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SCRANTON — Before his final throw at districts, Jacob Khalife was having what he could only describe as a “horrible, horrible” day. The Coughlin hurler faltered in his earlier event, and his first five throws in the shot put were nowhere near his expectations.
Something happened in his final throw, something that mystified him minutes afterwards.
Khalife won the shot put at the District 2 Class 3A Track & Field Championships Tuesday at Scranton Memorial Stadium. Having come in fifth in the discus, he quickly brightened his horrible, horrible day with a throw of 49 feet, 5 inches.
“I don’t know where it came from,” he said. “It was going to be my last one of the season if I didn’t make states. I let it all out, and I happened to surprise myself with my throw. I can’t explain it.”
Khalife was one of four Wyoming Valley Conference athletes to claim district golds. They’ll join two other at-large bid winners at the PIAA championships next week in Shippensburg.
District golds did not come in bunches like Wyoming Valley West senior JerMichael Bunch anticipated. Bunch, like nearly all of the athletes competing Tuesday, struggled with a fast-moving wind that made some events twice as difficult.
Bunch kicked off the day with a 110 hurdles title, crossing the finish in 15.18 seconds. Despite having a 70-hundredths of a second advantage over second place, the Spartan sprinter was let down with his performance.
“I’m not necessarily (happy),” Bunch said. “I tried to PR. But that wind made it so hard to go over those hurdles. We were all trying to fight through it.”
He will also be competing in states in the triple jump, after trailing second to Scranton’s Keyron Harbin with a 46 feet, 5 ¾ inches measure. Bunch came just 5-hundredths of a second short in the 300 hurdles. He trailed by a significant advantage after the first 150 meters. Bunch came blazing past the field on the straightaway; however, his 40.39-second time was not enough to overtake Abington Heights’ Jonathan Galyadick.
“I was a little more than fatigued so I had a slow start,” Bunch said. “I ran the best I could. Going into that last straightaway, they all thought I caught them
“I wish I wasn’t fatigued. I wish I prepared myself, hydrated more.”
His teammate Ray Richard was one of the few that felt unaffected by the wind. He’ll be making his first trip to states with a first-place performance in the 400 dash. Ray set a personal record of 49.19 seconds in finishing ahead of Western Wayne’s Kyle Haines.
“It was great actually after coming here last year and finishing third against a couple of seniors,” Richard said. “Winning it today felt good, and my coach is real proud of me.”
Tunkhannock’s Jack Tidball won his first district title – a feat so elusive in years past due to Dallas’ Dominic Deluca’s dominance – in the 3,200 run. The Tiger senior admitted to struggling with nature’s forces, causing him to come short of the 9:30 he was striving for.
“I was just hoping, ‘you can either get first place or a personal time.’ I was hoping I could get under the time but it was so windy on that back stretch.”
Tidball clocked in at 9:36.82 and staved off a charge from Scranton Prep’s Ben Evans around the midway point of the race.
“After 600, I could start to feel (Evans) nearing up on me,” Tidball said. “I started getting ended scared because I wasn’t where I should be to get under 9:30. I was thinking that I need to start doing what I need to to just get first place. You kind of know. You get a certain feeling.”
Qualifying for states with at-large times was Berwick’s Dylan Gearinger with a 4:23.42 in the 1,600 run. Gearinger was muscled out of a second PIAA bid in the 800 by Hazleton Area’s Brendan Lohr. Lohr won the chase for second place in the 800 with a 2:02.26, a tenth faster than Gearinger. He punched his ticket to PIAAs, thanks to North Pocono’s Matt Kravitz dropping the event at states.
Western Wayne won the team championship with a commanding 13.5-point lead over the 19-team field. Scranton Prep edged Scranton for second. Wyoming Valley West took fourth with 65 points.
