Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
GOLDEN DUO
Laird, Hoey bring home gold from state meet
SHIPPENSBURG >> Chester County athletes brought the running events to a rousing conclusion at the PIAA Track and Field Championships on Saturday at Shippensburg University.
Coatesville’s Terrance Laird and Bishop Shanahan’s Josh Hoey won the gold medal in the final two individual events of the day.
Laird pulled away to hold off Truman’s Sayyid Saunders by a little more than a half-second to repeat his victory at the District 1 meet. Laird stopped the clock in 21.02.
“I came in here to win. I didn’t care what the times where, I just wanted to win,” said Laird. “I wanted to have the gold around my neck and go home a satisfied man.
“My uncle (Russell Dickinson) was a three-time state champion so I wanted to continue the family tradition, represent my family and my school.”
Just before the 200, Hoey powered to victory in the 800, defeating Nick Wagner of Penn Trafford. The junior finished in 1:50.13, a second and a half in front of Wagner.
“I’ve been preparing for this most of the season,” said Hoey. “I was confident going in because of my training. And I have a great support system with my dad (Fran) and coach Pete Ullman. I could not have done this without them.”
Slightly more than 90 minutes before Laird’s 200 jaunt, he anchored the winning 4x100 team for the Red Raiders. The team of Jayland Washington, Eric Kirk, Aaron Young and Laird finished in 41.53. Down-
ingtown East rallied for second place in 42.03, slightly ahead of Truman.
Coatesville was trailing slightly coming into the final leg, but Laird’s turn of foot took him ahaead of the field to a comfortable win in the air.
An euphoric Washington put his feeling on being a state champion very simply.
“I feel like I’m a legend,” he said.
Quran Brown, Jeremy Jennings, Dan Andris and Blassir Stocker ran for the Cougars with Jennings being the only senior.
“It’s always good competition,” Jennings said on finishing second to the Red Raiders.
With two juniors and a sophomore on the team, Brown made his feelings known that the future is bright. “We’ll be back,” he said. Shanahan’s Keegan Hughes tried to close at the end of the 300 hurdles, but was unable to eat into the lead of North Allegheny’s Ayden Owens, settling for second in 37.97.
In the girls 200, Conestoga’s Grace Lanouette placed third behind Hunter Robinson of Avonworth and Chanel Brissett of Cheltenham. Lanouette finished second to Robinson in the 100.
Downingtown West senior Aislinn Devlin was going for her second straight title in the 3200, and it took a near meetrecord performance by Clara Savchik of North Allegheny to beat her. Savchik won in 10:21.65, .59 seconds off of the record set by Sara Sargent of Pennsbury in 2010.
Second in girls 3A 3,200 in 10:30.68. Devlin won it last year in 10:32.51 and was third in 2015.
“It went out a little fast,” said the senior who was also third in this event in 2015. “I wasn’t right up front so I really didn’t notice the move that Clara made and I had that gap that I was trying to close, but it was a little too much. I pretty disappointed, but it is what it is.”
The quickness of the pace set by Savchik didn’t surprise Devlin.
“No, I figured it would be fast, but after the 400 she went and I was like, ‘Oh, I’m comfortable. I’ll just make it up, but it was just too much of a gap. She held onto it,” she said.
Avon Grove’s Chloe Kleespies was second in the discus at 140-2, while Villa Maria’s Erin Zimmerman placed eighth in the javelin.