Dallas’ Julia Natitus concluded a memorable spring season with a pair of state medals on Saturday, finishing fourth in the 110 hurdles and fifth in the 300 hurdles at the PIAA Class 3A championships.
Submitted photo
Nanticoke Area’s Neveah Baran turned in the top performance among WVC girls at Saturday’s PIAA Track and Field Championships, winning bronze in the long jump and taking fourth in the triple jump.
Submitted photo
CORRECTION: The following Wyoming Valley Conference results from Saturday’s PIAA Track and Field Championships were inadvertently omitted from the report in Sunday’s Times Leader:
Finn Cronin from Lake-Lehman finished 13th of 26 in the Class 2A boys 800-meter run with a time of 1:59.03.
Jaida Underwood from Wilkes-Barre Area finished tied for 24th of 30 in the Class 3A girls high jump with 5-0.
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SHIPPENSBURG — Neveah Baran from Nanticoke and Julia Natitus from Dallas each returned to Luzerne County from two days at the PIAA Track and Field Championships with a pair of Class 3A girls medals to show for their efforts.
Baran had the Wyoming Valley Conference’s top performance Saturday while Natitus won a pair of medals on the same day.
“That’s what I was hoping for – to come back with some hardware,” Baran said.
Also one of the top girls basketball players at Nanticoke, Baran took up track and field in eighth grade. She first emphasized the speed she had shown off on the basketball court by doing running events, but last season added in the long jump. Expanding on that idea, Baran started doing the triple jump this season and it was that new event in which she earned a fourth-place medal Friday.
Baran topped that by leaping 18-10¼ on her final long jump attempt Saturday to move up to third place in the final standings and a bronze medal.
“I stretched out a little bit before my last jump,” Baran said, “so I just had to reach back and give it everything I’ve got.”
Baran was strong throughout the weekend.
“I just followed up with everything that I’ve done all season,” she said. “My coaches help out a lot with telling me what to do and I have a lot of trust in them.”
Natitus entered Saturday feeling good about the first day of the meet when she landed her two berths in the finals, including posting the second-best qualifying time in the 300-meter hurdles preliminaries.
“I came down to the state meet wanting to have a positive mindset and have good races,” Natitus said. “Obviously, my goal was to make the state final, but I didn’t absolutely know that I was going to, so when I did that was a great feeling.”
Natitus followed it up with a personal-best in the 100 hurdles Saturday with 14.32 seconds, then finished fifth in the 300 hurdles final in 43.61.
The top eight in each event earn state medals and team points.
“I got out strong and just from having all those girls around me, it really helped me run a real good race,” Natitus said of the 100. “The 300, I ran better Friday, but I was real happy with both races. Friday’s was an awesome race. “
Baran and Natitus accounted for all of the WVC girls medals Saturday.
The Lake-Lehman 3200 relay team finished one place out of a Class 2A medal, taking ninth in 9:51.51.
Wyoming Area’s Ella McKernan was the best of the rest of the Class 3A entries, finishing 11th out of 32 in the 800 with a time of 2:13.36.
PIAA TRACK AND FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS
(Saturday’s results for WVC entries)
Class 3A girls
3200 – Madison Hedglin, DAL, 10:49.06, 14th of 36
3200 – Katie Kozich, CRE, 10:53.18, 17th of 36
100 hurdles – Julia Natitus, DAL, 14.32, 4th of 8 finalists
300 hurdles – Julia Natitus, DAL, 43.61, 5th of 8 finalists
800 – Ella McKernan, WA, 2:13.36, 11th of 32
Long jump – Nevaeh Baran, 18-10 ¼,3rd of 27
Shot put – Morgan Langdon, DAL, 35-7, 18th of 24
Javelin – Madi Geiger, CRE, 113-2, 25th of 32
Class 2A girls
3200 relay – Lake-Lehman, 9:51.51, 9th of 26
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