Punxsy Chucks track and field wrap up season at States
SHIPPENSBURG — While the Lady Chucks had their competitions split up between two days, the Chucks track and field team started their competitions at States held at Shippensburg University on Saturday, with two individuals and one relay competing.
Senior Grant Miller took sixth in the pole vault with a height of 13-09 to officially wrap up the team’s trip to States.
During the competition, he had three nearmiss attempts at 14-03 that would have seen him break the Punxsy pole vault record for a third time.
“His 14-01 school record, set at the District 9 Championship meet a week ago, will be his lasting legacy,” said Punxsy coach Jason Grusky. “Grant is only the fifth individual from the Punxsy boy's team to win State medals in consecutive years, so he is in very elite company.”
He added, “Grant is everything that a coach wants in a great athlete; hard-working and humble, and he will be continuing his track and field career at Allegheny College next season.”
The 4x800 meter-relay team of Evan Groce, Garrett Bartlebaugh, Daniel Lenze and David Kunselman achieved a slight seasonal best, running 8:18.39 to shave a couple tenths from their previous best and place 12th overall out of 26 teams. Their time was a new seasonal best by 0.24 seconds.
Bartlebaugh handled the opening leg and handed off in ninth place but within striking distance of the leaders after a 2:01.83 split, which was a career best. Then, Lenze split 2:08.75, his fastest split ever, giving the baton to Groce, who ran 2:00.43 to pick off a handful of teams during his two laps.
Groce's time was the third-fastest of anyone on the third leg and was also his best ever in a relay, while Kunselman was on anchor duty and finished with a 2:07.41 segment, just a few strides off his person best.
The team was ranked 13th coming into the meet and ran faster than all the teams competing in the first heat, which was won by Trinity Christian in 8:19.15. The Punxsy quartet's time was the best by a Punxsy team since 2013.
“The guys ran well but needed to run 8:07 to medal, and in hindsight, it might have been better for us to have been in the slower heat,” said Chucks distance coach George Wehrle. “They could have challenged for the win there instead of just trying to hang on in the fast heat. Still, the 4x800 team was undefeated in dual meets during the season, and finishing 12th in the state isn't too shabby.”
“Running your best time in the biggest meet of the year, that's all you can really ask for,” said Grusky. “I'm very proud of these boys, and these were some harsh running conditions, with the blazing sun and heat, but they held tough and produced their best time of the year. And, thinking of all the schools in the state, to finish 12th is pretty impressive.”
After the relay, Groce returned to the track roughly three hours later to contest the 800-meter run, finishing 13th out of 15 in the fast heat and 21st out of 29 competitors overall with a time of 2:01.57.
Groce's district-winning time and personal best of 1:58.11 would have placed him 9th overall, and the senior concludes his high school track and field career as Punxsy's fifth best all-time performer in his signature event, and he will continue his running career at Geneva College, beginning with cross country in the fall.
“Evan exerted quite a bit of effort getting us back into the race in the 4x800, and he couldn't quite duplicate his success from the past month in Saturday's final," said Wehrle. "He had a terrific senior season and will go down as one of our most versatile runners in quite some time, making our all-time performers list in three events, being a linchpin on our relays and in general scoring loads of points to help the team.”
“I think that running in the 4x800 relay a few hours earlier in the heat took a little out of him,” said Grusky. “Evan wasn't able to repeat his 1:58 performance from Districts, but he had a remarkable senior season and is still leaving behind a phenomenal legacy in Punxsy track and field, and he will be taking his talents to Geneva College next season.”