Gettysburg High School track and field won Mid-Penn championships on both the boys’ and girls’ sides after blowing away their competition, going a combined 14-0 throughout the season, and breaking long-standing school records along the way. After sending 14 athletes to the annual PIAA District III meet this past weekend, six of those athletes will be returning to Shippensburg University for the PIAA State Championship meet.
I spoke with Head Coach Doug Crist about everything from the overall season, team leadership, and the exciting postseason that these Warrior athletes have experienced.
“That’s what wins championships, you either meet the moment or you shrink away from it,” he said. Both teams were led by a strong group of seniors who helped show the underclassmen how to be good teammates and leaders. Coach Crist talked about his senior captain Kye’mere Robinson, “Kye has been a great captain, and he’s achieved a lot.” Coach continued, “He’s taken the lead in helping a lot of his teammates in the jumps as well, girls and boys, to improve their personal best. I think that epitomizes being a good teammate and captain. I couldn’t be prouder of Kye for what he’s achieved this year.”
Robinson placed third at districts with a personal best in triple jump of 46-00, an improvement to his gold medal winning jump at Mid-Penn Championships of 45-11 that was also a personal best at the time. Kye’mere is a back-to-back gold medalist at Mid-Penn’s, a PIAA District III bronze medalist, and currently seeded 6th for the PIAA State Championships.
On the girls’ side, there was only one state qualifier, that was senior Caroline Bannak. Despite a state qualifying time in the 100H, she finished 12th at Districts and missed the cut for the state meet. “In districts, you have to be in the top eight to go on and qualify for states, even if your time exceeds the state standard. It was a loaded field, but she hit her personal best, so you can’t ask for much more than that.” The 300H was a different story, where she finished with a time of 45.17, placing fifth and punching her ticket to states. Bannak’s time set a new school record for the 300H, the second school record she’s broken; she was on the 4×800 team that broke a 42-year-old record in April.
“Caroline, this season, is obviously the most versatile and outstanding athlete on the team,” said Coach Crist. “She was a key component, if not the key component, in winning our division championship,” he continued, “She’s like the queen on the chess board. We could move her in any direction and she would swoop in and cause a lot of damage.” Bannak competed and scored points for her team in 9 of 18 possible events that take place during a track meet. 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 4×100, 4×400, and 4×800; with her specialties being the 100H & 300H.
The boy’s 4×800 relay team of Owen Clapsadle, Nico Oshunrinade, Luke Breighner, & Luis Martinez was looking to make the medal stand at Districts but were happily surprised to see they got a bid to the State Championship meet to go along with their fifth-place medals. “When they flashed the results up we were fifth, and I think it took them a few seconds to realize that the top five in District 3 for 3A go to states, so they were going to states!” Coach Crist is excited to see this relay team try to knock some time off of their personal best of 8:10.31 to see if they can run a sub-eight-minute time.
After their second meet, and handedly defeating defending champs Greencastle-Atrium, Coach Crist had an inkling that these teams might be special. They ended up going a combined 14-0 and no meet having a margin of closer than 15 points. “Oh, we might be in business here,” he recalled, “We sorta held serve the rest of the season. The kids actually started making fun of me.”
Both boys’ and girls’ teams had outstanding senior leadership and multiple people at each event who could score points, but the impressive young talent on these teams is what really puts them over the edge. Sophomore Sammie Campbell was voted team MVP, highlighting her importance to the team throughout the season. “I would ask her a couple times, like Caroline, to run four events but in Sammie’s case that includes 3200, 1600, 800, 4×800, and she would go out and win them all,” Coach Crist continued, “As a sophomore she placed second at Mid-Penns, just missed the district medal stand, broke the 3200m record, and was a part of the 4×800 record breaking team.” According to her coach, Sammie Campbell can always be found running around the track with a smile on her face, an indication of her overall positive daily outlook.
Another exciting piece for the future of Gettysburg High School track & field is freshman Rylan Harlow. He is a 400m runner who was clocked at 53 seconds as an eighth grader. He hit his stride midway through the season and finished with a season best of 51.63 as well as, hopefully, the first of four, a trip to districts. “It took him a while to get warmed up. I think in some ways, 400-meter runners do better when the weather gets warmer, but we knew he was going to be pretty good.”
Harlow was one or two freshmen to qualify for the 400m in the PIAA District III AAA meet. “We’re looking at him as being a real explosive and outstanding athlete for years to come,” said the coach. Harlow will be the alternate for the 4×800 relay team that is running in the state meet.
Coach Crist shared with me a great story of one of his young athletes “rising to the moment” at the district meet.
Crist wanted to take Caroline Bannak out of the 4×800 relay team so she could focus on running the 300H. To fill her spot, he called upon a quiet freshman. He explains, “What I did was stick a shy freshman named Isla Lewis in the first leg, who was our next best 800 time, and I wasn’t quite sure how that was gonna go as her best time was 2:38 and she’d been sick the past few weeks,” he continued, “We stuck her in the lead leg and instead of shying away from the moment, she rose to it and ran 2:31.”
Lewis proved she belonged on the district stage and will look to contribute to the distance crew much more next season. With her, Campbell, and sophomore Audrey Trax all returning next year, and being veterans of the 4×800, the 42-year-old record that was broken back in April may not stand long as this group will continue to improve through the off-season.
There is a lot to look forward to with Gettysburg High School track & field, whether it is the PIAA State Championships this Friday and Saturday, or if it’s next season, where they will look to repeat as Mid-Penn champions. The talent rising through the ranks is in a good place with the foundation that seniors like Kye’mere Robinson, Caroline & Lily Bannak, Owen Clapsadle, Kyler Benedict, and others have laid as well as having the continued guidance from Coach Crist.
Kye’mere Robinson will compete in the triple jump beginning at 9 am Friday, May 23rd. Caroline Bannak will compete in the 300H beginning at 1:30 pm Friday, May 23rd, with the finals being run at 1:55pm Saturday, May 24th. The boys’ 4×800 will compete at 11am Saturday, May 24th. Live results can be found at https://www.piaa.org/sports/championship_details.aspx?sport=track.
