Friday’s West Central Coaches meet at Mansion Park in Altoona proved to be a great venue for Tyrone’s and Bellwood-Antis; track athletes to show off their talents.
Being such a large meet, a team effort is difficult to pull off, especially for a small AA school such as Tyrone or Bellwood-Antis, but individually Eagle and Blue Devil athletes gave their all and came out near the top. Bellwood-Antis was 10th in the field of 31 teams in the boys teams with 28 points, while Tyrone was 14th with 14 points. In the girls meet, the Lady Blue Devils scored 31 points to crack the top 10, for a ninth place finish of the 26 girls AA teams. The Lady Eagles, with 19 points, finished 12th.
In the boys’ finals, junior Trey Brockett made a strong showing for Tyrone with his jumping, placing eighth in the long jump (20-2) and seventh in the triple jump (42-5 1/2). Junior Adam Shaffer placed fourth in the javelin with a measure of 167-3.
Bellwood-Antis junior Tony DelGrosso placed fourth in the discus (139-5) and eighth in the javelin with a toss of 156-7.
On the track, the boys team (Leonard Wilson, Trey Brockett, Shane Barr, Billy Dean) walked away with a fourth in the 400 meter relay, with a time of 45.54 seconds.
Finally, senior Bill Dean placed eighth in the 100 meter dash finals with a time of 11.84 seconds.
Bellwood-Antis senior Aaron Bell finished second in the 3200 run in a time of 10:02.77 and Brandon Pruznak was sixth in the 400 with a 52.61.
The B-A 3200 relay team (Chris Edmiston, Brandon Eger, Dan Kovac and Pruznak)) finished fourth in 8:26.33 and the Blue Devils 1600 relay team (Evan Hughes, Edmiston, Bell and Ben Hatch) was eighth in 3:42.19.
“The guys did pretty well considering the stiff competition,” said Bellwood-Antis boys coach Nick Lovrich. “Aaron bell set a personal best with his time in the 3200 and Tony DelGrosso was one of very few to place in two of the throwing events.”
In the girls meet, Tyrone sophomore Elizabeth Tepsic had a very successful day with three places including 12th in the 110 hurdles with a time of 17.96 seconds, 11th in the 300 hurdles at 51.09 seconds and a fabulous second in the triple jump at 34-0 1/2. Junior Emily Ingle performed fantastically in both the 3200 meter run where she broke the school record that had stood for nearly 20 years, taking sixth with a time of 12:07, and a second in her specialty, the 1600 meter run with a time of 5:27.43. Finally, Eagle junior Emily Lloyd took two 23rd place finishes in the 110 hurdles (18.89) and the 300 hurdles (53.14).
Ingle, running the 3200 for the first time in competition, eclipsed the old record of 12:08.9 set by Julie Dannaway in 1986.
“We had some PRs (personal records) and I thought we did very well,” said Tyrone boys and girls coach Tony Yaniello. “With all those schools, we wanted our kids to specialize at what is best for them. Liz Tepsic is going to qualify for states in her first year in varsity track if she keeps up her performances. Emily Ingle ran her first competitive 3200, she’s run it in practice only a couple times, and she broke the school record. Our boys 400 relay ran a good race. It was definitely a feather in Billy Dean’s cap to qualify for the finals in the 100. Adam Shaffer set a personal best with his throw in the javelin.
“This meet is as tough or even tougher than districts will be. We want to try to get our kids to peak at the right time and get as many through to states from next Tuesday’s district meet as we can.”
Bellwood-Antis junior Lauren Carter grabbed two individual places, with a fifth in the 400 with a time of 1:02.39, and a seventh in the 300 low hurdles (50.07). B-A senior Steph Hatch also placed in two events, with a third in the high jump (4-11) and an eighth in the triple jump (32-6 1/4).
The Lady Blue Devil 400 relay team (Steph Hatch, Carter, Erica Greene and Mueller) was third (53.03) and the 1600 relay team (Carter, Jenna Ralston, Chelsea Wilson and Lauren Leap) was fifth (4:19.38).
“I was really pleased with our effort,” said B-A girls coach Julie Roseborough. “We placed in eight events. There have been years, where we haven’t placed in anything.”
Ashley Mueller was fifth in the 100 intermediate hurdles (17.10) and Allison Sinisi was fifth in the pole vault (9-0).
Tyrone and Bellwood-Antis now athletes look forward to the District championship competition held on May 17, at Mansion Park at 3:30 p.m. and Bellwood-Antis is in action today at Bellwood with the Mountain Conference Meet which begins at 3:30 p.m..
