Painful ending for Hall at States

SHIPPENSBURG >> Ache Hall winced and grabbed his lower back as he came off the track in his heat of the boys Class AAA 110-meter high hurdles Friday afternoon.
Something wasn’t right.
“I think I may have pinched a nerve during the triple jump,” the junior from Springfield said.
Hall went over to the medical tent to get looked at by a trainer, but they could not diagnose the problem. A few minutes later he was on the podium at Shippensburg’s Seth Grove Stadium to receive the eighth-place medal he earned in the triple jump.
It was little consolation for the young man who came to Shippensburg with the hope of winning three medals at the PIAA Track & Field Championships. Hall qualified for the 300 intermediate hurdles along the 110 hurdles and the triple jump. However, the injury forced his to scratch from the 300 hurdles.
“It’s not the way I wanted to end my season,” Hall said. “I really thought I could medal in all three.”
It was a tough triple made even more difficult by a tight time schedule. The triple jump started at 9 a.m. The 110 hurdles went off shortly after 11 a.m. The 300 hurdles began around 3 p.m.
After taking his preliminary attempts in the triple jump, Hall checked in at the 110 hurdles not knowing if he had qualified for the final. While he was in the tent waiting for the hurdles to start he was called back to the triple jump to take his final attempts in that event.
Hall and his coach, Barry Foster, asked if Hall to complete the triple jump after the 110 hurdles. The request, though, was refused. Foster was not pleased.
“They said they didn’t want to hold up the meet so he had to go back and take all three of his jumps in the final,” Foster said. “I thought this was supposed to be an athlete friendly meet?”
Hall took his first two jumps in sequence and then jumped out of order for his final attempt to get back in time for the start of the hurdles. He jumped 45-10 ½ to medal.
“Look at him,” Foster said as Hall lined up for his heat in the 110s. “He’s tired.”
Actually, he was hurting. He injured his back on his last attempt.
“I’ve done it before, but I didn’t expect the two to be that close together, Hall said. “I wasn’t tired, but once I hurt my back I just wasn’t right.”
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Hall was the only Delco medal winner on the day. Quadir Gibson of Glen Mills was the only other county athlete in a final Friday. He finished 18th in the shot put (50-6½).
In that event, Jordan Geist of Knoch shattered the meet record by over three feet with a massive heave of 74-3½. That was less than three feet shy of Michael Carter’s national high school record of 77-0.
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At first, Penn Wood’s Sekou Kanneh thought he had broken his personal record in the 300-hurdles, but he read the time on the scoreboard incorrectly.
Considering how hot it was, the fact that it was Kanneh’s second qualifying race of the day and that he was more than 50 feet away from the scoreboard and that the numbers nine and eight look very similar on the big board, the mistake was understandable.
In the end, all that mattered is that he qualified for the final in both hurdles events. Kanneh tied for the eighth-fastest time in the 110 hurdles (14.88 seconds) and the fourth best in the 300 hurdles (39.38).
“I had to run a hard race,” Kanneh said. “There were a lot of good runners out there.”
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Liam Galligan survived the heat and a face pace to qualify for the final in the 1,600-meter run. He was third in his heat and fourth overall in 4:22.10. The top eight runners in his heat advanced to the 12-man final.
Keon Rantin of Glen Mills had the third fastest time in preliminary round of the 200-meter dash (22.13). Earlier in the day, Rantin teamed with Marshawn Peters, Ryan Gillis and Denarii Springs to qualify for the final in the 4 x 100-meter relay. Rantin also is on the Bulls’ 4 x 400-meter relay team. However, weather forced PIAA officials to stop the meet after the trials in the girls Class AA 4 x 400 relay. The remaining classes will be reseeded and run as timed finals Saturday.
Quentin Francis, Ryan James, Pat James and Rob Morro made sure Cardinal O’Hara qualified for the final in the 4 x 800-meter relay.
It was a disappointing day for David Whitfield and Justin Jones of Cardinal O’Hara. Whitfield was the top seed and Jones was seeded seventh in the 800, but neither runner qualified for the final.
“This is different up here,” Whitfield said. “It’s not District 12 and it’s not Delaware County and you have to run your best.”