Defending champ wins pole vault

Hickory's Eric Sparks outdueled Wilmington Area's Jimmy Schneider.
HERMITAGE -- It was a good day for Mercer County schools in the District 10 Class AA Track & amp; Field Championships Saturday at Hickory High School's Hornet Stadium.
The pole vault was an all-Mercer County battle as Eric Sparks of Hickory, the defending PIAA champion in AAA, outdueled Wilmington Area's Jimmy Schneider for the gold medal.
Sparks' best effort was 15 feet, 3 inches, while Schneider was 2 feet behind. Sparks also qualified for the state meet in the long jump with a leap of 21-23/4, good for second place.
"Today, my main concern was just clearing a height," said Sparks, who failed to do so in the Mercer County meet. "I wanted to get the district record in the vault as well as qualify in the long jump and I was able to do both today."
With former teammate and state champion Eric Radamacher in college, Sparks welcomed the competition from Schneider.
"I definitely don't like vaulting against myself," Sparks said. "It is always nice to have someone to compete against you and push you. Jimmy is a real nice guy and we have been vaulting against each other for quite a while now. We know each other very well, we share poles and he is really cool to compete with."
Although he finished second, Schneider was satisfied with his best effort of the day.
"I came in here with one thing in mind and that was 13-3, the state qualifying height," he said. "I just came in here, did my thing by qualifying for next week and right now, I am excited."
Ticket to state
The Hickory girls 3,200-meter relay of Lauren Baldarelli, Kara Morris, Andrea Flower and Ashley Williams earned a ticket to the state meet by finishing fourth with a state qualifying time of 9 minutes, 53.17 seconds.
Hickory's Jessica Pissini will be making another appearance at the state meet in both the discus and shot put. However, it was a bittersweet day as she qualified in both events with efforts below her personal bests.
In the discus, Pissini finished third behind Natalie Clickett of Union City and Nicole Wilson of Iroquois, while in the shot, she wound up fourth.
Wilmington Area showed a lot of speed in the meet as both the boys and girls 4x100 relays captured gold medals.
Carrying the baton for the Greyhound boys were Forrest Minteer, Chris Burns, David Bruno and Marquis Alston in a winning time of 43.78.
The Greyhound girls team of Carnie Smith, Erica Flynn, Elizabeth DeMedal and Samantha Arcrui was clocked in a winning time of 51.02. Smith also qualified for the state meet individually in both the 100 and 200.
Strong performance
Leading Sharon was Robert Harrison, who qualified for the state meet in both the 200 (22.98) and 400 (50.50).
"I am really excited about today because this is my first time going to states," said Harrison. "Coming around the corner, I knew I had a little bit more left in me and tried to push it on in and catch up to him [winner Kyle Wunz], but he was too strong."
Joining Harrison for a trip to Shippensburg was Stephany Genis with a runner-up time of 11:34.98 in the 3200.
Other state qualifiers from Mercer County included Mandy Carine of Hickory in the pole vault, Kaela Strawder of Sharon in the shot put, Jessica McLaurin of Hickory in the 110 hurdles and Mark Lengel of Hickory in the shot put.
In the team competition, Mercer won the girls crown and Greenville ran away with the boys title.