May 25, 2018 3 min read

SHIPPENSBURG – When Waynesburg High School’s Daniel Layton exceeded his own expectations by qualifying for the state track meet last year, he came to Shippensburg University as an unknown commodity.

“I didn’t even expect to make it to states,” Layton remembers. “But this year is the complete opposite from last year when nobody knew who I was or what (events) I did. To come in and have most people know who I am, it’s a pretty cool experience.”

The two top-seeded runners – Layton in the 110-meter high hurdles and Cavanaugh in the 100-meter hurdles – performed like it in the preliminary rounds of their events, blowing by the competition to finish first in their respective heats on the opening day of the PIAA Track & Field Championships Friday morning.

Layton crossed in 14.91, half a second better than the second finisher in the heat. It also was the fastest time in the preliminary portion of the event in Class AA. The only other competitor to finish with Layton under 15 seconds was Moniteau’s Jacob Patton.

The top time puts Layton into lanes he prefers for the semifinals this morning, where he was eliminated a season ago after placing 10th. He has been in Lane 4 to win the WPIAL championships last week at Baldwin and in his preliminary heat Friday morning.

“Whenever I’m in the middle, it’s easier to see if someone is ahead of me,” Layton said. “Plus, it gets in other runners’ heads. I really like getting a good seed and would rather start out on top than working my way up.”

Layton, a junior, is continuing to work his way back from a sprained ankle he suffered while participating in the pole vault during a section meet that sidelined him a week and forced him to miss the Washington-Greene County Coaches Meet.

“I don’t know if it’s fully healthy or not, but I got the OK from my trainer. It hurts every now and then, but it hasn’t bothered me too much. I have been consistently fast and don’t really need to change anything going into the semifinals. I just need to run my race.”

Cavanaugh, the defending state champion in the 100-meter hurdles, coasted to a decisive first-place finish in the fourth heat (15.22). Her time was 1.27 seconds faster than anybody she ran against and the fourth highest of the 29 competitors in the event.

“I think I did good but slowed down a little bit (in the end),” Cavanaugh said. “It’s hard because you don’t have much competition but I tried to push through.”

Cavanaugh isn’t only aiming for back-to-back gold medals in the event, her eyes are set on breaking the PIAA record in the process. Markeeta Thomas of Paul Robeson in Philadelphia holds the best time at the state meet (14.03). She set that record in 2015.

“The semifinals will be better, then I’m trying to break the record in the finals,” Cavanaugh said. “It feels good just to get it done because that means I’m one step closer to the finals. When you are one second in front of everyone (breaking records) is something that gets you moving.”

Cavanaugh has a personal best of 14.51 in an intermittent spring season with the inclement weather. She ran a 14.44 in last year’s finals for the first-place finish.

“It was definitely hard because the weather didn’t cooperate and we had meet after meet cancelled,” she said. “That (record-breaking) time when I get to the finish line is what I’m chasing. I think I can get close.”