Heading into the 2014 outdoor track championship meet, then-Bradford High senior pole vaulter Liz Coppella set a goal of winning a state medal.
By finishing eighth overall with a jump of 11-06, she met her mark. Now a junior at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Coppella is setting her goals –– and the bar –– a little higher. Coppella jumped a personal-best 12-03.25 feet (3.75 meters) to finish fifth overall at Saturday’s Cal (Pa.) U Early Bird Invitational in the outdoor season’s kickoff weekend. Because of her performance, she was named the IUP Athlete of the Week on Monday, her third weekly award and second of the 2016-17 school year.
Coppella’s next goal is ambitious, yet attainable.
“My biggest goal would be to compete at [Division II] nationals with my teammate D.J. Horton,” Coppella said, “but to do that I’m going to need to hit a couple more bars. I would also like to place better at [Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference] championships than I did at indoor.”
The exercise science major needs to hit the four-meter (13-01.50 feet) mark to qualify automatically for nationals. Her Saturday jump was three inches higher than her previous best in both the indoor and outdoor seasons.
As a team, the IUP women improved from a 15th-place finish in the 2016 indoor championships to ninth this year. That improvement is something Coppella also would like to see translate to the outdoor season.
“I would also love if my team placed better as a whole at PSACs,” Coppella said. “We had a lot of good performances already because of how hard everyone has been working, so I think that we are off to a good start.”
An ROTC cadet, Coppella will leave this summer for Campbell, Ky., for an Army medical department internship. Based on that experience, she may consider commissioning as an active duty medical services corp officer.
Coppella is just one of a handful of coverage area graduates who’ve gone on to collegiate track careers and performed well during the outdoor season’s first weekend or indoor season.
Penn State’s Michael Shuey, a redshirt senior who missed all of last outdoor season with an elbow injury, picked up where he left off in during his honorable All-American season in 2015. A 2012 Johnsonburg graduate, Shuey – the Big 10 javelin champion in 2014 and 2015 – recorded a season-best heave of 247-02 feet at last weekend’s Pac-12 vs. Big 10 Invitational at Arizona State.
IUP’s Horton, a Division II All-American for the outdoor season last spring and the 2017 indoor campaign, jumped 16-07.25 feet to win the Cal U invite by more than a foot. The 2008 Kane High graduate jumped 16-04 feet at last year’s outdoor national championships and has a personal-best mark of 16-08.75 feet in the event.
The automatic qualifier for nationals is 17-00.75 feet, while Horton has already topped the provisional mark of 15-07.25 feet.
At Georgetown University, Elk Catholic alumna Kennedy Weisner is trying to build on an indoor season that saw the former prep distance star come in second both the Fastrack National Invite and the Big East indoor championships, recording a season-best time of 4:37.92 in the mile run.
She was also part of the Hoyas’ distance medley relay team at the Penn State National. In the outdoor season, Weisner has competed in the 800-, 1,500- and 5,000-meter runs.
A pair of 2016 Bradford High graduates are getting their footing on the college scene, with Slippery Rock’s Makaila Banka and Penn State Behrend’s Riley Crissman.
Banka ran the 1,500 in 5:07.07 to finish 10th at Cal U on Saturday for The Rock. Also a cross country runner, Banka earned All-Academic team status by the U.S Track and Field Cross Country Coaches Association after the communications and marketing major posted a 3.44 GPA in her first semester.
Meanwhile, Crissman finished seventh at Cal U in the 5,000 meters in a time of 19.26.82.
Alex Colosimo, who last spring signed a National Letter of Intent with Pitt-Johnstown, clocked in at 1:04.88 in the 400-meter hurdles at Cal U for 21st place, while placing 23rd in the 110-meter high hurdles in a time of 18.81 seconds.
Finally, 2014 Johnsonburg graduate Emily Dubler ran a leg on the IUP women’s 4×100-meter relay team at Cal U in a time of 48.32, more than a second ahead of the second-place finishers.
