Wyoming
PIAA TRACK AND FIELD: Wyoming Valley West, Valley View athletes shine in Unified championships
SHIPPENSBURG — Athletes from Wyoming Valley West and Valley View competing in the Unified Champion Schools track and field championships had rewarding performances at Shippensburg University’s Seth Grove Stadium.
Wyoming Valley West finished third in the team competition with 48 points, and Valley View had 40 points to finish sixth among the nine teams at the event. East Stroudsburg North won the team title with 63 points; Spring Grove was second with 55.
Unified track and field teams are made up of a proportional number of students with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities who practice and compete together as equal peers.
Athletes in the UCS program compete in divisions based on similar abilities to earn team points toward the team championship.
Valley View’s Jeffrey Wasilchak finished first overall in the Mixed Unified 400-meter run in 57.53 seconds and was second in the Mixed Unified shot put with a distance of 13.82 meters, which was more than 45 feet. He also competed with Eli Szydlowski, James Terrance and John Mulkerin, who had a time of 1:02.66 and finished seventh overall.
Wyoming Valley West’s Raheem Blanton finished first in the Mixed Unified 100-meter dash in 12.21 seconds, and was part of the Mixed Unified 400 relay team that included Dierra Wade, Chelsea Hummel and Kaylah Sewell and finished in 1:00.66, and in fifth place.
Valley View’s Tyson Sisen had two second-place finishes. He was second in the Mixed Unified 800 in 2:31.57 and second in the Mixed Unified Mini Javelin with a mark of 90-3.
Other Valley View finishes overall included Jack Loftus (100, seventh, 13.70); Aubree Black (100, 16.30, 25th, Shot, 5.72 meters, 22nd); Ava Kielar (100, 22.35, 46th); Miranda Troue (100, 22.48, 47th, Shot, 3.54 meters, 28th); Sophia Davies (100, 24.95, 48th, Shot, 4.27 meters, 25th); John Mulkerin (400, 1:23.48, 19th, Shot, 8.13 meters, 11th); Gregory Davis (400, 1:31.45, 27th, Mini Javelin, 45-0, 19th); and James Terrance (800, 3:19.61, 15th).
Wyoming Valley West finishers overall included, Hummel (100, 14.54, 12th, Mini Javelin, 66-10, sixth); Sewell (100, 16.30, 24th); Wade (100, 16.74, 29th, Mini Javelin, 31-3, 32nd); Billy Bell (400, 1:03.95, fourth, Mini Javelin, 46-3, 17th); Gavin Burridge (400, 1:18.66, 15th, Mini Javelin, 39-10, 26th); Lilly Eckstein (800, 2:59.69, 11th, Mini Javelin, 53-9, 12th); Meghan Singer (800, 3:04.31, 12th); Javian Fernandez (Shot, 7.27 meters, 15th); Angel George Umoh (Shot, 5.21, 24th); Savannah Mayewski (Shot, 3.70, 27th); and Jamie Evans (Shot, 1.85, 32nd).
Record breakers
Mid Valley freshman Olivia Thomas capped her medal-collecting first weekend at the PIAA Track and Field Championships with a gold medal in the Class 2A triple jump with a leap of 39-11.5 in far-from-ideal weather conditions Saturday.
In addition, she won silver medals in the long jump and the 100 hurdles in 14.32 seconds. That time broke her Mid Valley school record of 14.44 set this season. It is also the second-fastest school record in Lackawanna Track Conference history. Lakeland’s Cassidy Jenkins has the best time of 14.28, which she ran in winning a PIAA Class 2A silver medal in 2015.
Mid Valley finished with 26 team points — all scored by Thomas — and in seventh place in the Class 2A standings. Shenango won the team championship with 40 points.
In addition to his three medals won in the Class 2A boys meet, Elk Lake’s Kendel Jones set a school record in the 3,200 in 9:17.54 to earn a silver medal. He beat his previous best time of 9:18.72 set in 2024.
Wallenpaupack’s Aiden Janowicz won a silver medal in the Class 3A 800 in 1:51.52. That beat his LTC-best time of 1:53.14 he set during the regular season.
Scranton senior Anijha Turner broke her school record with her 10th-place finish in the Class 3A 400 in 57.26 seconds. That is the fifth-fastest school record in LTC history. Taliyah Booker of Delaware Valley owns the fastest time for the event at 55.86 in 2021.
Lakeland sophomore Bria Hill broke her school record in the 400. Her time of 57.65 qualified her for the Class 2A final, where she won an eighth-place medal on Saturday. Her time is the ninth-best school record in the LTC.
Montrose junior Sadie Jones beat her school record in the javelin with a mark of 126-0. That earned a bronze medal in Class 2A.
Elite athlete
When Thomas won her state championship in the Class 2A triple jump, she became the first to claim a gold medal in track and field at Mid Valley.
Mid Valley’s programs join a list of 18 programs from the LTC that have had an athlete win a state gold medal in track and field.
Susquehanna athletes have won nine PIAA gold medals and a team championship since 1989, which is the most of any LTC program.
Teresa Covert won three straight gold medals in the Class 2A 100 hurdles from 1996 to 1998 and added the 300 hurdles title in 1998. Tatum Norris won gold medals in the Class 2A 100 and 200 in 2022 when she led the team to a championship by herself. Norris also won the 100 in 2023. Jim Corse won the Class 2A pole vault in 1989, and Amber Gaffey won a gold in Class 2A pole vault in 2005.
