MAHANOY CITY – Excitement abounded on the opening day of the Schuylkill League Track Meet - and local athletes didn’t disappoint on Bill Fazio Field at Alumni Stadium,

Certainly, the adrenalin was flowing, and that proved to be a good thing for a talented cast of Jim Thorpe boys and girls, as well a long shot from Lehighton.

The Jim Thorpe boys and girls might be lacking the depth of some of the other schools at Tuesday’s meet. But by sundown, the Olympian boys were at the head of the class with 41 points - three more than second place North Schuylkill. The Jim Thorpe girls were right there too after a solid opening day performance. Thorpe trails powerful Blue Mountain and its superstar Oliva Haas by a scant 46-43 margin.

Three golden girls

Effervescent Jim Thorpe head coach Frank Miller isn’t counting his chickens just yet, but he was glad to see how both his boys and girls team came out of the first day of this two-day event.

“We’re competing for sure,” Miller said, “It was a great first day. We need to have some kids recover and get ready to go. Seeing how kids compete on the second day of back-to-back days is interesting.

“They don’t get much time to rebound. They go home, get something to eat, get to bed, then get up and go to school early in the morning. They don’t get a lot of time to get ready to compete again.”

One of the best story lines for the Thorpe girls came from sophomore Kaila O’Connor, who dashed to the finish line in the 300 hurdles in a winning time of 45.91 to break the school record – and to think she is only a sophomore, and wasn’t even ticketed for this event when the season started.

“The 300 isn’t really my thing; I probably done five or six times,” O’Connor said with a bubbling smile, “It’s kind of a trial-and-error thing. I was very excited and I broke the school record.”

As exciting as the performance was by O’Connor, her teammate Katrin Cavanaugh was just as impressive in dominating the pole vault. She felt her mojo from the outset in setting another school record in this event, soaring 9-10 with nary a threat from another vaulter.

“Being seeded first, I was confident coming in,” Cavanaugh said. “I never had any doubts; it was all about practicing to get better. I felt good Monday in practice when I went over 10-feet, and I just wanted to build on that today.”

Lehighton’s Isabella Mystkowski would finish in second place in the pole vault to pick up a medal. Mystkowski had a vault of 8-1.

Capturing another gold medal in the field events for Jim Thorpe was standout senior Laura Clarke, who pumped up a terrific throw of 116-8 in the discus. Clarke came in as the top seed.

“I had a great throw, and I was hoping to get my PR,” Clarke said. “As I was running out on the field, my nerves were so high up there. But I was able to calm down and do what I needed to do.”

Marian’s Fatikha Tikhtova came up with a bronze medal in the long jump.

“I thought she did very well,” said Marian coach Justin Huegel said. “She’s been working on a few things. We told her to focus on the form, and the jumps will come naturally. You can see her jumps are starting to get more consistent and better. I know she’s excited for the triple jump on Wednesday.”

The Blue Mountain girls had a strong day, led by national standout runner Haas, who breezed home to take first in the 3200 run.

North Schuylkill won the 3200 meter relay, with Lehighton coming in third and Thorpe fourth.

Gold for the guys

Lehighton’s Joe Roth picked himself up a piece of hardware when he took the top prize in the javelin with a heave of 154-9. It was the best of his career.

“I was really surprised with my throw,” Roth said.

Jim Thorpe’s Brett Balliet finished third.

The speedy Thorpe 3200 meter relay team breezed to the finish line in a time of 8:23.

The squad featured Ryan Bailor, Jordan Remmel, Ivan Turczeniuk and Ridge Snyder, who had to bust it to the finish line overtaking Minersville’s anchor Ayden Kurtek to give his team the win.

Bailor said he wanted to get out fast to start the race. “The goal was to get out and get a lead… I went out in under 50 seconds which I thought was pretty good.”

David Richards bolstered the Jim Thorpe point production when he captured the high jump with a jump of 6-1.

“I was hoping to do a PR (personal best) which is 6-3. I was shooting for 6-4,” was the way Richards explained things. He also came in third in the 300 hurdles.

Today things will heat up, especially in the exciting sprint events. Marian’s one-two punch of Michael Fellin and Jacob Fenstermaker will go head-to-head in the 100-meter dash, with the former the defending champion. The speedsters finished 1-2 in their heat.

Fellin will also look to defend his 200-meter title. He led the way in Tuesday’s heats with a time of 23.25, a few ticks ahead of second-place Joey Flail of North Schuylkill, who turned in a time of 23.64.

Things start backup at 4 p.m. today.

SCHUYLKILL LEAGUE MEET

(at Mahanoy Area)

Girls

Team Standings (After Day One)

1. Blue Mountain (BM) 46, 2. Jim Thorpe (JT) 43, 3. North Schuylkill (NS) 37, 4. Lehighton (L) 33.5, 5. Minersville (M) 19, 6. Pine Grove (PG) 13, 7. Pottsville (P) 12, 8. Tamaqua (T) 11.50, 9. Shenandoah Valley (SV) 8, 10. Marian Catholic (MC) 7, 11. (tie) Schuylkill Haven (SH) and Mahanoy Area (MA) 2.

