Pine-Richland hurdlers, relay teams poised for success

By: Kevin Lohman
Friday, April 12, 2019 | 6:55 PM

The Pine-Richland track and field team is off to a solid start, with the boys and girls teams 2-1 in dual meets.

However, with a slate loaded with challenging invitationals, starting with the Butler Invitational on Thursday followed by the Montour Invitational and then Pine-Richland’s own event, tough tests lie ahead for the Rams.

“I think, in general, the next two weeks is where we start getting into the invitational competitions, and then we’ll know a little bit more about ourselves,” coach Bill Crummy said. “We’ll try to experiment with some kids in different events, but we’ll see over the course of the schedule how to gauge where everyone fits.

“One goal for the program is to use the season to qualify kids for WPIALs, and before that, we’ll have to figure out where kids have the best chance to excel.”

The Rams already excel in the 300 hurdles. The girls have three WPIAL qualifiers returning: Livie Miller, Chalondra Clark and Danielle Bryant, who placed fourth at last year’s WPIAL Class AAA championships and earned a spot in states.

The boys side also represents well in the 300 hurdles with Luke Meckler, who finished fourth at the WPIAL championships and parlayed his strong performance into a sixth-place finish at PIAAs.

“That’s our goal for all four of those kids in the hurdles,” Crummy said. “We want to get them all to WPIALs, so they have a chance to progress and do well enough to move on to states. That’s our goal, and all four of them are certainly capable of that kind of performance.”

Bryant and Miller also participate on the girls 1,600 relay, with Clark serving as an alternate. All three were members of the relay team that qualified for states in each of the past two seasons. Madi Argiro and Ella Rottinghaus the foursome.

Additionally, Crummy said he expects solid performances from distance runners Meredith Price in the 1,600 and Leah Kilgore in the 3,200.

Tags: Pine-Richland