Kanuch’s belief in his Lady Eagles pays off in win
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By Michael Boytim
mboytim@altoonamirror.com
Some teams win district track and field titles due to depth and others do it with a smaller group of very special athletes.
Tyrone pulled off the latter last season when it won the District 6 Class 2A girls title, but it's been a tough go for the Lady Eagles this season with injuries keeping them from winning a few meets they would have won if healthy.
But everything finally came together at just the right time Tuesday at Mansion Park when Tyrone repeated as champions, 91-86, over runner-up Central Cambria.
"This group of girls is amazing," Tyrone coach Brad Kanuch said. "They are tough and just want to go out there and win. It makes them a great group to coach. I told them there was a shot, and we would be in the running again and left it at that. I didn't want to over-hype it. A couple events we didn't do as good as we hoped, but in others, we were better than we thought. We just did what we needed to do in every single event, and we put good performances across the board."
Mackenzie Latchford, one of the girls who dealt with an injury this season, won the event she suffered the setback in -- the long jump -- and qualified for states in the 100- and 200-meter dashes in addition to helping Tyrone win the 400-meter relay.
"It's an amazing accomplishment, and I was so surprised that I came back better than ever," Latchford said. "The long jump was one of the last events I was able to get back to, because that's the event where I pulled my quad."
Teammate Rebecca Lewis won the 400-meter dash by holding off River Valley's Sara McConnell.
"I saw her in the corner of my eye and just kept going," Lewis said. "I wanted to get either first or second, and I remember thinking I was going to regret it when it was over if I didn't keep the lead. It feels great to be a district champion."
Another athlete overcoming an injury Tuesday was Central Cambria's Abby Walwro, who won the 300-meter hurdles on the final hurdle with a strong push as chaos surrounded her.
"I think for the first 200 I was thinking about how I haven't run this race much this year, and I was trying to have good form," Walwro said. "I started with good form, and then late I was running with (Central's Elana Decker) and we saw the leader fall. We both had a push, and then (Decker) fell too. I just kept pushing and told myself I could do it, and at the last hurdle I saw how close I was and gave a last push."
Walwro has not been healthy since the middle of cross country season.
"I broke my foot at the end of cross country," Walwro said. "I couldn't play basketball, and it's been a really hard challenge to keep my head up and keep working. This is my third time running this event all year, probably my last if I don't run it at states, and I'm definitely not back to 100 percent. This is not the time I wanted. If I wouldn't have been hurt, who knows what would have happened, but with this injury it's just something for me to grow stronger from."
Walwro did opt to scratch out of the event at the PIAA championships set for May 27-28 at Shippensburg University, which allowed fourth-place Decker to qualify, but the medal meant a lot to her.
"This means absolutely everything," Walwro said. "This isn't a state medal, but it's a district gold medal, and I never won one in an individual event before. It's a testament to still believing, trusting the process and knowing you can do anything.
"I felt more confident today. I went into the race thinking I had done this for a long time, I knew how to race. I raced like I was one of the elite racers here, played into my confidence and was not scared."
Walwro's teammate, Abigail George, won the 800-meter run and shared the confidence in herself provided within the Central Cambria program.
"My goal was to get to 2:20, and I made it," George said. "My coach, Randy Wilson, teaches us to keep pushing, even when we think we can't, and I think that has really helped along with wanting to get better. It's super exciting."
Portage's Cami Burkett faced a sizeable gap between herself and Latchford in the 200-meter dash but made it all up in the last 50 meters to win a district title.
"I just knew I could go faster and I had to kick it in," Burkett said. "I knew I was close, so I just wanted to go as fast as I could. It's been a hard season. It was tough, because everyone got a head start (because of basketball), and I had not practiced since last year. So, it was great to get a PR and set a school record today."
Bellwood-Antis' Lydia Worthing captured the pole vault by clearing 10 feet, but she's hoping for a performance closer to the 10-feet, 6-inch one she had at the Inter-County Conference championships at states once she gets her breath back.
"I performed really well today considering how much I'm struggling with allergies," Worthing said. "I was all stuffed up, which wasn't fun. I jumped really well today. It's just the mental toughness I need to get over to get back to jumping 10-6, but hopefully I do that at states."
