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( )-WPIAL Championship Meet Placement * *-PIAA Championship Meet Placement
5/30/05 4:45 am All marks from the 2005 PIAA AA Track and Field Championship Meet held at Shippensburg University have been incorporated into the honor roll. The All-Time WPIAL Top 25 is also updated through the PIAA Championships. If you have marks that will alter the final rankings, please forward them to me. In AA, this year's performance at the PIAA Championships, pretty much matched last year's. Total medal count matched exactly at 26, but the WPIAL did pick up one more gold medal this year. Five gold medals were claimed by four WPIAL girls this year and the good news is that all four girls are underclassmen. Having the honor of being the only WPIAL girl to win two individual PIAA gold medals is junior Brianna Liebold of Chartiers-Houston. Brianna, the first female PIAA track champion for the Lady Bucs, won the triple jump easily on Saturday, but didn't secure the long jump title on Friday until her final attempt. She leaped a personal best 18-5 on her last attempt to move into first place at the PIAA meet and into 9th place on the All-Time WPIAL Top 25 chart. Also coming from behind to win a gold medal was Brentwood freshman, Rachel Erny. Rachel, this season's PIAA cross country champion, used a strong kick in the final lap of the 3200 meter run to add that gold medal to her collection. With a winning time of 10:59.05, Rachel became the 14th girl in WPIAL history to break the eleven minute barrier. Center's Allyn Laughlin only improved her personal best shot put toss by ½ inch on Saturday afternoon, but considering the inclement weather, that was quite an accomplishment. In fact, a gold medal accomplishment. The junior, who has been dominant in the shot this season, won the title by a margin of over three feet. Also claiming a PIAA championship was Allyn's teammate, Lindsay Dolan. The Center junior, who last year finished second in the 100 hurdles to state record setter, Jasmine Rogers of Quaker Valley, ascended to the top spot in the state this year with a gigantic .53 second victory over Milton Hershey's Crystal Polite. The WPIAL's lone silver medalist this year is not actually one girl, but four girls, the 3200 meter relay team from Quaker Valley. The Lady Quaker foursome of Katie Rodgers, Amy Dominguez, Claire Shorall and Eryn Correa turned in a 9:23.83, the fastest time in the WPIAL this year and the 11th best in WPIAL history. Six WPIAL girls won individual bronze medals at Shippensburg. Quaker Valley junior, Katia Kimbrough, took home the third place medal in the 100 meter dash, Shady Side Academy senior, Katie Roll, captured the bronze in the 3200 meter run and Mohawk junior, Jessica Sackin, finished third in the 300 meter hurdles. Juniors Maggie Sutherland of Sewickley Academy and Lauren Donahoe of Greensburg Central Catholic finished in a three way tie for third in the high jump with Donegal's Kelsey Buffenmyer. In a nice display of graciousness, Maggie and Lauren agreed on their own, to allow the Donegal senior to take home the one engraved bronze medal. (Engraved 3rd place medals will eventually be mailed to Maggie and Lauren at a later date.) Winning a bronze medal along with a 7th place one this year was Lacey Cochran of Freeport. The senior finished her stellar high school career with eight PIAA medallions. That total includes one gold, three silver and three bronze medals. Lacey placed in the top three of the 400 dash during all four of her competitive seasons. In team competition, Quaker Valley, for the second year in a row, finished as the highest scoring WPIAL team. The Lady Quakers amassed 24 points, which placed them in a tie for fifth with Athens. Six of those team points came from QV's 400 meter relay team that captured a bronze medal. The quartet of Katia Kimbrough, Dakkia Kimbrough, Christa Rogers and Cheronda Craig placed third with a time of 49.72, making Quaker Valley the first WPIAL AA team to break the fifty second barrier since a previous QV foursome did it in 2002.
jfaiella@webtv.net (to submit marks) http://community.webtv.net/jfaiella (website)
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