SOUTH CENTRE TWP. — Nary a hurdle wobbled. Not even the steady breeze which passed through Blue Jays Stadium offering a refreshing touch to a gorgeous sun-splashed day could move the hurdles in Allen Taylor’s lane.

The Williamsport sophomore glided over the hurdles like the 39-inch barriers as if they were nothing more than a nuisance. His flawless precision over each of the 10 road blocks pushed him ahead of a talented 110-meter hurdle field at Saturday’s Pennsylvania Heartland Athletic Conference meet at Central Columbia High School.

When a similar field pushed ahead of him early in the 300 hurdles finals, he calmly waited for his moment to push. Then he stepped on the gas and clocked a sub-40 second time.

After a rough couple weeks in the Millionaires’ signature events, Saturday’s two-win day to kick off the high school track and field postseason is exactly what he needed. As Taylor closed his eyes and thought back on Saturday’s two races, he exhaled the deepest of breaths and watch the weight of the world disappear from his shoulders.

Taylor was one of five local boys to win an individual event yesterday, joining the Lewisburg boys who won the 3,200 relay. Williamsport teammates Owen Mahon (800) and J. Henry Lyon (3,200) were winners. Lewisburg’s Josh Gose won the shot put and Montoursville’s Dominic Caputo won the triple jump.

Taylor was the area’s lone double winner, but both he and Lyon set meet records with their victories. But nobody needed the wins quite like Taylor did. Since running 14.62 to finish third in the 110 hurdles at the Pan-Ram on April 13, he hadn’t been back down to that number until Saturday. He hadn’t been down to 39.7 in the 300 hurdles since winning the event at the same Pan-Ram games.

And frankly, it’s been a trying month for the returning state placewinner. There were times he wasn’t sure he wanted to run anymore. There were times he thought he needed time off. At Lock Haven two weeks ago, his times in the 110 hurdles were north of 16 seconds.

“I don’t think it’s a very big secret I wasn’t feeling like myself. Ever since track season started I wasn’t ready,” Taylor said. “It took a lot of encouragement and pep talks before someone finally stepped in and told me to take the opportunity and try to get better than I was last year. I was battling and then I got sick and I fell back and at Lock Haven you could see that. (Saturday) I finally felt stronger.”

And then a smile crossed his face. Taylor has always been forthcoming about his goals of wanting to be a state champion, and to run in college, and maybe even eventually in the Olympics someday. The idea of him not wanting to participate in the sport in which he has been so passionate about was startling.

But he seems to have found his joy again, along with his form. His coaches put a resistance bands on him this week and had him work on driving his trail leg over the hurdle so he wouldn’t clip it anymore.

That work paid dividends as he cleared all 18 hurdles placed in front of him Saturday without so much as causing one to wobble. It was that clean effort which allowed him to pull away from Lewisburg’s Kameron Schreffler (14.87) and Southern Columbia’s Jake Rose (14.94) halfway through the 110 hurdles. And it was that precision which allowed him to track down Lewisburg’s Zach Bedell (40.09) and Shamokin’s Marshall Buggy (40.18) and win that event.

“I don’t know that it was the cleanest I’ve ever been, but I was proud of it,” Taylor said. “I’ve been clean in the past, but (Saturday) was better than any previous high school meet from last year to now.”

For now, Taylor is battling the mental game. He’s moved past the indecision of wanting to run and is back focused on getting back to the state meet in two weeks and bringing home another medal.

“It’s a really tough mental game,” Taylor said. “There’s days where you just don’t want to wake up and you don’t want to do anything. But this week I went strong through it all and it was amazing to see the crowd cheering me on.”

Gose has been building for this moment for the last week or so. His training has been rigorous throughout the first six or seven weeks of the season. But with the postseason kicking off yesterday, he’s spent the last week making sure his body is rested to be at its best for this three-weekend stretch.

The plan sure seems to be working after Gose set a personal best in the shot put by a foot, throwing 53 feet, 10 inches to win the event. The Lewisburg junior had never had a throw of 53 feet in his career in the shot before hitting two yesterday.

“It’s all about peaking my body,” Gose said after taking sixth in the discus. “This is just one week of rest. I’m going to keep training and lifting and hopefully next week I can PR again and then do it at states again the next week.”

Gose knows throwers all over the state are doing the same thing he is in order to prepare for the coming weeks. But his 53-10 Saturday gave him the sixth-best throw in the state in Class AA this year. Gose finished fifth at last year’s state meet with a throw just over 51 feet.

He’s being pushed every day from teammate Michael Tiffin, who was fifth in the discus and seventh in the shot put yesterday. And he got an additional push yesterday from runner-up Nevin Rauch of Milton, who eclipsed 50 feet for the first time.

“It feels great and I’m really looking forward to the next weekends and performing at my best,” Gose said. “I feel good with how I did in the shot put, but I’m not satisfied overall.”

(*-Denotes meet record)

Athlete of the Meet: Julian Fleming, Southern Columbia.

