JOHNSTOWN - Huge favorites coming into Tuesday afternoon's Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference Girls Track and Field Championships, Jess Delic and Brittany Kidd were competing largely against themselves and history.
Both were up to the challenge.
Delic, the Penn Cambria senior, accomplished a rare quadfecta by winning the conference javelin title for the fourth consecutive year. Meanwhile, Kidd, from Bedford, broke her own meet record in the pole vault to complete her conference career on a beautiful day but a difficult one for top seeds at Johnstown High School's Trojan Stadium.
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Photo for the Mirror by Chris Hochrein
Central Cambria’s Kendall Seymour runs to victory in the mile.
Forest Hills was the team champion. Central Cambria finished second, buoyed by Kendall Seymour's wins in the mile and as part of the first-place 3,200-meter relay team.
"I was just going into it like any other meet,'' Delic said. "I love Laurel Highlands. There's always really great competition.''
Maybe so, but this year Delic was clearly the cream of the crop in the javelin all season. The Akron-bound Delic had exceeded 143 feet. No one else entered Tuesday even had reached 112.
Even on an off day, Delic still surpassed the latter figure. She threw in the 119s in all three of her attempts, winning the event for the fourth year in a row by 15 feet with a toss of 119 feet, 9 inches.
"It feels really great to be a four-time champion, but I just keep looking forward,'' Delic said. "I want to get to states and get on that medal stand. That's my biggest goal right now.''
Delic finished three spots away from a PIAA medal last year. Two years ago, she missed qualifying for the state meet by a half-inch.
Delic was busy, scoring 20 of Penn Cambria's 38 team points herself by placing fourth in the high and long jumps in addition to her win in the javelin. Kidd was on the run, too, but for another reason - she wanted to get back to school to sing in a choral concert.
No matter. She made quick work of the competition, winning by 15 inches.
Kidd set a meet record last season by clearing 10-6. This time, she raised the record to 10-9.
Kidd has achieved that height several times this year. The next highest seeds in the meet were at 8-6, leading Kidd in large part pushing herself.
"I'd rather have competition. I usually do better when I get to bigger meets, so it's nice to have someone to help [push] me,'' Kidd said. "When I don't, I just try to go for the next height.''
Kidd missed at 11-0, the height that so far has bedeviled her. However, it leaves something clear for which to aim in her final two high school meets.
"It's been the goal for most of my season. I just hope I get it at districts or at states,'' Kidd said.
Although Kidd and Delic came through, it was a hard day to be the favorite. Only 10 top-seeded competitors or teams ended up winning conference champion medals.
The meet itself took but three hours - less than two and a half for the running events - leaving little recovery time. Combine that with temperatures in the 70s and an artificial surface that made it seem even hotter, and it wasn't conducive to great times.
One would think the distance runners would have felt it most, but Seymour had a big smile on her face at the end of the meet.
"I really like running in this weather. It's so nice to change from the beginning of the season,'' Seymour said. "It's just about being mentally tough and staying strong physically, trying to focus on my form and getting prepared for the rest of the season.''
Seymour, Alyssa Brandis, Emily Wright and Ashley Stump opened the day on the track by running a 10-minute, 13.6-second 3,200 relay to win that event. Seymour's first-place time in the mile was 5:24.4, and she came back after all that to take second to Forest Hills' Leah Anne Wirfel in the 3,200 meters.
"Our team did very well in the four-by-eight. Everyone looked very strong and smooth, and that's what we were going for,'' said Seymour. "In the mile, I just ran my own race. That's really what I've been working on this year.
"I feel very confident going into the end of the season. Definitely better than last year.''
Central Cambria's Renee Cook was the only remaining champion from the area. She threw the discus 88-10 to finish ahead of the next closest competitor by more than 6 inches.
Meet notes: Forest Hills' Casey Gallaher was the only other competitor to break a meet record, topping the time of Seymour's sister, Kelsey, in the 800 by about 3 seconds with a 2:19.8. ... Bedford's Ashley Waugerman placed second to Johnstown's Victoria Smothers in the 100 and 200. ... Somerset sophomore Jayna Coyle was the only other double winner, taking the triple and long jumps. ... The boys conference championships will be held today at Trojan Stadium.
Key, team scoring: 1, FH-Forest Hills, 152; 2, CC-Central Cambria, 117 1/2; 3, J-Johnstown, 69 1/2; 4, R-Richland, 67; 5, BED-Bedford, 64 1/2; 6, S-Somerset, 62 1/2; 7, WH-Westmont Hilltop, 57; 8, BM-Bishop McCort, 42; 9, PC-Penn Cambria, 32; 10, CH-Cambria Heights, 20; 11, BG-Bishop Guilfoyle, 8; 12, BC-Bishop Carroll, 3.
100 dash: 1, Smother, J, 12.9; 2, Waugerman, BED, 13.1; 3, Shrift, FH, 13.1; 4, Davis, WH, 13.1; 5, Gould, FH, 13.3; 6, Salter, WH, 13.5; 7, Henry, J, 13.6; 8, Rozich, R, 13.7.
200 dash: 1, Smothers, J, 26.1; 2, Waugerman, BED, 27.0; 3 (tie) Bealonis, WH, and Davis, WH, 27.4; 5, Shrift, FH, 27.4; 6, Bard, FH, 27.5; 7, Henry, J, 27.9; 8, Wasser, CC, 28.6.