CLASS 3A Boys Results
Team Legend
AH – Abington Heights; BER – Berwick; COU – Coughlin; CRE – Crestwood; DAL – Dallas; DV – Delaware Valley; HAZ – Hazleton Area;HON – Honesdale; NP – North Pocono; PA – Pittston Area; SCR – Scranton; SP – Scranton Prep; TUN – Tunkhannock; VV – Valley View; WAL – Wallenpaupack; WA – Wyoming Area; WS – West Scranton; WVW – Wyoming Valley West;WW – Western Wayne
3200 Relay – 1. SP (Ryan Burke, Kyle Perry, Ben Evans, Anthony Nardone) 8:19.47; 2. HAZ (Alex Duran, Matthew Houser, Brandon Lohr, Pete Lombardo) 8:25.37; 3. WW (Marod Dobrzyn, Kenny French, Kyle Smith, Billy Schumacher) 8:28.24; 4. WAL (Cesar Gonzalez, Matt Vosburg, Ryan Ehrhardt, Matthew Sein) 8:30.79; 5. SCR (Mustafa Hamidi, Burt Stuckart, Marcus Ward, Andrew Lopez) 8:37.87; 6. VV (Jason Heid, Ryan Frisbie, Conor Duffy, Tyler Danchio) 8:37.88; 7. COU (David Sadvary, Zachary Mykulyn, Mike Koury, Zack Hinkle) 8:46.95; 8. AH (Kyle Burke, Evan Phillips, Dan Uhranowsky, Matthew Barrett) 8:47.45
110 Hurdles – 1. WVW JerMichael Bunch 15.18, 2. VV Zack Osborne 15.88, 3. WW Alex Long 16.09, 4. PA Colin Tracy 16.36, 5. COU Nick Stravinski 16.55, 6. DV Joe Russo 16.66, 7. AH Jonathan Galyadick 17.00, 8. WA Ethan Crake 17.21
100 – 1. NP Pat Monahan 11.22, 2. WW Kyle Haines 11.57, 3. AH Jake Henzes 11.59, 4. SP Timmy Rose 11.69, 5. SCR Justin Kasper 11.85, 6. PA Josh John 11.86, 7. SCR Keyser Leepier 11.88
1,600 – 1. NP Matt Kravitz 4:21.68, 2. BER Dylan Gearinger 4:23.42, 3. SP Kyle Perry 4:36.43, 4. TUN Jacob Toczko 4:37.07, 5. VV Jason Heid 4:37.61, 6. VV Conor Duffy 4:37.92, 7. SCR Marcus Ward 4:39.23, 8. WW Adam Vaccaro 4:40.18
400 – 1. WVW Ray Richard 49.19, 2. WW Kyle Haines 50.63, 3. WW Billy Schumacher 51.23, 4. DAL Christian Roberts 51.5, 5. HAZ Michael Cusatis 51.96, 6. SP Alex Karam 52.02, 7. SCR Phillip Lopez 53.00, 8. SP Tristen Shoemaker 53.01
400 Relay – 1. SCR (Nafis Stewart, Justin Kasper, Victor Burns, Milton Matybel) 43.85; 2. DV (Austin Cernek, Kyle Dillon, Lex Rosario, Chido Rwakonda) 44.04; 3. COU (Frank Wojtash, Muhammad Chesson, Vincent Todd, Nick Carman) 44.47; 4. WA (Ryan Murphy, Michael Murphy, Brian Miles, Ben Steve) 44.53; 5. VV (Evan Carey, Eric Inthavong, Ryan Wilkes, Zack Osborne) 44.63; 6. PA (Richard Wallace, Angelo Aita, John MacDonald, Josh John) 45.02; 7. HAZ (Gabriel Batista, Sean Pilecki, Stefan Scalleat, Alex Duran) 45.29; 8. WS (Tamon Brown, Andre Chollette, Randy Jefferson, Allen Jones) 45.58
300 hurdles – 1. AH Jonathan Galyadick 40.34, 2. WVW Jermichael Bunch 40.39, 3. VV Zack Osborne 40.76, 4. PA Colin Tracy 40.77, 5. WW Alex Long 41.36, 6. HAZ Matthew Houser 42.3, 7. COU Ron Sepkoski 42.36, 8. COU Nick Stavinski 42.58
800 – 1. NP Matt Kravitz 1:59.98, 2. HAZ Brendan Lohr 2:02.26, 3. BER Dylan Gearinger 2:02.36, 4. SCR Andrew Lopez 2:03.99, 5. AH Matthew Barrett 2:05.21, 6. VV Tyler Dancho 2:05.35, 7. COU Franco Balbuena 2:05.51, 8. SP Anthony Nardone 2:06.59
