The Dallas boys track and field team held off Hazleton Area to win the Wyoming Valley Conference championship on Monday night.
Kevin Carroll | Times Leader
PLAINS TWP. — Hunter Pitcavage had been to the medal podium three times on Monday night, but before taking his turn at the javelin the Dallas junior had yet to make it to the very top.
The fourth time was the charm for Pitcavage — not only reaching the gold medal position on the stand, but helping lock down a conference title for his Mountaineers to boot.
A 210-foot throw won the javelin event for Pitcavage and helped push Dallas ahead of Hazleton Area, a position that the Mountaineers held onto to win the Wyoming Valley Conference Boys Track and Field championship on Monday at Wilkes-Barre Area High School.
“I knew I had to get it done, especially for the team to lock it up today,” Pitcavage said after receiving his gold medal, the last of four total medals for him at Monday’s meet. “I really felt like I had the weight of the team on my back, I had to get it done for them.”
Pitcavage’s javelin gold was preceded by a silver in the high jump and two bronzes in the shot put and discus, a big point accumulator for the Mountaineers as they held off two-time defending champ Hazleton Area 133.33 to 112.
The Mountaineers started the day with a win in the 3200 relay and were a consistent presence on the podium even with just two gold medals.
At the time Pitcavage won the javelin, Dallas had slipped a few points behind Hazleton Area in the team standings, the Cougars winning one gold from Joel Vasquez in the discus and following a similarly consistent path as Dallas.
The standings swung on the javelin points, with Owen Oldt winning silver to give Dallas an even bigger boost. Chase Comiskey won silver in the 3200 run to make sure that the conference title was a done deal.
“Our boys have worked hard, even all this winter,” Pitcavage said. “We all come together and got it done, it goes to show that Dallas does have some athletes.”
The championship was the capper for a perfect conference season for the Mountaineers, going 6-0 in the regular season and capturing the Division 1 title.
Wilkes-Barre Area (83 points), Crestwood (72) and Wyoming Area (69) took up the next three spots following Dallas and Hazleton Area, each with a couple gold medals to their credit.
The Wolfpack owned the short distances on their home track, and multi-time defending district champ Timothy Leonard was at the center of it all.
Leonard went a perfect 4-for-4 on Monday, winning the 100 and 200 dashes individually and running two scorching anchor legs to help Wilkes-Barre Area win the 400 and 1600 relays.
He set the tone early with a 10.45 in the 100, and then held off Wolfpack teammate Kevon Creech to take home the 200.
“I felt kind of slow, I didn’t think I ran that type of time,” Leonard admitted of his 100 dash. “But you just have to stick to your game plan, it doesn’t matter how you feel.”
Creech finished third in the 100, and joined Leonard on both of Wilkes-Barre Area’s gold medal relays. Jazaiah McCoy won the 400 dash and jumped in on the 1600 relay to end the day for the Wolfpack.
Elijah Zeneski swept the 110 and 300 hurdles for Crestwood, his second win in a row at the shorter distance. Anson Jumper won gold in the pole vault for the Comets.
Wyoming Area was reliably strong in the field events, winning gold in the triple jump, long jump and shot put. Josh Mruk won the shot put a year after taking silver in the event.
Teammates Luke Kopetchny and Nicholas Kondrosky went back-and-forth in the jumping events; Kopetchny won the long jump only for Kondrosky to come back and take the triple jump.
Northwest’s Michael Fritz won the 1600 and 3200 runs for the second straight year. Lake-Lehman’s Bodhi Cronin and Tunkhannock’s Brandon Carter rounded out the gold medalists with wins in the 800 run and high jump, respectively.
WVC Boys Track and Field Championships
Team Standings — 1. Dallas (DAL) 133.33, 2. Hazleton Area (HAZ) 112, 3. Wilkes-Barre Area (WBA) 83, 4. Crestwood (CRE) 72, 5. Wyoming Area (WA) 69, 6. Pittston Area (PA) 54, 7. Lake-Lehman 48.33, 8. Northwest Area (NW) 32.33, 9. Tunkhannock (TUNK) 32, 10. Holy Redeemer (HR) 28, 11. Berwick (BER) 22, 12. Wyoming Valley West (WVW) 12, 13. Hanover Area (HAN) 3.
3200 Relay — 1. Dallas (Joey Nocito, Chase Comiskey, Benjamin Hodne, Abe Hobson-Tomascik) 8:14.92, 2. Hazleton Area 8:16.98, 3. Pittston Area 8:31.15.
110 Hurdles — 1. Elijah Zeneski (CRE) 14.92, 2. Amari Michael (HAZ) 15.46, 3. Nick Logan (PA) 15.92.
100 Dash — 1. Timothy Leonard (WBA) 10.45, 2. Deondre Miller (PA) 10.91, 3. Kevon Creech (WBA) 10.93.
1600 Run — 1. Michael Fritz (NW) 4:32.06, 2. Chase Comiskey (DAL) 4:37.38, 3. Caden Moreck (HR) 4:39.22.
400 Relay — 1. Wilkes-Barre Area (Xavier Mendez, Kevon Creech, Jacquemart Leonard, Timothy Leonard) 43.05, 2. Dallas 43.39, 3. Hazleton Area 44.18.
400 Dash — 1. Jazaiah McCoy (WBA) 50.75, 2. Santiago Alvarez (WVW) 51.24, 3. Joey Nocito (DAL) 51.50.
300 Hurdles — 1. Elijah Zeneski (CRE) 39.44, 2. Callum Jerome (TUNK) 40.98, 3. Jason Dyrli (DAL) 42.07.
800 Run — 1. Bodhi Cronin (LL) 1:58.57, 2. Caden Boettger (PA) 1:59.70, 3. Finn Cronin (LL) 2:00.13.
200 Dash — 1. Timothy Leonard (WBA) 21.07, 2. Kevon Creech (WBA) 21.95, 3. Matty Burke (HAZ) 22.27.
3200 Run — 1. Michael Fritz (NW) 10:20.06, 2. Chase Comiskey (DAL) 10:22.37, 3. Caden Moreck (HR) 10:23.73.
1600 Relay — 1. Wilkes-Barre Area (Kevon Creech, Jazaiah McCoy, Samuel Kouevi, Timothy Leonard) 3:28.96, 2. Lake-Lehman 3:29.18, 3. Crestwood 3:30.83.
Long Jump — 1. Luke Kopetchny (WA) 22-7, 2. Nicholas Kondrosky (WA) 22-5, 3. Bodhi Cronin (LL) 21-11.
High Jump — 1. Brandon Carter (TUNK) 6-0, 2. Hunter Pitcavage (DAL) 6-0, 3. Jayden Skros (HAZ) 5-10.
Triple Jump — 1. Nicholas Kondrosky (WA) 43-10, 2. Kevin Lucas (HAZ) 42-9, 3. Luke Kopetchny (WA) 42-1.
Pole Vault — 1. Anson Jumper (CRE) 13-3, 2. Jaedyn Sanchez (WBA) 12-0, 3. Nate Simpson (CRE) 11-0.
Shot Put — 1. Josh Mruk (WA) 52-4; 2. Logan Spaide (CRE) 51-1; 3. Hunter Pitcavage (DAL) 50-2.
Discus — 1. Joel Vasquez (HAZ) 153-10, 2. Ben Gravine (WA) 145-4, 3. Hunter Pitcavage (DAL) 133-4.
Javelin —1. Hunter Pitcavage (DAL) 210-0, 2. Owen Oldt (DAL) 187-6, 3. Lucas LoPresto (PA) 179-1.
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