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Times Leader P.M. Update: Wednesday, April 7

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Two in custody after shots-fired investigation on Carey Avenue

The PIAA won&rsquo;t be limiting the number of qualifiers for its state track and field championships in May.
				PIAA Chief Operating Officer Mark Byers said during Wednesday&rsquo;s Board of Directors meeting that recent changes to outdoor capacities during the COVID-19 pandemic will allow a full field of athletes. Byers said there are about 1,300 participants in each the Class 2A and Class 3A championships.
				The championships will be held at Shippensburg University with the Class 2A meet on May 28 and the Class 3A meet on May 29.
				&ldquo;(Shippensburg) came back to us after a meeting and we do believe with the occupancy changes that went into effect this past Sunday evening at midnight that we have the ability to contest the championships without limiting qualifiers,&rdquo; Byers said. &ldquo;The lone change, however, is we&rsquo;re going to have to go to a single-day event.&rdquo;
				Qualifying will remain the same, with each district getting a set number of qualifiers through their district meets plus any others who meet the state standard for qualifying.
				&ldquo;Standard fare. Automatic qualifiers plus those that meet the standard,&rdquo; PIAA Executive Director Bob Lombardi said. &ldquo;We feel that number is manageable. Based upon our average from the past few years, we&rsquo;re right about 1,300. We believe we can handle that with the number of rooms Shippensburg is going to provide us as well as the time schedule.&rdquo;
				Lombardi added the spectator limit with be about 2,600, which figures out to two spectators per qualifiers. The total capacity in the stadium is expected to be about 5,000 when coaches, track officials and other personnel are factored in.
				Other items at the meeting:
				&#8226; The PIAA is still planning on having complete brackets for other spring state championships, unlike the fall and winter where state championships were limited only to district champions because of COVID-19 concerns.
				The PIAA will be holding meetings with each of its 12 districts this month to gauge the interest schools have in utilizing their facilities for neutral site games.
				&ldquo;Nothing to report at this time, however, we&rsquo;re proceeding with hopefully a full bracket,&rdquo; Lombardi said. &ldquo;As I said, this is our Zoom month where we&rsquo;ll travel around to the districts and we will do our best to speak to them to see if some of their schools would open their facilities for midway games.
				&ldquo;That&rsquo;s going be the straw that breaks the camel&rsquo;s back so to speak.&rdquo;
				&#8226; The board passed unanimously to allow baseball and softball teams to extend their bench area down the foul line toward home plate when expanding it down the foul line toward the outfield is impractical.
				&#8226; The board tabled until its summer meetings a proposal by the basketball steering committee to change the schedule for the 2022 championships.
				Under the proposal, the first round would be March 8-9, the second round March 11-12, the quarterfinals March 15-16 and the semifinals March 18-19.
				The championship schedule would be: Class A and 4A boys and girls, March 24; Class 2A and 5A boys and girls, March 25; and Class 3A and 6A boys and girls, March 26.
				&#8226; The basketball steering committee also proposed the continuation of online-only ticket sales for the championships. After a brief discussion, the board voted to refer the proposal to the budget committee for consideration and extend the possibility of online-only sales to all sports.

PIAA will have full field of qualifiers for state track and field championships in May