{"id":199172,"date":"2026-05-21T19:51:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T19:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/199172\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T19:51:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T19:51:12","slug":"piaa-track-and-field-elk-lakes-jones-seeks-class-2a-medal-mid-valleys-thomas-jumps-for-gold-on-day-1-scranton-times-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/199172\/","title":{"rendered":"PIAA TRACK AND FIELD: Elk Lake\u2019s Jones seeks Class 2A medal; Mid Valley\u2019s Thomas jumps for gold on Day 1 \u2013 Scranton Times-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kendel Jones carved a lasting legacy as a distance runner in District 2, the Lackawanna Track Conference and at Elk Lake High School.<\/p>\n<p>This weekend, as he prepares to conclude his athletic career and focus solely on the family farm, Jones aims to leave one final impression.<\/p>\n<p>His quest to win three individual race medals at the PIAA Track and Field Championships starts Friday morning in the first final of the weekend. Jones is seeded No. 2 in Class 2A for the 1,600-meter run with his 4:14.84 time that set a District 2 Class 2A meet record. Fort LeBoeuf senior Blake Glass is the top seed for the race that starts at 9 a.m. at Shippensburg University\u2019s Seth Grove Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>In his track and field career, Kendel Jones won three PIAA Class 2A medals. As a sophomore, he captured a sixth-place medal in the 3,200 (9:22.47) and was eighth in the 1,600 (4:20.68). Last spring, he added a sixth in the 3,200 (9:18.72), but just missed a fourth medal when he finished ninth in the 1,600 (4:18.39).<\/p>\n<p>This spring, Kendel Jones is on top of his game. He ran a personal-record 4:13.77 in the 1,600 at the Wyalusing Lasagna Invitational and will return to the state meet as the District 2 champion in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200.<\/p>\n<p>Kendel Jones is one of several District 2 athletes chasing their dreams of winning medals at the state meet. The top eight finishers in the final races and throwing events in each classification receive medals.<\/p>\n<p>Elk Lake sophomore Kendyl Weisgold is seeded among the top 8 for the girls Class 2A 1,600. Montrose\u2019s Avery Kerr will start the race seeded No. 9.<\/p>\n<p>Morning field events start at 9, and preliminary races begin at 10:15 a.m.<\/p>\n<p>Dunmore junior Josh Dudick and Lakeland sophomore Rocco Spataro will challenge for medals as part of the early field events.<\/p>\n<p>Dudick is seeded sixth in the boys Class 2A long jump (22-2.75), while Spataro is seeded seventh for the boys Class 2A javelin (175-11).<\/p>\n<p>Mid Valley freshman Olivia Thomas pursues a state title in her debut season. She enters the Class 2A girls long jump event as the No. 1 seed with her district-record distance of 19 feet, 5 inches. Montrose junior Sadie Jones (18-2.75) is seeded sixth.<\/p>\n<p>Sadie Jones has a busy day in the field events. She is also seeded second (12-5-8) in the girls Class 2A javelin, which is scheduled at the same time as the long jump at 12:30 p.m. Shenango junior Anna McKinley is the No. 1 seed (137-6).<\/p>\n<p>Nanticoke Area senior Nevaeh Baran will compete at 12:30 p.m. as the No. 1 seed for the girls Class 3A triple jump (39-11).<\/p>\n<p>Dunmore junior Carter Sload (6-5) and Elk Lake junior Brody Crisman (6-5) are two of five athletes tied with the No. 2 seed for the boys Class 2A high jump. Juniata senior Jasper Shepps is the top seed at 6-10.25.<\/p>\n<p>PIAA Track and Field Championships<\/p>\n<p>When: Friday and Saturday, 9 a.m.<\/p>\n<p>Where:\u00a0Seth Grove Stadium, Shippensburg University.<\/p>\n<p>Noteworthy:\u00a0Athletes and relay teams that finish in the top eight in each classification receive medals. Mid Valley\u2019s Olivia Thomas (Class 2A \u2014 long jump, triple jump), Nanticoke Area\u2019s Nevaeh Baran (Class 3A triple jump), Dunmore\u2019s Jacob Costanzo (Class 2A 400) and Dallas\u2019 Hunter Pitcavage (Class 3A javelin) enter the weekend as the No. 1 seeds in their respective events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kendel Jones carved a lasting legacy as a distance runner in District 2, the Lackawanna Track Conference and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-199172","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\/199172","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=199172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}