Team standings: 1, Shikellamy, 109; 2, Lewisburg, 95; 3, Southern Columbia, 74; 4, Central Columbia, 72; 5, Williamsport, 63.5; 6, Shamokin, 45; 7, Danville, 42; 8, Milton, 34; t-9, Montoursville, 32; t-9, Selinsgrove, 32; 11, Mifflinburg, 24; 12, Mount Carmel, 23; 13, Bloomsburg, 21; 14, Warrior Run, 18.5; 15, Hughesville, 8; 16, Midd-West, 4; 17, Central Mountain, 3; 18, South Williamsport, 2.

3,200 relay: 1, Lewisburg (Calvin Bailey, Elijah Adams, Peter Lantz, James Koconis), 8:07.74; 2, Shikellamy, 8:12.43; 3, Central Columbia, 8:14.69; 4, Warrior Run (Andrew Adams, Tyrese Hazzoum, Addison Magyar, Damein Moser), 8:15.68; 5, Danville, 8:26.80; 6, Milton (Tanner Walter, Kenley Caputo, Colton Loreman, Kellan Guinn-Bailey), 8:43.61; 7, Hughesville (Kenneth Draper, Morgan Gavitt, Logan Long, Hunter Foust), 8:49.95; 8, Southern Columbia, 8:58.68.

110 hurdles: 1, Allen Taylor, Williamsport, 14.35*; 2, Kameron Schreffler, Lewisburg, 14.87; 3, Jake Rose, Southern Columbia, 14.94; 4, Zach Bedell, Lewisburg, 15.22; 5, Marshall Buggy, Shamokin, 15.29; 6, Ethan Williams, Williamsport, 15.50; 7, Brandon Zimmerman, Danville, 15.52; 8, Kenley Caputo, Milton, 16.29.

100: 1, Julian Fleming, Southern Columbia, 11.06; 2, Lucas Tilford, Shikellamy, 11.24; 3, Jacob Reeder, Montoursville, 11.29; 4, Peyton Persing, Danville, 11.29; 5, Joe Folk, Shikellamy, 11.32; 6, Gavin Colescott, Shikellamy, 11.53; 7, Owen Keister, Milton, 11.60; 8, Jared Verse, Central Columbia, 11.64.

1,600: 1, Ethan Knoebel, Southern Columbia, 4:24.18; 2, Logan Strouse, Shikellamy, 4:26.12; 3, Krystof Lapotsky, Mount Carmel, 4:27.65; 4, Josh Broadt, Central Columbia, 4:31.26; 5, Damein Moser, Warrior Run, 4:34.39; 6, Corbin Green, Central Mountain, 4:35.81; 7, Port Habalar, South Williamsport, 4:37.40; 8, Colton Loreman, Milton, 4:43.16.

400 relay: 1, Southern Columbia, 43.68; 2, Shikellamy, 43.71; 3, Central Columbia, 43.79; 4, Shamokin, 44.22; 5, Mount Carmel, 44.60; 6, Mifflinburg, 44.70; 7, Lewisburg (Gavin Sheriff, Darren Baidoo, Alex Sabo, Kameron Schreffler), 44.81; 8, Williamsport (Me;spm Macdonald, Ry’Meer Brown, Ayden Bradley, Maxwell Goode), 45.00.

400: 1, Zander Bradley, Central Columbia, 50.32; 2, Ethan Klees, Danville, 50.81; 3, Dylan Devlin, Central Columbia, 51.36; 4, Billy Delbaugh, Shamokin, 51.61; 5, Jermez Herring, Shikellamy, 51.77; 6, Jacob Reeder, Montoursville, 52.28; 7, Braden Cott, Montoursville, 52.47; 8, Treyvon Eiswerth, Williamsport, 52.93.

300 hurdles: 1, Allen Taylor, Williamsport, 39.74; 2, Zach Bedell, Lewisburg, 40.09; 3, Marshall Buggy, Shamokin, 40.18; 4, Brandon Zimmerman, Danville, 41.08; 5, Gray Catherman, Selinsgrove, 41.51; 6, Jake Rose, Southern Columbia, 42.33; 7, Jack Schechterly, Central Columbia, 42.84; 8, Keenan Dietz, Midd-West, 42.99.

800: 1, Owen Mahon, Williamsport, 1:57.80; 2, Logan Strouse, Shikellamy, 1:58.90; 3, James Koconis, Lewisburg, 1:59.27; 4, Ethan Knoebel, Southern Columbia, 2:01.31; 5, Addison Magyar, Warrior Run, 2:02.91; 6, Dylan Pupo, Mount Carmel, 2:03.22; 7, Dennis Cole, Shamokin, 2:04.10; 8, Calvin Bailey, Lewisburg, 2:04.12.

