Mars fulfills its team goal

By MIKE KILROY Eagle Staff Writer

May 11, 2007 Last Updated: May 11, 2007 01:58 PM High School

Derek Workman of Mars crosses the finish line to give the Planets a win in the 3,200-meter relay in a time of 8 minutes, 46.87 seconds Thursday at the WPIAL Class AA Track and Field Championships. The Planets boys captured their first team title since 1971.

Planets grab 1st title since 1971

ADAMS TWP — In February, the Mars boys track and field team circled May 10 on the calendar.

The Planets' goal was a simple one: leave the track as WPIAL Class AA champions on that day.

Behind the efforts of just about everyone on the roster, Mars fulfilled that goal by downing Riverside 99-51, Southmoreland 89-61 and New Brighton 87-63 Thursday to win its first WPIAL team championship since 1971.

"There's that banner hanging in the gym that says 'WPIAL champs '71,'" said Mars coach Joe Cioc. "Today, it's not going to mean as much as 10 years from now, 20 years from now, when you bring your kid into that gym and say, 'You see that '07, that's me. That was us.'"

Mars did it in much the same way it dominated the dual meet schedule: it got big points in just about every event.

Derek Workman had the best overall time in the 400-meter and 800-meter runs, as well as anchoring the Mars 3,200-meter relay that had the fastest time.

Cody Kier beat everyone in the 1,600 and 3,200, and Justin Piocquidio cleared 6 feet in the high jump and went 21 feet, 9Z\v inches in the long jump to best the rest of the field.

Mars also got plenty of second- and third-place finishes.

"Those third places win you championships," Cioc said. "You look at that score sheet in there, there aren't very many kids who didn't contribute a point."

Once the title was secure, team members tried to douse Cioc with Gatorade, but the veteran coach thwarted their every attempt.

They did manage to chase down an assistant coach, however.

When senior Josh Thompson found out the Planets had secured the title, he blurted out a simple directive, "Let's go eat."

Mars' prom is today, and Kier couldn't think of a better way to kick off prom weekend.

"Now we can go celebrate," he said. "I don't know what we are going to do. Go to an all-you-can-eat buffet, party, something. We better do something big."

Workman was more, well, workmanlike when it came to his thoughts on the title.

"We finally did it," Workman said. "All that talk about how good our class was going to be when we were sophomores, we finally got to show it our senior year."

BoysMars 99, Riverside 51Mars 89, Southmoreland 61Mars 87, New Brighton 63(first place overall finishers)3,200-meter relay: Mars (Justin Stadelmyer, Eric Standish, Brandon Stadelmyer, Derek Workman) 8:46.87;

110-meter hurdles: Dan Lynch (M) 15.7;

100-meter dash: Mackey (NB) 11.1;

1,600-meter run: Cody Kier (M) 4:46;

400-meter dash: Workman (M) 52.6;

400-meter relay: New Brighton 44.2;

300-meter hurdles: Ley (NB) 41.5;

800-meter run: Workman (M) 2:08.31;

200-meter dash: Bill Bair (M) 23.2;

3,200-meter run: Kier (M) 10:35.50;

1,600-meter relay: New Brighton 3:35.78

High jump: Justin Piocquidio (M) 6-0;

Long jump: Piocquidio (M) 21-9¼;