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Black, Pollitt, Ayers choose which events to enter at state track and field championships.
Shelley Black, Don Pollitt and Reece Ayers have already proved they have impressive levels of endurance.
Each hopes that by trading in some of their endurance tests, they can climb a little higher in the ranks of the state’s top Class 3A track and field athletes.
Coughlin’s Black and Hazleton Area’s Pollitt qualified for the maximum four events for today and Saturday’s Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Track and Field Championships at Shippensburg University. Tunkhannock’s Ayers reached the state meet by winning District 2 titles in the two longest distance events, the 1600 and 3200.
Under PIAA rules, all three had to work with their coaches on making decisions about which events to enter at states during the time they were still collecting the gold medals for the district championship efforts. Athletes who scratch out of an event once the state championships have started are then eliminated from all remaining events.
For Black, a returning medalist in the 300 hurdles, it was immediately clear that she wanted to compete in both hurdling events while trying to decide whether to eliminate one or both of her jumping events.
“I want to concentrate on the hurdles,” Black said. “Doing all the jumps might tire me out.
“It can be tough running back and forth to events all day.”
Black navigated that challenge in the district meet where she set records while winning in the 100 hurdles, 300 hurdles, long jump and triple jump. Before leaving Scranton Memorial Stadium, she was scratched from the long jump, which, based on state seeding, appears to have been a wise choice.
The Coughlin junior enters the state meet as the second seed in both hurdling events and the fifth seed in the triple jump. She would have been just the 18th seed in the long jump. By sitting out an event where she is less likely to medal, Black can conserve some energy for battling the state’s elite in her stronger events.
Black will already be done with four of her maximum five hurdles races by the time the Class 3A triple jump starts Saturday afternoon at 12:30.
Pollitt, the defending state champion in the 110-meter high hurdles, will compete in both hurdling events. He is also looking forward to being part of the school’s 400-meter relay team, although coaches have the option of choosing their four relay members from six entrants at any time during the state meet.
To concentrate in those areas, Pollitt passed up the 200-meter dash where he won one of his three individual gold medals in the district meet.
Ayers is seeded just 24th out of 27 in the 3200 meters, but he has already shown the ability to stick with the state’s best distance runners with a ninth-place finish in cross country. The reduced workload could open up the possibility for a much better finish than his 9:38:24 in the district meet.
The first medals will be determined in one-quarter of the field events beginning at 9 a.m. Friday. Hazleton Area’s Kayla Mantush, one of six girls who share the fourth seed in Class 3A, is the top contender among that first group.
GAR’s Darian Twyman, the top returning field performer from the Wyoming Valley Conference after placing second in the Class 2A high jump last season, will wait until Saturday’s afternoon group to try to win another medal in the event.Twyman enters this year’s meet as a fifth seed.
The 100- and 200-meter dashes and 110/110-meter hurdles have preliminaries today, semifinals Saturday morning and finals Saturday afternoon. All other events on the track have qualifying today and finals Saturday.
The top eight athletes in each event score points for their teams and receive state medals.