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Hollidaysburg’s Wyland enjoys big day

Some track stars hit their peak as a freshman, and others have to wait their entire careers to truly reach their highest potential.

Thursday’s District 6 Class 3A high school girls track and field championship meet at Mansion Park marked that moment for Hollidaysburg senior Ali Wyland.

The sprinter held off tough challenges in the 100-meter dash and as the last leg of Hollidaysburg’s 400-meter relay team before crushing her competition in the 200-meter dash and taking her third gold medal of the afternoon.

“This is the result of four years of hard work,” Wyland said. “I can’t even put it into words. I went 100 percent every time I practiced, went through training and it’s all worth it.”

The gold medals were Wyland’s first as a varsity runner, though she has advanced to states in previous years.

Her narrow victory over State College’s Taylor Givens in the 100-meter dash clinched another trip to Shippensburg for the PIAA championships, but that didn’t ease Wyland’s nerves.

“I’m nervous before every race,” Wyland said. “Whether it’s a regular meet or districts, it always happens.”

She didn’t seem to show it.

The relay victory may have been Wyland’s most thrilling. Hollidaysburg had not run the race in less than 50 seconds all season but entered Thursday as the top seed. However, State College ran its best race of the year and finished just under the mark at 49.98 seconds.

No problem for Wyland.

She helped the Lady Tigers finish in 49.69, and embraced teammates Mandy Sky, Darcie Frazier and Alexis Wagner following the presentation of the gold medals.

“We have been so motivated this entire season and put so much work into that relay,” Wyland said. “We were hoping for the best and came through.”

Wyland finished her trifecta by besting Altoona’s Olivia Hudson by nearly two seconds in the 200-meter dash. She added a silver medal to her haul in the final event of the night, the 1600-meter relay.

“I’m very proud, because I went out with a bang,” Wyland said. “I could not tell if anyone was beside me, so I just kept pushing at the end.”

Hudson also won a silver medal in the triple jump and reached the state qualifying standard to make it to the PIAA championships.

“I’m kind of nervous to be going to states, but it’s exciting,” Hudson said. “I wasn’t expecting myself to jump, but I ended up setting (a personal record) today, and I’m happy I qualified.”

Hudson will be joined at the state meet by teammate Lindsey Hallinan who broke the meet record in the discus en route to a district title.

Hallinan threw 124 feet, 11 inches to hold off State College’s Jordan Bair, who threw a state qualifying standard 119 feet, 4 inches.

“All week I was ready to go,” Hallinan said. “I was happy; I was excited, and I think it just showed when I threw today.

“I qualified on my second throw, and that took a lot of the pressure off. I just had to calm down a little bit.”

Thursday’s meet was held during a week-long heat wave, but it didn’t bother the Altoona junior, who won her second title discus in as many years.

“I actually like throwing in the heat,” Hallinan said. “It’s just nice, because you’re not cold, frozen and trying to bundle up before your throws. It was a little windy, but it seemed like every time I went to throw, it stopped.

“I won last year, and it’s nice to be on top again. I thought I could do it, and it’s nice to get it.”

Hallinan has even bigger goals in mind.

“I’d like to get into the 130s at states,” Hallinan said. “I have my eyes on the school record, and that’s definitely the goal.”

Along with her teammates in the 400-meter relay, Wyland will have company at the state meet as well.

Hollidaysburg’s Paige Jodon captured the high jump title with a leap of 5 feet, 3 inches.

“I feel like I jumped really well,” Jodon said. “We’ve had pretty rough weather all season, so I was really happy with the weather today. My steps were on, and I was happy with how it went.

“I’m so happy, because I worked so hard all season. I’m so glad I put it all together today. Doing this as a sophomore is great, but I hope to keep improving over the next couple of years.”

Meet notes: The Blair County Outstanding Performer Awards went to Altoona’s Gianna Caputo and Hollidaysburg’s Ali Wyland. … The female Angie Gioiosa Memorial Scholarship was awarded to Altoona cross country runner Ally Fama. … Caputo won a silver medal in the 100 hurdles and a bronze in the triple jump. … Hollidaysburg’s Darcie Frazier finished second in the 400-meter dash and third in the long jump along with her gold and silver in the 400-meter and 1600-meter relays. … Altoona’s Jasmine VonColln won a silver medal in the long jump as did Hollidaysburg’s Rebekah Hammaker in the shot put. … Hollidaysburg’s Alexandra Snyder won a bronze in the 100-meter hurdles, and Altoona’s Madison Benton finished third in the javelin. … State College won the girls team district title, 258-119, over closest competitor Altoona. Hollidaysburg finished third with 103.5 points.

CLASS 3A GIRLS

(Top three teams, event placers and those achieving qualifying standard advance to states; *-qualified by meeting qualifying standard; standard in parenthesis following event results)

KEY, TEAM SCORING: 1, SC-State College, 258; 2, A–Altoona, 119; 3, H-Hollidaysburg, 103.5; 4, MC–Mifflin County, 71.5; 5, CM-Central Mountain, 64.50; 6, S-Somerset, 46; 7, B–Bellefonte, 18.5; 8, J-Johnstown, 13.

