Wilkes-Barre Area’s Timothy Leonard was the anchor of the winning District 2 Class 3A boys 400 relay.
Fred Adams file photo | For Times Leader
Crestwood’s Elijah Zeneski qualified for states with a win in the District 2 Class 3A boys 110 hurdles finals.
Fred Adams file photo | For Times Leader
Tunkhannock’s Brandon Carter competes in the District 3 Class 3A boys high jump.
Fred Adams file photo | For Times Leader
Finn Cronin was the lead runner for Lake-Lehman’s winning Class 2A boys 3200 relay team at districts.
Fred Adams file photo | For Times Leader
Dallas anchor man Benjamin Hodne pulls away for his team to win the boys District 2 Class 3A 3200 relay final.
Fred Adams file photo | For Times Leader
Wyoming Area’s Jenesa Sancho chases Delaware Valley’s Emma Simmons across the finish line in the District 2 Class 3A girls 100 hurdles final.
Fred Adams file photo | For Times Leader
Lake-Lehman anchor Ava Jones waits for the baton handoff from Cameron Janick in the District 2 Class 2A girls 3200 relay final at Scranton Memorial Stadium.
Fred Adams file photo | For Times Leader
Crestwood’s Katie Kozich (center) takes off on the starting gun of the District 2 Class 3A girls 1600 run between Wallenpaupack’s Isabella Wisner (left) and Abington Heights’ Anna Pucilowski. Kozich finished third, and Pucilowski was second.
Fred Adams file photo | For Times Leader
Strong seasons from several Wyoming Valley Conference schools and competitors culminated in a banner showing from the league at both the district and state levels when the postseason rolled around.
At the District 2 Track and Field Championships in May, 20 gold medals came home with WVC winners — including 18 from the Class 3A level.
No WVC athlete won as much as Wilkes-Barre Area senior Timothy Leonard, who had some titles to defend entering district competition this year.
Leonard won individual golds in the 100 and 200 dashes and anchored the Wolfpack’s record-breaking 400 relay victory to make it a total of three wins for the Wilkes-Barre Area standout.
He would go on to win one of eight state medals secured by the WVC in Shippensburg at the PIAA meet, with the best finishes coming from the Lake-Lehman boys’ 3200 relay team and javelin thrower Hunter Pitcavage of Dallas, both winning state silver medals for their efforts.
Crestwood paced all WVC schools with five golds at the District 2 meet, and Lake-Lehman was the top team at states with three of the conference’s eight medals.
THE REGULAR SEASON
Two very long reigns at the top of two WVC divisions — Division 1 on the girls’ side, Division 2 on the boys’ side — came to an end this season.
For the first time since 2017, a school not named Dallas captured the Division 1 girls’ title, with Crestwood running the table with a 6-0 record to ascend to the top of the league.
The Lake-Lehman boys pulled off a similar feat in Division 2, defeating Wyoming Area in their head-to-head meeting in April and ending the Warriors’ run of consecutive division titles at six.
That head-to-head result ended a 38-meet winning streak for the Wyoming Area boys.
In a twist, the two schools dethroned from their respective divisional championship runs were able to win on the other side of the track.
The Dallas boys went unbeaten in the regular season to win the Division 1 title. Wyoming Area’s girls team, riding their own wave of dominance similar to the boys in recent years, captured their fifth straight Division 2 title.
The two Division 1 champs, Dallas boys and Crestwood girls, entered the WVC Championship meet as favorites and both delivered with team conference titles to give themselves a boost heading to districts.
DISTRICT CHAMPIONSHIP MEET
The disparity between the WVC’s District 2 showings in Class 3A and Class 2A is a product of the numbers: only Holy Redeemer and Lake-Lehman compete in Class 2A among the Wyoming Valley schools that have full teams, with the rest of the squads competing in Class 3A.
