Altoona boys save best for D6
Stroup, Summers among 5 Lion winners
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The Altoona boys track and field team is filled with potential, but prior to Thursday's District 6 Class 3A championship meet at Mansion Park, it was fair to say it had not quite been realized yet.
The gold medals around the necks of Mountain Lions Aydan Summers, Ethan Stroup, Jake Adams, Austin Kravetz and Ty Friedenberger following the meet suggested it had finally been fulfilled.
Stroup's district title in the javelin may have been the most unexpected.
The Altoona junior came into the event seeded fourth based off his best throw of 150 feet, 2 inches, so even Stroup was shocked when he won the title with a heave of 171 feet, 3 inches.
"It feels really good. This was definitely a shocker," Stroup said. "I didn't think it would happen, but I'm glad it did. I want my distance to just keep going up and see what I can do."
Stroup's throw was nearly 8 feet longer than the runner-up's best effort.
"It was definitely a personal best," Stroup said. "Everything just felt good today. I was getting coached up all week. I felt good, it was a nice day out, and things just went my way."
For Summers, Thursday marked the day he finally caught -- and passed -- Hollidaysburg rival Joey Grabill in the final stretch of the 400-meter dash.
"It was the last meet, and I wanted to give it everything that I had, and that's what I did," Summers said. "(Grabill) has beaten me every race this season. I knew I had to just stick with him and then give it everything I had in the last 100. I was feeling really good, and I knew if I stuck on him, I could get it. It feels incredible to be going to states, because at the beginning of the year, I wasn't sure if this could happen."
Adams wasn't even sure if he'd be competing at the district championship meet, much less winning a title in the long jump.
"This feels really good, because I haven't jumped in like six weeks. It's been rough," Adams said. "I had a grade 2 hamstring strain. There was a lot of doubt whether I'd make it back for districts, but it's all good now. We worked all indoor season without actually having a season, so that makes winning here all much more special. I just won districts. Last time I was here, I finished eighth, so it's been a big jump."
The championships for Kravetz in the 110-meter hurdles and Friedenberger in the triple jump were more expected but for Kravetz, especially, the manner of the win and the time, were not.
"It was a weird year with COVID and everything," Kravetz said. "I never really had a clean race. I was always hitting two hurdles here, three hurdles there. I knew that one time that I got a fully clean race, I would have a really good time, and fortunately it was at districts."
Kravetz finished the race in 14.6 seconds, which was close to the meet record.
"I, for sure, didn't think I was going to win by that much," Kravetz said. "Going in, I had never broken 15 (seconds), but that was my goal all year, so to get 14.6 is just crazy."
Friedenberger edged Hollidaysburg's Caden DeLattre for the triple jump title by a little more than a foot.
"It went pretty well. I wish I would have performed a little bit better today, but I'm happy with the way it turned out," said Friedenberger, who won with a distance of 43 feet, 7.5 inches. "I want to hit at least 45 at states. I hit 44 last year, but I haven't hit it yet this year. I have to work hard at practice and get my form down."
The five victories helped Altoona finish second in the team race, but State College captured the team district title, 216.5-182.5.
The Cindy Gutzwiller Awards sponsored by the Thomas Musselman Chapter of PIAA Track and Field Officials Team MVPs for Blair County in Class 3A boys track were Altoona's Kravetz and Hollidaysburg's Grabill.
BOYS
TEAM STANDINGS/KEY
1, State College (SC) 216.5; 2, Altoona (A) 182.5; 3, Mifflin County (MC) 83; 4, Hollidaysburg (H) 70; 5, Somerset (S) 50; 6, Central Mountain (CM) 38; 7, Bellefonte (B) 33; 8, Juniata (J) 17; 9, Greater Johnstown (GJ) 11.
