JOHNSTOWN - Even though he was the defending champion, winning the discus at the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference Boys Track and Field Championships felt like the first time for Bedford junior Christian Davis.
"I was excited. It was good to win my second straight one after my first one basically being a fluke,'' Davis said. "It was good to get one where I should win.''
Davis and Cambria Heights hurdler Devin Shaner both prevailed in their respective events for the second straight year, and Heights' Zack Prohonic won the triple jump and finished second in the long jump to headline a solid afternoon for area competitors on Wednesday at Johnstown High School's warm and breezy Trojan Stadium.
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Photo for the Mirror by Chris Hochrein
Bedford’s Dylan Evans competes in the 400-meter run.
In addition, Central Cambria received victories from its 3,200-meter relay and Blake Bussard in the 300 hurdles, while Bedford junior Dylan Evans finished first in the 400.
Central Cambria finished second in the team standings with 92 points, 12 fewer than Forest Hills, which was powered by Luke Gallaher's victories in the 100, 200, high jump and triple jump. Bishop McCort and Richland were tied for third with 88 points, followed by Bedford with 78 and Heights with 67.
Shaner repeated as champ in the 110 hurdles, where he posted a time of 15.3 seconds to edge out Penn Cambria's Ian Lewis by a tenth of a second.
"He's been behind me all year,'' Shaner said. "I hit a couple [hurdles] in the beginning, and I thought it was going to be close. It was a good race.''
Shaner tied the Cambria Heights school record for the second time with his mark.
"I wanted to run a 15.2 today. I got close,'' Shaner said. "I just have to get a little higher. Towards the end, I hit a hurdle. That slows you down a little bit.''
Davis had a best throw of the discus 125 feet, 10 inches on his first attempt to beat Central Cambria's Evan Sokira by 7 inches. Davis, whose best distance this year was 128-3 and who was throwing 130 in the warm-ups, was seeded third but felt he was the one to beat.
"There was more pressure knowing that, since I won last year, I should win again and that I was one of the favorites,'' Davis said. "I was a little bit nervous, but I thrive and like the pressure. I felt I needed a good throw to put up a mark for districts.''
Also a junior, Prohonic flew 42-8 in his second attempt in the triple jump, besting his previous best by 4 inches, tying the school record of Neil Baranik and winning the event by more than 2 feet.
"It was a really good feeling. I just started to triple jump this year. I tied the school record. Now, hopefully, I can move on to bigger and better things,'' said Prohonic, who also posted a 19-7 to come in as runner-up to Gallaher in the long jump. "I was hoping to get at least second in both jumps.''
Bussard posted a 41.6 to win the 300 hurdles, finishing just a tenth of a second off his seeded time and clipping pre-meet favorite Josh Wakefield of Bedford by a tenth of a second. No other runner finished within a second of him, but Bussard wasn't impressed with his time.
"I sailed over a few hurdles, so it wasn't my best race,'' Bussard said. "It's still exciting to win, regardless. This is great competition, preparing for districts.''
Evans was the No. 1 seed in the 400. In winning with a time of 52.4, he set a personal record and topped his previous best performance of the year by nearly a full second.
"I felt pretty good coming into the race, because there was a lot of competition,'' Evans, a junior, said. "When I know there's competition, that's when I get all pumped. I used to get nervous, but I love that feeling now.''
Central Cambria's four-by-800 relay of Arjun Vyas, Jake Fedore, Brandon Long and Tim Hite opened the meet by winning its event with a time 8:47.2. No other team finished within 10 seconds of the leaders.
Meet notes: Gallaher's 6-8 in the high jump was a new meet record. ... Richland's Chris Speicher, who came in with a seeded height of 10-6, broke the meet record in the pole vault with a 13-4 in addition to running on the winning 400 and 1,600 relays. ... Bishop McCort's Chad King was a double winner, finishing first in the mile and the two-mile runs.
Key, team scoring: 1, FH-Forest Hills, 104; 2, CC-Central Cambria, 92; 3 (tie), BM-Bishop McCort and R-Richland, 88; 5, BED-Bedford, 78; 6, CH-Cambria Heights, 67; 7, J-Johnstown, 55; 8, PC-Penn Cambria, 48; 9, WH-Westmont Hilltop, 37; 10, S-Somerset, 33; 11 (tie), BC-Bishop Carroll and BG-Bishop Guilfoyle, 1.
100 dash: 1, L. Gallaher, FH, 11.1; 2, Rozich, R, 11.2; 3 (tie), Burkey, FH, and Minter, J, 11.8; 5 (tie), Lieb, CH, and Reed, BM, 11.7; 7 (tie), Sheridan CH, and Tabek, WH, 11.8.
200 dash: 1, L. Gallaher, FH, 22.5; 2, Speicher, R, 22.8; 3 (tie), Lieb, CH, and Reed, BM, 24.0; 5, Fapore, S, 11:10.5; 6, Dimond, FH, 11:10.8; 7, Newsom, R, 11:16.5; 8, Stewart, BM, 11:20.6.
400 dash: 1, Evans, BED, 52.4; 2, Koval, BM, 53.0; 3, C. Gallaher, FH, 53.2; 4, Mayer, S, 53.3; 5, Anderson, J, 53.6; 6,Keagy, PC, 53.8; 7 (tie), Harris, PC, and Kushner, WH, 55.5.
