B-A boys track sweeps; Gerwert breaks record in girls losses

Courtesy photo

B-A’s track teams used a rare sunny day this spring to post impressive individual and team performances.

Jake Miller, Sports Editor

The Bellwood-Antis girls track team didn’t have the best luck in their meets against Southern Fulton and Juniata Valley, but that didn’t mean every athlete didn’t preform well.

Southern Fulton beat the Lady Blue Devils handily with a score of 115-35, but the match-up between Juniata Valley and B-A was much closer. Bellwood-Antis tied the Lady Hornets 75-75 at the end of the day, but the tie-breakers awarded Juniata Valley the win as they had 10 first places to B-A’s eight.

B-A senior Lexi Gerwert broke the Bellwood-Antis’ girls pole vault record (which she held formerly), at a height of 11″2′, placing first by nearly four feet as B-A’s girls swept the pole vault. Gerwert weathered icy winds and temperature in the high 30°s, which makes her record breaking vault even more impressive.

Impressive for everyone save Gerwert herself.

“I’m not all that impressed,” Gerwert said. “I know I can jump higher than I did.”

Gerwert said her goal this year is to jump 12′, but how high she can go depends on her ability to adapt to a new pole.

“If I stay on he pole I’ve been using, I can get up 10 11’6″. If I switch, I can go higher. I’ve been trying to get on the other pole for about a year. It’s a lot stiffer and taller than the one I have been using.”

Gerwert will go head-to-head with some of the area’s best Saturday when she competes that the Altoona Invitational, affectionately known as the Igloo Meet.

Jenna Bartlett and Kamryn Mercer also scored first places for B-A on Thursday in the 3200 and the high jump respectively, but this wasn’t enough to give B-A’s girls a win against either side.

In the boys meet, Bellwood-Antis swept Southern Fulton and Juniata Valley by scores of 108-42 and 137-13 respectively to move their record to 4-0 and 2-0 against ICC competition.

The Blue Devils swept the relays, and took first overall in 13 events, only losing in the 1600 and 3200 where Southern Fulton took first and second.

Clay Engle stood out in the jumps once again, winning the high, triple and long jumps, while Shawn Wolfe took first in the 100 and 200.

Dylan Wilson won both the 110 and 300 hurdles.

Chris Wertman (shot put), Dominic Faith (pole vault), Braden Heisler (javelin) and Jared Zitterbart (discus) all claimed first-place finishes as B-A swept the field events.