Finals

3200 - 1. Olivia Haas (BM) 11:12.68, 2. Ryley Schwalm (NS) 11:25.85, 3. Katie McCormick (NS) 12:12.40, 6. Katelynn Bos (JT) 12:59.58, 8. Anna Howland (L) 13:32.15; 300H - 1. Kaila O’Connor (JT) 45.91, 2. Abigail Frew (PG) 48.09, 3. Brittney Bartasavage (L) 49.25, 4. Aurora VanAuken (JT) 51.19, 7. Faith Yeakel (L) 52.48, 9. Ashley Jones (T) 53.33; 3200 relay - 1. North Schuylkill 10:10.62, 2. Blue Mountain 10:24.22, 3. Lehighton (Brielle Frable, Gianna Sube, Cecilia Sarnowski, Katie Wojton) 10:32.44, 4. Jim Thorpe (Aubrey Bonner, Katelynn Bos, Megan Rosahac, Nicole Carroll) 10:35.57, 7. Tamaqua (Isabella Jones, Grace Stegemerten, Maura Walker, Andrea Betz) 11:06.49; Pole Vault - 1. Katrin Cavanaugh (JT) 10-9, 2. Isabella Mystkowski (L) 8-1, 2. Kamryn Moran (BM) 8-1, 7. (tie) Eliza Andrew (L) and Amelia McArdle (T) 7-1, 9. (tie) Ashley Jones (T) and Olivia Rosenberger (JT) 7-1; Long jump - 1. Devin Hubler (M) 17-3 1/4, 2. Kate Walasavage (BM) 16-4. 3/4, 3. Fatikha Tiktova (MC) 15-11 1/2, 5. Madison Brown (L) 15-4 1/4, 6. Samantha Plasha (T) 15-2, 7. Haley Ginder (L) 14-10 1/4, 9. Alyssa Zehner (L) 14-4 1/4, 10. Gabriella Brown (L) 14-2; Discus

- 1. Laura Clarke (JT) 116-8, 2. Randi Wood (SV) 111-0, 3. Amelia Locke (NS) 90-3, 4. Shyann Weighknecht (T) 90-0, 6. Megan Hauser (L) 86-10, 8. Zoe Salter (MC) 83-2, 10. Lorah Thomas (L) 75-10.

Boys

Team Standings (After Day One)

1. Jim Thorpe (JT) 41, 2. North Schuylkill (NS) 38, 3. Minersville (M) 35, 4. Blue Mountain (BM) 31, 5. Lehighton (L) 26, 6. Tamaqua (T) 16, 7. (tie) Schuylkill Haven (SH) and Weatherly (W) 12, 9. Pine Grove (PG) 11.5, 10. (tie) Mahanoy Area (MA) and Panther Valley (PV) 11, 12. Shenandoah Valley (SV) 10, 13. Marian Catholic (MC) 9.5, 14. Nativity (N) 9.

Finals

3200 - 1. Landon Boyle (M) 10:06.15, 2. Diego Olayo (SV) 10:20.08, 3. Jacob Parker (W) 10:26.86, 5. Albin Petschauer (MC) 10:36.95, 6. Jordan Remmel (JT) 10:37.16, 7. Owen Serfass (L) 10:42.36, 9. Levi Kunkel (T) 10:54.35; 300H - 1. Colm McGroarty (MA) 41.61, 2. Cody Miller (N) 41.88, 3. David Richards (JT) 42.97, 6. Justin Yescavage (JT) 45.38, 10. Alexander Nattress (T) 47.45; 3200 relay - 1. Jim Thorpe (Ryan Bailor, Jordan Remmel, Ivan Turczeniuk, Ridge Snyder) 8:23.28, 2. Minersville 8:23.29, 3. Weatherly (Frankie Willis, Jacob Parker, Ricky Ray, Michael Berger) 8:34.84, 5. Tamaqua (Jesse Gormley, Jacob Hehn, Stephen Kieffer, Jathan Krall) 8:56.90, 10. Lehighton (Alexander Thomas, Aiden Eckhart, Bradley Yenser, Owen Serfass) 9:29.05; High jump - 1. David Richards (JT) 6-1, 2. Tyrone Chambers (NS) 5-11, 3. Shawn Hertzog (BM) 5-7, 5. Michael Steigerwalt (T) 5-7, 6. (tie) Steven Kostecky (MC) and Mason Kroh (PG) 5-5, 8. Logan Fritz (MC) 5-5; Long jump - 1. Terry Thomas (NS) 20-8.5, 2. Martin Griffin (T) 20-1.75, 3. Carl Brown (NS) 19-0, 7. Michael Silliman (MC) 17-11.75; Shot put - 1. Luke Tobin (M) 44-0, 2. Richard Houser (L) 43-8, 3. Michael Pascoe (PV) 42-9, 4. Austin Hadley (PV) 42-4, 10. Salvatore Capria (JT) 39-8; Javelin

- 1. Joseph Roth (L) 154-6, 2. Jack Dean (NS) 151-2, 3. Brett Balliet (JT) 140-10, 4, Wyatt Sherer (L) 138-8, 6. Rowan Melber (JT) 135-4, 8. Richard Houser (L) 122-10, 9. Dylan Moyer (L) 122-0.