PIAA track preview: Quaker Valley athletes seeded 1st in 6 state championship events

By: Chris Harlan
Thursday, May 22, 2025 | 6:00 AM

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Here are storylines to follow when the PIAA track and field individual championships are held Friday and Saturday at Shippensburg University.

The meet starts at 9 a.m. each day.

Special season for Quakers

Quaker Valley might spark another gold rush.

The Quakers have the top qualifying time or height in six different events entering the PIAA Class 2A championship. In the boys 800 meters, they’ve got the two best times with senior teammates Clark Lalomia (1 minute, 55.33 seconds) and Jackson Pethel (1:55.44) seeded first and second.

• Senior Davin Gartley is seeded first in the boys 110-meter hurdles (14.36 seconds) with a five-hundredths edge over his closest competitor. He’s seeded second in the 300 hurdles (38.15).

• Senior distance runner Cecilia Montagnese had the top qualifying time in the 1,600 meters by almost three-tenths of a second (4:58.55).

• Junior Mimi Thiero owns the top height in the girls high jump at 5 feet, 8 inches. Her qualifying mark was an inch and a half better than the rest of the field.

• Two Quaker Valley boys relay teams are also top seeded.

The 3,200-meter relay (7:51.89) has a nearly five-second advantage over Hughesville of District 4. The 1,600-meter relay’s time of 3:22.36 is tied for first among qualifiers with Nativity BVM of District 11.

The Quakers showed their depth May 6 by sweeping the WPIAL Class 2A team titles.

A century in the making

Wish the PIAA track meet a happy 100th birthday.

In 1925, the first PIAA-sanctioned track and field state championships were held at Bucknell University. That first meet included athletes from 38 schools, according to newspaper reports at the time. The PIAA was divided into eight districts, and only the district champion in each event qualified.

There were 10 events: Runs of 100, 220, 440 and 880 yards, the 220-yard hurdles, shot put, running high jump, running broad jump, pole vault and relays. New Castle’s Ralph Day won the first PIAA pole vault title at 10 feet, 9 inches.

Western Pennsylvania schools Beaver Falls, Ellwood City, Knoxville, Schenley, Washington and Wilkinsburg also had boys compete in that first PIAA championship.

Rare triple jump territory

When Winchester Thurston’s Alexis Bansah triple jumped 40 feet, 1½ inches at the Butler Invitational in April, the sophomore was believed to be only the third WPIAL girl to leap farther than 40 feet.

Bansah showed it was no fluke when she did it again at the WPIAL championships. In fact, she established a new personal best with a 40-foot, 2-inch jump to win the WPIAL Class 2A title.

Her next achievement? That could be a state title for the 10th grader, and maybe a state record, too.

Bansah’s state-qualifying distance is more than two feet farther than any other Class 2A jumper in the state. It’s also only an inch-and-half short of the 2A meet record set 13 years ago.

Brookville’s Lanae Newsome jumped 40-3½ at states in 2012.

The 2A girls triple jump is held Saturday afternoon.

Record breakers

Here are a couple of other meet records that might be challenged this week.

• Palmyra’s Tyler Burgess’ qualifying time in the 110-meter hurdles is two-hundredths of a second faster than the boys Class 3A meet record held by North Allegheny graduate Ayden Owens since 2018. Burgess’ qualifying time is 13.67. Owens ran a 13.69.

• Mount St. Joseph’s Veronica Vacca set the girls pole vault record last year at 14 feet and returns this year as a senior. However, the top seed in 3A this year belongs to Bermudian Springs senior Lilyana Carlson, who qualified with a 14-foot vault at the District 3 meet. Vacca’s qualifying height is 13-8.

Double duty for Dino

The WPIAL’s best bet for winning gold in Class 3A is Gateway thrower Dino Nadarevic.

The senior is seeded first in both the boys discus (187 feet) and shot put (59-1). He’s the only WPIAL 3A athlete — boy or girl — to earn a top seed at states.

He’s a much different thrower than he was last year.

Nadarevic’s distance in the discus is more than 20 feet farther than he threw last year at Shippensburg. His shot put mark improved by more than five feet. A year ago, he placed seventh at states in the shot put (54-8 ¼) and 17th in the discus (144-11). This time, he’s a contender in both.

One of his closest competitors is a familiar foe. WPIAL runner-up Tyler Ondrusak of Central Valley is seeded second in the shot put at (58-2). Nadarevic has more than a 10-foot advantage over the field in discus.

The 3A boys shot put is Friday afternoon. The discus is Saturday. Both start at 12:30 p.m.

Coming back for more

Laurel sprinter Tori Atkins and Mohawk distance runner Jaxon Schoedel are both returning as defending state champions.

Atkins won a girls 400-meter title last year and Schoedel claimed the boys 3,200. Both compete in Class 2A, and this year they’ve got a chance to maybe win more than one event each.

A senior and Youngstown State recruit, Atkins is seeded third in the 100 meters, fourth in the 200 and first in the 400. She won all three events at the WPIAL championships. Her 55.35-second qualifying time in the 400 meters is more than a second faster than anyone she’ll face in the PIAA race.

Laurel’s 1,600-meter relay team also qualified for states after Atkins ran a blazing anchor leg at WPIALs to rally the Spartans to a come-from-behind victory.

Schoedel, a senior headed to Penn State, is top seeded in both the 3,200 (9:11.88) and the 1,600 (4:11.04) after winning both at the WPIAL meet. He finished third in the state in the 1,600 last year.

The PIAA holds the two distance races on separate days with no preliminary heats required. The 1,600 is the first event on Friday with the 3,200 first on Saturday.

Derry javelin thrower Sophia Mazzoni returns as a reigning state champion but not a defending champ. That’s because her team moved up to Class 3A this season after she won a 2A title last year.

Mazzoni’s qualifying distance of 156 feet ranks third in Class 3A. A year ago, she won the 2A title at 161-10. The top seed in 3A this year — Blue Mountain’s Makayla Keck — has a qualifying distance of 162-8.

More No. 1 seeds

• Greensburg Central Catholic sprinter Jerry Davis is ranked first in the 400 meters (48.32 seconds) in 2A boys.

• Eden Christian’s Lara DeFazio is first in the long jump (18 feet, 6½ inches) in 2A girls.

• The North Catholic girls 400-meter relay (48.07) is seeded first in a race that could match East vs. West. The second-fastest qualifier was Philadelphia’s West Catholic (48.43).

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: Derry Area, Eden Christian, Gateway, Greensburg C.C., Laurel, Mohawk, North Catholic, Quaker Valley, Winchester Thurston