Other qualifiers from the Mirror's coverage area not mentioned earlier include Tyrone's Reagan Irons (long jump, high jump), Tyrone's Natalie Saltsgiver (triple jump, high jump), Central's Leah Decker (100 hurdles), Central Cambria's Faith Wilson and Stella Kuntz in the 1,600-meter run, Portage's Isabella Bartoletti and Penn Cambria's Jerzy Vinglish in the javelin, Bellwood-Antis' Sophia Nelson in the 300-meter hurdles, Penn Cambria's Daijah Lilly in the 200-meter dash and Central's 400-meter relay team. Central Cambria's Annaliese Niebauer qualified for states with a second-place finish in the 3,200-meter run but opted to scratch the event at the PIAA meet.
TEAM RESULTS/KEY
1, Tyrone (T) 91; 2, Central Cambria (CC) 86; 3, Forest Hills (FH) 64; 4, Huntingdon (H) 40; 5, Portage (P) 35; 6, Marion Center (MC) 33; 7, River Valley (RV) 31; T-8, Westmont Hilltop (WH) 30; T-8, Juniata Valley (JV) 30; T-8, Bald Eagle Area (BEA) 30; T-11, Bellwood-Antis (BA) 29; T-11, Penns Valley (PV) 29; 13, Richland (R) 28; T-14, Penn Cambria (PC) 20; T-14, Homer-Center (HC) 20; T-16, Blacklick Valley (BV) 19; T-16, Juniata (J) 19; 18, Central (C) 17; T-19, Purchase Line (PL) 9; T-19, Northern Cambria (NC) 9; 21, Philipsburg-Osceola (PO) 7; 22, Mount Union (MU) 6; T-23, Penns Manor (PM) 5; T-23, West Branch (WB) 5; 25, Bishop Guilfoyle (BG) 4; 26, Southern Huntingdon (SH) 3; 27, Cambria Heights (CH) 2; 28, United (W) 1.
100 dash: 1, Pannebaker, J, 12.77; 2, Gunby, BV, 12.79; 3, Latchford, T, 12.81; 4, Burkett, P, 12.94; 5, Brower, JV, 13.15; 6, Lilly, PC, 13.23; 7, Hopsicker, JV, 13.26; 8, Burkey, CH, 13.31. 200 dash: 1, Burkett, P, 26.34; 2, Latchford, T, 26.52; 3, Lilly, PC, 27.1; 4, Pannebaker, J, 27.24; 5, Brower, JV, 27.61; 6, Taylor, BEA, 27.78; 7, Faight, WH, 27.93; 8, Barger, PO, 28.47. 400 dash: 1, Lewis, T, 1:00.61; 2, McConnell, RV, 1:01.0; 3, Nibert, WH, 1:02.11; 4, Stitzer, PV, 1:02.6; 5, Ab. Sheehan, CC, 1:03.02; 6, Vance, T, 1:03.36; 7, Taylor, BEA, 1:03.5; 8, Miller, MC, 1:03.69. 800 run: 1, A. George, CC, 2:20.13; 2, Ryen, MC, 2:21.77; 3, Stitzer, PV, 2:23.65; 4, Admire, WH, 2:29.49; 5, Miller, NC, 2:31.45; 6, Ward, PL, 2:31.58; 7, Al. Sheehan, CC, 2:32.27; 8, Wilson, CC, 2:33.9. 1600 run: 1, De. Dumm, FH, 5:09.44; 2, Wilson, CC, 5:23.55; 3, Kuntz, CC, 5:27.09; 4, Miller, NC, 5:30.22; 5, Brandis, CC, 5:36.66; 6, Dum, PV, 5:40.97; 7, A. Lovrich, BA, 5:42.24; 8, Chobany, P, 5:48.7. 3200 run: 1, De. Dumm, FH, 11:01.4; 2, Niebauer, CC, 11:24.73; 3, Hess, JV, 11:35.38; 4, Dill, WH, 11:54.08; 5, Stitzer, PV, 11:58.15; 6, Brandis, CC, 12:06.9; 7, Kuntz, CC, 12:14.8; 8, Dum, PV, 12:38.58. 100 hurdles: 1, Smith, FH, 15.78; 2, Slebodnick, BV, 16.33; 3, L. Decker, C, 16.53; 4, Nelson, BA, 16.58; 5, Bennett, J, 17.19; 6, Skopic, MU, 17.48; 7, Ream, BEA, 17.62; 8, Weber, U, 18.3. 300 hurdles: 1, Walwro, CC, 49.23; 2, Smith, FH, 49.31; 3, Nelson, BA, 50.8; 4, E. Decker, C, 51.23; 5, Quinn, BG, 51.29; 6, Skopic, MU, 51.31; 7, Gatskie, MC, 52.51; 8, Covert, SH, 52.51.
