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SCRANTON – Six steps was all Coughlin’s Vincent Todd needed to know that he could race ahead for a come-from-behind victory.
Todd anchored Coughlin to an upset victory in the 400 relay to highlight the boys team’s performance at the District 2 Class 3A track and field championships Tuesday at Scranton Memorial Stadium. Coughlin came short of repeating last year’s district championship, finishing second to Scranton with 63 points.
Seeded third heading into the race, the Coughlin foursome of Jordan Austin, Rafael McCoy, Cole Hordan and Todd won the 400 relay in 43.65 seconds. The Crusaders handed the baton to Todd, who trailed behind Valley View by a fraction of a second.
“It was really a blessing,” Todd said. “I told my teammates today to keep us in the race. I promised them I’d bring it home. I kept up my word. These guys worked hard; they’re a great group of guys to work with.”
Todd took off to outrace the Cougars’ Evan Carey to the finish line by 17-hundredths of a second.
“After the first six steps, I got maybe a step or two on them,” Todd said. “I was in that position before where I had to bring a team back. Once I feel like I am bringing up on you, I had even more momentum and kept trying to finish out a strong race.”
Coughlin’s 400 relay was one of five Wyoming Valley Conference boys district champions.
Pittston Area’s Paul Moska beat out Delaware Valley’s Shane Acoveno with a 6-foot, 5-inch clear in the high jump. Moska tied Acoveno, but won out on the tiebreaker by hitting the mark on his second try.
“I was trying to just come in and do my best to win it,” Moska said. “I didn’t want the (state qualifying height) to discourage me.”
Hazleton Area’s Joe Grula won the district championship in the javelin. His throw of 187 feet, 7 inches set a state qualifying standard and beat out Scranton Prep’s Lucas Stage, of Tunkhannock, by nearly five feet.
Despite falling short of competing at states, Tunkhannock’s Mitch Fowler earned a gold medal in the pole vault, topping a benchmark of 12 feet. Unlike every other event, the pole vault is not granted automatic berths to PIAA meet.
“Going into this season, I really wanted to just get a personal record,” Fowler noted. “I accomplished that early on in the season and then adjusted my goals to finish first. I’m extremely proud of it.
“At first, I was a little bummed out about not being able to make states, but a first place medal makes up for it.”
Dallas’ Jack Zardecki will be making his first trip to the state championships with a second-place performance in the 3,200 run in a time of 9:22.90. Zardecki was in lock step with North Pocono senior David Haines before falling by two strides on the last lap.
The Mountaineer junior charged on the final 100 meters, briefly taking the lead before Haines looked to his right with less than 50 meters left. Haines steamed ahead to beat Zardecki by 23-hundredths of a second.
“The final stretch, I gave every single piece of energy I had left,” Zardecki said. “I ran a great time. It was perfect.
“I was right there. He started pushing back, and I figured it was going to be one of the books. That’s what it happened to be. Hats off to him. Great race, great guy.”
His teammate Christian Roberts also earned a state qualifying time with a second place finish in the 400 dash. Roberts clocked in at 49.85 seconds, just 19-hundredths of a second behind Wallenpaupack’s Chad Vasey.
The Dallas 3,200 relay beat out Wallenpaupack in a photo finish. Adam Borton, Jason Culp, Stephen Postupak and Josh Wyandt head to states with an 8:10.88 run. Wyandt inched ahead of the Buckhorns’ Tyler Wirth by just one-20th of a second.
TEAM STANDINGS
1. Scranton (SCR) 110, 2. Coughlin (COU) 63, 3. Wallenpaupack (WAL) 62, 4. North Pocono (NP) 58, 5. Abington Heights (AH) 56, 6. Delaware Valley (DV) 47.5; 7. Hazleton Area (HAZ) 39; 8. Wyoming Valley West (WVW) 36, 9. Pittston Area (PA) 34, 10. Dallas (DAL) 33, 11. Wyoming Area (WA) 31; 12. Tunkhannock (TUN) 28; 13. Valley View (VV) 25.5; 14. West Scranton (WS) 22.5; 15. Scranton Prep (SP) 20; 16. Berwick (BER) 17; 17. Crestwood (CRE) 11.5; 18. Honedale (HON) 7.
