Apr 26, 2006 By Jim Downey 3 min read

Miserable weather aside, all the ingredients for a fun, exciting track & field meet converged Tuesday when Laurel Highlands hosted Uniontown in the Section 2-AAA season finale. Both teams were assured a team playoff berth. Both were undefeated with the section title on the line. And, well, Uniontown against Laurel Highlands in anything provides spark and excitement on its own.

The Fillies came through, winning the match-up of strengths for an 89-52 section-clinching victory.

“I thought there were three crucial aspects to the meet. We needed to neutralize their strength in distance with our strength in the sprints. Breehana (Jacobs), Aleesha (Washington), Molly (Macioce), Kayla (Mikluscak), and Meg (Mahoney) came through. We won 30 of 32 points in the sprints,” said Laurel Highlands girls coach Ron Morris.

Jacobs won the 100 (11.9), 200 (24.9) and ran the anchor leg of the 400 relay to a stadium record time of 50.2 seconds. Molly Macioce won the 400 (1:01.6) while the other three all pulled in with second- and third-place finishes.

“We focused on the hurdles with Casey Conn and Rebecca Russell, and they went 1-2 in both the 100 high and 300 intermediate hurdles,” continued Morris. “We won 16 of 18 points there.

“Third, we focused on the high jump and pole vault. Jessica Zavatchen and Jessica Galica went 1-2 in the high jump and Casey (Conn) and Lauren Molchan went 1-2 in the pole vault.

“In all, I think we had seven 1-2 finishes.”

The three areas of emphasis resulted in 62 points, so the Fillies only needed 14 points from the other events to secure the win. Laurel Highlands picked up eight of those points with yet another 1-2 finish in the shot put. Carrie Villegas won the event with a throw of 29 feet, six inches.

“I think the girls finally realized today the importance of seconds and thirds. Without those, we lose the meet,” said Morris, whose squad finishes 6-0 in the section as well as overall. “Breehana and Casey did stellar jobs. It will be the first and only time Casey will run the intermediate hurdles. The kids stepped it up when they had to.

“I want to congratulate Uniontown on a great regular season and wish them well in the playoffs.”

Bob Manges and his Uniontown girls were understandably disappointed as Manges felt the score would be a little closer than the final outcome.

“When you go up against Laurel Highlands, you have to be on your ‘A’ game,” said Manges. “In track, it’s one little thing here, one there. You look back on the little moments, but that’s how it goes.”

As expected, the Lady Raiders (5-1, 8-1) won key points in the distance events with Kelsie Herring winning 1,600 (5:50.3) and 3,200 (12:49), and finishing second to Chelsi Festa in the 800.

The 3,200 relay team of Festa, Jessica Dzara, Stacy Lloyd and Herring bettered their previous best time by nine seconds with a clocking of 10:21. Courtney Sanner had her best throw of the season – 117 feet, nine inches – to win the javelin while Brea Belt bettered her school record in the triple jump to 35-3. Sanner also won the discus.

“The distance girls performed well today,” said Manges. “I told them if they could PR today, we’d have a chance to beat them.

“It’s nice to go second (in the section) and get into the playoffs. We’ll make a good showing.”

Now both teams have a day or so to regroup before competing in Saturday’s FCCA Track & Field Championships at Laurel Highlands. Javelin begins the competition at 10 a.m.

“We’ll enjoy the section championship on Wednesday, and then get refocused on Thursday for the county meet,” said Morris.