800 run: 1, George, FH, 2:07.9; 2, Bowser, R, 2:10.4; 3, Bixel, BM, 2:11.3; 4, Fedore, CC, 2:12.0; 5, Miller, PC, 2:15.2; 6, Hetrick, WH, 2:15.6; 7, Ferchalk, S, 2:16.1; 8, Madison, J, 2:17.0.
1600 run: 1, King, BM, 4:31.8; 2, Coffield, BED, 4:43.3; 3, Barber, CC, 4:43.5; 4, Madison, J, 4:43.8; 5, Vyas, CC, 4:54.0; 6, Dailey, WH, 5:04.6; 7, Dimond, FH, 5:07.7; 8, Gagnon, WH, 5:08.9.
3200 run: 1, King, BM, 10:25.8; 2, Dailey, WH, 10:27.3; 3, Coffield, BED, 10:25.8; 4, Vyas, CC, 10:53.1; 5, Fapore, S, 11:10.5; 6, Dimond, FH, 11:10.8; 7, Newsom, R, 11:16.5; 8, Stewart, BM, 11:20.6.
110 hurdles: 1, Shaner, CH, 15.3; 2, Lewis, PC, 15.4; 3, O'Reilly, BM, 15.6; 4 (tie), Arnold, BED, and Hanley, R, 16.2; 6, McConnell, PC, 16.4; 7, Pride, CC, 16.6; 8, Bussard, CC, 16.9.
300 hurdles: 1, Bussard, CC, 41.6; 2, Wakefield, BED, 41.7; 3 (tie), Clauto, PC, and Hanley, R, 42.6; 5, O'Reilly, BM, 42.6; 6, Arnold, BED, 43.4; 7, Dell, FH, 44.2; 8, Pride, CC, 44.8.
400 relay: 1, Richland (C. Speicher, Locastro, Bowser, Rozich), 44.6; 2, Johnstown, 45.2; 3, Bishop McCort, 45.4; 4, Forest Hills, 46.3; 5, Cambria Heights, 46.6; 6, Central Cambria, 46.7; 7, Westmont Hilltop, 47.5; 8, Bishop Guilfoyle, 47.8.
1600 relay: 1, Richland (C. Speicher, Boyd, Bowser, Locastro), 3:36.5; 2, Bedford, 3:36.7; 3, Central Cambria, 3:40.5; 4, Penn Cambria, 3:44.8; 5, Forest Hills, 3:48.8; 6, Somerset, 3:54.6.
3200 relay: 1, Central Cambria (Vyas, Fedore, Long, Hite), 8:47.2; 2, Richland, 8:57.7; 3, Somerset, 9:11.3; 4, Bedford, 9:23.2; 5, Westmont Hilltop, 9:35.3; 6, Cambria Heights, 10:08.9.
High jump: 1, L. Gallaher, FH, 6-8 (new meet record); 2, O'Reilly, BM, 5-10; 3, Watson, J, 5-10; 4, Lacue, CH, 5-10; 5, Rozich, R, 5-8; 6, C. Gallaher, FH, 5-6; 7, Caldwell, CH, 5-6; 8, Mencer, S, 5-6.
Long jump: 1, L. Gallaher, FH, 22-1; 2, Prohonic, CH, 19-7; 3, Clauto, PC, 19-5; 4, C. Gallaher, FH, 19-5; 5, Minter, J, 19-4; 6, Reed, BM, 19-1; 7, Caldwell, CH, 19-0; 8, Rozich, R, 19-0.
Triple jump: 1, Prohonic, CH, 42-8; 2, Caldwell, CH, 40-4; 3, Mardula, PC, 39-8; 4, Bussard, CC, 38-4; 5, Snedden, FH, 38-4; 6, Burgo, BM, 38-3; 7, O'Saben, CC, 37-10; 8, Gresko, BC, 37-2.
Shot put: 1, Rugg, BM, 46-6; 2, Glacken, FH, 45-8; 3, Byrne, CC, 44-3; 4, Kelley, CC, 44-3; 5, Eisenhuth, J, 43-6; 6, Whitfield, BED, 40-4; 7, Williams, J, 39-8; 8, Buck, S, 39-7.
Discus: 1, Davis, BED, 125-10; 2, Sokira, CC, 125-3; 3, Glacken, FH, 122-2; 4, Miller, CH, 121-2; 5, Whitfield, BED, 119-2; 6, Dininny R, 116-9; 7, Byrne, CC, 116-0; 8, Hoover, PC, 110-10.
Javelin: 1, Shalom, J, 162-5; 2, Byrne, CC, 152-11; 3, DeMoss, BED, 140-8; 4, J. Speicher, R, 137-10; 5, Stiller, PC, 134-8; 6 (tie), Bellock, CC, and Triplie, J, 133-7; 8, Hegemann, BC, 132-0 .
Pole vault: 1, C. Speicher, R, 13-4 (new meet record); 2, Heider, WH, 11-0; 3, Menser, S, 10-6; 4, Hemminger S, 10-6; 5, Bottenfield, BED, 10-0; 6, Barron, WH, 10-0; 7, Snedden, FH, 9-0; 8, Kozorosky, CC, 9-0.
