YATESVILLE — With the entire season on the line, Ashton Ashby got rid of a mental roadblock.

Nicole Zambetti shed a shoe.

And Pittston Area did whatever it took to cast aside any obstacle that got in its way of reaching the brink of a division title.

Ashby fought through a gusting wind to clear 5 feet in the high jump during the final event Tuesday, lifting Pittston Area to a dramatic 78-72 girls track and field victory over Dallas at Charley Trippi Stadium in a battle of Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 unbeatens that left the Patriots in control of the division.

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“It’s a great feeling,” said Ashby, a junior. “I’m happy for myself and for the team. I’m so happy the team performed how we should perform.”

The victory pulled Pittston Area to 6-0 heading into Monday’s regular-season finale, where the Lady Patriots could lock up their third Division 1 title in five years by winning at arch-rival Wyoming Area.

Two-time defending WVC champion Dallas suffered its first loss and can only tie Pittston Area for first if the Lady Patriots fall and it beats Hazleton Area Monday.

Zambetti endured through the final moments of the last event on the track to provide one of the most dramatic finishes of the season.

The Patriots leaned on triple winners Zambetti and Charity McLeod, two wins from Abby Norwillo (in the pole vault and long jump) and victories by two Ashbys — as Ashton’s senior sister Taryn won the javelin throw — to position themselves for the big win.

Zambetti’s willpower set it up.

Running the last leg of the closing 1,600-meter relay, Zambetti took the final handoff of the day with a lead of nearly 25 meters. But Dallas’ triple winner Abby Zolner closed fast, and the two were running shoulder-to-shoulder down the homestretch. That’s when Zambetti ran out of a shoe, but kept going to widen the gap to the delight of her cheering teammates. She won the event by two strides and erased the Dallas lead.

“I was tired, because I ran three events before that,” said Zambetti, a freshman who also led off the winning 3,200 relay team and captured the 800 run for the Patriots. “I knew I needed to pick it up. When I saw her (Zolner) catching up, I sprinted as hard as I could.

“It paid off.”

It put Pittston Area into a three-point lead with only the high jump remaining.

“She ran the last 100 meters without her shoe,” marveled Pittston Area coach Joe Struckus. “Her teammates really gave her the adrenaline she needed.

“She had just enough.”

It was enough to make both teams nervous.

The final relay victory left Pittston Area needing a win in the high jump, or second- and third-place finishes, to capture the meet.

But her teammates and coaches kept that quiet around Ashby.

“I knew it was really close,” Ashby said. “No one would tell me the score. I kept asking, but no one would tell me.”

For good reason.

“Ashton gets a little nervous,” Struckus smiled. “We tried to keep all that under wraps so she didn’t feel like she was affecting the team.”

That strategy didn’t really work — “I felt a little pressure,” Ashby admitted — but her legs did.

Fighting a rapidly-increasing wind that kept throwing jumpers off their mark, Ashby needed three tries to clear her first height. But in the end, she was the only jumper to cleanly cross the bar at 5 feet — reaching height she hasn’t hit in awhile.

“Before this, I was stuck at 4-8,” Ashby said, explaining her steps have been off a bit from when she hit her personal high of 5-2 three weeks ago. “My coach and I kept figuring where to start from — do we move it back, do we move it forward, do we move it in? It’s just a game. (With the wind) I had to re-start a couple times. Then you push through it. I was really happy with it.

“I was surprised.”

Her meet-clinching victory wasn’t quite as startling as the consistency of an inexperienced Patriots team that moved to the brink of completing an unbeaten regular season, to within one more win from securing a title that it also won in 2013 and 2014.

“I didn’t think we’d be anywhere near a league title this year,” said Struckus, whose team fell one meet short each of the last two seasons with losses to Dallas in the regular-season finales. “It was a team effort. Everyone stepped up today. We knew we had to be on our A game. It feels good. The last couple of years, between both of us, we’ve won the title four years in a row. They had two, we had two, so this was the rubber match.

“It’s nice to win it.”

McLeod won the 400 and ran on the 1600 and 3200 teams with Zambetti to help Pittston Area sweep the relays.

Mia Barbieri and Jenna Smith joined them on the 1600 relay and were each part of the 400 relay with Anjelica Singer and Jessica Tighe.

Jada Sharp and Mary Silinskie completed the 3200 relay lineup.

Arianna Boccardi won the 1600.

Pittston Area’s Arianna Boccardi, center right, leads the pack before pulling away to win the girls 1600-meter run against Dallas Tuesday afternoon at Charley Trippi Stadium in Yatesville.
http://www.psdispatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_PSD050717TRKDallas-PA_spt_2.jpg.optimal.jpgPittston Area’s Arianna Boccardi, center right, leads the pack before pulling away to win the girls 1600-meter run against Dallas Tuesday afternoon at Charley Trippi Stadium in Yatesville. Bill Tarutis | For Sunday Dispatch

Dallas’ Megan Borton, center right, runs to a second-place finish against Pittston Area in the girls 1600-meter run Tuesday afternoon at Charley Trippi Stadium in Yatesville.
http://www.psdispatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_TDP050717TRKDallas-PA_spt_1.jpg.optimal.jpgDallas’ Megan Borton, center right, runs to a second-place finish against Pittston Area in the girls 1600-meter run Tuesday afternoon at Charley Trippi Stadium in Yatesville. Bill Tarutis | For Sunday Dispatch

By PAUL SOKOLOSKI

psokoloski@timesleader.com