After winning WPIAL discus title, Plum’s Linhart looks forward to PIAA meet

By: Michael Love
Friday, May 17, 2019 | 8:03 PM

Hunter Linhart will return to the place he recorded a career-best in the discus.

The Plum senior had a top toss of 147 feet, 7 inches at last year’s PIAA Class AAA championship meet at Shippensburg.

He placed 10th.

Now, Linhart, the newly minted WPIAL discus champion — he bested the field May 16 at Slippery Rock — hopes to surpass his 2018 results in his final high school meet.

“Last year, I did really well at states, and I’m excited to go again this year because I feel I can throw further,” said Linhart, who will compete at Shippensburg this Saturday at 12:30 p.m.

Linhart just missed his personal best Thursday. He unleashed a top throw of 147-6.

“I felt really great today,” said Linhart, who added a ninth-place finish in the javelin. “I was telling people all week that it was going to come down to one throw between the top five or six throwers, and if one of us caught (a good throw), we were going to win. I happened to catch it today, and it worked out great.”

Linhart took first by more than a foot over the runner-up, McKeesport sophomore Colin Lyons (146-5).

Plum sophomore Logan Parker will make his PIAA debut after he finished third in the shot at WPIALs, improving nine places from last year’s 12th.

Seeded second, Parker recorded a best toss of 51-4¾ and finished less than a foot behind runner-up Aden Bruich, a junior from Connellsville (52-3), and WPIAL champion Bailey O’Malley, a senior from Baldwin (52-9¾).

“Coming into the season, I didn’t expect to make it to states this year, so this is a great feeling,” Parker said.

The top four in each Class AAA event punched tickets to states, as well as those in the top eight who met the PIAA’s pre-set qualifying times, heights or distances.

Parker wasn’t far off his career best of 51-5½ set April 20 at Slippery Rock’s Rock Relays.

“I’m not upset with how I threw because I did place third, but I could’ve definitely thrown over 52 and possibly taken second or first. But practicing with my coach and getting an overall good base, I am excited to see what I can do at states.”

Parker added a sixth-place medal in the discus (136-10).

On the girls side, Plum runners captured a pair of WPIAL medals.

Senior Madeline Monick capped her varsity track career with a seventh-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles.

She entered the event seeded ninth with a time of 15.66 seconds and ticked up one spot to eighth (15.48) after the preliminaries.

In the finals, she again moved up with a time of 15.50. Her run ended there, however, as she fell short of reaching the state-qualifying mark of 15.40.

Oakland Catholic’s Jayla Ellis lowered her a WPIAL record with a winning time of 13.93.

Plum junior Angela Valotta captured eighth place in the 1,600 as she posted a time of 5 minutes, 21.10 seconds. It was a couple of seconds slower than her seed time, but she was able to hold her seed place.

Emily Carter, a sophomore from Bethel Park, won the event with a 4:59.42, the only time below five minutes.

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Plum