200: 1, Eric Zimmerman, Mifflinburg, 22.12; 2, Ethan Klees, Danville, 22.89; 3, Lucas Tilford, Shikellamy, 23.08; 4, Joe Folk, Shikellamy, 23.33; 5, Jared Verse, Central Columbia, 23.50; 6, Kameron Kline, Midd-West, 23.81; 7, Owen Keister, Milton, 23.82; 8, Jack Schechterly, Central Columbia, 23.96.

3,200: 1, J. Henry Lyon, Williamsport, 9:26.80*; 2, Jacob Hess, Lewisburg, 9:34.67; 3, Tanner Walter, Milton, 9:37.86; 4, Doug Hallman, Shikellamy, 9:48.86; 5, Ryan Bahr, Hughesville, 9:55.37; 6, Evan Hart, Lewisburg, 10:03.24; 7, Hunter Foust, Hughesville, 10:04.11; 8, James Zola, Danville, 10:10.94.

1,600 relay: 1, Central Columbia, 3:23.78*; 2, Lewisburg (Kameron Schreffler, James Koconis, Zech Bedell, Alex Sabo), 3:29.18; 3, Southern Columbia, 3:29.82; 4, Montoursville (Jacob Reeder, Angelo Silvagni, Ian Plankenhorn, Braden Cott), 3:32.39; 5, Shikellamy, 3:33.22; 6, Mount Carmel, 3:33.77; 7, Williamsport (Dalton Biichle, Treyvon Eiswerth, Allen Taylor, Owen Mahon), 3:34.26; 8, Selinsgrove, 3:34.44.

Shot put: 1, Josh Gose, Lewisburg, 53-10; 2, Nevin Rauch, Milton, 50-6 1/4; 3, Troy Donlan, Southern Columbia, 49-3 1/2; 4, William McGinley, Bloomsburg, 47-3 3/4; 5, Tucker Kreisher, Williamsport, 47-2 1/4; 6, Brian Hornberger, Shamokin, 46-11 3/4; 7, Michael Tiffin, Lewisburg, 45-11 1/2; 8, Garrett Benfer, Selinsgrove, 44-3.

Discus: 1, William McGinley, Bloomsburg, 144-1; 2, Charles Keer, Shikellamy, 139-6; 3, Michael Antonyuk, Mifflinburg, 138-4; 4, Billy Nace, Shikellamy, 133-3; 5, Michael Tiffin, Lewisburg, 131-8; 6, Josh Gose, Lewisburg, 128-1; 7, Tucker Kreisher, Williamsport 127-1; 8, Troy Donlan, Southern Columbia, 125-5.

Javelin: 1, Aaron Keeler, Shikellamy, 183-11; 2, Cole Heintzelman, Central Columbia, 176-7; 3, Ian Persing, Danville, 168-9; 4, Nate Crowl, Southern Columbia, 166-4; 5, Trae Devlin, Central Columbia, 165-9; 6, Jonathan Cramer, Williamsport, 162-0; 7, Gavin Livermore, Montoursville, 160-9; 8, Myles Barbour, Williamsport, 160-8.

Long jump: 1, Julian Fleming, Southern Columbia, 22-10*; 2, Joey Masser, Shamokin, 21-1 3/4; 3, Darren Baidoo, Lewisburg, 20-9 1/2; 4, Maxwell Goode, Williamsport, 20-4; 5, Brock Evert, Mount Camel, 20-2 1/2; 6, Tanner Karycki, Mount Carmel, 20-1 1/2; 7, Thor Britton, Selinsgrove, 19-7; 8, Alex Sabo, Lewisburg, 19-5 1/4.

Triple jump: 1, Dominic Caputo, Montoursville, 43-9 3/4; 2, Thor Britton, Selisngrove, 41-10 1/4; 3, Osiris Hemphill, Bloomsburg, 41-2 1/2; 4, Darren Baidoo, Lewisburg, 41-1; 5, Billy Delbaugh, Shamokin, 40-11 1/2; 6, Qamar Yasin-Bradley, Milton, 40-8 3/4; 7, Jaron Clark, Selinsgrove, 40-6 1/4; 8, Ethan Dunkleberger, Southern Columbia, 40-5 1/2.

High jump: 1, Joey Masser, Shamokin, 6-0; t-2, Jaron Clark, Selinsgrove, 5-10; t-2, Thor Britton, Selinsgrove, 5-10; 4, Dante Colon, Mifflinburg, 5-10; 5, Dominic Caputo, Montoursville, 5-10; 6, Darren Baidoo, Lewisburg, 5-10; t-7, Mavin James, Danville, 5-8; t-7, Justis Brady, Warrior Run, 5-8.

Pole vault: 1, Mason Brubaker, Shikellamy, 14-3; 2, Brant Long, Milton, 13-6; 3, Nate Burke, Central Columbia, 13-0; 4, Cameron Cowder, Shikellamy, 12-6; 5, Levi Kennel, Warrior Run, 12-6; 6, Gabe Waltman, Central Columbia, 12-0; t-7, Ethan Fisher, Williamsport, 11-6; t-7, Dylon Spotts, Danville, 11-6.