Friday night’s YAIAA Track and Field Championships at Dallastown High School produced champions who made Hanover area history as well as getting gold medals.

Fairfield’s Devin Wilt became his school’s first conference champion in track since Zach Pitzer won the Class AA 300-meter hurdles in 2004 at the Mid-Penn Championships.

Titles by Logan Bowman in the 400-meter dash, Dillon Langenfeld in the long jump and Ryan Hertzog in the 3,200-meter run extended South Western’s streak of a boys’ champion to six straight years.

Noe Aguilar’s shot put victory was his school’s first YAIAA championship since Joey Wagner won the 400-meter dash in 2005. Aguilar became Biglerville’s first shot put conference champion since Keith Kellison won a Mid-Penn Class AA crown in 1994.

On the girls’ side, Jamilla Janneh’s triple and long jump crowns give her five league titles in the past two years. That was last achieved by South Western’s Catie Hare, who took five individual and relay crowns in 2004-05.

By Zach Smart

The light at the end of the tunnel isn’t blinding, though it’s sure as hell visible for the Hanover girls and boys track teams. The Nighthawks entered this season without the high expectations, hearsay, and hype that some of its larger and more recognized Hanover area foes were shrouded with.

None of it matters now. Hanover has proven itself as a contender with multi-faceted tools, with high-octane athletes in the middle to long distance and field events.

Senior distance runner Steve Osladil, who like Delone’s runners may not have the amenity of a home track to run intervals and gauge his 1600 and 3200 times on, has made a seamless transition.

The kid who shouldered the role of junkyard dog for Hanover’s basketball team (grappling for loose balls, crashing the boards with a reckless abandon, hitting the deck to keep a ball in play, boxing out and setting hard picks as if he’d swallowed a case of red bull prior to tip off) has broken the five-minute barrier in the mile.

Yesterday, at the Last Chance Invitational at Bermudian, Osladil bounced back from a heart-stalling disqualification. After stalking Delone’s Nick Poole and riding his back shoulder for a bulk of the 1600, one official ruled that Osladil was riding the line. Meaning, his spikes had slipped over the DO NOT CROSS line at the edge of the track.

In a tightly packed race of this quality, several runners were flying all around. Osladil was the lone harrier to get caught in the act, a mega buzz kill that reputed Hanover distance coach Greg Yiengst politely tried to debate.

Osladil made a quick recovery and busted out a 10:53 in the 3200. Despite just one year of varsity experience, Osladil will prolong his career at Indiana Wesleyan, where he’s bent on making an immediate impact in both track and cross-country. His leaps-and-bounds growth indicates that he’ll arrive at the land of the Hoosiers in ship-shape.

The emergence of freshman Morgan Herrick has also given Hanover the prominence in the sport that’s historically played second, third, fourth fiddle to other spring sports at Hanover High.

Let the past be the past. Stay in the now.

Herrick has surfaced as one of the area’s top-shelf high jumpers. During yesterday’s performance at Bermudian, Herrick cleared a meet-best 5-feet to rack up first place honors.

In a tight duel with Delone Catholic sophomore Cambria Weirman, Herrick had the final say, closing the deal with her fifth straight performance of clearing five feet.

As a freshman, Herrick oozes of sky-scraping potential. The last few meets, she’s been hell-bent on establishing a new personal record. The area leader in the high jump is New Oxford’s  Temple-bound senior Jamilla Janneh. Janneh is eyeballing a return to the PIAA Class AAA meet, where she earned a berth in the high, triple, and long jump last season.

The area has been rich with freshmen flavor this season, particularly in the high jump. Running parallel with Herrick’s rapid evolution has been the explosion of Bermudian freshman Ryan Markle, who has already tied the school record (6-2 1/2).

Herrick has been a steady supplement to senior Abby Rhoades, who won the shot put with a distance of 37-8.

Zoie Cleary, who— like Osladil—has swam with the sharks of the long distance events despite not having a cross country team, took first place in the girls 3200, clocking 11:58. Lynn Eisenberg won the 800, busting out to a commanding start and then sharpening her kick with the final straightaway to clock a time of 2:26.

Delone is stacked with young talent. South Western also has a decent match of talent in distance (see Hertzog, Ryan for more on that one) and field events.

Don’t sleep on Hanover.

By Zach Smart

Coursing through Brady Wilt’s blood stream is an abundance of adrenaline.

Wilt, a spindly freshman long distance runner at Biglerville High, has been running competitively since his elementary school days.

The freakish freshman, who clocked a 4:41 in the 1,600 in the Dallastown Invitational a few weeks ago, has been the never-dwindling engine that coach Alex Ramos has pumped his gas money into throughout the season.

Running, in some instances, can be classified as an old man’s sport. There are guys who revive their competitive spirit on the wrong side of 40, proving they “still got it” with a rigorous workout regimen and a constant commitment to chipping seconds off of their 5K time.

South Western assistant coach Pete Dodd is a prime example of a runner who has aged like a fine wine. While the rigors of father time and coaching could have easily ransacked him of his ambition, Dodd has been a fixture at the front pack of races throughout York County.

The other day, a blistering Sunday afternoon, Dodd busted out a light 19:40 5K on the Mustangs home track. His legs weren’t smoked afterward. Sure, he developed a sweat-soaked spot on his white t-shirt, albeit appeared as if he could bust out another 5K with little difficulty right there on the spot. If he was a few generations younger, he might dispatch his shirt and sling it over his back to impress the young ladies who arrived at at the track in droves that afternoon.

“And I’m 53,” Dodd added, rubbing it in my face as I recovered from a sun-baked four mile trek.

If you were a runner who stumbled upon Brady Wilt at a 5K or a marathon when he was just a youngster, you may have confused him for another Santa Clause-loving young gun competing in the kid’s fun run for the sheer joy of the experience.

Not so fast.

The slim killer breaks out of the chute with a blistering start, settles in and then relaxes his stride.

Nowadays, in a competitive race of that magnitude, you may half expect to hear Ramos (a track junkie who starred in football and track at Shippensburg University) shelling out orders to “relax!”

“Relax Brady!”

Wilt doesn’t wilt, settling in and quickly extending his stride while lasering on the runner in front of him.

If he sees a passageway, he’ll decide to pick off  the front runner during a crucial point in the race.

After floating through the heavy distance, Wilt unleashes a kick (one which he’s worked on exploding into more, during summer runs and runs at John Rudy Park with formidable foe Nick Poole of Delone Catholic) and breaks into the finish line.

It’s almost impossible to gauge if he’s tired or not, even after logging three and a half miles of total distance at go-go race speed. His legs aren’t smoked. You can still hear the excitable pitch in his voice.

Wilt totes considerable speed for a freshman, but the slim neophyte has the endurance to run the 800, 1600, and 3,200 to rack up points for his team. He’s lethal for his high-engine.

Brady also has the luxury of family competition, whichly  ultimate helps push his production.

His cousin, Devin Wilt of Fairfield, has meshed in with Fairfield’s fleet of distance runners headlined by John Roan.

Haven’t heard of Brady Wilt? Haven’t seen a highlight package of his circulating across Youtube, or a story with his name littered all over it on GameTime?

Not to worry. You will soon enough.