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The Wyoming Seminary Mock Trial team takes first place

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Brandon Hampton thought his track and field career was over when he graduated from Pittston Area High School.</p><p>Hampton was headed to King&#8217;s College, a school that didn&#8217;t offer him the opportunity to participate in his favorite sport. His courses would be relegated to college classrooms, not those that covered a timed distance.</p><p>&#8220;Absolutely,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I thought I was done, for sure.&#8221;</p><p>Turns out, Hampton was on a path to get something started.</p><p>That&#8217;s because, for the first time in school history, King&#8217;s College sanctioned a track and field team to compete in the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) indoor and outdoor seasons and represent the school in league and invitational events.</p><p>And the program is off to a flying start.</p><p>&#8220;Oh, it&#8217;s fun,&#8221; said freshman Michael Havrilla, a distance runner who competed for Pittston Area through his high school career. &#8220;I like it. I wasn&#8217;t going out if I went to a bigger school. I&#8217;m glad I did. Plus, there&#8217;s a nice team atmosphere.&#8221;</p><p>That 31-member indoor team has already qualified nine athletes for the MAC track and field championships at Lehigh University this weekend, including former Holy Redeemer standout Marissa Durako &#8212; a junior who spent her first two seasons at King&#8217;s turning to the school&#8217;s cross country team to fulfill her craving for running.</p><p>It also boasts Jill Korgeski, a freshman from Dunmore High School with the nation&#8217;s third-best shot put sling of 12.61 meters who also specializes in weight throw and has been named MAC women&#8217;s track and field athlete of the week three times this season.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s been going good, real good so far,&#8221; said Pete Lombardo, a King&#8217;s College freshman middle distance runner and jumper who competed last season with Hazleton Area High School. &#8220;It&#8217;s cool to be a part of it.&#8221;</p><p>The program has been a long time in the making.</p><p>Forever, in fact, as far as Mike Kalinovsky is concerned.</p><p>The Dunmore native and 200 King&#8217;s College grad is the school&#8217;s track and field coach and also coaches the Monarchs&#8217; cross country teams.</p><p>He remembers talking about King&#8217;s developing a track program as far back as his senior year in college. For one reason or another, the school&#8217;s administration didn&#8217;t develop the idea, Kalinovsky said, as a few of his past proposals to begin a program were shot down.</p><p>&#8220;It was a little delay,&#8221; said King&#8217;s athletic director Cheryl Ish. &#8220;We didn&#8217;t have plans for track. We wanted to make sure we had the right facilities for it. It&#8217;s not a unilateral decision to add a varsity sport. And a lot of things had to be put in place.&#8221;</p><p>The idea to incorporate track and field into the King&#8217;s athletic programs not only dragged, it seemed stalled.</p><p>Until last year.</p><p>Kalinovsky received word from the King&#8217;s administration asking him to update his proposal to field a track and field team. He did. And the college&#8217;s board of directors passed the motion last April 9.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve been working at this for a very long time,&#8221; Kalinovsky said. &#8220;Every year, I would feel it was getting closer. And the last few years, it was that feeling, &#8216;Is this ever going to happen?&#8217;</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s been worth the wait.&#8221;</p><p>Ellen Kuzma didn&#8217;t wait long.</p><p>A freshman sprinter from Tunkhannock High School, Kuzma set the school record for the women&#8217;s 60-meter dash in her first college race, and later set school marks in the 55-meter dash and the high jump.</p><p>Fellow freshman Lombardo set the standard for the men&#8217;s 400-meter run, the high jump and long jump, while Havrilla holds the best King&#8217;s times for the 3,000-meter run and the mile.</p><p>Meanwhile, among the upperclassmen at King&#8217;s, Durako&#8217;s MAC qualifying time of 18:12.33 came in the 5,000-meter (5K) run. It ranks 41st nationally among Division III programs and second among MAC runners in the event. And Hampton set the school standard in the men&#8217;s 800-meter run and the 1,000-meter run.</p><p>&#8220;I thought it would be just cross country for me now,&#8221; Durako said. &#8220;When I heard we might have a track team, I was excited to see what I could do. I didn&#8217;t know what to expect, since I haven&#8217;t been on a track in so long. I was pretty happy with my performance, and excited.&#8221;</p><p>Of course, this inaugural season of track and field at King&#8217;s will be filled with record-breaking performances.</p><p>&#8220;Hopefully, we can break those records in the future,&#8221; Kalinovsky said. &#8220;So it&#8217;s always something for them to strive for.&#8221;</p><p>It&#8217;s an opportunity King&#8217;s athletes didn&#8217;t have in the past.