200 – 1. NP Pat Monahan 21.96, 2. AH Jake Henzes 22.51, 3. COU Muhammad Chesson 23.05, 4. VV Evan Carey 23.35, 5. SP Timmy Rose 23.52, 6. WA Ryan Murphy 23.53, 7. WAL Evans Obeng 23.55, 8. DAL Uzee Ukattah 23.62
3,200 – 1. TUN Jack Tidball 9:36.82, 2. SP Ben Evans 9:47.79, 3. COU David Sadvary 10:03.54, 4. SP Kyle Perry 10:04.48, 5. NP David Haines 10:04.83, 6. WW Adam Vaccaro 10:11.7, 7. VV Jason Heid 10:16.31, 8. NP Mike Brenkosh 10:19.09
1,600 Relay – 1. WW (Billy Schumacher, Kyle Smith, Kenny French, Kyle Haines) 3:28.18; 2. WVW (Jamie Webb, Mitchell Forgash, Matt Bobkowski, Ray Richard) 3:29.68; 3.SP (Ryan Burke, Alex Karam, Dean Lucas, Anthony Nardone) 3:32.07; 4. HAZ (Matthew Houser, Brendan Lohr, Pete Lombardo, Brandon Watt) 3:34.65; 5. SCR (Victor Burns, Jordan Lawson, Phillip Lopez, Andrew Lopez) 3:35.4; 6. DV (Austin Cernek, Kyle Dillon, Zach Nekich, Joe Russo) 3:35.45; 7. COU (Franco Balbuena, Shawn Austin, Mike Brown, Muhammad Chesson) 3:35.53; 8. WAL (Evans Obeng, Josh Steinbrecher, Kyle McLaughlin, Michael Ingulli) 3:35.61
High Jump – 1. SCR Keyron Harbin 6-3, 2. WAL Kyle McLaughlin 6-3, 3. DV Shane Acoveno 5-11, 3. COU Jacob Soller 5-11, 5. TUN Brett Stage 5-11, 7. DV Cole Acoveno 5-9, 7. TUN Justin Stonier 5-9, 7. WAL Holden Reigel 5-9
Pole vault – 1. VV Ryan Wilkes 15-3, 2. WW Ryan Atcavage 12-9, 3. BER Robbie Harter 12-9, 4. COU Nick Yankoski 12-3, 4. BER Tommy Laubach 12-3, 6. HAZ Sean Pilecki 12-3, 7. TUN Stefan Sehne 11-3, 8. WA Ben Steve 11-3, 8. David Klaproth 11-3
Long jump – 1. WW Alex Long 21-6.25, 2. WVW Jermichael Bunch 21-5.5, 3. SP Timmy Rose 20-10, 4. SCR Keyron Harbin, 5. COU Muhammad Chesson 20-3.25, 6. CRE Frank Aigeldinger 20-2.5, 7. SCR Jordan Lawson 20-1, 8. WVW Vinny Le 19-9
Triple jump – 1. SCR Keyron Harbin 47-1, 2. WVW Jermichael Bunch 46-5.75., 3. WW Alex Long 46-2, 4. SCR Jordan Lawson 45-0.25, 5. CRE Jason Klusewitz 42-0, 6. DV Lex Rosario 41-10, 7. WVW Vinny Le, 8. VV Berto Baldoni 40-10.75
Shot put – 1. COU Jacob Khalife 49-6.5, 2. HAZ Nick Seach 49-1, 3. WW Tyler Bergsma 47-0, 4. WVW Tyler Wozniak 46-0.5, 5. NP Matt Slagus 46-0, 6. SCR Evan Jones 45-3, 7. WAL Brad Bieski 44-10, 8. WA Cade Bekanich 44-6
Discus – 1. NP Matt Slagus 162-3, 2. WAL Brad Bieski 146-5, 3. VV Jake Kraycer 139-1, 4. HAZ Matthew Sutton 137-10, 5. COU Jacob Khalife 136-8, 6. AH Anthony Kimble 134-9, 7. COU Matthew Malenovitch 133-8, 8. WAL Shawn Reid 131-8
Javelin – 1. SP Nick Solfanelli 188-4, 2. HAZ Zach Zukoski 165-6, 3. HON Clayton Hewlett 164-4, 4. WVW Bradley Davison 163-4, 5. AH Nathan Langan 161-5, 6. WAL Kyle Hartman 154-2, 7. WAL Kyle Usbeck 151-10, 8. VV Ryan Frisbie 151-8
PIAA Scratches: Kravitz, 800
PIAA Qualifiers (All Winners): Lohr, 800; Bunch, triple jump; Long, triple jump; Lawson, triple jump; Gearinger, 1,600
Team Standings: 1. WW 82, 2. SP 68.5, 3. SCR 68.33, 4. WVW 65, 5. COU 61, 6. NP 59, 7. VV 56, 8. HAZ 54, 9. AH 38, 10. WAL 32, 11. BER 25.5, 12. DV 23.5, 13. TUN 21.5, 14. PA 16, 15. WA 10.67, 16. CRE 7, 17. HON 6, 17. DAL 6, 19. WS 1