May 21—Brian McCormack closed out his District 2 Class 3A performance with a mad dash to the finish line.

He fell inches short of passing Abington Heights' Colin Donahoe in the 800-meter run after a furious charge down the final straightaway. Then, the Scranton junior made the difficult choice to run only the 3,200 at the PIAA Track and Field Championships this weekend at Shippensburg University.

No matter where McCormack finishes at the state meet, his season will go down as the most successful in Scranton program history for the distance events.

That sprint he made at Donahoe resulted in a time of 1 minute, 57.52 seconds, and while it did not produce a gold medal, it did earn him a school record. McCormack broke the old mark of 1:58.0 set by Andrew Lopez in 2016.

McCormack also broke his own school record in the 1,600 when he won a gold medal in 4:21.74. His previous best time was 4:22.64, which beat the record set by Brian Rosetti in 1998 of 4:22.80.

On the first day of the district meet, McCormack won the 3,200 with a time of 9:32.74. That is the event he is focused on for the state meet. Earlier this season, he set the school record in the event with a time of 9:31.16, which beat the mark of 9:35.65 set by Matt Byrne in 1993.

Record breakers

This season is the second for the two-day format in District 2.

Athletes took advantage, despite some challenging winds each day, by being at their best and producing school records among their medal-winning efforts.

Class 3A:

—Delaware Valley's Liliana Coe broke a five-way tie, which she was a part of, by clearing 10 feet in the pole vault for a silver medal in the Class 3A meet. Coe shared the old mark of 9-0 feet with Kelsey Kimble (2009), Ariel Christ (2006), Erica Zaleck (2002) and teammate Fiona Ring (2023).

—Honesdale's Rachael Collins won the Class 3A 400 in a school record time of 57.29. She beat the mark of 57.81 set by Janna Wilson in 2011.

—West Scranton's Abby Megotz also set a record in the Class 3A 400 with a time of 1:01.64, beating the old record of 1:02.04 set by Keyla Lantigua in 2019. Megotz was also part of the 1,600 relay team that included Aliana Cigliano, Vincentia McDonough and Emily Stefani and ran a school mark of 4:10.85. That shattered the mark of 4:15.88 the group set earlier this year.

—Valley View's school-record 3,200 relay team that included Bryce Sokoloski, Jakob Seamans, Ethan Williams and Connor Swartz had a time of 8:05.77.

—Delaware Valley's 400 relay team of Bradley Coe, Ryder Machado, Henry Goginsky and Armand Ruest set a school record with its time of 43.13. That beat the mark of 43.41 from the Jordan Relays event this season.

—West Scranton's 400 relay team of Gregory Dalzell, Joseph Harris, Taron Knight-Guerrier and Shaheem Oates ran a 44.07 to beat the school record of 44.10 set in 2017.

Class 2A:

—Mid Valley had two relay teams set school records in Class 2A. The 400 relay group that included Karly Rusyn, Mae Kaufman, Carolyn Chakiris and Natalie Talluto ran a 51.39, which beat their record of 51.52 from this spring. The Spartanettes team of Talluto, Sarah Adolfson, Carolyn Chakiris and Kaufman ran 4:25.43, which beat their time of 4:27.12 also set this season. Talluto had a big district meet by also breaking the school record in the 300 hurdles. She ran a time of 49.59 to beat the old mark of 51.14 set by Kali Mulea in 2018.

—Elk Lake senior Dannica Wagner jumped 16 feet, 4 inches to break the school record of 16-2.5 held by Grasyn Bushnell in 2017.

—Holy Cross' 3,200-meter relay of Teddy Novak, Jamie Prislupski, Luke Mozeleski and Ronnie Prislupski won the gold medal in a time of 8:22.61. It was faster than the 8:23.63 run in 2007.

—Elk Lake's Wyatt Johnson added four feet to his personal-best leap in the triple jump to earn gold. He broke the school record of 41-1 set by Matt Woolcock in 2013, and it is the fourth-best school-record triple jump in LTC history.

—Mid Valley's Gabe Pacyna darted around the oval for two laps in a school-record time of 1:57.48. He surpassed the school record of Lakeland coach Art Davis, who ran 1:58.24 in 1996.

—Dunmore's 1,600 relay team of Cole Fangio, Dom DeSando, Tommy Clark, and Cory Domiano won the gold with a time of 3:30.49, which broke the school record of 3:31.52 from 2017.

Same names

Several athletes broke their school records from earlier this year at the district meet.

—Wallenpaupack's Grace Steffen broke her school record in the shot put with a distance of 36-2 3/4 that earned her a silver medal in Class 3A.

—In an intense 3,200-meter race in the girls Class 3A meet, North Pocono's Emily Franklin ran 11:12.54 for a bronze medal and to break her school record of 11:20.91. Scranton's Bella Noreika won a fourth-place medal with a school-record time of 11:15.60, which beat her old mark of 11:24.24.

—Abington Heights' Madison Zalewski struck gold in the Class 3A javelin with a distance of 120-7, which beat her school record of 116-11. Western Wayne's Paige Lee also captured gold in the Class 2A javelin with a school-record toss of 116-1 that beat her record of 114-11.

—Mountain View's Carissa Flynn ran a time of 5:22.05 to win a bronze medal in the 1,600. She beat her school record of 5:26.68, which she set in 2021.

—Riverside's Daniel Danilovitz broke his school record in his win in the 3,200 with a time of 9:36.24. That surpassed his time of 9:36.46 from the Jack Roddick Invitational earlier this spring.

Blast of the past

One athlete who could not compete at the District 2 Class 2A Championship meet because of an injury also left her mark on the record book at Montrose.

Stephanie Summerville ran a season-best time of 2:21.24 in the 800 for the Lady Meteors this spring. That broke a long-standing school record of 2:22.14 set by Barketta Kerns in 1982.

Contact the writer:

jbfawcett@timesshamrock.com