</p><p>Sure, the school had a cross country team. But that didn&#8217;t offer short or mid-distance runners, jumpers and throwers a chance to test their specialty skills in competition.</p><p>And King&#8217;s did field a club team that showed up for more than a decade to represent King&#8217;s at various meets and in the MAC championship field. But those past members of the Monarchs weren&#8217;t eligible to win any titles, or for that matter, any league races without becoming sanctioned by the school.</p><p>And Kalinovsky is certain he lost recruits - all potential students at King&#8217;s - because of it.</p><p>&#8220;Absolutely,&#8221; Kalinovsky said. &#8220;When you recruit kids who are talented &#8212; a great cross country runner who also runs track &#8212; they&#8217;re not going to come here if they want to compete at the highest level.&#8221;</p><p>And since Division III college programs don&#8217;t offer athletic scholarships, most competitive track and field athletes at that level might prefer performing for a league team instead of a club team.</p><p>&#8220;When you have great performances at the club level, it&#8217;s not recognized,&#8221; Kalinovsky said. &#8220;You might have these great athletes running track who aren&#8217;t recognized. We want the recognition for them.&#8221;</p><p>Kuzma didn&#8217;t go to King&#8217;s for the recognition.</p><p>Like most of her teammates, she went to King&#8217;s for studies. But she longed to run and wasn&#8217;t certain she&#8217;d get a chance to when she applied for acceptance at King&#8217;s.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;d heard about it, that there was talk of a team starting up this year,&#8221; Kuzma said. &#8220;I wasn&#8217;t sure. I decided to take the chance and hope for the best.&#8221;</p><p>The best for King&#8217;s may be yet to come, as the team&#8217;s underclassmen continue to grow and more talent arrives in the program for future seasons. But for the outgoing runners at King&#8217;s, the timing of the college&#8217;s first track and field team seems perfect.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s nice we can qualify for MACs now,&#8221; said Tyler Baran, a fifth-year senior at King&#8217;s who was a member of the school&#8217;s club team for a couple of seasons after running high school track for Pittston Area. &#8220;It&#8217;s nice to be recognized. I&#8217;m more excited than anything. I feel like we have a lot to prove this year.</p><p>&#8220;And I&#8217;m having a great time.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Freshman Ellie Kuzma, of Tunkhannock, sprinted straight out for the track and field team when she discovered King&#8217;s College sanctioned an official squad for the indoor and outdoor seasons this year. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/web1_kctrack-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Freshman Ellie Kuzma, of Tunkhannock, sprinted straight out for the track and field team when she discovered King&#8217;s College sanctioned an official squad for the indoor and outdoor seasons this year. </caption0><photoCredit0>Aimee Dilger|Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/web1_TTL022316kingstrack1-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">The newly started King&#8217;s College track team waits for practice in the schools auxiliary gym. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/web1_TTL022316kingstrack1-1.jpg</photo1><caption1>The newly started King&#8217;s College track team waits for practice in the schools auxiliary gym. </caption1><photoCredit1>Aimee Dilger|Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/web1_TTL022316kingstrack2-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Coach Mike Kolinovsky talks with the King&#8217;s College distance runners. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/web1_TTL022316kingstrack2-1.jpg</photo2><caption2>Coach Mike Kolinovsky talks with the King&#8217;s College distance runners. </caption2><photoCredit2>Aimee Dilger|Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/web1_TTL022316kingstrack3-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Taylor Bruno, of Bushkill, practices the shot put. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/web1_TTL022316kingstrack3-1.jpg</photo3><caption3>Taylor Bruno, of Bushkill, practices the shot put. </caption3><photoCredit3>Aimee Dilger|Times Leader </photoCredit3></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/web1_TTL022316kingstrack5-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Mike Tumminello throws the javelin for King[s. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo4>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/web1_TTL022316kingstrack5-1.jpg</photo4><caption4>Mike Tumminello throws the javelin for King[s. </caption4><photoCredit4>Aimee Dilger|Times Leader </photoCredit4></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Monarchs debut school-sanctioned track and field program</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Paul Sokoloski</p><p>psokoloski@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Paul Sokoloski at 570-991-6392 or on Twitter @TLPaulSokoloski</p></shirttailMeta></div>

King’s debuts first sanctioned track and field program