Invitational schedule is heating up
The high school track and field invitational schedule is about to heat up, even if the weather has not yet.
Tamaqua on Saturday hosted the Blue Raider Invitational in cool conditions. Hopefully, the upcoming forecast can equal the future schedule:
■ Emmaus went to Saturday’s Haverford Invitational. It also is going to Dallastown’s Ray Geesey Invitational on April 26.
■ Palisades’ annual Pirate Invitational is Friday. Freedom, Wilson and Northampton are among the teams entered.
■ Southern Lehigh is headed Friday to Upper Dublin’s Cardinal Classic, followed by Wilson-West Lawn’s Leonard Stephens Invite on April 20.
■ Pocono Mountain West is headed to Hawley on Saturday for the Icebreaker Invitational at Wallenpaupack, then to the Wyalusing Invitational on April 26.
■ Easton, Jim Thorpe and East Stroudsburg South are going to Central Dauphin’s Pan Ram Invitational on Saturday.
■ The Blue Mountain Invite is at 2:30 p.m. on April 19. Field of teams: Palmerton, Northern
Lehigh, Northwestern, Tamaqua, Lehighton, Jim Thorpe, East Stroudsburg South, Lincoln Leadership, Mahanoy Area, Pottsville, Schuylkill Haven, Nativity BVM, Shamokin, Selinsgrove, Lebanon, Eastern Lebanon County and host Blue Mountain.
■ East Stroudsburg University’s Black & Red Invite is April 20. Nazareth, Bangor, Stroudsburg, Wilson, East Stroudsburg North and South are among the teams entered.
■ Easton, Liberty and Parkland are headed to the Shippensburg Invitational on April 20.
■ Penn Relays are April 25-27, at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. Dieruff, Easton and Southern Lehigh are among the local teams expected to have entrants.
■ East Stroudsburg South hosts the Cavalier Invite on April 26. Northern Lehigh, Stroudsburg, Pocono Mountain East, Bangor, Tamaqua, Jim Thorpe and East Stroudsburg North are among those teams in the field.
■ Tamaqua is part of the field at the Pine Grove Invite on April 26. It then goes to the Central Columbia Invite on May 3.
■ Whitehall hosts the Zephyr Invitational starting at 9 a.m. on April 27. Northampton, Northwestern, Parkland, Pen Argyl, Freedom, Dieruff and Central Catholic are among the competing teams.
■ Jim Thorpe’s Olympian Invite is May 2. Teams entered as of now are Jim Thorpe, Marian Catholic, Pottsville, Blue Mountain, Twin Valley girls, Lake-Lehman, Minersville, Nativity BVM, Schuylkill Haven, Mahanoy Area, Pocono Mountain East, Northwestern, Panther Valley and East Stroudsburg North. Action begins at 1:45 p.m. on the field, 2 p.m. on the track.
■ The Schuylkill League meet (at Tamaqua), Colonial League and EPC meets (at Whitehall) are May 7-8.
■ The District 11 Track & Field Championships are May 14-15, at Blue Mountain.
■ The PIAA Track & Field Championships are May 24-25, at Shippensburg University’s Seth Grove Stadium.
Lone change at the top: There was one new best performance from the rain-shortened schedule. Emmaus’ Tyler Grabinski cleared 14 feet in the pole vault to move past Northampton’s Andrew Szeplaki for the top spot. Grabinski is a returning District 11 Class 3A runner-up and 13th-place finisher at states.