Richland girls stay unbeaten

By CORY ISENBERG
The Tribune-Democrat

PATTON April 19, 2006 11:52 pm

— The Richland girls track and field team took a victory lap together on Wednesday at Cambria Heights after defeating the host Highlanders 131-19 and Bishop McCort 96-44.
The Crushers downed Heights 110-31.
The win kept alive the Rams’ unbeaten streak in dual meets, raising Richland’s overall record to 8-0, 7-0 in the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference.
“I’m very pleased with the way it came out today,” Richland coach Gary Webber said. “We have a fairly young team with just two seniors – Amanda Sgroi and Jen Karmanocky. This group of seniors has never lost a dual meet in their careers. The last time we lost a dual meet was to Central Cambria back in 2002. There’s a string here and the girls are not going to give this up easily. We got off the bus today and didn’t have to say much to them.”
The Rams had strong finishes in numerous events, with their depth showing particularly in the field events including sweeps in the triple and long jumps and the shot put.
“Richland is just very, very deep and Coach Webber always has his girls well prepared for us,” McCort coach Greg Bixel said. “We weren’t able to match their depth all the way across the board.”
Calsie Boyd was a double winner for Richland in the high (5-feet, 2 inches) and triple (31-71⁄4) jumps and Lindsey Petrilla won the long jump with a leap of 15-3. Tiffany Boyd claimed the discus victory with a throw of 95-8 while Lisa Leventry put the shot 32-11⁄2.
The Rams swept the relays with Victoria LaMonaca, Laura Stayrook, Marie George and Alyssa Sabo winning the 3200 in 10:18, Ashton Walton, Karmanocky, Meredith Conrad and Sgroi claiming the 400 in 51.3 and Sabo, Lindsay Carpenter, George and Stayrook prevailing in the 1600 in 4:20.6.
Other Richland winners included Walton in the 100 hurdles (16.5) and Carpenter in the 300 hurdles (50.4).
“On the track, we’re very young, a couple juniors with mostly sophomores and freshmen,” Webber said. “This is the first meet we’ve had where the weather was nice.
“We had a flu go through us two weeks ago that we were just piecing things together. This is the first time we’ve had everybody healthy.
“There were a lot of girls today who finally performed the way we knew they were capable of. They gained some confidence and came in here today and they were on a mission.”
The Crushers got a pair of victories from senior Shannon Yingling, who ran the 1600 in 6:03 and the 3200 in 12:58.8.
Speeds were so quick in the 100 that four runners finished in times under 13 seconds, led by McCort’s Julie Morey in 12.8. The Crushers’ Tiera Cramer also had a 12.8 with Richland’s Conrad in 12.8-plus and Sgroi in 12.9. Morey also won the 200 (27.0).
McCort’s Melanie Smajda bettered her personal best time by 4 seconds, winning the 800 in 2:27.4.
Marissa Basile won the javelin with a toss of 1011⁄2.
“We knew coming in that we should do well in the distances, which we did,” Bixel said. “We swept the mile and the two-mile and got a win in the 800, which is one of the things we were hoping for and the girls really came through. We got a couple of nice surprises in the field events, Marissa Basile won the javelin and our sprinters held up their end as well as they could.”
Jerrica Snedden claimed Cambria Heights’ lone victory, winning the 400 in 1:02.5.
There was no pole vault competition.
McCort is now 6-1 and Heights, 1-6.
“I always tell the girls, ‘A good team is going to beat a group of individuals’ and we have a team that has strengths just about everywhere,” Webber said.

Cory Isenberg can be reached at 532-5080 or cisenberg@tribdem.com.