ORWIGSBURG – If Day 2 of the Schuylkill League Track and Field championships is anything like the opening day, Jim Thorpe is going to have a memorable event to celebrate.

What the Olympians’ girls and boys teams accomplished on Tuesday at Blue Mountain High School can be summed up in a couple of words - scintillating and dominating.

The Thorpe girls crowned four champions, while the boys added a pair of gold medals as both teams put themselves in position for championships.

“We have a lot of work to do yet. We aren’t satisfied,” said highly successful Olympian coach Frank Miller after watching his team’s Day 1 performance.

The Jim Thorpe boys racked up 46 points to open a comfortable advantage in the team race. Nativity is in second place with 30 points. Locally, Tamaqua (24) is fourth, Panther Valley (21) is sixth, Marian (15) is eighth, Lehighton (11) is 11th and Weatherly (3) is 14th.

In the girls competition, the Olympians piled up 60 points to grab a slight lead over second-place Blue Mountain (53). Among the area teams, Lehighton (33) is third, Marian (12) is sixth, Tamaqua (9) is eighth, and Panther Valley (1) is 13th.

Dashing to a record

The most impressive opening-day performance for the Olympians - or any other team at the meet - was turned in by the effervescent and bubbly Kaila O’Connor. O’Connor recorded fantastic qualifying performances in both the 100 meters and 200 meters and captured gold in the 300 hurdles. In the 100, the junior speedster blazed to a time of 11:97, setting a league record in the process.

O’Connor was also impressive in the 200-meter preliminaries as she out-raced second-place finisher Alexia Gruffre by nearly five seconds.

O’Connor, who is a bonafide Division I athlete, then displayed her versatility by winning a gold medal in the 300 hurdles in a time of 43.97.

“I really like the hurdles, so it was nice to get that gold. I was also happy with my times in the 100 and 200,” O’Connor said about her busy day.

All eyes will be on O’Connor again today in the 100, 200 and 400 meter relay as she looks to add to her medal count.

“In the end, I gave myself a shot at doing what I came to do,” said O’Connor about the possibility of racking up four gold medals.

Going the distance

The Jim Thorpe girls and boys showed their dominance in the 3200 meter relay and the 3200 meter run, combining to win four gold medals.

In the relay, the girls team comprised of Celia Rodriguez-Gonzalez, Aubrey Bonner, Gabby Cinicola and Nicole Carroll set a school record in a time of 10:00.57, holding off Blue Mountain, Mahanoy Area and Lehighton.

“I had the outside, so I tried to pace myself and get to the (inside),” said Rodriguez-Gonzalez, who ran the opening leg. “I started to squeeze it at one point.”

Bonner took the baton from Rodriguez-Gonzalez who said she “… was looking at the clock for the time. Someone was right behind me and that is a motivation factor when someone is behind me.”

The third leg went to Cinicola. “I was just trying to run a good (personal best), to keep us in the race. I kind of lost it, but Nicole picked me up … she had a great run, she’s a great anchor as you can see.”

Carroll was never concerned, despite needing to catch Blue Mountain anchor Lucy Scheidel, who led by nearly 20 yards. After all, Thorpe’s relay team pulled off a win at the Blue Mountain Invitational a few weeks ago.

“Same thing, just do better than we did that meet,” said Carroll. “I gave everything I had.”

The Olympian boys 3200 meter relay team may not have run a school-best mark, but finished first in a time of 8:19.43. Team members were Ryan Bailor, Ivan Turczeniuk, Jordan Rommel and Ridge Snyder.

“I wanted to get my team off to a good start, I ran hard,” said Bailor about his first leg.

Turczeniuk took over after that.

“I wanted to keep up the momentum, but I kind of lost the lead. I wasn’t feeling myself,” said Turczeniuk.

Remmel, who was dealing with a knee issue, was hoping to give anchorman Snyder a chance to pull out the victory.

“I wanted to make sure Ridge had a good shot, because he’s such a good anchor,” said Remmel.

That game plan ended up being perfect, as Snyder let it loose and ran down the leader.

