track & field

Georgia Ealy, a Manheim Township senior, is focused on getting better. And that is a significant goal since she has been doing well thus far.

Ealy is a middle distance/distance runner for the Blue Streaks. She is coming off a fall cross country season that saw her 22nd-place finish lead Township to a sixth place at the Class AAA state championships. Talk about getting better, she was 40th after one mile, 34th after two and passed 12 runners in the final 1.1 miles.

Now in track season, she states her top team goal is to see how much her team can improve.

Izzy Heisey is someone who says she likes to stay busy.

Her journey will continue to stay that way next year when she will attend the United States Military Academy at West Point. There she will run for their Division 1 track program and major in cybersecurity.

In the immediate, the Hempfield senior will fill her time by competing for the Black Knights track team, working two jobs, creating fun films or vlogs with her camera, running, hiking, playing pickleball and spending time with family and friends.

McCaskey track teams have a history of excelling.  The boys and girls teams are coming off Lancaster-Lebanon League Indoor Championships. The girls finished second in the state. One of their stars is Ruby Garner-Valle, a long-distance runner who has set a school record in the 3,000-meter indoor event with a time of 9:54:49. She has her sights set on the outdoor season.

Wynne Kelley, a senior, says Garden Spot’s track and field team looks to significantly improve this season with a complement of
returners and a group of excited and ambitious younger athletes.

The Spartans will be strong in the Section 3 field events and “show-up” on the track, she says.

Wynne competes in shot, discus and javelin. Her goals are to get to Districts in shot and Leagues in discus. She plans to get 35 feet-plus in the shot and to break 100 feet in the discus. She is adding javelin this year.

Will Newport, a senior from Hempfield is hoping this spring track and field season is one that will vault him into the record books.

Newport is coming off a strong indoor season that saw him establish personal-best pole vaults on two occasions. On March 1, at the PTFCA Indoor State Championships at Ashenfelter Indoor Track at Penn State, Newport placed seventh with his best effort to that date at 14-0. Then two weeks later at the Nike Invitational at the Armory Track in New York City, he went 14-0½” to claim sixth in the Boy Emerging Elite Division.

This spring Frank Lucarino, Solanco senior, returns as the top performer in discus for the Lancaster-Lebanon League. Last year
he earned a Silver Medal in the L-L meet.

Frank competes in discus and shot. His personal records are 151 feet, inches in discus and 49 feet, 11¾ inches in shot. His goals, respectfully, are 180 feet and 55 feet.

For the Golden Mules, Frank says in all sports Lampeter-Strasburg is their rival, though Warwick, the reigning champ in Lancaster Lebanon League Section 2, looms as well.

Devin Wagstaff, a junior at Donegal, recalls with interest his attendance at a four-day conference in Indianapolis, stemming
from his Student-Athlete Leadership Program. The conference included high school athletes from throughout the United States. The theme focused on enhancing athletes’ group leadership skills and motivation, which Devin hopes to help him and others on his track team.

Brooke Hess, a senior, "roams” the field for Lampeter-Strasburg's
track and field team. Her specialties lie in discus, shot and
javelin.

She says this is her sixth year of competing in field events.
Brooke commends assistant field coaches, Jason McComsey and Jacob Long,
for helping her improve in her events. She also credits her
teammate, Ceci Ellis, for pushing her in practice and meets, as
they have a “friendly rivalry” on the team.

Brandon Way, Jr. comes from good stock. 

His blood line includes a family tree of athletic success: a father (football, track and his track coach at Lancaster Catholic); a mother (basketball and track); a grandfather (football); and an uncle (football).

Brandon, a senior at Lancaster Catholic, already has earned a football scholarship to Villanova University after a successful
high school career on the gridiron.

McCaskey's Anthony Patterson is setting his sights on the school record in the discus this spring.

"I want to break the record of 174 feet in the discus," he told the Lancaster Sports Hall of Fame at LNP | LancasterOnline's Spring Media Day at Penn Medicine Park.

Patterson also throws shot and is going to try javelin as well this season. "I've been throwing since eighth grade at Reynolds. I want to improve my technique," he said.