeks ago at the Pine Grove Invitational when I was talking to Mahanoy Area coach Dave Holmes and Minersville’s Jason Burgess. Neither coach seemed to mind taking part in the meets. Both liked the fact that it gave their athletes more time to train, versus competing all the time. This is especially the case later in April when schools were scrambling to get meets in after earlier postponements.
Burgess also liked the fact that his athletes got to compete on an all-weather track more often. He felt the same way when the Miners were in Division I the previous four years. Minersville didn’t win very many Division I meets, but it didn’t bother Burgess, who felt the time running on all-weather tracks gave his athletes better times for the postseason.
I asked Pottsville girls’ coach Barb McGinley for her perspective Monday.
All of the Division I meets this past season, as is usually the case, were one-on-one dual meets and McGinley wanted to keep it that way.
“I like concentrating on one team at one meet because there is such parity in the league,” she said. “It can go either way.”
McGinley also felt that competing two times a week is a good number in most cases. Any more gets to be too much.
“Sometimes, depending on who we are meeting, two is too many a week,” she said. “It just depends on how intense the competition was that week and how intense the competition is at an invite on that Saturday. For some athletes, two is too many and it is a real balance in trying to have these kids perform and get better as the season goes, and yet try to keep them healthy and hungry, trying not to burn them out physically as well as mentally.”
That was the case April 13-17 when Pottsville competed three times that week. The Crimson Tide had dual meets at Tamaqua (April 13) and Blue Mountain (April 15), and then the Tamaqua Invitational (April 17).
“That was too much for most of them, especially the younger girls,” McGinley said. “It depends. In years when you have a stronger junior and senior group of athletes, they could handle that. This year, I had mostly freshmen and sophomores filtered with juniors and seniors, and three is just way too many for them.”
Postseason is here
As mentioned before, the postseason begins Wednesday at Blue Mountain with the league meet. The District 11 Championships are next Tuesday-Wednesday, May 12-13 at Whitehall High School’s Zephyr Complex, while the PIAA Championships are May 22-23 at Shippensburg University.
For a preview of the league meet and a look at top seeds, pick up a copy of Wednesday’s edition of The Republican-Herald.
(Carnahan is the track and field beat writer for The Republican-Herald. Follow him on Twitter @mdcarnahan71.)
Schuylkill League Track and Field Honor Roll
April 27-May 1
BOYS
100 — James Close (Pottsville) 11.28
200 — James Close (Pottsville) 23.25
400 — Samuel Gilkes (Jim Thorpe) 51.91
800 — Cameron Greenawalt (Blue Mountain) 2:03.14*
1,600 — Dylan Bucior (Jim Thorpe) 4:33.74
3,200 — Johnathan Condly (Jim Thorpe) 10:17.24*
110 HH — Rayan Green (Jim Thorpe) 15.84
300 H — Craig Serfass (Lehighton) 42.24*
400 relay — Pottsville (James Close, Christian Witman, Jed Dunkel, Evan Bernitsky) 45.23
1,600 relay — Pottsville (Christian Witman, Jed Dunkel, Kevin Hampford, Nate Varano) 3:30.54*
3,200 relay — Jim Thorpe (Dylan Bucior, Ben Saxon, Jake Saxon, Johnathan Condly) 8:21.04*
High jump — Rayan Green (Jim Thorpe) 6-1
Long jump — Tyler Crum (Lehighton) 21-1
Triple jump — Rayan Green (Jim Thorpe) 44-7
Shot put — Noah Fritz (Schuylkill Haven) 48-8¾
Discus — Jadyn Anczarski (North Schuylkill) 133-10
Javelin — Justus Schultz (Pottsville) 159-3
Pole vault — Adrian Dohmann (Blue Mountain) 12-6
GIRLS
100 — Sarah Lombel (Pottsville) 12.56
200 — Sarah Lombel (Pottsville) 26.97
400 — Aysia Centeno (Pottsville) 1:01.87
800 — Meaghann Principe (Jim Thorpe) 2:32.07
1,600 — Tina Capparell (Marian) 5:40.64*
3,200 — Courtney Dukmen (Blue Mountain) 12:55.34*
100 H — Maddie Frew (Pine Grove) 16.54*
300 IH — Maddie Frew (Pine Grove) 49.14*
400 relay — Pottsville (Sarah Lombel, Caitlin Coyle, Marielle Przywara, Madison Sherakas) 51.94*
1,600 relay — Pine Grove (Nilitza Malave, Rachel Edge, Maddie Frew, McKayla Lally) 4:13.24*
3,200 relay — Blue Mountain (Caroline Rickard, Aubrey Abel, Katie Thompson, Emily Leymeister) 9:55.94*
High jump — Carly Gregas (North Schuylkill) and Celina Fital (Lehighton) 5-3
Long jump — Samantha Gnall (Mahanoy Area) 15-3
Triple jump — Maddie Frew (Pine Grove) 33-9
Shot put — McKayla Jones (Pottsville) 32-7¾
Discus — Brenna Karnish (Marian) 107-10
Javelin — Morgan Boyle (Tamaqua) 135-1
Pole vault — Colleen Hoffman (JT) 10-0
* Hand-held time adjusted to FAT (fully automatically timing)
NOTE: Individual performances in boys’ pole vault and girls’ long jump from Schuylkill County Relays were not available.