SHIPPENSBURG - Palmerton’s Nataly Walters punctuated the PIAA Track and Field Championships with her second gold medal in as many days Saturday.

The sophomore won the Class 2A triple jump with a leap of 38-11 one day after earning gold in the long jump.

“I’m just really proud of myself with the whole season,” said Walters. “I worked so hard over the winter and the summer. I was in the gym for like almost, I would say 24 hours a week to be honest. And so that was physically and mentally draining all year. I had to focus on school, clubs, school sports and then track training, lifting. It was so much.

“All those workouts where I sat there, and I was tired and I wanted to leave early and I didn’t want to finish my workout. I just pushed through it, because I knew it was going to pay off. And it paid off. It finally paid off. This is going to give me motivation for next year because I want to defend my title, I want to get two golds again, maybe another medal in a sprint or something. But it’s motivating. I’m going to train hard again. I’m not going to drop anything that I did this year.”

In addition to Walters, Jim Thorpe’s Kaila O’Connor also captured two individual medals on Saturday. Ridge Snyder also had an individual medal for the Olympians and was on the relay team that finished in the top eight.

O’Connor captured her first state medal in the 100, running to a second-place finish with a time of 12.27.

She returned for the 200 final later in the day, where she placed fourth with a time of 24.96.

Snyder ran to a fourth-place finish in the Class 2A 800 for his first state medal with a time of 1:56.52.

Snyder returned a short time later and anchored the 1600 relay to a sixth-place finish with a time of 3:28.16.

The team consisted of Zeeshan Issifum, Ryan Bailor and Joseph Louk.

Check out Tuesday’s Times News for full coverage of all the action from Shippensburg University.

Saturday Results of Times News area athletes

GIRLS

Class 2A

100 - Kaila O’Connor, Jim Thorpe, second overall, 12.27

3200 - Angelina Klein, Northwestern, 22nd overall, 12:36.21

3200 relay - Jim Thorpe, 14th overall, 9:57.29

Shot put - Sadie Fenstermaker, Northwestern, 34-9.25, 13th overall

Pole vault - Katrin Cavanaugh, Jim Thorpe, 15th overall, 10-0

Triple jump - Nataly Walters, Palmerton, first overall, 38-11

800 - Nicole Carroll, Jim Thorpe, 13th overall, 2:23.26

200 - Kaila O’Connor, Jim Thorpe, fourth overall, 24.96

BOYS

Class 2As

3200 - Matthew Santana, Northwestern, 24th overall, 9:54.49

3200 relay - Palmerton, 10th overall, 8:12.63

800 - Ridge Snyder, Jim Thorpe, fourth overall, 1:56.52

1600 relay - Jim Thorpe, sixth overall, 3:28.16