Kyle Gonoude has been waiting for redemption for quite some time.

He'll get a chance at it this week.

A year ago, Kyle Gonoude made his trip to the state track and field chamionships and ran the fastest time in the preliminary round of the 1600-meter run. The finals, however, were a different story for the Salisbury senior.

After finishing first in both the 1600 (4:33.63) and 3200-meter runs (10:15.65) in last week's District 11 Class AA Track and Field Championships, Gonoude is heading back to states to try and rewrite his own history. He won't compete in the two-mile event at states, rather devoting all of his time to prepare for the 1600.

"I'm excited for the second chance that I got," Gonoude said. "I had the best seed from the prelims [in the 1600 at states last year], which doesn't really mean anything. But I ran a bad race the second day and came in third."

Once the race got underway, Gonoude left little doubt that he'd be heading back to states.

Gonoude led from the first lap on Wednesday at Whitehall High School's Zephyr Sports Complex. He finished nearly six seconds faster than the next competitor, Schuylkill Haven's Sam Brennan who ran a 4:39.

"I just wanted to keep pushing and keep everyone away from me so they couldn't sit behind me," Gonoude said. "Even with this awful back stretch of wind, I just kept pushing and kept working."

Joining Gonoude at the PIAA Track and Field Championships in Shippensburg is junior Tevon Weber, who won the javelin event with a throw of 176 feet. Palmerton's Gerald Pereira (163-4) and North Schuylkill's Kebner Antalosky (139-11) finished second and third, respectively.

"I'm happy, but I'm looking to go up in states," Weber said. "I want to throw over 180 and hopefully get a medal, too."

While Gonoude and Weber are preparing for their experience in states, a number of Falcon boys just missed out on the opportunity. As opposed to two girls automatically qualifying from the Class AA classification (along with the state-qualifying times, heights and distance), only one AA boy from District 11 in each event automatically qualifies for states.

Mason Donaldson (second in high jump) and Levi Renninger (second in pole vault) were two of the Falcons that were a spot away from qualifying for states.

For Donaldson, it's been a unique journey to his second-place finish in the high jump. After trying the event for the first time in the last regular season meet, the Falcon junior jumped an impressive six feet at districts.

"I just wanted it today," Donaldson said."This was only like my first week high jumping, so I didn't really care too much about it. But in this week, looking at the standings and stuff, I realized I might have a chance to do pretty well."

Renninger, who jumped 12 feet in the pole vault, was also inches away from qualifying for states. His height was six inches behind first-place finisher Logan Blasiak of Palmerton. He was the closest he's been in his career to hitting 12-6.

"I didn't do as well as I was hoping to," Renninger said. "I was too worried about 13 feet that 12-6, my first miss, I wasn't ready for it.

"First place was 12-6. I was really close. I should have had it."

Donaldson also took fourth place in the long jump, while Greg Fry (fourth in 3200-meter run) and Danny Walters (fourth in pole vault) rounded out the Salisbury medalists on the boys' side.