Five medals for area girls contingent at PIAA track and field championships

FROM THE EXPRESS TIMES

Liberty High School junior Amy Darlington could have been speaking for four other area individual girls and a relay Saturday at the PIAA track and field championships when she said, "I was just happy to get a medal."

Darlington's fourth-place finish of 10 minutes, 47.61 seconds in the Class AAA 3,200-meter run brought home the highest-place medal of any local competitor during the meet at Shippensburg University's Seth Grove Stadium.

Saucon Valley senior Alyssa Lombardo, the 2010 Class AA champion in the 400-meter dash and the PIAA Class AA record holder in the event (54.65), ran 57.24 in the Class AAA 400, good for a seventh-place medal. Medals went to the top eight athletes in each event.

In Class AA, Notre Dame junior Amy Kester finished sixth in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles in 46.76, Moravian Academy senior Rebecca Askins-Gast took seventh in the 800-meter run in 2:18.69 and the Bethlehem Catholic quartet of Kim Garcia, Rachel Balogh, Jade Kubitsky and Jenny Schadt came in eighth in the 3,200 relay (9:49.11).

Had District 1 not been competing in the 3,200, Darlington would have been a state champion. The three girls who finished ahead of her -- Teri Gerlach of Pennridge, who won in 10:36, Sara Sargent of Pennsbury, and Meghan McGovern of North Penn -- all hail from southeastern Pennsylvania.

"My plan was to stay with the leaders and see how long I could keep up with them," Darlington said. "I just ran this like it was a normal race. At the start, the race broke up into two groups and I wanted to be in the front group with the faster pace."

Darlington hung in with the District 1 trio and Regan Rome of Dallas until about halfway through the sixth lap. Rome fell back further and wound up sixth, while Darlington ran the last 1,000 meters pretty much by herself.

"In the beginning the pace was pretty fast and then (the top three) picked it up," Darlington said. "I was trying to go as fast as I could and I knew I had to keep up with them, but I was tired and it was hard and I fell behind a little. I had no one to race with and it's harder to run all by yourself."

But Darlington dropped no farther. She finished strongly and with a smile.

"No one passed me, and that was good," she said. "It was another good race. It's been a lot of fun with all of my teammates here. The time is fine, and it's fun to be here."

Kester continued to be slightly surprised she was even in Shippensburg, much less on the medal stand.

"I'm so excited," Kester said. "I'm astonished that after my coach (Art Corrigan) told me how hard a state medal is to win, I just picked (the 300) hurdles this year and I won a state medal in it."

Despite whacking a hurdle with her left knee and having to dodge a fallen opponent at the last hurdle, Kester finished strongly, if not quite as low as she wanted.

"Our school record in 46.5 and that is what I was going for," she said. "So now I want to come back here next year to break that."

Kester said she was encouraged by her father, Tom, to run the hurdles.

"He just thought I'd be good at it," Kester said.

Good enough to make a state final, if barely.

"I was really nervous and I didn't run the time I wanted to, but then I saw (Corrigan) give me the thumbs-up and I'd qualified by .03 of a second," Kester said.

Askins-Gast's experience was almost the same as Kester's -- a semifinal nailbiter and a strong final.

"I just barely qualified (by .16 of a second)," the Moravian junior said. "I was in the second heat and we all finished in a big clump, and the first heat was faster. When I finished the semis I didn't think I'd made it. You want to pace yourself in the semifinal so you have something left for the final but not so much that you don't make the final."

In the final, Askins-Gast surged at the start but then ran steadily.

"I really wanted to go out fast and not get boxed in like I did in the semifinal," she said. "I knew (the field) would catch up by the end of the first lap. This wasn't the best season for me (she overcame torn ankle ligaments) but I wanted to medal and run sub-2:20, so I'm happy with (states)."

Happy -- even giddy -- would also describe the Golden Hawks' relay, which was seeded well back into the second half of the Class AA field but emerged with hardware anyway. For much of the race, Becahi's quartet even battled with the leaders (Montoursville won in 9:25.5) before falling back.

"We just wanted to stay in the front as long as we could; it's awesome, it's awesome," said Balogh as her teammates added "Everything's awesome!"

Garcia, a senior winning a medal in her last and only chance, agreed.

"This was my first time coming out here," she said. "It's great to win a medal."

Schadt said she was looking forward to doing better next year. Darlington was thinking 2011-12, too.

"I'll take a break for a week and start training for cross country," she said.

NOTES: Liberty senior Jess Cygan, seeded third in the Class AA 1,600, finished 12th in 5:12.71 ... Philadelphia West Catholic won its second straight Class AA team title with 59 points, while State College edged Abington 37-36 for the Class AAA crown.

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