KANE — The Clearfield Area High School boys and girls track teams competed at the District 9 Track and Field Championships on Wednesday afternoon at Kane High School.
Leading the charge for Clearfield, which had their best team showing in a number of years, was double-winner Jessica Shomo. Shomo won the long and triple jumps with school record leaps of 17’8″ and 35’8″ respectively.
Also winning titles were Brianna Heichel in the 200 meter dash with a time of 27.72 seconds and Dylan Graham in the 300 hurdles with a time of 40.9 seconds.
Bison Head Coach John Jacob was understandably excited about his team’s performance, “It was one of our more successful days at the District meet in the past couple of years. We were able to capture four individual titles and walk away with our highest team point totals in the past four years.”
Personal accomplishments were also noted by Coach Jacob, starting with Shomo, “Her first title came in the long jump where Shomo moved into first place on her second to last jump and on her final jump put the competition out of reach while breaking  her own school record with a jump of 17ft 8in, eclipsing her old mark of 17ft 6in. Next was the triple jump were Jessica started out in fourth place and steadily increased her distance until the second to last jump where she once again claimed the girls triple jump title and broke another school record with a jump of 35ft 8in. The previous record was held by Keena Rowles in 1995 with a distance of 35ft 4 ½ in.”
Jacob had this to say about Heichel’s race, “Brianna drew a poor lane assignment based on her seed time, but had an outstanding start that made the difference in the race. To come from a fifth seed, to winning a championship, was very impressive and showed a lot of maturity for such a young runner.”
For track newcomer Graham, Jacob said, “Dylan has steadily been improving in this event and really put an all out effort almost collapsing at the finish line.”
Team titles were won by the DuBois Lady Beavers and the Bradford Owls.
Coach Jacob summed up his team’s efforts in this meet and for the season with, “Our overall point totals for this meet surpassed our totals from last year by a huge margin. As a coach this was the biggest accomplishment for this season. The girls were able to pull ahead of Punxsutawney in the overall team standings to claim third place. While the boys may have finished last, they had a huge improvement from last year when the only scored five team points. As a staff we see that both teams are pointed in the right direction. Looking at the results, this improvement in team standings is due to our depth in all areas. In distance, sprints, relays, jumps and throws our athletes were showing up on the podium with season best times and distances.”
Complete results can be found here:Â http://pa.milesplit.com/meets/113102/results/202140Â