Girls Track and Field: Berks dominates top seedings in Class 2A for District 3 meet

Berks athletes earned 15 top seeds in girls District 3 Track and Field Championships with 11 of those Class 2A, including six of the seven field events.

The two-day meet starts Friday at Shippensburg University and concludes Saturday.

In Class 3A, the top five finishers advance to the PIAA Championships the following weekend at Shippensburg. In 2A, the top two finishers advance. Competitors who do not automatically qualify can advance if they better the state qualifying standard in the district meet.

Wyomissing, Oley Valley and Schuylkill Valley make up the schools in 2A that have the 11 top seeds.

Two Berks athletes are top seeds in two events. Wyomissing’s Lily Paolini is the top seed in both hurdle events in 2A and Daniel Boone’s Julia Leady is the top seed in the 1600 and 3200 in 3A.

Here’s a look at each event for each class:

Class 2A

100: Schuylkill Valley junior Lilah Gilmore is the second seed, just four-hundreths of a second behind top seed sophomore Cheyenne Eby of James Buchanan, 12.34 to 12.38.

200: Dulce Lylte of Wyomissing is another Berks sprinter second seeded. The top seed is Nora Scanish of Trinity at 25.47 with Lytle at 25.99.

400: Eby is also the top seed in the 400 at 57.83 with Oley Valley sophomore Jillian Rogers seeded second at 60.68 and Schuylkill Valley senior Amelia Falsone third seeded at 60.94.

800: Oley Valley junior Marli Laity is the top seed but expect a battle from second-seeded Reagan Gates, a freshman from Pequea Valley. Laity’s time is 2:22.16 to Gates’ 2:22.74.

1600: Gates is the top seed by a wide margin over Oley Valley’s Julianna Gourley, 5:05.42 to 5:20.15.

3200: Gates starts her attempt for three individual gold medals on Friday as the top seed in the 3200 at 10:55.78. Schuylkill Valley freshman Matilda Walborn is third seeded at 11:34.79.

Hurdles: BCIAA champion Lily Paolini, she won both the 100 and 300 hurdles, is the top seed in both events for the district meet. Her 100-hurdle time of 14.05 is more than a second ahead of second-seeded Keira Stork of Schuylkill Valley (15.15), In the 300s, her time of 43.41 is more than three seconds ahead of Susquenita’s Claire Wechsler (46.60).

Relays: Berks teams have two of the three top seeds in the relays with Wyomissing top seeded in the 4 x 100 (49.55) and Oley Valley the top seed in the 4 x 800 (9:49.21). Wyomissing is seeded second in the 4 x 400 (4:06.79), just a few tenths of a second behind top-seeded Trinity (4:06.47).

High jump: Schuylkill Valley’s Jadalynn Figueroa (5-2) and Hannah Yobb (5-2) are the second and third seeds, respectively, behind Adelyn Ober of Lancaster County Christian, who has cleared 5-3.

Pole vault: Schuylkill Valley has the top two seeds with Aimee Frantz at 10-6 and Lilliam Emerson at 9-9.

Long jump: This event promises to be quite the duel between two Berks athletes. Lilah Gilmore of Schuylkill Valley and Clara Engel of Kutztown have both jumped 18-7 with Gilmore getting the nod as the top seed. Gilmore won the BCIAA title with a leap of 18-3 and Engel did not compete in the event at the BCIAA meet.