Derry Area Represents at Slippery Rock Invite

Derry+Area+Represents+at+Slippery+Rock+Invite

If you follow high school track and field, you might’ve noticed that the Butler Invitational received the majority of the coverage from local papers and social media. However, the two-day event wasn’t the only invitational on this side of Pennsylvania that featured some of the best in the state.

Derry Area, along with Latrobe and Hempfield, competed at the Slippery Rock Invitational this past Saturday, and the results spoke for themselves.

On the girls’ side, the 3200m run was competed first, and freshman Jane Huss finished second overall with a time of 11:51, only 14 seconds behind Seneca Valley’s Ruthie Hughes, who took 1st. Out of the top 8 finishers, Huss was the only representative of AA in the WPIAL.

Huss wasn’t finished, as a few events later, she anchored the girls’ 4×800 team with Alayna Williams, Sydney Williams, and Emma Huber. After a textbook start by freshman Alayna Williams, every remaining member of the relay ran PR splits en route to finishing 4th overall in the event which featured perennial powerhouses Hempfield, who won the event with a time of 9:41, and Latrobe, who finished 6th.

“[Coach] Rager had a goal for us to all run under 10:40,” Huss expressed. “And we did it with a 10:31.”

As the meet continued on the track, personal bests happened at almost every event including Mikah Horwat and Emma Huber in the mile, Alayna Williams in the 800 meter run, Sydney Williams in the 400 meter, Tessa Hayes in the 2 mile, Charity Peterman in the 300 meter hurdles, and Julia Omlor in the 200 meter dash.

In the field, junior Ashley Baker finished 6th overall in the triple jump with a new personal best of 33 feet, 9 inches, which came after she wasn’t sure if she made finals.

“I thought I was done,” said Baker. “But I told [Coach] Curcio that I had it in me to make finals. I just needed one more jump.”

She got three more and placed.

Freshman Sophia Mazzoni had a day in the throws, hitting personal bests in all three of her throwing events including a 4 feet improvement to her discus.

The girls’ 4×400 team of Williams, Williams, Peterman, and Huss finished the evening off for the Lady Trojans, barely missing the podium with an almost 15-second improvement as a team.

On the boys’ side, new personal bests included Ahmad Ward and Damuari Robinson in the 100 meter and 200 meter, Derrick Moffett in the 400 meter, Logan Corbett and Seth Swisher in the 1600 meter and 800 meter, Troy Clark in the long jump and triple jump, and Carson Chamberlain in the shot put.

The highest place for the boys was 13th as Ward threw 128 feet, 10 inches in the javelin.

Next meet is Tuesday as Burrell and Ligonier Valley visit Trojan Stadium with section championship implications on the line. Start time is 4:00 PM.