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2016 Times Leader Girls Track All-Stars

<p>The stands at Shippensburg University were flooded with enthusiastic fans.</p><p>The track at Seth Grove Stadium was packed with Pennsylvania&#8217;s premier talent.</p><p>And for the first time in her life, Bree Bednarski was right in the middle of it all.</p><p>&#8220;It was crazy, just seeing all the people there and all the other athletes,&#8221; Bednarski said. &#8220;I&#8217;m happy with how I finished and how my team finished in the relay.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m just really happy with how things ended this year.&#8221;</p><p>It was as if all the electricity Bednarski created through her star-studded, multi-sport career at Wyoming Area converged to set off a breathtaking fireworks display in one of her final high school performances.</p><p>Talk about going out with a bang.</p><p>Bednarski won three gold medals and one silver at the District 2 Class 3A Track and Field Championships, sending her to Shippensburg to compete in four different events during the PIAA championships and earning Bednarski the Times Leader&#8217;s 2016 Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year Award.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve never had an athlete, <em>ever</em>, who finished with three gold medals and a silver medal (at districts),&#8221; Wyoming Area&#8217;s 19-year coach Joe Pizano said. &#8220;I just think it shows you what kind of competitor she is and what kind of athlete she is.&#8221;</p><p>And to think track wasn&#8217;t even her main sport.</p><p>Bednarski is heading to the University of Michigan this fall on a full field hockey scholarship after leading the nation in prep scoring for most of the 2015 season before finishing third, while carrying the Warriors to their first-ever District 2 playoff victory.</p><p>A speedy outfielder in softball, she also batted leadoff as one of the top hitters in the Wyoming Valley Conference while helping the Warriors become a consistent District 2 playoff threat. Then Bednarski finished her career in that sport by reaching over the fence to rob a home run and finishing with three hits in the league&#8217;s Senior All-Star Game last Sunday.</p><p>And in her spare time, she ran track, proving to be a phenomenal sprinter who sparked what is believed to be Wyoming Area&#8217;s first girls WVC league title with the 2015 Division 2 crown. Bednarski&#8217;s steady stream of regular-season victories on the track helped the Warriors boost their unbeaten streak to 12 consecutive regular-season meets before the Warriors finished second to Holy Redeemer in a nail-biting, late-season battle that went down to the meet&#8217;s final event.</p><p>&#8220;She&#8217;s just a natural athlete,&#8221; admired Pizano, who is also the school&#8217;s athletic director. &#8220;Obviously, the pure speed is what the key was to her career. But it&#8217;s also the competitor in her. You could be the fastest person, but if you really don&#8217;t care, it&#8217;s not going to push you to have a three gold medal day and a silver.</p><p>&#8220;Anything she competes in, she goes 100 percent to win. All the time.&#8221;</p><p>Wyoming Area&#8217;s track and field staff noticed that when they talked Bednarski into giving the sport a try when she was a sophomore.</p><p>&#8220;My history teacher is the javelin coach,&#8221; Bednarski said. &#8220;He knew I played outfield for softball. I started throwing the javelin, and then the running coach saw me. I never really expected to do much (in track).&#8221;</p><p>But before long, a triple-gold medal-winning track and field star blossomed.</p><p>Last year, Bednarski set the pace for Wyoming Area&#8217;s first girls league title in the two decades Pizano has been coaching the sport &#8212; and the first championship anyone at Wyoming Area can remember &#8212; by regularly winning three or four meets nightly.</p><p>When she did it at this year&#8217;s districts, she made history again.</p><p>By winning the 100 and 200 dashes and running anchor for the winning 400 relay team at districts, Bednarski became the first Warriors girls track athlete to represent the school as a District 2 Class 3A champion in three events. She added a fourth event at states when the daughter of Joe and Lynn Bednarski of Wyoming captured a silver medal in the district javelin throw &#8212; her weakest event.</p><p>&#8220;Making it to states in four events, I&#8217;m really happy I did that,&#8221; said Bednarski, who passed up the opportunity to compete at states as a junior because she was busy leading the Warriors deep into the 2015 District 2 softball playoffs. &#8220;I really didn&#8217;t expect it.&#8221;</p><p>By now, Wyoming Area fans have come to expect the unexpected from Bednarski.</p><p>She didn&#8217;t quite make it to the state medal stand and really wasn&#8217;t favored to, based on her seedings going into the PIAA championships. But Bednarski gave it a run and came awfully close.</p><p>She was slotted at No. 24 in the 200 dash and finished 12th, making the PIAA semifinals and winding up just over four-tenths of a second shy of running in the medal race. Bednarski also sparked the Wyoming Area 400-meter relay team to a 13th-place state finish off a No. 23 seed.</p><p>She finished in the javelin throw where she was seeded at No. 11 &#8212; and six feet shy of earning an eight-place PIAA medal &#8212; and even moved up four spots from her seeding to come in 22nd in the 100 meter dash.</p><p>Her favorite event, she said, as the relay. Simply because it gave her the chance to share some of her wealth of success with her teammates.</p><p>&#8220;That&#8217;s the kind of person she is,&#8221; Pizano said. &#8220;It&#8217;s never about herself. She was all about the team.</p><p>&#8220;Hopefully, that&#8217;s going to carry on with a successful career at Michigan.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Area sprinter Bree Bednarski ran down three gold medals and a silver in the District 2 Class 3A Championships on her way to becoming the Times Leader&#8217;s 2016 Girls Track &amp; Field Athlete of the Year. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_bree-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Wyoming Area sprinter Bree Bednarski ran down three gold medals and a silver in the District 2 Class 3A Championships on her way to becoming the Times Leader&#8217;s 2016 Girls Track &amp; Field Athlete of the Year. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_bree-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Area&#8217;s Bree Bednarski sat above everyone else on the track, where she won District 2 gold medals in the 100 and 200-meter sprints, helped the Warriors 400-meter relay team finish first and earned a silver medal in javelin. She will be heading off to the University of Michigan on a field hockey scholarship. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_bree-2.jpg</photo1><caption1>Wyoming Area&#8217;s Bree Bednarski sat above everyone else on the track, where she won District 2 gold medals in the 100 and 200-meter sprints, helped the Warriors 400-meter relay team finish first and earned a silver medal in javelin. She will be heading off to the University of Michigan on a field hockey scholarship. </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Michigan-bound field hockey player nabs hat trick of gold medals</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>

Times Leader Girls Track and Field Player of the Year: Bree Bednarski lifts Wyoming Area to new heights