MOUNTAIN LEAGUE TRACK AND FIELD

Lady Mounties claim first league crown

Gordon Brunskill

WINGATE — The sun comes out, the air warms up and Philipsburg-Osceola starts cooking.

For the CDT/Eric Smith

Philipsburg-Osceola’s Kaylee Adams, center, won four individual events on Saturday to pace the Lady Mounties to their first Mountain League title at Bald Eagle Area.

View larger

Behind one big point-earner and strength in nearly every event, the Lady Mounties track and field team captured its first league meet title Saturday afternoon at Bald Eagle Area’s Alumni Stadium.

Kaylee Adams won four events, Alison Patrick won twice and P-O also got wins from Ashton Wasilko, Tiffany Bauman and a relay team to take the Nittany Division crown at the Mountain League Championship.

“This is our first league team title ever,” Mounties coach Doug Perry said. “And we only had four seniors competing today, so the future still looks good for PO track and field. It shows how good of a team we’ve had this year.”

P-O had either a win or runner-up in 14 of the 18 events to rack up 130 points and outdistance Penns Valley’s 104. Those two dominated their division by winning all but four events. Central took third with 64 points, Bald Eagle Area had 54 and Tyrone posted 23.

BEA’s boys had their own strong showing, thanks to two firsts and two seconds from Jon Gingrich to collect 107 points and tie Tyrone for the top spot.

“We knew we were going to be in a battle and we were just hoping,” Eagles coach Jeff Jodon said. “The kids competed very well today. We’re done with the dual meet part of our schedule and now we’re looking at the big invitationals to get the kids ready for districts.”

Central took third with 68, P-O was fourth at 52 and Penns Valley, behind double-winner Matt Brooker, posted 43.

Indian Valley won both the boys’ and girls’ titles in the Allegheny Division. The girls won easily with 169 points to second-place Central Mountain’s 94, while the Warrior boys barely edged the Wildcats 139-137. Bellefonte took fifth on both sides, with 25 points for the boys and 20 for the girls.