Vertical Assault's Mike Lawryk makes another big statement at PIAA Track and Field Championships

If Mike Lawryk needed a better marketing tool to promote his Vertical Assault pole vaulting club out of Allen Township, he would be hard-pressed to top what his club members did at the PIAA Track and Field Championships over the weekend.

Class AAA boys winner Adam Phillippi of Saucon Valley, Class AA champ Lanny Buck of Palmerton and Class AA girls record-setter Allison Vanek of Wilson are all Vertical Assault members. On top of that, Lauren Terstappen of Phoenixville is also part of the considerable Vertical Assault stable.

"I can retire now," said Lawryk after Phillippi, the biggest surprise of the four winners, cleared 15 feet on his first attempt to win the AAA boys title. "I never would have believed this."

Lawryk was only kidding. He's not going to retire. We can only imagine how many potential vaulters will be contacting him to join in the Vertical Assault success.

Kowan Scott of Wilson had a spectacular PIAA meet, winning the Class AAA boys 300-meter intermediates title and finishing second to nationally ranked Don Pollitt of Hazleton in the 110 highs. Yet, Scott admitted he felt badly about Liberty's Stephen Lewis, the Pennsylvania state 60-meter hurdles indoor champion who would have been a major player in the high hurdles.

Lewis was declared academically ineligible prior to the Lehigh Valley Conference Championships and missed the entire postseason. Lewis had a scholarship offer pending from the University of Nebraska, which was only waiting for his academic issues to get settled. Now that's all down the drain, a sad ending to one of the most impressive athletes I've seen in this region.

Alyssa Lombardo's state-record performance while winning a second-straight Class AA girls 400-meter title in dramatic fashion was clearly one of the lynchpin moments from the Lehigh Valley perspective in the PIAA meet. It also once again put the controversial dual-sport practice clearly in focus, a sore issue for a lot of coaches who are caught in the two-sport taffy pull. Saucon Valley's Lombardo is also a two-time first-team Colonial League all-star selection as an outfielder who some project as a NCAA Division I prospect in that sport.

But she would be a clear Division I recruit as a sprinter in track and her 54.65 clocking in the 400 projects as a legitimate time in any of the major conferences, whether we're talking Big East, SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 or PAC 10.

Lombardo also raised some eyebrows by opting out of Saucon Valley's 3,200 relay at the state meet where the Panthers, who eventually finished third, would have been a clear threat to Lewisburg's gold medal in Saturday's final had Lombardo run anchor as she did in the District 11 meet.

From the Express Times