This time of year for high school seniors gets emotional.

With finals, graduation, and college decisions, there are a lot of doors opening and closing for the budding youth of America. For two Konkrete Kids in particular they saw one more thing end last week and that was their high school track and field careers.

Kory DeCesaris and Alec Lederer are seniors who are moving on to another chapter in their lives after spending the last four roaming the halls of Northampton Area High School and tearing up the track at their stadium. But at least they are finishing this section in style.

DeCesaris, who is a new school-record holder in shot put, competed in the same event at the PIAA state track and field meet at Shippensburg University on May 24 and 25. His throw of 52-. 75 earned him eighth place and a state medal. However he had some mixed feelings about it.

"I was excited that I was going to medal, but at the same time I was a little disappointed in my performance," DeCesaris said. "I've thrown better than my performance and [I] expected to do better here, but I'm still happy with a medal."

This wasn't his first time at the rodeo as he made the trip to the state meet last year to compete, but DeCesaris said it was different being the top dog senior.

"It felt incredible [to be a senior at states]. I feel like all of my hard work during the season had paid off and I was someone to worry about in competition," DeCesaris said.

Another K-Kid who was a threat this spring was Lederer. He finished third in the league meet earlier this month at Whitehall with a burst at the end to qualify for the district meet. At districts he ran away from the pack and won by a comfortable margin. However, things didn't go completely his way at Shippensburg.

"The race was really fast and I wasn't used to going out hard," Lederer said. "I ended up being in the back of the pack. Racing in the pack for the first mile really tired me out."

With the rougher start he finished 30th with a time of 10:20.51. That is approximately 40.25 seconds slower than his fantastic finish in the district meet at Blue Mountain High School.

Lederer said that it was great to see hard work for years being paid off and he uttered the words that every parent, coach and athletic director wants to hear from a student-athlete who succeeded and matured through sports: "My years as a K-Kid were very memorable. I learned a lot that will prepare me for life."

That is how you effectively end a chapter in your life.