A-K Valley track and field notebook: Freeport’s Shemanski to vie for PIAA gold

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, May 25, 2018 | 8:55 PM

SHIPPENSBURG — Eight days after finishing first and second in the WPIAL, Freeport sophomore Sidney Shemanski and Shady Side Academy freshman Melissa Riggins raced each other only from a distance.

Again, it was close.

The two young middle-distance stars ran in separate 800-meter heats Friday at the PIAA track championships and posted the two fastest semifinal times in the state. Shemanski won the first heat in 2 minutes, 16.92 seconds, and Riggins won the second in 2:17.95.

Riggins won the WPIAL title last week by exactly one second.

They entered the PIAA meet seeded first and second. The 800-meter finals are scheduled for 2:35 p.m. Saturday.

The next closest semifinal time was run by Neumann-Goretti's Dasia Wilson, whose 2:17.99 mark put her a second behind Shemanski in Heat 1. In all, seven Class AA girls finished in under 2 minutes, 20 seconds.

Shemanski, as a freshman, placed fifth in the state last season.

Relay runnin'

Burrell's Taylor Johnson, Allee Kuhns, McKenzie White and Olivia Kelly, who won a WPIAL relay title last week, are headed to the state finals.

The 400-meter relay team finished their preliminary heat in 50.48 seconds, which was eight-hundredths of a second faster than their qualifying time.

The team finished third in its heat and 10th overall.

Coming back Saturday

• Deer Lakes junior Josh Yourish squeaked into the 800-meter finals as the final qualifier in a 12-runner field. Yourish finished in 2:03.66, seven-hundredths of a second ahead of the next closest runner, Derry's Elias Kott, who did not qualify.

Yourish and Kott ran in the same heat.

• Burrell's Kaylen Sharrow and Deer Lakes' Kiera Cutright each qualified for the 300 hurdles finals in Class AA girls. WPIAL champion Cutright was fifth in the preliminary heats at 45.64, and Sharrow was 13th at 46.93. Both are juniors.

• Fox Chapel senior Caelan Miller qualified for the 1,600-meter finals in Class AAA girls. Miller placed fifth in her semifinal heat and 10th overall at 5:06.12.

Golden girl

South Park junior Maura Huwalt was the only WPIAL girl to win a PIAA title Friday, claiming gold in the Class AA discus with a throw of 139 feet, 1 inch.

Placing second were Bentworth senior Brenna Cavanaugh in the Class AA long jump (17-1 ¹⁄₂) and Hopewell senior Noah Drudy in the javelin (215-0).

Chris Harlan is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at charlan@tribweb.com or via Twitter @CHarlan_Trib.

Tags: Burrell, Deer Lakes, Fox Chapel, Freeport