NTL TRACK & FIELD: WYALUSING'S JOHNS CLAIMS D4 HIGH JUMP TITLE, HALEY EARNS STATE BERTH IN 400 (2024-05-19)

BY CHRIS MANNING
Northern Tier Sports Report
WYALUSING — After coming up short last year Wyalusing’s Dylan Johns left no doubt as to who the best high jumper in the district was. Johns cleared 6-feet, 3-inches to win the boys’ high jump at the District IV Track and Field Championships Saturday.

“It feels so good,” said Johns, who came in as the top seed. “I missed it just barely last year, so it feels really good.”

Johns was the only competitor to clear 6-3, though he did it in dramatic fashion. After being clean his first two jumps he needed all three to clear 6-feet, 1-inch.

Then he needed all three to get 6-feet, 3-inches.

“I almost got 6-5, too,” said Johns. “I barely missed that. I just have to be patient over the top.”

He did this despite the on and off rain.

“I usually do good in bad weather, for whatever reason,” he said. 

As for states, he knows what he needs to work on.

“I definitely need more pop, and be patient over the top,” Johnson said. “That’s really about it.”

For the third year in a row Wyalusing’s Olivia Haley will be headed to states in the 400. She hit state qualifying time while taking fourth in 59.32.

“Coming into the race I knew it was going to be a very competitive race with so many girls running sub-60 but I’m just ultimately happy to qualify for states again,” Haley said. “I knew I had to get out to a strong start, I knew that the first 200 was going to be fast, so I was just focused on getting a strong first 200.”

Haley has been nursing a quad injury for much of the season. She wasn’t able to run the 100, and came up short of the podium in the 200 in ninth at 27.13.

“It’s kind of a setback, especially with my springs,” she said. “I think that, this race, it was just so important to me that I tried not to think about it and just pushed through.”

Now comes the hard part, reaching the finals of the 400. Haley has been out of the medals by just tenths of a second the past couple of years.

“I know states this year is going to be very, very competitive,” she said. “A lot of girls are running really great times in the state, so I’m just going to prepare as much as I can and hope to place. I know it’s going to be tough but that’s my goal.”

Also for the boys Trennan Tewksbury was ninth in the 3200 in 10:07.20 while finishing 19th in the 1600 in 4:55.82.

Jonathan Earle was 10th in the pole vault at 11-feet, 6-inches as Zibiah Walton took 14th in the triple jump in 39-feet, 5 1/4-inches.

The 4x100 relay was 10th in 39-feet, 5 1/4-inches, with the 4x400 taking 15th in 4:02.88.

For the girls Mia Wilcox earned a medal in the pole vault at 9-feet, while the 4x100 relay of Kacey Kerin, Vayda Rought, Makenzie Kitner, and Haley took seventh in 52.28.

The 4x400 relay was 10th in 4:22.49 while Megan King was 11th in the 3200 in 12:41.50.

Riley Porter (5:55.42) was 14th in the 1600, Alysha Botts (6:00.74) was 18th, and King (6:01.30) took 20th. Botts (2:50.42) was 23rd in the 800.

Kitner and Chloe Kunkle tied for 20th in the high jump at 4-feet, 6-inches.

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PHOTO CAPTION: Wyalusing’s Dylan Johns clears the bar…PHOTOS BY CHRIS MANNING

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