J-M’s Santoya, Connellsville’s Nichelson headed to states
WHITEHALL — Nic Santoya came up 1½ inches shy of qualifying in the Class AA long jump, but the Jefferson-Morgan senior came away from the WPIAL Class AAA/AA Individual Track & Field Championships in Baldwin with a nice consolation prize after finishing fourth in the javelin.
Connellsville’s Jacob Nichelson waited until his final throw in the Class AA discus, moving up into fourth and the final PIAA automatic berth.
Santoya had anxious moments before the competition even started as he sought out an official to certify his javelin after the Rockets arrived late and missed the weigh-ins.
“I totally forgot to check in my javelin. But, they were nice to me,” said Santoya.
Santoya has been dealing with a hip injury, but wasn’t as concerned in the javelin.
“I was a little bit more at ease with my hip (in the javelin),” said Santoya, who bettered his PR by nearly 15 feet.”I was looking to throw a PR of 160 feet. I was shocked. I worked on my follow through and had the perfect throw.
“I was disappointed not to make it in long jump, but I rode it out to the end and made it in javelin.”
Nichelson was on the outside looking in before his sixth and final throw in the discus, and then uncorked 152-2 effort to move into fourth place.
“I was fifth before the last throw, and qualifying is 153 feet,” explained Nichelson. “I was hoping for 160 (feet), but that wasn’t happening.
“I’m happy with it.”
Uniontown’s Nate Edenfield was DQ’ed in the 1,600 for a false start, so he had more energy for the 800 later in the day. Edenfield ran in the first heat, the slower of two, and won in 1:57.52. Unfortunately, the qualifying time needed was 1:57.32.
“I ran the school record,” said Edenfield as he awaited news of his fate. “I was disqualified in the mile for the first time in my life. But, it worked out. I made up for it in the 800.
“Because I didn’t run the mile, I went out in 59 (seconds) in the first lap and all out in the second lap. It all came down to the last 150 meters. All the running, all the swimming, came down to the last lap.”
Jefferson-Morgan’s Micah Stanko was in lane 8 in the Class AA 200 final, a strange lane for the sprinter. The junior fell one place and .20 seconds shy of earning a spot in the finals by finishing sixth in 23.38 seconds.
“This is as far as I’ve gotten,” Stanko said of his first WPIAL appearance. “I wanted to run a PR of around 23.2.”
Mount Pleasant’s Tyler Kollar was second in the Class AA pole vault (14-3), and Cody Monroe finished eighth in the long jump and sixth in the javelin (170-1). Uniontown’s Bru Martin placed sixth in the Class AAA triple jump with a leap of 43-8¾. Waynesburg Central’s Hunter Cenname was sixth in the Class AA triple jump with a jump of 41-1, and Sean Hilverding finished sixth in the Class AA 3,200 with a time of 9:58.29.. Frazier had a pair of medalists in the Class AA javelin with Drake Bucci in sixth (162-10) and Matt Brown in seventh (160-8).