Nick Hilty made history at last week’s WPIAL Class 2A track and field championships at Slippery Rock University.
With his fifth-place finish in the boys discus, the junior multi-sport standout became the first Leechburg athlete ever to qualify for the PIAA championships.
Hilty, who will throw at Shippensburg University on Friday at 12:30 p.m. as the 27th seed (138 feet, 6 inches), said he is not just happy to be there. He said he has better throws left in him, and he hopes to climb the ladder against the best in the state.
“I have nothing to lose,” said Hilty, who first picked up a discus just two months ago at the start of the season.
“This is just an amazing feeling to be going to states. I have never been in this spot before. I don’t know what to expect, but I also didn’t going into WPIALs, and it turned out all right for me. All these people came up and were congratulating me and telling me I am making history, but I am still trying to understand that. But I hope to help raise expectations that this can be done every year at Leechburg.”
Hilty entered WPIALs seeded 11th with a season-best 132-4 set at one of the last-chance meets. Nine made the finals after the first set of three throws, and Hilty was in ninth by several feet.
He landed in fifth by a full 5 feet ahead of sixth-place finisher, Laurel senior Jack Miles (133-6).
“I was nervous as there were a lot of kids from schools I had never seen before,” he said. “It was wet and cold, and it affected me a little. My last throw (of the finals) was my best throw. I knew what I needed, and I got it.”
Hilly is not small in stature by any means, but there were some bigger guys, including several football linemen who threw the discus last Thursday.
“The kid who won it from Laurel (senior Kevin Mahoney, 161-9) was a pretty big kid, and the Triple-A Belle Vernon kid (champion Ryan Kent, 180-1) was huge,” Leechburg throwing coach Blake Davis said.
“I think it was impressive that he was able to hang the way he did. He was very explosive, very aggressive. The fact that he was able to do this so fast … I still can’t picture that we’re going (to states) on Thursday. But we are, and he is because he worked so hard for it and earned it. We’re just so excited to see what he can do.”
Hilty will throw with the five other WPIAL qualifiers — the top five in each Class 2A event earned automatic berths to states — including Riverview’s Jack Reynolds.
The Raider senior placed third at WPIALs (144-5) and is seeded 23rd. He also will throw at states for the first time.
Preliminary heats and finals on the track and in the field begin Friday at 9 a.m. and continue through the 1,600 relay preliminaries at 4:15 p.m.
Numerous medals and championships will be decided Saturday starting at 9 a.m.
Freeport’s Mackenzie Magness will compete in four events at states for the second year in a row. The now three-time WPIAL pole vault champion is out to defend her PIAA pole vault title and is the second seed at the same 12-0 height she won at last year.
Rival Aleah Morgante, a junior from Grove City in District 10, is the top seed at 12-8.5.
Magness is the 24th seed in the long jump (17-1.5), 12th with Paige Cene, Maggie Conger and Madison Sleppy in the 400 relay (50.25) and 21st in the 1,600 relay with Sleppy, Cene, and Pavana Bhat.
Magness just missed a state medal in the long jump last year as she took ninth overall, and the 1,600 relay was 16th.
Deer Lakes senior William Bagley returns to states hoping to improve on his 22nd-place finish in last year’s 300 hurdles.
The newly crowned WPIAL champion in the 300 with a school-record 38.99 is the 10th seed in a deep field. The top seed for states is a 37.33.
Apollo-Ridge senior Jaden McCray fell short of his goal of a WPIAL-title repeat in the boys javelin — he took third overall (168-9) — but he has new life at states in his final varsity competition. McCray is seeded 15th.
Knowing his personal best is 174-10, he hopes to surpass that as he also seeks to improve on last year’s ninth-place PIAA finish and get on the medals podium at Shippensburg’s Seth Grove Stadium.
Burrell sophomore Lily Liotta was 10th in the girls long jump last year in her PIAA debut. This year, she will shoot for a medal as the 18th seed in the triple jump. Liotta, the school-record holder in the triple, placed second at WPIALs with a top leap of 36-¼.
The Riverview boys 1,600 relay of Carter Baldwin, Price Govan, Trenton Johnson and Braden Longstreth will attempt to improve on last year’s 27th. The Raiders quartet ran almost nine seconds faster at WPIALs (3:30.64) than the relay did at states last year.
Burrell junior Riley Quinn will make her PIAA debut in the girls discus. She is seeded 14th (113-3) after placing fifth at WPIALs and also surpassing the state qualifying standard (113-0).
Riverview junior Ashton Saunders will run individually at states for the first time. He is the 29th seed in the boys 800 after placing fifth at WPIALs (1:59.96).