On a day that highlighted Lehighton’s track and field program, Lorah Thomas announced that she will be attending St. Francis University to continue her track and field career as a collegiate athlete.

The decorated senior also plans to study exercise physiology, which unlike her athletic decision, was something she planned from the start of her college application process.

“I knew I wanted to go to school for exercise physiology, but my recruiting process is a little interesting because I always wanted to go play in college for volleyball,” she said. “I had a recruiting profile set up for volleyball, and I was reaching out to coaches.”

Despite being an exceptional member of Lehighton’s volleyball squad for four seasons, Thomas’ initial plans to continue playing volleyball in college quickly changed after discovering what St. Francis had to offer.

What made the change in plans more surprising is that this discovery wasn’t even the result of her own doing.

“My mom is actually the one who sent in my recruiting information to St. Francis just for fun; she didn’t even tell me about it,” Thomas said. “Then one day, St. Francis followed me on Instagram; they’re a D1 track program. Then the throwing coach reached out to me. I had a small conversation with him and I was like ‘Why don’t I just go visit for fun?’ Their academics there for exercise physiology is amazing. They’re the only school in the state with an undergrad in exercise physiology, and once I saw the school and I saw that I could also continue in athletics, it was a no-brainer and everything just fell into place from there.”

Growing up, Thomas has been under the influence of a family with a history of athletic experience.

It was no surprise to her family to see her activity in athletics become a significant piece of her childhood.

“Both my parents were very involved in athletics throughout their entire life. Basketball is a big thing in my family, but my mother was more of the one who influenced me through volleyball. I started track really early in the booster club program, but I didn’t get started in volleyball until about eighth grade. My family is a very athletic family, so there was not a question that I was definitely doing some sort of athletics.”

Thomas wasn’t just doing athletics; she excelled in them.

During her 2025 track and field season, she finished third in shot put at both the Colonial League (33-4) and District 3A (34-1.25) meets, while also placing fifth at leagues (100-11), and sixth at districts (103-5) in discus. In addition, Thomas also registered Times News area bests in both shot put (35-4) and discus (118-4) this season.

“Lorah has been a fantastic athlete,” said Indians’ throwing coach Gwen Remaley. “She is extremely coachable, relates to a lot of stuff and she puts the work in, and that’s definitely been shown throughout her performances and where she’s gotten to now as a senior in high school.”

With her collegiate career looming, Thomas feels like there is unfinished business with how her experience with track and field has been. Her hope is that the challenges she faced this season will benefit her when it’s time to compete at the next level.

“I had a bit of a mental block, and it was up and down and I knew I just didn’t want to go out like that and I wanted to continue in my athletic career through track,” she said. “I think it definitely helps me overcome (adversity) because mental (health) is a huge part of everything. If you go into it with a positive or negative mindset, it really affects literally anything you’re doing in life.

“So it’s very much of a head case for an athlete. My mental (health) very much affects my athletic ability and it’s a hard balance sometimes, but it was just having that support from my friends and family and coaches around me who really lifted me up and told me that they knew I could do it, and I knew it was just putting all the pieces together and getting my mind and body to click at the same time.”

ONE OF MANY … Thomas was one of seven Lehighton seniors to announce their pursuit of track and field at the collegiate level. The other six signees include Emma Rephsher (Bloomsburg), Julia Smith (Moravian), Timara Klotz (King’s College), Joe Roth (ESU), Brielle Frable (Misercordia) and Aiden Eckhart (West Chester).