400 relay: 1, Tyrone (Toth, Latchford, Saltsgiver, Irons), 51.67; 2, Huntingdon, 52.3; 3, Central, 53.24; 4, Penn Cambria, 53.61; 5, Westmont Hilltop, 53.66; 6, Blacklick Valley, 53.81; 7, Richland, 54.04; 8, Forest Hills, 55.02. 1600 relay: 1, Central Cambria (Wilson, Walwro, A. George, Ab. Sheehan), 4:14.87; 2, Marion Center, 4:18.71; 3, Forest Hills, 4:19.86; 4, River Valley, 4:27.54; 5, Portage, 4:27.81; 6, Juniata Valley, 4:28.99; 7, Tyrone, 4:31.2; 8, Bald Eagle Area, 4:31.49. 3200 relay: 1, Central Cambria (A. George, Niebauer, Ab. Sheehan, Al. Sheehan), 9:36.54; 2, Marion Center, 9:58.42; 3, Purchase Line, 10:28.34; 4, Forest Hills, 10:30.07; 5, Philipsburg-Osceola, 11:17.52; 6, River Valley, 11:18.48; 7, Southern Huntingdon, 11:18.98; 8, Richland, 11:22.16. High jump: 1, Upcraft, PV, 5-4; 2, Irons, T, 5-2; 3, Saltsgiver, T, 5-0; 4, McConnell, RV, 5-0; 5, McLeary, FH, 5-0; 6, Leidan, WH, 4-10; T-7, Salem, R, 4-8; T-7, Hoberney, P, 4-8. Long jump: 1, Latchford, T, 16-6.5; 2, Irons, T, 16-2; 3, Mark, H, 16-0; 4, Saltsgiver, T, 15-7.5; 5, Hopsicker, JV, 15-5.5; 6, Hoberney, P, 15-5; 7, Conant, FH, 15-4; 8, Zinobile, JV, 15-2.5. Triple jump: 1, Mark, H, 36-0.25; 2, Saltsgiver, T, 34-3.5; 3, Yost, R, 34-2.25; 4, Kane, WH, 34-2; 5, Irons, T, 33-10; 6, Bartoletti, 33-2; 7, Conant, FH, 33-0.5; 8, Russell, CC, 32-4.5. Shot put: 1, Sharp, HC, 44-2 (new meet record); 2, Garnett, R, 37-5; 3, Jackson, RV, 36-8; 4, Leasure, MC, 33-2; 5, Danel, FH, 32-1; 6, Partner, BA, 31-9; 7, Vroman, PO, 31-6.75; 8, Easterling, CH, 31-2. Discus: 1, Sharp, HC, 142-1 (new meet record); 2, Garnett, R, 107-7; 3, Hoover, BEA, 103-11; 4, Cree, CC, 101-1; 5, Jackson, RV, 97-7; 6, Walls, T, 95-8; 7, Troup, H, 95-6; 8, Snyder, BEA, 90-11. Javelin: 1, Hoover, BEA, 113-0; 2, Bartoletti, P, 112-2; 3, Vinglish, PC, 109-6; 4, Croyle, WB, 108-1; 5, Luther, JV, 106-6; 6, McCaulsky, BA, 104-2; 7, Burggraf, CC, 103-7; 8, Beer, MC, 103-1. Pole vault: 1, Worthing, BA, 10-0; 2, Beatty, H, 10-0; 3, Rolley, H, 9-6; 4, Bowman, PM, 9-0; 5, Leskovansky, BEA, 9-0; T-6, Krug, FH, 8-6; T-6, Boone, JV, 8-6; T-6, Ford, R, 8-6.