Woods sweeps weights in meet

The Grove City standout beat her top challenger in both events.

By BILL ALBRIGHT

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

HERMITAGE, Pa. — For Arin Whitman of Hickory and Grove City’s Kristy Woods, a battle continued Saturday in the District 10 Class AA Track & Field Championships.

One week after the two girls split the shot put and discus events in the Mercer County meet with Woods taking the discus and Whitman capturing the shot, the two athletes again finished 1-2 in the two events to qualify for the state championship meet next weekend in Shippensburg.

However, in Saturday’s meet, Woods took both gold medals as she out-dueled Whitman 126-4 to 126-1 in the discus before nudging the Hornet 42-0 to 41-9 in the shot put.

“This was a great accomplishment for me today,” Woods said. “I am very pleased with what I have done, and although my discus was a little down today, hopefully I am saving my best effort for states.”

Won shot on last toss

Trailing Whitman in the shot with one try remaining, Woods made the most of her final chance as she put her best effort of 42-feet even on her final toss.

“It was my last throw when I hit 42 [feet],” Woods said. “I was in the perfect mind set and told myself, ‘hey this is it so just give your all’ and it worked.”

While Whitman will be competing in the state meet in both events, she won’t be alone as teammates Emily Woods and Kim Stitt also qualified for the state meet in the shot put, while Woods, just a freshman, also will compete in the discus.

Sharon’s Altman winner

After coming up a little short in the 100 dash and the 4x100 relay, Sharon’s William Altman put all of his eggs in one basket for his ticket to the state meet. It worked as he eclipsed the field for a gold medal in the 300 hurdles with a time of 39.62.

“Right now, it feels good,” said Altman shortly after winning the race. “I didn’t have a fast start, but I knew if I would do my best I could win. With 50 meters left, I didn’t feel any pressure from anybody so it was like running by myself.”

Coming into the meet as the top seed in the javelin with a season-best of 195-1 after winning last week’s Mercer County meet with a toss of 180-6, Hickory’s Nick Erdesky had to settle for second place with a best effort of 170-7 for his trip to the state meet. Justin Angermeier of Mercer won the event with a toss of 178-8.

While Erdesky is coming off a broken toe that kept him out of action for a while, Angermeier is also nursing a couple of injuries that kept him out of last week’s county meet.

“My back was a little sore and I had some problems with my shoulder,” Angermeier said.

The top two finishers in each event qualify for the state meet, and although Kennedy Catholic’s Dierdre Reimold finished third in the 300 hurdles, her time of 47.43 was better than the state qualifying time of 47.64 to earn her a trip to Shippensburg.

“I started off very slow and maybe it was due to the fact that we had to wait 15 minutes for the race to begin,” Reimold said. “I wasn’t really satisfied with my time because it was slower than last week, but today, it was good enough.”

Qualifies in three events

Wilmington’s outstanding athlete Chris Burns enjoyed an outstanding day as he qualified for three events in the state meet.

Burns had to settle for second in the 100 dash with a time of 11.21 before coming back to take gold in the 200 dash (22.93) and long jump (21-3.5) events.

Other district championship efforts turned in by regional athletes were by Hanna Casalnova of Grove City in the 800 run (2:20.87), Carnie Smith of Wilmington in the 100 dash (12.46), Miranda Negrea of West Middlesex in the high jump (5-3), Kim Preston of Reynolds in the pole vault (11-3), Kara Mostoller of Reynolds in the long jump (17-4.5), Weston Schaa of Mercer in the high jump (6-8) and the triple jump (44-0.5) and Greg Reiber of Grove City in the shot put (53-3.5).

Grove City captured the team title in the girls’ competition, while the boys’ team title went to Lakeview.