EVENT RESULTS
3200 Relay – 1. DAL (Adam Borton, Jason Culp, Stephen Postupak, Josh Wyandt) 8:10.88; 2. WAL (Jack Monte, Stephen Kober, Thomas Johnson, Tyler Wirth) 8:10.93; 3. PA (Joey Fisher, Matt Havrilla, Hunter Krakilo, Tony Molinaro) 8:30.97; 4. SCR (Javier Blazquez, Cameron Jordan, Mark Leggin, Phillip Lopez) 8:36; 5. CRE (Justin Glowacki, Nick Brown, Spencer Riccio, Matthew Brunetti) 8:36.69; 6. WS (Colin Kelly, Michael Kelly, Noah Molina, Josh Palauskas) 8:40.11; 7. COU (Srivatsav Challa, Nate Searfoss, Silas Armstrong, Jacob Allabaugh) 8:41.94; 8. HON (Liam Carmody, Dustin Edsall, David Mead, Ben Wilken) 9:02.43. High Jump – 1. PA Paul Moska 6-5, 2. DV Shane Acoveno 6-5, 3. SCR Ky’ron Harbin 6-3, 4. HAZ Joe Grula 6-3, 5. TUN Trejon Turner 6-3, 6. NP Joe Thiel 5-9, 7. WS Colin Kelly 5-9, 7. DV Noah Sorrell 5-9 110 Hurdles – 1. DV C.J. Anderson 15.22, 2. COU Ron Sepkoski 15.29, 3. SCR Akash Darjee 16.28, 4. COU Hunter Jones 16.68, 5. AH Antonio Maletta 17.07, 6. COU Kevin Kozerski 17.28, 7. HAZ Luciano Stranko 17.38, 8. PA Naseem Guillame 20.11. Long Jump – 1. SCR Ky’ron Harbin 22-3.75, 2. NP Tyler Reilly 20-4.5, 3. WA Steven Yordy 20-4.25, 4. NP Joe Thiel 20-3.5, 5. TUN Erik Bennett 20-1.75, 6. DV Shane Acoveno 20-1.25, 7. WVW Chris Melovitz 19-9.5, 8. DV Dylan Kelly 19-8.75. 100 Dash – 1. VV Seth Ver-Non 11.29, 2. COU Vincent Toss 11.31, 3. SCR Ian Lewis 11.39, 4. WA Kayne 11.49, 5. VV Jake Osborne 11.5, 6. SCR Carlos Acevedo 11.69, 7. COU Rafael McCoy 11.71, 8. NP Tyler Musgrave 11.96
Discus – 1. NP Matt Slagus 180-6, 2. WAL Chance Smith 146-7, 3. SP J. Garry Wrobleski 141-7, 4. WA Kyle Carr 141-7, 5. COU Ryan Solt 133-10, 6. COU Matthew Malenovitch 132-6, 7. DV Jacob Roccabruna 130-8, 8. TUN John Walsh 130-2 Javelin – 1. HAZ Joe Grula 187-7, 2. SP Lucas Stage 184-9*, 3. SCR Jacob Wats, 4. PA Walter Coles 165-10, 5. TUN Billy Prebola 164-11, 6. WA Tristian Sokash-Minnick 155-5, 7. DV John Manganella 154, 8. TUN Bryce Steele 153 1600 Run – 1. AH Kyle Burke 4:22.24; 2. WAL Tyler Wirth 4:22.69*; 3. AH Dan Uhranowsky 4:23.62*; 4. BER Mitchell Martin 4:33.8; 5. SP Tom Fitzpatrick 4:35.26; 6. HAZ Franklin Cunningham 4:37l.18; 7. SP Nick Gershey 4:39.63; 8. DV Vincent Schlenker 4:40.58 Pole Vault – 1. TUN Mitchell Fowler 12-0; 2. WS Michael Bruno 11-6, 3. WAL Connor Barnes 11-0; 4. HON Seth Miller 11-0; 5. WVW Christion Breton 10-6; 6. CRE Matt Shipton 10-6; 6. VV Alex Langel 10-6 Triple Jump – 1. SCR Ky’ron Harbin 46-1.5, 2. WVW Travman Clark 44-4.5, 3. WA Steven Yordy 43-11.75, 4. HAZ Joe Grula 43-1.75, 5. WVW Stephone Scotland 43-6.5, 6. WVW Jahir Gray 43-5-.75; 7. WS Tamon Brown 43-0.5; 8. NP Joe Thiel 41-3.5 400 Dash – 1. WAL Chad Vasey 49.66, 2. DAL Christian Roberts 49.85*, 3. WVW Mitchell Forgash 50.34, 4. HAZ Michael Cusatis 51.56, 5. AH Jovan Mitchell 51.63, 6. WS Colin Kelly 51.78, 7. SCR Marcus Tilla 51.98, 8. WVW Ray Richard 52.39
