SCRANTON \u2013 As Bryce Pagano sprinted down the final stretch of the track at Scranton Veterans Memorial Stadium, he powered through the finish and threw his arms out to the side.<\/p>\n
It was a significant closeout for the Wallepaupack junior who missed several races this season with an injury.<\/p>\n
While he and his teammates, Izael Rodriguez, Dawid Mrowka, and Aiden Janowicz, embraced, they looked up to the scoreboard. There it flashed a winning time of 3 minutes, 24.40 seconds.<\/p>\n
Wallenpaupack set a meet record in the last race of an exciting 70th running of the Jordan Relays on Thursday night. It also catapulted the Buckhorns to a Class 3A team championship with 39 points, jumping ahead of Pittston Area, which had 38. Valley View finished third with 29 points.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had so much adrenaline and so much excitement in that moment,\u201d Pagano said. \u201cBeing able to come back, with this being my first meet back against unbelievable competition, everyone is great here, and this just meant so much to this entire team and me.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the girls\u2019 meet, tradition and depth conquered again as Abington Heights claimed its ninth straight Class 3A girls championship. The Lady Comets scored 39 points to hold off Wallenpaupack, which had 37, and North Pocono (33).<\/p>\n
\u201cI really wanted to finish out my career with another win,\u201d Abington Heights senior Anna Pucilowski said. \u201cI was determined for this meet. It is so special to do this for all four of my years.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to its win in the 1,600 relay, Wallenpaupack won gold in the 3,200 relay. The team of Orson Whitehouse, Jordan Bermudez, Mrowka, and Janowicz, who set a school record in the 800 on Tuesday in 1:53.14, won the 4-by-800 in 8:18.86.<\/p>\n
After the Buckhorns\u2019 1,600 relay team accepted their gold medals, they learned they added the overall team title to a rewarding week that started with a win over North Pocono, which completed an unbeaten season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis means so much, because we put in the work every single day,\u201d Pagano said. \u201cBeing able to prove that it is all worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Valley View\u2019s stable of sprinters grabbed two gold medals.<\/p>\n
Ben Evans, Gavin Oprishko, Gavin Walsh, and Gabe Davis sped to a win in the 400 relay in 43.89 to finish ahead of Wallenpaupack (44.03).<\/p>\n
In the next race, Luke Benke teamed with Evans, Davis, and Oprishko to earn a victory in the 1,200 medley in 2:30.83. West Scranton finished second (2:34.67).<\/p>\n
Pittston Area, from the Wyoming Valley Conference, won the Distance Medley and the 1,600 medley.<\/p>\n
Jakob Mead, Brady Tucker, Jacob Ivey, and Caden Boettger took first in the Distance Medley (8:26.50). Ivey and Boettger joined Kayden Bailey and Deondre Miller to win the 1,600 medley (3:46.54).<\/p>\n
In the girls\u2019 meet, Pucilowski ran the 1,600-meter anchor leg of the Distance Medley that led to a win for the fourth straight season. She pulled away from the competition and led the Lady Comets, including Giada Lovecchio, Aliya Lucarelli, and Sofia Mirza, to win the only gold in 9:53.07.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was so cool,\u201d Pucilowski said. \u201cComing through the finish line, I was so happy. It was a full circle moment, and I am going to miss this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wallenpaupack, the Lackawanna Track Conference Division II champion, had a pair of race wins in Class 3A.<\/p>\n
Isabelle Wisner, Jessieann Gallagher, Isabella Maslowska, and June Brown won the 3,200 relay in 10:00.70, with Abington Heights second (10:18.84).<\/p>\n
Gallagher, Maslowska, and Brown teamed with Violet Hildebrand to win the 1,600 relay in 4:12.69.<\/p>\n
Delaware Valley\u2019s team of Emma Simmons, Frannie Russo, Tessa Marotta, and Grace Holderith won the 1,600 medley in 4:28.38.<\/p>\n
North Pocono won the 400 relay with Alia Rava, Celia DeCesare, Ella Geck, and Pia Zangardi sprinting to the line in 51.03. Abington Heights was second (51.64) and Wallenpaupack third (52.40).<\/p>\n
Honesdale captured a gold in the 1,200 medley. The Lady Hornets\u2019 team of Arianna Valerio, Heather Kissolovege, Alexandria Hankins, and Alyssa Czekai won in 3:00.41.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON \u2013 As Bryce Pagano sprinted down the final stretch of the track at Scranton Veterans Memorial Stadium,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-180915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-high-school-sports","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}