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The Wyoming Department of Family Services recently announced that it will be launching a federal program this week to provide grocery assistance to more than 37,000 school-aged children across the state.
Known as SUN Bucks, the initiative provides a one-time $120 benefit per eligible child to help families cover food costs during the summer months, the department announced in a release. Gov. Mark Gordon previously authorized the program’s implementation through an executive order on April 15.
Gordon described the initiative as an essential tool to support children who may otherwise lack access to healthy food while school is out of session.
“We want our children to thrive, because when our children are successful, so too are our communities,” he stated in the release.
According to DFS, most qualifying children will be automatically enrolled in the program. The department reports that it began sending eligibility notifications this week via mail and email.
Eligible families can expect to receive SUN Bucks electronic benefit transfer cards in the mail starting in early July.
DFS Director Korin Schmidt said in a statement that the program is specifically designed to assist rural children who lose access to school-provided breakfast and lunch during the summer months, adding that the benefits will allow families to purchase groceries as needed to ensure food is available in the home for those missed meals.
The SUN Bucks cards will function similarly to other benefit programs and be accepted at any retailer participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
While tens of thousands of children are enrolled automatically, some eligible families may still need to apply, according to the press release. Residents can check their child’s enrollment status or submit an application through the DFS SUN Bucks website starting June 22.
For more information, people can visit the DFS website, email ask-sunbucks@wyo.gov or call 307-777-8786 between 8:15 a.m. and 4:45 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Related
Sublette County Sheriff’s Office via TMX
BIG PINEY, Wyoming — A landspout briefly swirled across an open field Saturday near Big Piney, Wyoming, in a striking display of unsettled weather caught on camera.
Sublette County Sheriff K.C. Lehr shared the footage on Facebook. It shows the narrow column of wind twisting as it moved through the area north of Big Piney.
Unlike traditional tornadoes, landspouts form without a rotating thunderstorm or mesocyclone. They tend to be smaller and shorter-lived than supercell tornadoes, but they can still produce damaging winds, according to the National Weather Service.
Check out the video in the player above.
=htmlentities(get_the_title())?>%0D%0A%0D%0A=get_permalink()?>%0D%0A%0D%0A=htmlentities(‘For more stories like this one, be sure to visit https://www.eastidahonews.com/ for all of the latest news, community events and more.’)?>&subject=Check%20out%20this%20story%20from%20EastIdahoNews” class=”fa-stack jDialog”>
The 2026 Chugwater Chili Cookoff and Rodeo celebrated its 40th anniversary last weekend, and the number of people who attended broke all previous records by a long shot. Honestly, we have never seen lines like that.
Great bands, great food, and vendors. But also the pie and hot jalapeno eating contest.
First the kids go, then the adults. An audience gathers to watch and see who will drop out first. These people are sadistic.
Here is how it goes.
The contest begins, and the contestants start eating those jalapeños like it’s nothing. They have to eat them all the way down to the stem.
After a few minutes, you’ll see their ears start to go red. Then their cheeks. Watch their next go red next. Eyes go bloodshot. They look a little tipsy at this point. When snot starts running from their nose, they are nearly done.
One at a time, they start dropping out. The audience applauds those who failed because at least they tried.
It’s gross, I know. But it’s worth watching. Because we are all sadistic like that.
There are a few who can eat all of those jalapeños without it affecting them a bit. It’s strange to watch. They don’t feel a thing. Maybe that’s a mutant power. I’m not sure.
Started in 1986, the Chugwater Chili Cook-off was created by the Chugwater Chili Corporation to celebrate the town’s legendary chili and boost the local community. Over the past four decades, it has grown from a simple local contest into Wyoming’s largest single-day event, drawing thousands of visitors.
See the gallery below including the pie eating contest.
Chugwater Chili Cookoff 2023
What a huge year for the Chugwater Chili Cookoff and Rodeo in Chugwater Wyoming.
Perfect weather, great off, awesome music, record crowd, damn fine car show, and the rodeo was a blast.
If you missed this year’s, hope to see you at next.
Gallery Credit: Glenn Woods
Chugwater’s Hysterical Pie Eating Contest.
One of Wyoming’s smallest towns added a new event. A PIE EATING CONTEST.
The rules are simple:
Not hands allowed.
Eat as much as you can before time is up.
The results are hysterical.
Gallery Credit: Glenn Woods
-
Rhode Island51 seconds ago
RI Lottery Powerball, Numbers Midday winning numbers for June 22, 2026
-
South-Carolina8 minutes agoWhat to know about a cold storage warehouse fire in Los Angeles
-
South Dakota11 minutes ago
SD Lottery Powerball, Lotto America winning numbers for June 22, 2026
-
Tennessee23 minutes agoWashington County, Tennessee commissioners hold workshop on senior tax freeze
-
Texas26 minutes agoPaxton, Trump adviser’s org win bid to block immigration rule
-
Utah31 minutes agoInside Utah’s facial recognition system: How police use the technology
-
Vermont38 minutes ago
VT Lottery Powerball, Gimme 5 results for June 22, 2026
-
Virginia41 minutes agoVirginia Lottery Powerball, Pick 3 Night results for June 22, 2026
