Frosh Rowe wins high jump
WHITEHALL — Two short months ago, Hannah Rowe had no idea what she was doing in the high jump.
The Knoch freshman had never tried the event before. In fact, she had never even stepped foot on a track before.
“I knew absolutely nothing,” Rowe said, laughing. “Nothing.”
But Rowe proved to be a quick learner. Tall and lean and with an uncanny ability to explode over the bar, Rowe took an early shine to the event.
And now, she's a WPIAL champion.
Rowe cleared 5 feet, 4 inches at the WPIAL Girls Class AAA Track and Field Championships Thursday at Baldwin High School to claim the title.
She highlighted a big day for Butler County girls athletes. Three individuals and one relay team left with gold medals around their necks.
“I didn't expect this. I definitely did not,” Rowe said, smiling. “My first jump was 4-10 and I was just trying to get 5-foot. It took almost a month to get there.”
But things started to click for Rowe nearly two weeks ago when she cleared 5-2 in a dual meet at Moniteau.
Rowe said she was shooting for 5-3 Thursday. But when she cleared 5-4, she didn't know how to react.
“I was in shock when I cleared that,” Rowe said. “I didn't even speak. I didn't know what to say. All I kept thinking was, 'Did I just do that?'”
Rowe wasn't the only freshman to come home with a title.
Freeport freshman Sidney Shemanski broke her own school record in the 800-meter run with a time of 2 minutes, 19.96 second to place first in the Class AA race.
This was the biggest meet Shemanski, who has already played on big stages for the Yellowjackets' soccer and basketball teams, had ever competed in.
She admitted it got to her at first.
“This was honestly the most nervous I've ever been, even for a soccer game or a basketball game. Anything,” Shemanski said. “All the people here and all the competition — it was pretty nerve-racking.”
But once the race started, Shemanski settled in and made a strong push over the last 200 meters to take home the gold.“I usually have a pretty strong kick at the end,” Shemanski said.“It's amazing. I'm utterly excited. It's just so unreal to me.”Winning the Class AAA discus with a school record throw of 140 feet, 4 inches was also unreal to Butler junior Jena Reinheimer.She had set a goal for herself to break the school record in the discus before she graduated. She just never thought it would come so soon.Reinheimer broke the record of 139-9 set by Liz Eury in 1998.“It feels amazing,” Reinheimer said. “I'm just on cloud nine right now.”Reinheimer was also third in the shot put.Butler's 1,600-meter relay team left nothing to chance on the way to a WPIAL Class AAA title.The Golden Tornado team of Maddie Tonini, Liz Simms, Shana Hoy and Alexis Leech cruised to a school-record time of 3:53.05.“It's incredible to get that kind of time as a team,” Tonini said. “We've been working really hard all year. ”It has the relay team thinking big next weekend at the PIAA Track and Field Championships in Shippensburg.“I think it shows us we can go into the 3:40s at states,” Simms said. “That's been a big goal.”
