NTL TRACK & FIELD: ATHENS GIRLS, BOYS LOOKING TO FILL VOIDS AFTER LOSS OF KEY SENIORS (2019-03-26)

Valley Sports Report
ATHENS - The Lady Wildcats are coming off a banner season, which included a second-place finish at the PIAA Track & Field Championships, but lost a pair of Division I talents, while the Athens boys graduated several key seniors.

There's also a new look atop the program as Scott Riley returns to the program to coach the boys team in the wake of longtime coach David Gabriel stepping down after last season. Ben Gambrell returns as the girls coach.

Athens opens the 2019 season this afternoon when it hosts North Penn-Mansfield.

GIRLS
The Lady Wildcats enter the 2019 campaign without a pair of familiar faces in six-time PIAA gold medalist Breana Gambrell, who won 11 medals at States and is now at Penn State, and Emily Lunger, who won five PIAA medals and is now at Division I St. Francis.

"Knowing we were losing major points with the graduating class of 2018, "who's next?" has been the motivating chant this year," said Athens girls coach Ben Gambrell.

"We have four solid seniors, all with NTL and District Medals from last year; two of which earned medals at States in Ariana Gambrell and Rachel Hutchison," he noted.

Hutchison and Ariana Gambrell each have eight District 4 medals, including three gold medals and one silver medal apiece.

Ariana Gambrell won the District 4 gold in the 100-meter hurdles with a school-record time of 15.46, and was fourth in the long jump, just three inches off the state standard.

Hutchison won the District gold in the 300-meter hurdles in a school-record time of 44.75 seconds.

At States, Hutchison fell in the preliminaries of the 300-meter hurdles, but got up to finish fifth in the heat. Ariana Gambrell advanced to the semis in the 100-meter hurdles. The duo won silver medals at States in the 400-meter relay, along with Breana Gambrell and Lunger.

"My other two seniors -Sophie Adams and Paige McCarthy - are experienced and I expect them to do nicely this year," added Ben Gambrell.

McCarthy finished ninth in the javelin at Districts last year.

Also returning are juniors Samantha Markle, Madison Joslyn, Sierra Ardrey, Krista Manning, Cassidy Stackpole, Avery Priester, Julia Briar, Hannah Forbes, and Haley Chambers, and sophomores Emma Roe, Leah Liechty, Eva Wood and Sara Harris.

"Many of our juniors started earning points for the team last year," said Ben Gambrell. "I expect them to step up and be even more productive this year, now that they have some experience under their belt."

Newcomers for the Lady Wildcats this season are junior Amber Grazul, sophomore Payta Bentley, Alexandria Martin, Hannah Walker, Laceylynn Isham, Natalie Dailey, Elizabeth Carey, Raven McCarthy-Gardner, Kendra Bartlow, Taylor Walker, Asia Ardrey, and Olivia Bartlow.

"As for the rest of the team, we are young, but learning and growing," said Ben Gambrell. "Many put in some work during the off-season, working on technique and getting stronger.

"I can't wait to see how it all comes together as the season develops," he added.

BOYS
The Wildcats graduate several key seniors, but return a large group of experienced athletes, and will get some help from a large group of newcomers, featuring a big freshman class. Athens could also benefit from a drop to Class AA this season.

"We graduated some key point-scorers in many events after last season," said Riley. " However, there are some top-notch returning athletes and a very large group of freshman and sophomores looking to fill voids.

"They have spent the first two weeks of practice working extremely hard to prove they are ready to contribute," added Riley.

Returning are seniors Zach Trasco, Camden Allen, Zach Anderson, Chase Fritz, and Noah Wright, as well as juniors Ben Biles, Damian Hudson, Tivon Liguori, T.J. Toscano, and Dylan Comstock.

Benny Gambrell leads the returning sophomore group, which also includes Jon Ayres, Connor Dahl, Mason Henderson, James Benninger-Jones, Carter Jones, Asher Ellis, and Lucas Aquilio.

Hudson finished third in the 200-meter dash at the District 4, Class AAA meet last year, Benny Gambrell (long jump), Noah Wright (discus) and Biles (high jump) each had ninth-place finishes.

The group of Athens newcomers is a mix of upper classmen and freshmen. New faces to the program are seniors Satchel Manchester, Brayden Murrelle, and Zachary Smith, juniors Denver Hatch and Carson Stanfield, sophomores Zac Gowin, Connor Sindoni, and Joe Toscano, and freshmen Kyle Anthony, Sander Bertsch, Connor Brown, Matt Gorsline, Alistar Horton, Brendan Jones, Levi Kuhns, Troy Pritchard, Shayne Reid, Tyler Robinson, and Cameron Whitmarsh.

"We also added several knew faces that should be able to contribute from day one," Riley said.

Riley expects stiff competition in the NTL this season.

"The NTL is always a very competitive league in District 4," he said. "Many of the teams manage to get new athletes to join which make their programs stronger. This leads to several teams regularly battling for the top spot come the NTL meet. 

"The league is full of talent year in and year out with coaches knowing how to utilize talent to maximize points in the big meets," he noted. "I expect this season will continue with that same level of competition.

"As always, the Athens Wildcats have high expectations in the league as well as the postseason," added Riley.