“I was hoping that (Jordan) would keep the pace and close the gap,” Snyder said. “I trusted myself and was able to run down the runner in front of me.”

Individually, Rodriguez-Gonzalez - a Rotary exchange student from the Canary Islands - turned in a gold medal time of 12:13.02 to beat second-place Scheidel by more than 12 seconds in the girls 3200.

“To be honest, I wasn’t feeling very good,” she said. “Towards the end I just kept saying to myself … ‘Get this over, get this over.’”

In the boys race, Bailor ran a 9:53.5, to grab first place. He beat runner-up Kolin Long of Minersville by more than six seconds.

Field events

Thorpe’s Katrina Cavanaugh picked up a gold medal in the pole vault with a jump of 10-0, holding off Lehighton’s Isabella Mystkowksi who jumped 9-5.

“I have a new pole, and once I got first place, I just tried to play around a little bit,” Cavanaugh said.

Her career best in the event is 10-9.

“I just wanted to focus on my form and get ready (for districts).”

Tamaqua had a first-place finisher in the boys long jump in Martin Griffin with a leap of 21-0 3/4. Marian’s Mike Silliman placed third.

Brad Jones of Panther Valley led an area sweep of the top three places in the boys javelin. Brad Jones had a throw of 158-8. Jim Thorpe’s Rowan Melber was second at 152-8, and Lehighton’s Joseph Roth was third at 150-4.

In the girls long jump event, Marian’s Fatika Tikhtova finished second while Lehighton’s Gabriella Brown was third.

In the girls discus, Lehighton’s Madylin Wolter and Lorah Thomas were second and third, respectively.

In the boys shot put, Panther Valley’s Austin Hadley finished second. Jim Thorpe’s Bryson Heydt placed third.

SCHUYLKILL LEAGUE TRACK AND FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS

TEAM STANDINGS (PLUS LEGEND)

BOYS

1. Jim Thorpe (JT) 46, 2. Nativity (N) 30, 3. Minersville (M) 27, 4. (tie) Tamaqua (T) and North Schuylkill (NS) 24, 6. Panther Valley (PV) 21, 7. Blue Mountain (BM) 18, 8. Marian Catholic (MC) 17, 9. Mahanoy Area (MA) 15, 10. Schuylkill Haven (SH) 13, 11. Lehighton (L) 11, 12. (tie) Pottsville (P) and Pine Grove (PG) 10, 14. (tie) Weatherly (W) and Shenandoah Valley (SV) 3.

GIRLS

1. Jim Thorpe (JT) 60, 2. Blue Mountain (BM) 53, 3. Lehighton (L) 33, 4. Minersville (M) 18, 5. Pottsville (P) 17, 6. Marian Catholic (MC) 12, 7. Shenandoah Valley (SV) 10, 8. Tamaqua (T) 9, 9. (tie) Schuylkill Haven (SH), Mahanoy Area (MA) and Pine Grove (PG) 6, 12. Nativity BVM (N) 2, 13. Panther Valley (PV) 1.

RESULTS

(top three plus locals in top 10)

BOYS

3200

- 1. Ryan Bailor (JT) 9:53.5, 2. Kolin Long (M) 9:59.52, 3. Justin Williams (NS) 10:11.28, 5. Albin Petschauer (MC) 10:17.03, 7. Anthony Marchetti (T) 10:44.73, 8. Elijah Pagotto (L) 10:45.79.

300H

- 1. Colm McGroarty (MA) 40.33, 2. Luke Garvey (SH) 41.44, 3. Kolby Cavanaugh (JT) 43.11, 8. Justin Yescavage (JT) 44.53.

3200 relay

- 1. Jim Thorpe (Ryan Bailor, Ivan Turczeniuk, Jordan Remmel, Ridge Snyder) 8:19.43, 2. Tamaqua (Stephen Kieffer, Adam Schock, Jacob Hehn, Jesse Gormley) 8:22.01, 3. Minersville (Maxwell Masser, Keegan Duba, Ayden Kurtek, Wyatt Leitzel) 8:22.14, 5. Lehighton (Kyle Kuznicki, Bradley Yenser, Elijah Pagotto, Owen Serfass) 8:58.54, 7. Weatherly (Michael Berger, Sebastian Williams, Raymond Montz, Niko Saldukas) 9:40.47.

