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STATE COLLEGE – Dominic Hockenbury came within a second of a distance running hat trick on the state level.
The Lake-Lehman junior, a state champion in cross country and outdoor track, finished second in the 3000-meter run at the Pennsylvania Track and Field Coaches Association Indoor State Championships March 1 at Penn State University.
Hockenbury won a Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class AA state title in the 3200-meter run last spring as a sophomore. He added a PIAA Class AA cross country title in the fall.
Running in a field that combines Class AAA and AA athletes during the winter, Hockenbury finished second out of the 13 runners, who each had to meet a qualifying standard to be eligible for the meet.
Hockenbury finished in 8:36.44. North Allegheny senior Matt Mcgoey won in 8:35.53.
Tunkhannock’s Jack Tidball was fifth in 8:45.50.
Katie Kravitsky from Dallas joined Hockenbury and Tidball as state medalists.
Kravitsky cleared 5-4 to finish fourth in the high jump.
Other local athletes who qualified for the state meet fell short of the top-eight finish required for a medal.
Ally Rome from Dallas, another state cross country champion, was 10th while Maggie Toczko from Tunkhannock was 11th in the 3000-meter run.
Lindsey Oremus, who was second to her Dallas teammate in state cross country, finished 10th out of 22 runners in the mile by finishing in 5:12.98.
Lake-Lehman’s Emily Johns placed 13th in the shot put.
Official practices for outdoor track and other spring high school sports began Monday around the state.