Track and field notebook: Hempfield’s Traczynski shares WCCA record

By: HSSN Staff
Thursday, May 3, 2018 | 6:33 PM

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It turns out Hempfield senior Bailey Traczynski wasn't the first four-peat winner of an event at Saturday's Westmoreland County Coaches' Association Track and Field Championships.

Hempfield's Jasmine Jones (2011-14) was a four-peat winner in the 200-meter dash, according to WCCA track historian Roger Sullenberger.

Traczynski won the 100-meter hurdles on Saturday at the meet held at Latrobe's Memorial Stadium.

Sullenberger said he's still checking his records to see if there were others.

There have been other four-time county winners, but not in the same event. Latrobe's Natalie Bower (2006-09) won the 1,600 her sophomore, junior and senior year and the 800 her freshman year.

Hempfield's Lauren Bricker scored the most points (36) in the 2000 meet.

Spartan dominance

From 2011-17, the Hempfield girls track team won 74 consecutive dual meets and were 83-1 overall.

The Spartans won five consecutive WPIAL Class AAA team titles (2012-16) and have reached the finals eight straight season, including this one. They were runners-up in 2011. Hempfield also won two PIAA team titles (2013 and 2014).

The Spartans have won 51 individual events and had 42 second-place finishes since 1980, including 20 WPIAL champions and 14 second-place finishers from 2011-17. Also, the team had 14 PIAA champions, six during the past seven years.

The top point scorers the past seven seasons include Jasmine Jones, Maddie and Gabby Holmberg, Bridget Guy, Natalie Shiffler, Lauren George, Maura Loughran, Rianna Meidel, Morgan DeFloria, Amber Valimont, Rachel Serafin, Molly DeBone, Morgan Ansell, Bailey Traczynski, Gina Cuneo, Rachel Fyalkowski, Larissa Debich, Samantha Orie and Lexi Masterson.

Winning state titles the past seven seasons were Maddie Holmberg (long jump, 300 hurdles), Guy (pole vault), Debich (pole vault), Serafin (shot put, discus) and the 400-meter relay team twice (teams of Jasmine Jones, Guy, George, Maddie Holmberg and Gabby Holmberg). Serafin won the discus in 2009-11.

Big field headed to Baldwin

The 45th annual Baldwin Invitational will take place Friday, and meet director Ed Helbig said the competition should be tremendous, with 83 schools and more than 1,700 athletes competing.

“Most of the teams in the WPIAL team finals will be there, along with Upper St. Clair's Savannah Shaw (distance), North Allegheny senior Aiden Owens (jumps, hurdles), Mt. Lebanon junior Molly Mangan (hurdles) and Butler senior Noah Beveridge (distance).” Helbig said. “The entries in the McKinney Mile are all under 4:20 in the boys and 5:22 for the girls.”

Action is set to begin at 12:30 p.m. for the field events and track time trails. The track finals are set for 6:15 p.m.

Helbig said the McKinney Mile, named after former coach Chuck McKinney, is one of the highlight events of the meet because it gives the runners a chance to compete in a mile race instead of 1,600 meters.

WPIAL team finals set

The WPIAL team championships are slated to be held at 4 p.m. Monday at Baldwin.

In Class AAA, Hempfield, Norwin, Butler and North Allegheny will send boys and girls teams to the event.

The Class AA boys field includes Riverside, Freedom, Mohawk and South Park. The girls competing are Shenango, Beaver, Mohawk and Burrell.

Paul Schofield is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at pschofield@tribweb.com or via Twitter @Schofield_Trib.

Tags: Hempfield Area