Campbell leads York-Adams quartet of state track & field gold medalists

Laila Campbell sprinted back into the record books Saturday and remained atop the world of Pennsylvania high school girls’ track.

The Spring Grove junior captured another pair of gold medals in the 100 and 200 meters at the PIAA track and field championships, which were contested Friday and Saturday at Shippensburg University. Campbell has now swept those two events at states in each of her three high school seasons.

Campbell’s latest memorable performance highlighted a banner weekend for the York-Adams League, as four local athletes grabbed gold medals and three more earned silver. Her Spring Grove teammate, freshman Ella Bahn, captured the title in the 3A girls’ 400 meters. South Western’s Bernard Bell won the 3A boys’ 300 hurdles, while Bermudian Springs’ Lilyana Carlson took the 2A girls’ pole vault title.

Campbell and Bahn’s performances propelled Spring Grove’s girls to a fifth-place finish with 34 team points (10 for each gold medal and four for Bahn’s fifth-place showing in the high jump). Haverford Township took the title with 51 points, followed by North Penn’s 37, JP McCaskey’s 36 and West Chester Rustin’s 35.

Senior Bernard Bell’s gold and silver provided all the points South Western’s boys needed (18) to finish tied for fifth in Class 3A. Bermudian Springs, with Carlson and long jump silver medalist Alison Watts, finished 10th among 2A girls (19 points).

Class of her own: Campbell set the state record in the 100 last year with an 11.55, and after posting that exact time at the District 3 meet last weekend, she came home in 11.56 on Saturday morning to take the gold. She also posted a 23.54 in the 200, falling just short of the PIAA record of 23.52 but outpacing the field by nearly a full second.

Campbell breezed through the prelims with times of 11.63 and 23.78. She remained peerless in the final, finishing the 100 well clear of Oxford Area's Macaela Walker and Archbishop Ryan's Amirah Nesmith (11.92) and thundering past JP McCaskey’s Kamyah Wright (24.42) in the 200.

After New Balance Nationals in mid-June, Campbell will get some time off in the summer before returning for her senior year at Spring Grove. She hopes to make a college decision before school starts, and her national recruitment is down to Georgia, LSU and USC. 

Freshman sensation: Bahn’s postseason began with four gold medals — 100 hurdles, 300 hurdles, high jump and 800m — in the York-Adams League championships, and the Rocket rookie followed with three titles at districts, winning both hurdles events and the high jump. She put the icing on the cake Saturday with a triumph in the 300 hurdles, setting a new personal standard of 42.62 and winning by 0.11 seconds. Bahn was in fourth place before the final hurdle but sped to the front down the home stretch.

The gold medal certainly helped make up for a false start Friday in the prelims for the 100-meter hurdle prelims, knocking Bahn out of an event in which she expected to contend for a title. The freshman also finished fifth in Saturday’s high jump with a leap of 5-foot-4.

Senior sendoff: Bell earned a pair of state medals a year ago, finishing eighth in the 110 hurdles and seventh in the 300 hurdles. He won district titles in both events last weekend and came into states as the top seed. And the South Western senior finally took home PIAA gold Saturday in the 300 hurdles while adding a silver in the 110.

Bell set a new season best of 37.28 seconds to win the 300 hurdles title. West York’s Perry Addey, who won the event without Bell in the field at the YAIAA championships two weeks ago, finished third with a 38.29. Bell’s 110 hurdles time of 14.29 surpassed his qualifying mark but wasn’t enough to keep up with Pottstown’s Tyrese Washington, who crossed the line in 14.01.

After years of making headlines on the track at Shippensburg in district and state meets, Bell will compete for the NCAA Division II Raiders starting next year.

Sweet revenge: Lilyana Carlson was forced to settle for silver in the District 3 Class 2A pole vault, falling short in a tiebreaker against Trinity’s Adeline Woodward. Both athletes cleared 12 feet, but Woodward claimed the district crown due to having fewer total misses. Carlson and Woodward are friends who train together in Mechanicsburg, but their competition carried even higher stakes this weekend.

On Saturday, the pair went to a jumpoff after neither could surmount the 12-foot bar. And Carlson cleared in overtime to win state gold. Woodward took silver ahead of Lakeview’s Erika McGowan and Warrior Run’s Aurora Cieslukowski, who also topped out at 11-foot-6 but were left out of the jumpoff due to total misses.

It was the first PIAA gold medal for the sophomore, but it may not be the last.

Silver stars: Susquehannock’s Ryleigh Marks posted her third runner-up finish in as many weeks in the 100-meter hurdles. But after losing to Bahn at the county and district meets, Marks was up against a new set of foes in Saturday’s state final. She did her part, finishing with a blistering time of 14.11 seconds. But Oxford Area’s Macaela Walker took gold with a stunning 13.94.

Marks, a Shippensburg signee, added an eighth-place medal finish in the long jump with a mark of 17 feet, 6.25 inches.

Bermudian Springs’ Alison Watts earned a silver medal Friday in the 2A girls’ long jump with a leap of 17-foot-9.25 on her sixth and final attempt. Palmerton’s Natalie Walters took gold with an 18-foot-5.5 jump on her second attempt. Watts also medaled in Saturday’s triple jump, finishing eighth with a mark of 36-foot-9.5 — Walters won at 38-11 — and the Eagles junior also competed in the high jump, finishing 26th.

York Tech senior Matthew Arnold saved his best discus throw of the season for last, posting a mark of 177 feet on his sixth and final attempt to win state silver a year after not even competing for hardware at districts. Peyton Murray of Hempfield Area (District 7) won gold with a throw of 185-foot-9 on his second attempt. Bermudian Springs’ Aaron Weigle medaled with a fifth-place distance of 160-foot-9. Central York’s Joseph Sevison finished 21st.

On the podium: After breaking the 9-minute barrier in the 3,200 meters to win district gold and earn the top seed in the state meet, Susquehannock’s Matthew O’Brien went even lower in his final race of the year. But his 8:55.76 was only good enough for fourth place Saturday, more than eight seconds behind Hatboro Horsham’s Brian DiCola. O’Brien held a narrow lead after the first mile, but his three competitors — all of whom bested the previous PIAA record — pulled away in the second half of the race. The senior adds a state medal to a decorated career in track and cross country.

Dallastown senior Kailey Granger grabbed the eighth and final podium place in the 3A girls’ 3,200 meters, as her time of 10:36.90 edged out West Chester Rustin’s Ellie Keefer by 0.43 seconds. Wildcats sophomore Victoria Rodriguez finished 16th in the event. Both also competed in Friday’s 1,600 meters, with Granger finishing 14th and Rodriguez 17th. The two also helped lead Dallastown’s 4x800 relay team to a 13th-place showing.

Fairfield’s Ava Deming reached the finals in the 2A girls’ 400 meters with a preliminary mark of 59.05 seconds on Friday. The Green Knights’ senior came home in 1:00.28 to take eighth place in Saturday’s final.