Yellowjackets boys, girls rule the day

By MIKE KILROY Eagle Staff Writer

May 06, 2010 Last Updated: May 06, 2010 03:35 PM High School

Darius Frantz of Freeport won the high jump with an effort of 6 feet, 4 inches Wednesday to help the Yellowjackets boys beat New Brighton, Beaver Falls and Burrell to win the WPIAL Class AA team track semifinal.

BUFFALO TWP — Freeport sophomore Aly Moore finished the anchor leg of the 1,600-meter relay, jogged over to the high jump pit and cleared 5 feet.

In a span of minutes, Moore put the finishing touches on a Yellowjackets girls track and field sweep over Center, Charleroi and Mount Pleasant in the WPIAL Class AA team track semifinals at Freeport High Wednesday.

The Freeport boys also swept their three opponents — New Brighton, Beaver Falls and Burrell — to close out a successful day for the Yellowjackets.

"Aly is such a competitor," said Freeport track and field coach Bill Dillen. "She hates to lose."

Moore didn't do much of that as Freeport notched a tightly contested 82-67 win over Mount Pleasant largely because of her effort in the relay and high jump.

She pulled away in the home stretch of the 1,600 relay to secure a win for Freeport. She also ran a leg of the school's record-breaking 400-meter relay earlier in the day.

After Moore cleared 5 feet in the high jump, the Yellowjackets clinched the win over Mount Pleasant and earned a trip to the WPIAL finals next Thursday.

The girls 400 relay team of Kamri Brestensky, Moore, Nicolette Blake and Chelsea Chaffman broke their own record in the event with a time of 52.2.

It was the third time this season the team has bettered the mark The original record of 52.7 was set a decade ago.

"It just gives us more motivation to push even harder to get to states," said Brestensky, who runs the first leg of the relay.

When they originally broke the record, the reaction was profound.

"We were jumping up and down and screaming," said Chaffman, who runs the anchor leg of the relay.

Now that breaking the record is old hat, the group has new and loftier goals.

"Fifty-one seconds," Brestensky said. "If we get 50, that would just be our dream. I feel like if we have the right competition, we can do it."

Competition certainly brought out the best in Chaffman, who made up a good 100-meter gap in her third leg of the 1,600 relay to set things up for Moore's anchor run.

"I was booking it," Chaffman said, laughing.

Now, Freeport can book itself into the WPIAL championships.

Any doubts about how important winning the title is to the Yellowjackets were washed away by Chaffman's furious sprint on the back straightaway.

"The team championship means as much to us as individual ones," Brestensky said.

Meanwhile, the Freeport boys ruled their opponents.

Darius Frantz was particularly dominant, winning both the high jump and the long jump.

His effort of 21-10¾ in the long jump broke a school record that was set by Dan Schweitering in 1964.

"It's crazy to think about all the people who came to this school, it's me who has a chance to do that," Frantz said. "I'm sort of speechless right now."

BoysFreeport 92, New Brighton 58Freeport 113½, Beaver Falls 36½Freeport 115, Burrell 35Track Events

3,200-meter relay: Freeport 9:12;

110 hurdles: Weathers (NB) 16.2;

100 dash: Andrew Teorsky (F) 11.7;

1,600 run: Kevin Keppel (F) 4:59;

400 dash: Shaw (B) 51.3;

400 relay: New Brighton 44.5;

300-meter hurdles: McFrazier (NB) 41.0;

800-meter run: Alex Isenberg (F) 2:07;

200-meter dash: Shaw (B) 23.0;

3,200-meter run: Kevin Keppel (F) 11:09;

1,600-meter relay: Freeport 3:41.5