In a non-coronavirus season, rain would have been the obstacle that would have threatened the Jordan Relays on the last day of April.
Otherwise, the Abington Heights girls track and field team would, by all indications, be right in the middle of adding to its title pursuits about right now.
With all sports shut down for the spring of 2020 because of the pandemic, Abington Heights missed its chance to chase an eighth straight Jordan Relays title last week, a fourth straight Robert Spagna Lackawanna Track Conference Championship Meet title Tuesday and a fifth straight District 2 championship next week on the Class 3A girls level.
For more than a dozen years, the Lady Comets have made it into May before there was much suspense about whether they would win.
Abington Heights had put together 13 straight perfect Lackawanna Track Conference Division 1 championship seasons – 2007 through 2019 – when the 2020 season was stopped before it really started, just short of two weeks into practice and before the first meet could be held.
Since a loss to end the 2006 season, the Lady Comets have put together the longest winning streak in LTC history, reaching the record when they stretched the streak to 70 early in the 2018 season, then keeping going.
Along with the 13 division titles, the last 13 years have also featured 11 Jordan Relays titles and nine each in the Spagna and District 2 meets.
“It’s heartbreaking that these kids aren’t able to have their turn at it,” said Mike Ludka, who has guided the program through more than a third of those victories after taking over for Frank Passetti as head coach. “There are some new ones that were excited to come up and be a part of it and there are some seniors for whom it’s really upsetting.”
For many of the athletes, who have a season off from high school competition rather than seeing their careers end, the competitive drive that has fueled the streak is not gone.
“It still motivates us,” Ludka said. “I have kids that are still working out now; asking for things that they can do during this break.
“It’s unfortunate, but we’re trying to keep it all in perspective, deal with what was dealt to us and, hopefully next year, we’ll be able to pick up where we left off. But, who knows? There will be another year gone by.”
There could have been challenges this season with the graduation of National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I athletes Calista Marzolino and Danielle Heine from the 2019 team after Katie Dammer from the 2018 class.
Plenty of talent, however, still remained.
Gianna Sabatini was back after winning the district title in the 800-meter run and anchoring the gold-medal 3200 relay team last year as a freshman.
Then sophomore Elyse Simakaski also won a district relay gold medal.
Abigail Marion finished third in the 3200 run as a sophomore and Anna Scoblick tied for fourth in the 300 hurdles as a freshman.
Anna Marchetta, a member of this year’s senior class, was part of a group of seven of 12 members returning from relay teams that finished first, third and fourth in the district.
Fresh off a record-setting junior high career and impressive high school athletics debut during the fall cross country season, Mia Arcangelo was set to lead the new additions to the program.
“I had one in particular, Mia Arcangelo, who was going to be an immediate contributor,” Ludka said. “She would score points at districts without a doubt.
“Then, I had a few others that you can’t know, but you felt like could step in and be difference-makers. We were with them for two very short weeks, so it’s hard to say, but I had some good feelings about kids.”
The day before schools closed and spring sports shut down, rumors led to Ludka discussing possibilities with his team at its final practice.
“I was thinking we were going to be apart for two weeks,” he said.
Postponements turned into cancellations and neither classroom work nor school athletic programs returned for the remainder of a school year that is still in session.
Ludka sent the word out to the whole team in a one-way, text messaging service he uses to communicate with them. Through Google classroom that the team has also used for communication, he was able to have more-detailed contact.
“I had been using that for things like posting workouts,” Ludka said. “I also used that forum to pass the message that our reality has changed and I wrote a big, long letter to them at the end, thanking the seniors and trying to keep the kids positive and focused on what is good in life, what’s coming, and ‘stay safe’ and all those sorts of messages.”