400 dash: 1, Kostan, FH, 1:01.0; 2, Wyatt, J, 1:01.1; 3, King-Brothers, CC, 1:02.6; 4, Baker, BED, 1:03.3; 5, Hrbal, BM, 1:03.8; 6, Sherry, CH, 1:04.2; 7, Marcus, R, 1:05.3; 8, Bills, CH, 1:06.3.
800 run: 1, Gallaher, FH, 2:19.8 (new meet record); 2, Stump, CC, 2:23.8; 3, Rajter, WH, 2:29.5; 4, Diehl, BED, 2:30.1; 5, Wright, CC, 2:37.2; 6, Heckman, S, 2:37.6; 7, Bodenschatz, R, 2:38.2; 8, Chizmar, FH, 2:39.7
1600 run: 1, Seymour, CC, 5:24.4; 2, Spisak, BM, 5:35.6; 3, Brandis, CC, 5:37.1; 4, Dorian, WH, 5:53.4; 5, Schrock, S, 5:54.2; 6, Erb, FH, 5:56.0; 7, Heckman, S, 5:56.4; 8, Smithmyer, PC, 5:58.7.
3200 run: 1, Wirfel, FH, 11:25.3; 2, Seymour, CC, 11:48.2; 3, Brandis, CC, 12:22.7; 4, Schrock, S, 12:56.6; 4, 5, Spisak, BM, 13:15.0; 6, Smithmyer, PC, 13:27.0; 7, Dorian, WH, 13:43.1; 8, Yingling, BED, 13:57.4.
100 hurdles: 1, Lumley, R, 16.3; 2, O'Reilly, BM, 16.6; 3, Luther, CC, 16.8; 4, Rievel, WH,16.9; 5, Niovich, FH, 17.4; 6, Henry, CH, 18.1; 7, Warshel, R, 18.2; 8, O'Brien, BED, 18.3.
300 hurdles: 1, O'Reilly, BM, 48.8; 2, DiFlauro, FH, 49.5; 3, Lumley, R, 50.0; 4, Plummer, FH, 50.2; 5, Rievel, WH, 51.6; 6, Hagens, CC, 52.5; 7, Downey, BM, 52.6; 8, Luther, CC, 52.7.
400 relay: 1, Forest Hills (Smay, Gould, Shrift, Bard), 50.5; 2, Johnstown, 50.6; 3, Bedford, 52.0; 4, Richland, 52.5; 5 (tie), Central Cambria and Somerset, 53.6; 7, Penn Cambria, 53.8; 8, Bishop McCort, 54.3.
1600 relay: 1, Forest Hills (Kostan, Gould, DiFlauro, Bard), 4:14.6; 2, Central Cambria, 4:18.7; 3, Westmont Hilltop, 4:23.4; 4, Bedford, 4:27.0; 5, Johnstown, 4:27.2; 6, Richland, 4:28.6; 7, Cambria Heights, 4:30.0.
3200 relay: 1, ; Central Cambria (Seymour, Brandis, Wright, Stump), 10:13.6; 2, Bedford, 10:19.8; 3, Forest Hills, 10:36.6; 4, Cambria Heights, 11:02.7; 5, Richland, 11:17.6; 6, Penn Cambria, 11:29.9.
High jump: 1, Beyer, FH, 5-0; 2, Meck, BG, 5-0; 3, Deitle, FH, 4-10; 4, Delic, PC, 4-8; 5, Pfeil, R, 4-8; 6, Bracken, CC, 4-8; 7, Connors, WH, 4-6; 8, Holsberger, PC, 4-6.
Long jump: 1, Coyle, S, 15-10; 2, Wyatt, J, 15-7; 3, Smay, FH, 15-6; 4, Delic, PC, 15-6; 5, Melendez, BM, 15-2; 6, King-Brothers, CC, 15-2; 7, Deskevich, BC, 14-9; 8, Warshel, R, 14-4.
Triple jump: 1, Coyle, S, 35-9; 2, Lumley, R, 34-9; 3, Wyatt, J, 33-4; 4, Gould, FH, 33-3; 5, Baker, BED, 33-1; 6, Smay, FH, 32-11; 7, Holsberger, PC, 31-8; 8, Seitz, BM, 30-9.
Shot put: 1, Wright, J, 34-5; 2, Daughenbaugh, CC, 33-1; 3,Giger, FH, 32-7; 4, Swanson, FH, 30-11; 5, Yeager, CH, 30-7; 6, Lynch, BED, 28-9; 7, Marple, S, 27-11; 8, Koehle, BC, 27-2.
Discus: 1, Cook, CC, 88-10; 2, Patrick, R, and Pero, S, 88-2; 4,Pecora, R, 85-7; 5, Barth, S, 85-7; 6, Conrad, CC, 85-0; 7, Shero, CH, 83-10; 8, Smith, J, 80-2.
Javelin: 1, Delic, PC, 119-9; 2, Zubek, FH, 104-1; 3, Cook, CC, 102-5; 4, Shaffer, S, 93-8; 5, Barron, S, 93-7; 6, Pecora, R, 81-9; 7, Beegle, BED, 81-0; 8, Daughenbaugh, CC, 80-3.
Pole vault: 1, Kidd, BED, 10-9 (new meet record); 2, Connors, WH, 9-6; 3, Morris, FH, 8-6; 4, Feather, R, 8-6; 5 (tie), Barth, S, Leventry, FH, and Wasser, CC, 7-6; 8 (tie), Minemyer, J, and Ritchey, BED, 7-6.