Nevertheless, the very first gold medals won at this year’s District 2 championships came in the smaller classification, with a Lake-Lehman sweep of the Class 2A 3200 relays.
Kinley Purdy, Faith Cadwalader, Cameron Janick and Ava Jones got it done for the Black Knights in the girls’ race; Stephen Martin, Parker Smith, Finn Cronin and Bodhi Cronin made up the winning combination for Lake-Lehman in the boys’ competition.
All eight of those athletes would continue to help Lake-Lehman along, but the rest of the golds for the WVC came in Class 3A, including one team championship.
Despite having just one gold medalist — Pitcavage, who threw an absolute bomb over 214 feet to crush the competition in the javelin — the Mountaineers were a consistent presence at the medal podium and edged out Wallenpaupack for the team title.
Combining the results from both the boys’ and girls’ competitions, it was Crestwood leading the way with five gold medals, followed by Wilkes-Barre Area with four.
Right after Lake-Lehman’s sweep in the 3200 relay, the Crestwood girls team of Alyssa Leicht, Sophia Kwarcinski, Katie Kozich and Riley Ruch won the Class 3A girls race.
Elijah Zeneski swept the hurdles events for Crestwood, winning both the 110 and 300 hurdles. He was one of just three WVC athletes to win multiple individual golds.
Crestwood added two more golds in the field: Anson Jumper in the pole vault and Isla Centak in the javelin.
Wilkes-Barre Area’s championship performance was geared by Leonard, winning the 100 and 200 dashes (the former a repeat, the latter a first-time win for the senior) on his own.
He then helped shatter the District 2 record in the 400 relay, anchoring a 45.22-second run with teammates Samuel Koueyi, Kevon Creech and Jacquemart Leonard.
Jaida Underwood won the gold in the high jump for the Wolfpack.
Next to Leonard and Zeneski, the final WVC athlete to win multiple golds was Nanticoke Area’s Nevaeh Baran, who defended her titles in both the triple jump and long jump.
Baran’s margin of victory in both jumps was over a foot, capping off her District 2 career in dominant fashion.
Wyoming Area sophomore Jenesa Sancho won the 300 hurdles and finished a close second in the 100 hurdles. She was joined in the winner’s circle by teammates Luke Kopetchny (long jump) and Josh Mruk (shot put).
Hazleton Area’s Kevin Lucas repeated as champion in the Class 3A triple jump, and the Cougars won the Girls 1600 relay.
Symone Mims got Hanover Area on the board with a gold-medal showing in the shot put.
Outside of Dallas, the other three District 2 team titles were won by Lackawanna Conference schools: Montrose in Class 2A girls, Dunmore in Class 2A boys and the Abington Heights girls in Class 3A.
PIAA MEET
Bodhi Cronin, the anchor on Lake-Lehman’s 3200 relay team, ended his district meet with three total medals, adding a silver in the 800 and a fourth-place finish in the long jump.
When the dust settled in Shippensburg in May, Cronin was the lone WVC athlete coming home with two state medals — one on his own and one with his Black Knights teammates.
The Lake-Lehman 3200 relay team won the Class 2A silver medal, and Cronin managed a sixth-place finish in the 800 to cap off a terrific junior season.
The girls’ 3200 relay team just made the podium with an eighth-place finish, making it three state medals heading back north to Lake-Lehman.
Pitcavage matched the relay silver with a silver medal of his own in the javelin, entering the competition as the top overall seed.
Wilkes-Barre Area won two state medals, Leonard placing sixth in the 100 dash, and Underwood placing eighth in the high jump.
Wyoming Area’s Ben Gravine finished fifth in the discus, and Baran finished in seventh place in the triple jump to round out the WVC’s showing at states.
When it came to District 2 as a whole, one name rose above the rest in the PIAA Class 2A championships.
Mid Valley freshman Olivia Thomas won the district’s lone state title, capturing gold in the triple jump, and added a pair of silver medals in the long jump and 100 hurdles.
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