SHIPPENSBURG – Lackawanna Trail’s Avery Ronchi reached the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Track and Field Championships in two events and made it into the top half of the field in one of them.
Ronchi placed 14th out of 28 Class 2A boys in the 3200-meter run May 24, the second of two days of the state meet at Shippensburg University. He ran a time of 9:39.20.
On the first day, Ronchi ran the 1600 in 4:38.54 to place 32nd of 40.
District 2 Championships
SCRANTON – D.J. Rogers, Hamza Mirza and Dylan Jaramillo were all part of silver- and bronze-medal winning relay teams May 12 and 13 to lead the Abington Heights boys in the District 2 Track and Field Championships at Memorial Stadium.
The Comets did not have any gold medalists or state qualifiers, but they showed their team strength by finishing second in the 400- and 3200-meter relays and third in the 1600 relay.
The 22 points earned in the relays helped Abington Heights finish fourth in the 18-team Class 3A field with 62 points. Wilkes-Barre Area pulled out an 86-84 win over Hazleton Area in the final event of the meet. The Comets were in a tight group that followed, placing two points behind third-place Wallenpaupack and four in front of the fifth-place tie between Crestwood and Wyoming Area.
“All three of our relays medaled,” Comets coach Frank Passetti said. “That’s something I really prioritize on our team because track is such an individual sport and the relays are your one opportunity to really focus on the team aspect of track.”
Jaramillo, Hamza and Rogers were joined by Joseph Pivirotto for a third-place finish in the 1600 relay in 3:25.90 to pass Wyoming Area in the team standings in the final event.
The first points of the meet were earned in the 3200 relay where Mirza was joined by Liam Peoples, Joseph Grad and Jack Shoemaker to take second in 8:23.10.
Jaramillo led off and Rogers anchored a 400 team that also included William Regan and Lukas Ruane for a second-place finish in 44.18.
Rogers also had two individual bronze medals, finishing behind the Wilkes-Barre Area combination of record-setting 100-meter sprinter Timothy Leonard and Kevon Creech he ran the 100 in 10.97 and the 200 in 22.13.
Carter Plantz placed fourth in the shot put and fifth in the discus.
Timothy Fogley was fourth in the 3200. Shoemaker took fifth in both the 1600 and 3200.
Pivirotto, in the 400, and Mirza, in the 800, finished sixth.
Scranton Prep finished 13th with 21½ points.
Vincent O’Malley led the way for the Cavaliers by placing third in the 1600 in 4:30.86 and 800 in 2:03.33.
Lackawanna Trail’s Ronchi qualified for the state meet by exceeding the state qualifying standards in strong races won by Elk Lake’s Kendal Jones.
Ronchi was second in the 3200 in 9:37.23 and fifth in the 1600 in 4:29.32.
The Lions finished 13th with 15 points with the help of a sixth-place finish by Demetrius Douglas in the long jump.
The top six finishers in each event earned medals and the top eight scored points.
Spagna Championships
SCRANTON – Rogers sprinted the title in the 200-meter dash and ran a leg of the winning 400 relay May 7 at Memorial Stadium to lead the Abington Heights boys to the Class 3A team title in the Robert Spagna Lackawanna Track Conference Championship meet.
Rogers won the 200 by three-quarters of a second in 22.09.
“I worked hard for this,” Rogers said. “This was my main event going into this season.”
Rogers was also part of a strong relay effort in which the Comets had two first-place and one third-place finish. He helped the 400 relay team win in 43.64 and the 1600 team finish third in 3:27.47.
Abington Heights beat out Wallenpaupack 69-59 to finish on top of the team standings.
The relays were part of the overall strength that allowed the Comets to claim the title despite having just one first-place finish in the other 15 events.
“Our team is good in just about every event,” Rogers said.
Jaramillo was also on both the 400 and 1600 relays. Mirza ran a leg for the 3200 relay team, which won in 8:29.52, and was also part of the third-place finish. Regan and Ruane were others on the 400 team; Grad, Shoemaker and Peoples contributed to the 3200 win; and Pivirotto was on the 1600.
Abington Heights scored in all three throws, led by Plantz taking second in the discus and Derek Williams placing third in the javelin.
Lackawanna Trail’s Ronchi and Scranton Prep’s O’Malley took gold at their strongest distances and squared off in between.
Ronchi won the 3200 in 9:47 and was second in the 1600 in 4:30.45, finishing less than a second ahead of third-place O’Malley, who won the 800 with a time of 2:04.58.
