EAST STROUDSBURG Fourteen TIMES NEWS area female athletes are headed to states after day one of the District 11 Track and Field Championships.

The Northwestern Lehigh 3200 relay team continued its strong season, taking gold in the event in AAA competition.Marian's Christy Digiandomenico was the only other gold medal winner on the day in the TIMES NEWS area. She won the 300 hurdles in AA.Class AAThe best thing about the District 11 Championships are the surprises that can happen throughout the day.In AA girls competition there was plenty of surprises to go around.Starting off with Marian senior Digiandomenico. The Fillies hurdling specialist came into the 300 hurdles seeded fifth, but certainly didn't look like the best fifth best runner once the race started. Digiandomenico ran a time of 48.42, which was a personal best for her this season. Her time was good enough to take the gold, meaning she is headed to the state tournament for the second consecutive season."It's my senior year and I really wanted to get back to states," said Digiandomenico. "I was there last year, so this being my senior year I really wanted to make sure that I got back. I was excited to get this race started and show everybody what I had. I'm just excited to go to states where I'm going to try and improve even more."Another Marian Fillie headed to states is freshman Brenna Karnish. The youngster took second in the discus with a throw of 94-7."I really thought if I came out and threw my best I could definitely take second place," said Karnish. "I actually think I could've had a better throw than what I did, but I made it to states and I'm happy with that. My goal now going into states is to improve and try to break 100 feet."Northern Lehigh's Jess Olewine surprised even herself on the day, being seeded fifth in the long jump, the junior was adamant about the fact that she had nothing to lose. Her attitude towards the event paid off as she jumped a personal best 16-10 1/2 to take silver."My goal was to jump my personal best and try to improve on my position and I was able to do that," said Olewine. "I was really nervous, but I just did the best I could and it landed me in second place. I felt good at leagues and I just carried it over to districts."Tamaqua's Morgan Boyle certainly had herself quite the day on one of the grandest stages of all as she beat her previous record in the pole vault on three different occassions, helping her take home the silver medal in the event. She's headed to states after a vault of 10-6."I'm pretty happy with how I did today, considering I beat my personal record three different times," said Boyle. "I've been practicing really hard and I came out and I gave it my all. I've been hitting 10 feet at practice, but not in meets, so today I just stepped it up. I just want to go into states confident and keep vaulting at a high level."Class AAANorthwestern Lehigh came into the District 11 Championships fresh off a gold medal in the 3200 relay at the Colonial League Championships. Overall, it's been quite a year for the Lady Tigers 3200 relay team and once again they didn't disappoint. The foursome of Sabrina Mertz, Sara Segan, Rachele Cerrone, and Haley Yost took on the best District 11 AAA had to offer and came out on top, running a time of 9:23.79."I didn't know what to expect coming into today with all these good teams," said Cerrone. "With that being said, we all know what we're capable of and we came into this race and worked really hard out there on the track to take home the gold.""I was a little nervous before the race started, I mean there's a lot of good teams here," said Mertz. "Once the race starts though, we all do a good job on focusing and we did that once again today. We knew we had to push it and that's what we did."The Pleasant Valley 3200 relay team of Sam Young, Kaitlyn Smith, Stephanie Palmer, and Jennifer Mickens also came up with a soild performance on the day.They finished with a time of 9:28.13, which is good enough to qualify for states based on time (9:35.48)."We came in seeded first, so we had our heart set on gold, but we all came out here and ran our best splits," said Smith. "Our ultimate goal was to make it to states and that's what were able to do."Pleasant Valley was anchored by their youngest member in sophomore Jennifer Mickens and she was able to dig down deep and get the Lady Bears over the hump."I definitely went out there with the mentality to just go for it," said Mickens. "I probably went out a little too fast, but I kicked as hard as I could and I got the job done for my team."Perhaps, the biggest upset of the day came in the AAA long jump and the athlete resposnible for that was Palmerton's Brianna Doherty. The sophomore wasn't even supposed to compete in the event, but got a chance when someone else was scratched. She was also seeded last, but Doherty proved that when the pressure is on she can perform, taking the bronze.She jumped a personal best of 17-10, which blew away her previous personal best of 16-6."I knew I was seeded very low, so I was just calm, and I got some really good jumps in," said Doherty. "This is a definite confidence builder for me. I didn't expect to go to states at all, it's just really exciting."Jim Thorpe freshman Brooke Cope punched her ticket to states in the javelin event, throwing a 124-9. She finished fourth overall, but qualified because she threw over the state qualifying standard of 122 feet."I have to give credit to my coaches and my teammate Cat Condly because they pushed me to get to this point," said Cope. "That's been my motivation throughout the season. It just feels great to be going to states and I'm looking forward to gaining the experience."