NTL TRACK & FIELD: WILLIAMSON'S AIDEN O'NEIL EARNS STATE MEDAL (2025-05-24)
By Chris ManningNorthern Tier WEST Sports ReportWILLIAMSPORT — When Williamson’s Aiden O’Neil was a kid he used to look at the banners in his gym and see all the state medalists. Now his name will join them as he fought off a tough headwind to tie for eighth in the boys’ pole vault at the PIAA Track and Field Championships Saturday.
“It’s been a lifelong goal,” remarked O’Neil. “Now I get to have a banner up in the gym, that’s a really cool feeling.”
O’Neil only made one height but only needed to as the tough conditions saw the competitors drop quickly, while O’Neil also skipped the opening height of 12-feet, 6-inches.
“It wasn’t bad,” he said about the wait. “I was a little nervous because it’s the state meet, but I had really good warm-ups, and I trusted in God.”
He hit 13-feet on his first try, and that ended up the being what got him on the podium. He ended up in a tie with Lewisburg’s Ezra Zookeeper’s, and Chestnut Ridge’s Aaron Ickes.
“It was very important,” O’Neil said about being clean off the bat. “My goal for today was to jump everything clean after my district meet, where I wasn’t as clean. It was really good to jump cleanly today. The goal was 14-6 again, but sometimes things don’t work out.”
O’Neil appeared to be over on his second attempt at 13-feet, 6-inches, but just clipped the bar enough to see it slide off.
“I was over it by a ton,” he said. “I had a lot of hip height, and it should have been a clear, but I just rushed it on the way down. The wind played a big factor in today’s jumping.”
On his final attempt the wind stopped him mid-air before he could try to get over the bar.
“I almost flew off the mat,” O’Neil remarked. “That’s kind of what happened there, it’s just hard to jump when you have a headwind, and with a tail-wind you run the risk of blowing the pole out.”
In the girls’ shot put Olivia Meisner took 12th with a throw of 34-feet, 10 3/4-inches.
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PHOTOS: Chris Manning
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