RESULTS
100 dash: 1, Ogrunranti, SC, 10.91; Q-2, Franks, SC, 11.0; 3, Kravetz, A, 11.27; 4, Friedenberger, A, 11.39; 5, Frank, H, 11.66; 6, Gunby, GJ, 11.79; 7, Capparelli, SC, 11.81; 8, Zonts, H, 11.9. 200 dash: 1, Ogrunranti, SC, 22.28; Q-2, Franks, SC, 22.36; 3, Markowski, SC, 23.23; 4, Grabill, H, 23.32; 5, Kennedy, CM, 23.34; 6, Donlan, A, 23.35; 7, Zimmerman, H, 23.69; 8, Jackson-Shepard, A, 23.9. 400 dash: 1, Summers, A, 49.92; 2, Grabill, H, 50.25; 3, Gunby, GJ, 51.86; 4, Donlan, A, 52.39; 5, Staniar, SC, 52.65; 6, Porter, CM, 53.05; 7, Morales, GJ, 53.63; 8, Frank, H, 53.75. 800 run: 1, Bigger, SC, 1:55.75; Q-2, Adams, SC, 1:55.94; Q-3, Norton, SC, 1:56.84; 4, Hatch, A, 1:58.79; 5, Melius, B, 2:02.83; 6, Hartzler, MC, 2:05.15; T-7, Boutiller, A, 2:07.0; T-7, Walker, S, 2:07.0. 1600 run: 1, Bigger, SC, 4:19.27; 2, Dinant, SC, 4:25.98; 3, Hatch, A, 4:27.19; 4, Harris, MC, 4:32.67; 5, Sloff, SC, 4:34.07; 6, Ebersole, A, 4:42.76; 7, Ebeling, B, 4:43.54; 8, Hazard, J, 4:45.71. 3200 run: 1, Harris, MC, 9:42.65; 2, Endres, SC, 9:55.23; 3, Dinant, SC, 10:16.9; 4, C. Love, H, 10:19.11; 5, B. Love, H, 10:27.53; 6, Royer, MC, 10:27.77; 7, Ebeling, B, 10:28.39; 8, Ebersole, A, 10:35.21. 110 hurdles: 1, Kravetz, A, 14.6; 2, Dibuono, S, 15.67; 3, Sicree, SC, 16.46; 4, Steidle, SC, 16.69; 5, Reid, A, 16.81; 6, Barton, J, 17.32; 7, Naspinski, B, 17.51; 8, Ferguson, MC, 18.03. 300 hurdles: 1, Lindenberg, SC, 39.7; 2, Dibuono, S, 40.37; 3, Kravetz, A, 41.23; 4, Reid, A, 42.15; 5, Sicree, SC, 42.18; 6, Naspinski, B, 43.51; 7, Wyland, H, 43.92; 8, Steidle, SC, 43.93.
400 relay: 1, State College (Lindenberg, Franks, Markowski, Ogunranti), 42.19; 2, Altoona, 43.99; 3, Hollidaysburg, 45.66; 4, Mifflin County, 46.27; 5, Juniata, 47.12; 6, Bellefonte, 47.18; 7, Central Mountain, 47.3; 8, Somerset, 48.21. 1600 relay: 1, State College (Lindenberg, Adams, Bigger, Norton), 3:23.99; 2, Altoona, 3:31.73; 3, Hollidaysburg, 3:34.37; 4, Bellefonte, 3:41.72; 5, Juniata, 3:46.65; 6, Somerset, 3:46.66; 7, Mifflin County, 3:47.79; 8, Central Mountain, 4:02.94. 3200 relay: 1, State College (Norton, Adams, Staniar, Bigger), 7:50.99; 2, Altoona, 8:30.49; 3, Hollidaysburg (Jones, B. Love, C. Love, Clapper), 8:36.76; 4, Mifflin County, 8:42.36; 5, Somerset, 9:48.41; 6, Juniata, 10:05.51; 7, Central Mountain, 10:17.25. High jump: 1, Moore, SC, 6-7; 2, Gerlach, CM, 6-1; 3, Ettinger, MC, 5-11; 4, Kauffman, MC, 5-11; 5, Corso, A, 5-9; 6, Hardison, A, 5-9; 7, Jackson, MC, 5-9; 8, Hunt, J, 5-7. Long jump: 1, Adams, A, 21-11; 2, Friedenberger, A, 21-3.75; 3, Wert, MC, 21-0; 4, Kauffman, MC, 20-6.5; 5, Leidy, SC, 19-11; 6, Jackson, MC, 19-7; 7, Sloan, H, 19-6.75; 8, Carr, S, 19-5. Triple jump: 1, Friedenberger, A, 43-7.5; 2, DeLattre, H, 42-6.75; 3, Gerlach, CM, 41-9.25; 4, Kauffman, MC, 41-8.25; 5, Wert, MC, 41-3.5; 6, Loviscky, SC, 41-2; 7, Young, CM, 40-9.25; 8, Wasney, H, 39-6.75. Shot put: 1, Hyde, S, 58-9.25; 2, Spencer, SC, 49-1.75; 3, Besch, B, 48-7; 4, Stroup, A, 45-2.25; 5, Lawhead, A, 43-9.25; 6, Dawes, CM, 43-4.5; 7, Mitchell, H, 42-8.25; 8, Palilla, A, 42-8. Discus: 1, Hyde, S, 171-11; Q-2, Maher, SC, 154-9; 3, Stroup, A, 142-9; 4, Stratts, CM, 133-3; 5, Spencer, SC, 130-6; 6, Price, MC, 119-7; 7, Renninger, MC, 119-1; 8, Mitchell, H, 111-6. Javelin: 1, Stroup, A, 171-3; 2, Sechler, MC, 163-9; 3, Brininger, B, 159-10; 4, Lawhead, A, 154-7; 5, Walk, A, 133-6; 6, Spencer, SC, 131-6; 7, Welch, CM, 128-6; 8, Meehleib, S, 128-4. Pole vault: 1, Dorefice, SC, 13-3; 2, Marra, A, 13-3; 3, Haduck, H, 12-9; 4, Treece, A, 12-3; 5, Flarend, A, 12-3; T-6, Bell, SC, 11-3; T-6, Robison, S, 11-3; 8, Aurand, J, 11-3.
Q--Advanced to states by meeting qualifying standard