SPEED KILLS

Fort Cherry boys win state title in 400-meter relay

Jonathan Guth/Observer-Reporter

SHIPPENSBURG — The lack of a home track and a bad exchange on the first handoff couldn’t stop the Fort Cherry boys 400-meter relay team of Dylan Wudkwych, Tegan Henke, Shane Cornali and Matt Sieg from winning the school’s first state championship in track & field Saturday afternoon during the PIAA championships at Shippensburg University’s Seth Grove Stadium.

The Rangers are in the minority when it comes to teams in the WPIAL without a home track & field facility and Sieg wasn’t able to compete in the postseason last year due to injury, but Fort Cherry was blessed this season with Sieg being able to compete and ran a time of 42.64 in the preliminaries on Friday to not only win its heat but qualify for the final as the top seed.

The Rangers were close to disaster in the final, as Henke and Wudkwych had trouble with the first exchange, but the senior duo recovered and Henke had a clean exchange with Cornali.

“Dylan was coming in extremely fast and I blinked, and he was already there at my line,” Henke said. “I left really late, missed the baton the first and second times before turning around the third time to grab the baton.

“I knew I had to make up some ground, and I ended up catching the kids in the lane to my right and a few other kids, and I kind of redeemed myself with that handoff. We were able to hit our PR (personal record) despite everything that happened.”

Fort Cherry was in second place when Cornali made the exchange with Sieg, but the sophomore, who is one of the top football recruits in the country, chased down and passed Mercyhurst Preparatory’s Craig Buckner for the win and Class 2A title in 42.43.

“We hope this is the first gold medal of many for us,” Sieg said. “We were definitely in second when I got the baton. I think Mercyhurst was five to 10 meters ahead of us. Looking back, waiting for Shane (Cornali), I saw him (Buckner) take off before me, and I was like, ‘Here we go, we gotta go,’ I got the baton from Shane, screamed some choice words of encouragement and took off.”

Henke and Wudkwych will be moving on to college but Cornali and Sieg will return, which catches the attention of many football aficionados, but the two can’t be overlooked on the track.

Wudkwych has played soccer for 13 years, but he has grown to appreciate track & field.

“I was never the biggest fan of track coming into this year,” Wudkwych said. “My mom made me do it because I was always a pretty athletic kid. I grew to love the sport this year, so I’m going to try and run in college along with playing soccer.”

Wudkwych will attend the University of Charleston in West Virginia.

Henke didn’t qualify for the state meet until this season, but he made the most of his time in Shippensburg, as he added a sixth-place finish in the 100 with a time of 11.05. Henke competed in the 200 but wasn’t able to qualify for the finals.

“I ended up breaking my foot my junior year and had to take a break,” Henke said. “I became a jumper for the first time in a while, but I got back into sprints this year.”

Henke joined track & field in junior high as a tribute to his late mother.

“My brother and my mother used to run 5Ks, and I ran one with them. I decided to join track & field my seventh-grade year after my mom had passed away. I wanted to do something that she loved, and I ended up loving it.”

Henke will attempt to walk-on for the track & field team in college at Kent State, but said he will participate in club and look to transfer to a school that would offer him a scholarship if he can’t make the team. Henke is planning to major in finance and accounting.