100 dash: 1, Wyland, H, 12.24; *2, Givens, SC, 12.48; 3, Loe, J, 12.84; 4, Michael, SC, 13.18; 5, Lose, SC, 13.19; 6, Edwards, A, 13.62; 7, Seward, A, 13.64; 8, Sechler, MC, 13.74. (12.50)

200 dash: 1, Wyland, H, 25.90; 2, Hudson, A, 27.20; 3, Michael, SC, 27.37; 4, Barger, CM, 27.40; 5, Lose, SC, 27.70; 6, Gailey, H, 27.97; 7, Edwards, A, 28.27; 8, Bohn, MC, 28.51, (25.91)

400 dash: 1, Wicks, SC, 59.47; 2, Frazier, H, 1:00.35; 3, Barger, CM, 1:01.62; 4, Neely, SC, 1:03.68; 5, Lytle, A, 1:03.81; 6, Kane, SC, 1:03.87; 7, Robson, B, 1:04.77; 8, Seibel, B, 1:05.84. (58.80)

800 run: 1, Seeland, SC, 2:18.29; 2, Haushalter, SC, 2:20.65; 3, Bollinger, SC, 2:21.51; 4, Piergallini, CM, 2:22.79; 5, Prendergast, MC, 2:27.76; 6, Hatch, A, 2:35.69; 7, Myers, CM, 2:37.34; 8, Kuykendall, MC, 2:38.08. (2:18.47)

1600 run: 1, Curtin, SC, 5:15.00; 2, Laughner, CM, 5:15.19; 3, Chan, S, 5:27.64; 4, Kuykendall, MC, 5:38.96; 5, Givens, SC, 5:52.58; 6, Robinette, MC, 5:57.67; 7, Petrine, SC, 6:00.74; 8, Boutiller, A, 6:05.88. (5:10.00)

3200 run: 1, Simon, SC, 11:35.94; 2, Bock, SC, 11:50.87; 3, Chan, S, 11:57.16; 4, Galbraith, MC, 12:23.50; 5, Saylor, SC, 12:25.40; 6, Shirey, B, 12:33.62; 7, Lugg, CM, 12:54.63; 8, Parks, MC, 13:45.83. (11:10.00)

100 hurdles: 1, Close, S, 15.66; 2, Caputo, A, 15.85; 3, Snyder, H, 16.70; 4, Fox, A, 17.16; 5, Kelly, A, 17.39; 6, Scott, MC, 17.42; 7, Craig, SC, 17.51; 8, Macvean, H, 17.85. (15.50)

300 hurdles: 1, Rohrbach, SC, 45.15; 2, Close, S, 46.82; 3, Spencer, SC, 47.22; 4, Snyder, H, 47.41; 5, Fox, A, 49.08; 6, Craig, SC, 49.31; 7, Bielski, MC, 52.06; 8, Bressler, MC, 52.48. (46.25)

400 relay: 1, Hollidaysburg (Sky, Frazier, Wagner, Wyland), 49.69; 2, State College, 49.98; 3, Johnstown, 50.18; 4, Altoona, 51.49; 5, Mifflin County, 52.13; 6, Somerset, 56.01; 7, Central Mountain, 57.66. (49.75)

1600 relay: 1, State College, 4:01.49; 2, Hollidaysburg (Frazier, Barton, Snyder, Wyland), 4:10.82; 3, Central Mountain, 4:12.13; 4, Altoona, 4:15.73; 5, Mifflin County, 4:27.92; 6, Bellefonte, 4:32.16; 7, Somerset, 4:51.46. (4:01.50)

3200 relay: 1, State College, 10:04.74; 2, Central Mountain, 10:32.33; 3, Mifflin County, 11:02.54; 4, Altoona, 11:02.73; 5, Somerset, 11:36.44. (9:35.48)

High jump: 1, Jodon, H, 5-3; 2, McCloy, CM, 5-1; 3, Spencer, SC, 5-1; 4, Ciccolini, MC, 4-11; 5, Woomer, A, 4-9; T-6, Walsh, CM, 4-7; T-6, McCready, H, 4-7; 8, Yoder, SC, 4-7. (5-3)

Long jump: 1, Givens, SC, 18-5.75; 2, VonColln, A, 17-3; 3, Frazier, H, 16-8.75; 4, Maclay, MC, 16-5.25; 5, Sechler, MC, 16-4; 6, Caputo, A, 16-2.25; 7, Peachey, SC, 15-10.5; 8, Rowe, J, 15-4.25. (17-9)

Triple jump: 1, Givens, SC, 37-4.5; *2, Hudson, A, 36-8; 3, Caputo, A, 36-2.25; 4, Robison, S, 34-9.5; 5, Kane, SC, 34-8.5; 6, Maple, SC, 34-3.25; 7, Sechler, MC, 34-1.75; 8, Smith, S, 33-9.75. (36-6)

Shot put: 1, Bair, SC, 39-3.75; 2, Hammaker, H, 33-6.75; 3, Poston, SC, 32-3; 4, Hallinan, A, 31-11; 5, Love, SC, 30-9.5; 6, Marucci, B, 29-4.75; 7, Whysong, A, 28-7.5; 8, Dull, A, 27-11.75. (37-6)

Discus: 1, Hallinan, A, 124-11 (new meet record); *2, Bair, SC, 119-4; 3, Love, SC, 104-10; 4, Wright, H, 102-7; 5, Seeland, SC, 94-9; 6, Spratt, B, 89-7; 7, Probst, CM, 87-5; 8, Hammaker, H, 85-0. (118-0)

Javelin: 1, Ciccolini, MC, 154-4; 2, McCaleb, CM, 118-5; 3, Benton, A, 113-3; 4, Wright, H, 113-2; 5, Strauss, SC, 110-10; 6, Alwine, A, 100-4; 7, Burke, A, 95-6; 8, McConaugh, MC, 90-3. (122-0)

Pole vault: 1, Reed, SC, 11-0; *2, Plute, SC, 11-0; 3, Kokoskie, SC, 10-0; 4, Wagner, H, 9-0; T- 5, Bielski, MC, 8-6; T-5, Kuhn, B, 8-6; 7, Krier, A, 8-6; 8, Camacho, S, 8-6. (11-0)

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