Greensburg Central Catholic’s Brewer looking for personal record

By: Paul Schofield
Tuesday, October 8, 2019 | 8:03 PM

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Greensburg Central Catholic sophomore Corinn Brewer changed her approach this season.

Instead of running in a lot of cross country invitationals, she’s tapered back her schedule.

“I ran at Cal U three times last year, and I burnt myself out,” Brewer said. “I didn’t compete well in the WPIAL Class A championship and the PIAA championship.”

Brewer won’t be running in next week’s Tri-County Track Coaches Association meet at Cal (Pa.), but she will be defending her title at the annual Westmoreland County Coaches’ Association meet at Westmoreland County Community College.

The races begin at 3 p.m. The invitational was moved from Thursday to Wednesday this season because the organization didn’t have a rain date built into the schedule.

Brewer breezed over the level course on the WCCC campus last season in a personal-best 19 minutes, 31.5 seconds. She’s looking to set another record.

“That’s my goal, breaking my record,” Brewer said. “That can be done because the course is flat.”

She only competed in a couple invitationals. She won the Kiski Area meet and placed third at the Uniontown Invitational.

“I’ve used some of the dual meets as training races,” Brewer said. “I want to be stronger at the end of the season.”

Brewer said she’s not sure who will challenge her.

Seven of the top nine girls return to push Brewer: Latrobe sophomore Lexie Planinsek (fourth last year), Norwin sophomore Triniti Joy (fifth), Hempfield junior Lily Schmadel (sixth), Latrobe senior Rachel Harter (seventh), Latrobe sophomore McKenna Skatell (eighth) and Norwin senior Madison Pesi (tenth). Harter placed fourth in 2017.

“There might be some freshmen or sophomores I don’t know,” said Brewer, who also is a state-qualifying pole-vaulter.

The Norwin girls are the returning county champions, but look for Latrobe, Hempfield and Greensburg Salem to challenge them.

The boys race is wide open. The past three years, the Greensburg Salem trio of Cam Binda, Mark Brown and Dylan Binda have been at the top of the leaderboard.

Cam Binda was the 2018 champion followed by his brother Dylan, Brown and Mason Jobe, which helped the Golden Lions capture WPIAL and PIAA Class AA team titles.

Jobe, who placed fifth in last year’s meet, is the highest returning runner. There are at least seven runners that will challenge him. Norwin senior Dominic Spatolisano (sixth last year), Greensburg Salem junior Ethan Kelley (eighth), Hempfield senior Trevor Verkleeren (ninth), Penn-Trafford junior Patrick Driscoll (10th), Kiski Area junior Jake Folaran (11th), Norwin senior Jacob Tarosky (12th) and Norwin junior Alex Jubert, who missed the 2018 meet because of an injury but placed seventh in 2017.

The Greensburg Salem boys are the returning champions, but Norwin, which won in 2017, hope to get the team title back.

“It’s going to be a close battle,” Norwin coach Brian Fleckenstein said. “Greensburg Salem still has a good group back. I’m looking forward to it.”

Paul Schofield is a TribLive reporter covering high school and college sports and local golf. He joined the Trib in 1995 after spending 15 years at the Daily Courier in Connellsville, where he served as sports editor for 14 years. He can be reached at pschofield@triblive.com.

Tags: Greensburg C.C., Greensburg Salem, Hempfield, Kiski Area, Latrobe, Norwin