SCRANTON — The role of distinct underdog is an uncommon one for the Abington Heights girls track and field team.
Placed in that role by the star-studded lineup of Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 champion Dallas, coach Frank Passetti altered the Lady Comets’ emphasis for the District 2 Championships May 12 and 13 at Memorial Stadium.
“Knowing how strong Dallas was really led us to try to focus on getting kids qualified by hitting the state qualifying standard,” Passetti said.
The Lady Mountaineers lived up to expectations by winning seven of 18 events and posting a 129-87 1/3 victory over the Lady Comets at the top of the Class 3A girls field.
Abington Heights did not win an individual gold, taking its only title in the 3200-meter relay, but did manage to hit the lofty standards needed to qualify for the state meet even without winning district gold. Four Lady Comets accounted for seven instances of qualifying for the state meet, matching the number of qualifiers through the state standard of the other 17 teams combined.
“That impacted how we approached the meet,” Passetti said. “We have more individuals that have qualified for the state meet than we have in many years because we decided to not run them as heavy and focus on the events they had the best chance to qualify for.”
Jumper Tomara Seid qualified in three events, distance runner Anna Pucilowski made it in two. Reese Morgan and Maggie Coleman were each part of pre-meet strategy discussions on the best chances to make states and made it in one event.
“Reese Morgan was going back and forth on running the mile (1600),” said Passetti, who also had to work through whether Coleman’s best shot was in the 400 or 800, based on how it combined with the versatile runner’s other events. “I really encouraged Reese that she could run the state qualifier if she didn’t run the mile.”
Seid had three of the five individual silver medal performances by Abington Heights, taking second in the long jump, triple jump and pole vault.
Combining with clearing a career-best 12-2 in the pole vault in the Friendship Games in Warwick, N.Y. May 9, Seid set three Abington Heights school records in a five-day stretch.
Seid broke Michelle Horwath’s 44-year-old mark in the long jump when she leaped 17-10 at districts. She set the triple jump mark at 38-8½. Seid took second in the district pole vault by making it over 12-0.
Pucilowski battled with District 2’s strong group of female distance runners, including Madison Hedglin, one of the Dallas team leaders who doubled up as 1600 and 3200 champion. Pucilowski took second in the 1600 in 5:03.86 and third in the 3200 in 10:58.62.
Morgan advanced with her third-place finish in 2:17.84 in the 800 where she came in behind the two fastest times in meet history, posted by Carbondale’s Kate Korty and Wyoming Area’s Ella McKernan.
Coleman qualified for the May 23-24 Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Championships at Shippensburg University with her second-place finish in the 400 in 57.84. She was also fourth in the 200 in 26.23.
Pucilowski, Morgan and Coleman also followed freshman Erin Bartell on the district championship 3200 relay team, which won by more than seven seconds in 9:29.45.
That relay performance sends the Lady Comets to Shippensburg as the 16th seed in the 28-team relay field.
The rest of the state emphasis for the program, which has produced 18 straight Lackawanna Track Conference division titles and 108 straight dual meet victories, will be on individual medal pursuit.
Seid is the team’s top contender for the state medals and team points that go along with a top-eight finish. She enters the state meet tied for the fourth seed in the triple jump and part of a seven-way tie for the fifth-best height in the pole vault. She also goes in ranked 17th in the long jump.
Pucilowski is seeded 18th of 36 in the 3200 and is 22nd in the 1600.
Coleman and Morgan are each seeded 26th in their state events.
Emily Dennis added a third-place district finish for the Lady Comets with a javelin throw of 106-9.
The top six finishers earned district medals and the top eight scored team points.
Marley Gilboy was seventh in both the 1600 and 3200.
Julia Schuster and Elizabeth Henkels were seventh and eighth in the 100.
The 1600 relay team was also seventh.
Scranton Prep’s only 10 points came from Peyton Fox’s discus title with a heave of 125-6.
Lackawanna Trail’s only two points in Class 2A were the result of Emma Shaw placing seventh in the 3200.
Lakeland won the team title 136½-102½ over Western Wayne.