400 Relay – 1. COU (Jordan Austin, Rafael McCoy, Cole Horan, Vincent Todd) 43.65; 2. VV (Jake Osborne, Seth Vernon, Ethan Carey, Evan Carey) 43.82; 3. SCR (Carlos Acevedo, Jared Cipriano, Akash Darjee, Ian Lewis) 44.58; 4. WS (Tamon Brown, Andre Cholette, Avery McAuliffe, Zakeem Vassell) 45.16; 5. AH (Baba Osuntokun, Matt Borgia, Connor Napierala, Jovan Mitchell) 45.34; 6. HAZ (Jordan Bircea, Michael Bradley, Isaac Gomez, Dylan Laurie) 45.5; 7. TUN (Mitchell Fowler, Garett Hopkins, Alex Paduck, Bryce Steele) 45.73; 8. WA (Quay Williamson, Vinzenzo Scotto, Brian Williams, Kayne Burton) 45.74 300 Hurdles – 1. SCR Akash Darjee 40; 2. AH Antonio Maletta, 40.32; 3. COU Ron Sepkowski 40.51; 4. DV C.J. Anderson 41.21, 5. SCR Tyler Saul 41.75; 6. DV Jack Doyle 42.47; 7. TUN Bryce Steele 42.8; 8. PA Nick Barbieri 43.2 Shot Put – 1. NP Matt Slagus 55-0.5, 2. WAL Nate Steffen 51-0.5, 3. SCR Greg Miller 50-11, 4. SCR Evan Jones 50-3, 5. PA Patrick Mitchell 47-1.5, 6. DV John Actisdano 43-11.5, 7. PA Jacob Rutkowski 43-9, 8. COU Ryan Solt 43-5 200 Dash – 1. SCR Ian Lewis 22.78, 2. COU Vincent Todd 23.31, 3. SCR Carlos Acevedo 23.36, 4. WA Kayne Burton 23.44, 5. DV Darryn Ouk 23.46, 6. WAL Chad Vasey 23.54, 7. COU Rafael McCoy 23.58, 8. VV Seth Vernon 23.87 800 Run – 1. NP Randy Bocan 1:58.49, 2. WVW Mitchell Forgash 1:58.51; 3. AH Dan Uhranowsky 1:58.74; 4. CRE Matthew Brunetti 2:00.13; 5. SCR Phillip Lopez 2:01.32; 6. DAL Jason Culp 2:01.37; 7. PA Hunter Kraklio 2:03.79; 8. HON Ben Wilken 2:04.74 3200 Run – 1. NP David Haines 9:22.67, 2. DAL Jack Zardecki 9:22.9*; 3. AH Kyle Burke 9:53.11, 4. BER Mitchell Martin 9:54.12; 5. BER Ty Fisher 9:54.32; 6. BER Mason Kimbell 9:59.81; 7. DAL Mitchell Rome 10:01.69; 8. WAL Thomas Johnson 10:06.88 1600 Relay – 1. WAL (Chad Vasey, Tyler Wirth, Luke Cheslock, Ty Schmazle) 3:27.13; 2. AH (Shervin Mokharti, Chris Schimelfenig, Jovan Mitchell, Antonio Maletta) 3:28.09; 3. HAZ (Michael Bradley, Michael Cusatis, Kyle Franek, Chris Scalleat) 3:31.75; 4. SCR (Akash Darjee, Imani Gonzalez, Mitchell Lacerdo, Phillip Lopez) 3:32.9; 5. DV (Jack Doyle, Eric Hernandez, Dylan Kelly, Darryn Ouk) 3:33.48; 6. PA (Nick Barbieri, Naseem Guillaume, Hunter Kraklio, James Pliska) 3:34.19; 7. DAL (Adam Borton, Jason Culp, Corey Osborn, Christian Roberts) 3:36.78; 8. COU (Ron Sepkoski, Rafael McCoy, Jordan Austin, Vincent Todd) 3:39.48
