LaVita and Arbogast compete at National Track-and-Field Meet

PHILADELPHIA, PA – Two local athletes, one from Wilmington High and one from Tewksbury Memorial High School competed in this past weekend's New Balance High School Track-and-Field meet which was held over three days at the University of Pennsylvania's Franklin Field.

There's two high school national meets, the other, the 'Nike Nationals' was held in Oregon, also this past weekend. At the New Balance meet, events were separated by 'Championship or 'Rising Stars', and both Sarah LaVita of Wilmington and Alex Arbogast of Tewksbury participated in the 'Rising Stars' events.

LaVita took part in the javelin and finished 8th with a throw of 107-02.

“Although not her best throw of the season, it is an incredible accomplishment,” said Wilmington High head coach Joe Patrone. “Sarah finishes up her track career at WHS with the school record in the indoor shot put and as the third best performances in school history in all three of the outdoor throws, shot put, discus and javelin. The javelin was her favorite event and she worked very hard with Coach (Don) Wilson in order to be successful in the javelin which included a Division 4 State Championship. I’m very proud of what Sarah has done this season and I wish her the best as she goes on to the University of New England next year.”

Arbogast, the Division 4 state champion in both the 100 and 200-meters, competed in just the 200 and finished 10th overall at 11.01 seconds. He missed out on qualifying for the finals by .01 seconds.

“Alex ran a pretty good race. One of the areas for growth with Alex is to be able to run a good first race because every time he's had a preliminary race before a final, he's second one has been like .2 seconds faster than his first,” said head coach Scott Wilson. “He's got to make sure that he's ready for that first race when there's preliminary and final races. If you don't make the finals, it doesn't matter what you did. That's sort of his area that he can improve on.

“Last year his season ended injured (at the MVC Championship Meet). It was week after week where we were talking about his hamstrings and everything else. He did everything he needed to do to get back healthy (for football and the two track seasons), he's bigger, stronger and he's had two great track seasons. Hopefully next year, he can build off of that and finish up his high school career on a high note.”