High jump

- 1. Michael Kadzeial (N) 6-6, 2. Tyrone Chambers (NS) 6-2, 3. Killian Skocik (PG) 6-0, 4. Jose Ramirez (MC) 5-10, 8. Owen Broskoskie (W) 5-4, 10. (tie) Nicholas Barron (T), Tegan Devlin (T) and Keith King (N) 5-2.

Long jump

- 1. Martin Griffin (T) 21-0 3/4, 2. Noah Dolbin (N) 20-9, 3. Michael Silliman (MC) 19-9, 5. Scott Case (T) 19-5, 7. Jacob Tom (MC) 18-5, 8. Joshua Louk (JT) 18-4.

Shot put

- 1. Joey Palko (P) 44-7 1/2, 2. Austin Hadley (PV) 44-5 1/4, 3. Bryson Heydt (JT) 43-10, 5. Salvatore Capria (JT) 42-9 1/2, 6. Michael Pascoe (PV) 42-7 1/2.

Javelin

- 1. Brad Jones (PV) 158-8, 2. Rowan Melber (JT) 152-8, 3. Joseph Roth (L) 150-4, 9. Brett Balliet (JT) 135-2, 10. (tie) Ethan DiBonifazio (JT) and William Schaner (BM) 133-4.

GIRLS

3200

- 1. Celia Rodriguez-Gonzalez (JT) 12:13.02, 2. Lucy Scheidel (BM) 12:25.52, 3. Anna Schaeffer (SH) 12:28.57, 6. Mia Jones (T) 12:56.30, 8. Emma Ashfield (MC) 13:33.46, 10. Olivia Serfass (L) 13:49.87.

300H

- 1. Kaila O’Connor (JT) 43.97, 2. Alexa Giuffre (P) 48.39, 3. Aurora VanAuken (JT) 49.95, 4. Katelynn Fredericks (T) 50.57, 9. Faith Yeakel (L) 54.23, 10. Natalie Blair (L) 54.58.

3200 relay

- 1. Jim Thorpe (Celia Rodriguez-Gonzalez, Aubrey Bonner, Gabby Cinicola, Nicole Carroll) 10:00.587, 2. Blue Mountain (Gianna Chipriano, Sophia Chipriano, Allison Hoover, Lucy Scheidel) 10:03.64, 3. Mahanoy Area (Carly Honus, Hailey Mroczka, Caylin Blashock, Kaylee Senglar) 10:35.57, 4. Lehighton (Katie Wojton, Natalie Blair, Olivia Serfass, Brielle Frable) 10:50.68, 6. Marian Catholic (Emma Ashfield, Isabella Horvat, Abigail Kluck, Ava Fritz) 11:06.47.

Pole vault

- 1. Katrin Cavanaugh (JT) 10-0, 2. Isabella Mystkowski (L) 8-4, 3. Kamryn Moran (BM) 8-4, 5. Olivia Rosenberger (JT) 7-10, 7. Dani Rimsky (JT) 7-4, 8. Lauren Hill (T) 7-4, 9. Andrea Betz (T) 7-4.

Long jump

- 1. Danika Bolinsky (BM) 16-5, 2. Fatikha Tikhtova (MC) 16-3 3/4, 3. Gabriella Brown (L) 15-3 1/2, 5. Kelsey Patton (JT) 15-0 1/2, 9. Alyssa Zehner (L) 14-7 1/2, 10. Haley Ginder (L) 14-5 1/2.

Discus

- 1. Randi Wood (SV) 115-6, 2. Madylin Wolter (L) 99-10, 3. Lorah Thomas (L) 98-11, 5. Mara Levins (JT) 88-9, 8. Mikayla Yuricheck (PV) 85-11, 9. Leah Uyvari (L) 83-8, 10. Izabella Bochicchio (PV) 79-10.