Game Summaries & Headlines.
CoEd Varsity Track vs. OPEN
3.0 weeks ago @ 9:44AM
- Game Date
- May 24, 2025
Please congratulate our students for their outstanding efforts and performance this past weekend. In total, we had 29 athletes qualify and represent our school at Shippensburg University for the PIAA Track & Field State Championship meet. The result was truly historic with both the QV Girls and Boys Teams winning the PIAA State Championship—only the second time in history that both teams from the same school have won the Track & Field State Championship in the same year.
For the girls, this marks the first time any QV team has won a State Championship in any sport. They join only two other AA WPIAL schools to ever win a State Championship in track & field. The boys join Aliquippa as the only other AA team in the WPIAL to win a State Championship in track & field. The boys also set a meet record for the most points scored in a PIAA State Championship by any AA or AAA boys team, totaling 75 points. Here is a list of all the medalists and point scorers.
Relays
Boys 4x400m relay – 1st Place – STATE CHAMPIONS
Macky Gartley, Clark LaLomia, Jayden Juliano, James Irwin
Boys 4x800m relay – 1st Place – STATE CHAMPIONS
Jonah Montagnese, River Capek, Jackson Pethel, Clark LaLomia
Girls 4x100m relay – 4th Place
Evie Rosselli, Kwilai Karto, Vanessa Pickett, Rose Pocasangre
Boys 4x100m relay – 7th Place
Macky Gartley, James Irwin, Kieran Cain, Winston Clifford
Individual Medalists
- Jonah Montagnese - 1st 1600m (STATE CHAMPION), 4th 3200m, 6th 800m
- Jay Olawaiye - 1st Triple Jump (STATE CHAMPION)
- Cecilia Montagnese - 2nd 1600m, 2nd 3200m, 4th 800m
- Macky Gartley - 2nd 110m hurdles, 2nd 300m hurdles
- Clark LaLomia - 2nd 800m
- MiMi Thiero – 2nd High Jump
- Evie Rosselli – 2nd Pole Vault
- James Irwin - 3rd 400m
- Jackson Pethel - 4th 800m
- Vanessa Pickett - 7th Long Jump
Championship meet scoring awards points to the top 8 finishers in each event. Points are awarded as follows:
1st place – 10 points, 2nd – 8, 3rd – 6, 4th – 5, 5th – 4, 6th – 3, 7th – 2, and 8th – 1
Listing these performances does not do them justice, so here is a breakdown of how the girls' and boys' meets played out.
Here is the girls’ story: Going into the weekend, based on season performances, the girls were projected to finish 4th overall as a team, with Lewisburg Area expected to take the championship. However, there were multiple events in which QV and Lewisburg were going head-to-head, giving QV an outside chance to win the meet.
Day 1 started strong with Cecilia Montagnese competing in the first scored race. Cecilia ran an incredible 4:50.48, breaking the QV school record by 8 seconds. However, she placed 2nd behind a runner from Lewisburg, the favored team. Later that morning, Mimi Thiero cleared 5'7" in the rain, placing 2nd overall, while Vanessa Pickett launched herself into 7th place on her final long jump attempt. The remainder of Friday consisted of qualifying heats for Saturday. Two athletes narrowly missed qualifying for finals: Rose Pocasangre in the 300 hurdles and Evie Rosselli in the 100m hurdles, both finishing 9th. Lewisburg surprised with a 1st place finish in the javelin, leaving QV trailing 20-18 after Day 1.
Saturday began much like Friday. Cecilia placed 2nd in the 3200m, breaking her own school record by 34 seconds with a time of 10:26.78—just shy of the state meet record, which was broken in the same race by a Lewisburg runner. Despite that, QV was in good position to finish second, but a path to first place remained slim.
Momentum shifted in the late morning when Evie Rosselli, projected to place 8th in pole vault, soared to 2nd place with a new school record jump of 12 feet. That swing nearly locked in 2nd place and reopened the door for a potential team championship. Next came the girls' 400m relay. The team of Rosselli, Karto, Pickett, and Pocasangre finished an impressive 4th overall, though Lewisburg again finished one spot ahead in 3rd.
With only two QV competitors remaining and Lewisburg with three (including one head-to-head), the path to victory was slim. Then Jay Olawaiye delivered, claiming 1st in triple jump and earning 10 critical points for the team. The final event came down to Cecilia Montagnese in the 800m against a Lewisburg runner. Having faced each other two times already in the meet, Cecilia rose to the occasion, defeating her opponent, placing 4th overall, and setting her third QV school record of the weekend with a time of 2:13.91. That performance pushed QV past Lewisburg and secured the State Championship title for the Quakers.
Final Scores: QV 54, Lewisburg 47, Laurel 31, North Catholic 29.
In the end, the girls set four school records at the PIAA State Championship. The 2025 girls' track & field team now holds 7 school records and 4 second-best all-time marks. Additionally, 12 girls on the team have top-5 performances in QV history. This is Quaker Valley’s first girls’ team state title and only the third AA girls' WPIAL state championship overall.
Here is the boys’ story: Based on season performances, the boys were projected to win the team title. But with such a tight field, a misstep could shift everything. On Friday, Jonah Montagnese set the tone in the 1600m, running a near-perfect race and taking 1st place with a new QV record of 4:11.06. The momentum continued as QV athletes qualified athletes for finals in 10 out of 12 track events.
Saturday, the team stepped up to a whole new level, starting off again with a performance by Montagnese placing 4th in the 3200m, and Macky Gartley improving from 3rd to 2nd in the 110m hurdles. In the 4x800m relay, the team of Montagnese, Capek, Pethel, and LaLomia cruised to victory with a 4-second lead. The 4x100m relay of Gartley, Irwin, Cain, and Clifford took 7th. In the 400m, James Irwin unleashed a powerful final kick, finishing 3rd and breaking his own school record with a time of 49.17.
In the next event, the 300m hurdles, Gartley dove across the line for 2nd place, just 0.02 seconds behind 1st, smashing his own school record with 37.58. QV dominated the 800m, placing three runners: LaLomia 2nd, Pethel 4th, and Montagnese 6th.
The most exciting moment of the meet was the last event of the day for the Quakers, the 4x400m relay. QV was competing against the reigning champions and favored team in the event, Nativity BVM. It was a back-and-forth race until Clark LaLomia passed the baton to Jayden Juliano from the 2nd to 3rd leg of the race. Juliano pulled away from the competition before passing the baton off to the final leg, James Irwin. In the final homestretch, it was a 3-team race. The reigning champions and favored team made a strong push to pass Irwin, but he would not be denied. Irwin pulled away in the final meters of the race to give QV a new school record and the win. It was a great exclamation point to end the meet for the Quakers after a historic team performance!
Final Scores: QV 75, Nativity BVM 30, Lewisburg 27.
In total, the boys set three school records at the state meet. The 2025 boys' track & field team now owns six school records and five second-best all-time performances. Ten different boys from this team hold top-two marks in QV history. This extraordinary team also set a new record for most points ever scored by any AA or AAA boys' team at the PIAA State Championship meet.