Wise running up against illness, rival

SHIPPENSBURG – A year ago at the PIAA track and field championships, Washington’s Alyssa Wise was treated for heat exhaustion.
This year, as low temperatures, rain and wind combined to make conditions at Shippensburg’s Seth Grove Stadium nothing short of miserable, Wise caught a cold.
“There’s not much I can do,” said Wise, noticeably sniffly and congested. “I just can’t win with the weather here.”
Maybe not.
But despite the wild fluctuation in temperatures, she’s done pretty well with the whole running thing, finishing third in the 100 and 200 dashes last spring and putting herself in position to better those performances today.
Wise finished the 100-meter dash Friday in 12.21 seconds, the 200 in 25.53 and will run both in the semifinals today starting at 10:30 a.m.
The WPIAL Class AA champion in the 100, Wise figures to see plenty of Vincentian’s Ally Bartoszewicz, who finished second to Wise in the 100, then beat her in the 200.
They were a little more than a tenth of a second apart Friday – in two races combined.
Wise ran in the same 100 heat as Bartoszewicz yesterday, trailing her by seven hundredths of a second. Wise then beat Bartoszewicz by five-hundredths in the 200.
Priority No. 1, at least for Friday night, was to get some cold medicine, then worry about fending off her rival.
“It’s states; I have to suck it up,” Wise said. “It doesn’t matter if I’m sick or not. I’ve worked so hard to get here. I’m not going to let a little cold affect my performance.”
Despite being only a sophomore, Canon-McMillan’s Riley Leisman reached the semifinals in the 100 and 200 dashes.
She ran the 100 in 12.46 seconds and the 200 in 26.26, the latter cutting more than four-tenths of a second off her seed time.
Quorteze Levy’s performance at last week’s WPIAL individual championships – fourth in the 110 hurdles, second in the 300 hurdles – was not what he wanted, but the Washington High School junior bounced back in a big way at the PIAA meet.
Levy advanced in both hurdles events with times of 15.56 seconds in the 110 and 40.44 in the 300. The latter was the fourth-best time for any Class AA 300 runner.
“Coming in, I knew I had to put a little more into it,” Levy said of his WPIAL disappointments. “That just drives me to do better.”
South Fayette sophomore Mitch Valko ran a 15.07 to join Levy and Washington’s Chase Caldwell in the 110 hurdles.
Washington’s Darius Spinks didn’t exactly have much time to rest Friday, though his performance didn’t suffer.
Spinks advanced to the semifinals with his 100 dash time of 11.22 seconds – nearly a tenth better than his seed time of 11.31.
Spinks joined Josh Wise, Shai McKenzie and Malik Wells on the Prexies’ 400 relay team, which was first in its heat at 43.29, and ran the second leg on the 1,600 relay team.
Spinks pushed that group in front, but a late surge from Montoursville pushed Wash High to second, one-hundredth of a second behind at 3:29.27.
“I only had three events. They fit in perfect,” Spinks said, rebuffing the notion he’d be tired by the end of the day. “I have the long jump (Saturday), and I still have more to give.”
The PIAA championships resume at 9 a.m. today with the 3,200-meter run. Four events are still in their semifinal stages: 100 hurdlers, 110 hurdles, 100 dash and 200 dash. Lucas is the No. 1 seed in the PIAA Class AA girls javelin (145-08). California’s Kailyn Clancy failed to place in the discus, but she enters today’s shot put as the top seed in Class AA at 43-0.