Gateway runners make strides heading into WPIAL cross country meet

By: Michael Love
Sunday, October 20, 2024 | 11:01 AM

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Kairell McCoy ran to a time of 18 minutes, 31.8 seconds at last year’s WPIAL Class 3A cross country championships at White Oak Park. The time landed him 110th overall.

Now, the Gateway senior has his sights set on a sizeable improvement in both time and placement. He will get his chance Thursday, Oct. 24, at White Oak.

“He has a shot at getting to states if he runs his best,” Gateway coach Brent Rogus said.

“If he runs 16:30 and makes states, that wouldn’t surprise us. With his autism, we sometimes don’t know what to expect. But he has the strength, endurance, stamina, speed and talent to make it. His biggest issue is him being able to stay focused for an entire 3.1 miles. But it is sometimes a challenge for any runner to focus for 17 or so minutes straight, especially when you are under pressure to do well in a race like WPIALs.”

In Class 3A, the top three boys teams and top three girls teams automatically qualify for the PIAA championships Nov. 2 in Hershey. The top 15 individuals in both races who are not a member of one of the qualifying teams also punch their tickets to states.

McCoy ran a season-best 17:34.45 at the Mingo Creek Classic on Oct. 10.

“We’re excited to see if he can take that next step,” Rogus said.

McCoy, for most of the season, has been the lone Gateway boys runner to compete in varsity races. Rogus said the younger and less experienced runners such as Isaac Sha, Robert Kennedy, Tyler Lamantia, Evan Pelc, Abdulwasay Syed and Ryan Cruse have benefitted from competing at the JV level.

The group ran varsity in the Division I, Section 4 championship meet at Northmoreland Park on Oct. 2 and was set to do the same at the Tri-State meet Oct. 17 at White Oak.

Results of the Tri-State meet were unavailable as of the deadline for this week’s edition.

“With the JV races, it was good to get them more up front and have them experience some success and positive results,” Rogus said. “They’ve been good in understanding that it is time to take that next step up to varsity for these final couple of races.”

On the girls side, freshman Piper Munyon completed her commitment to the Gateway girls soccer team Monday as the Gators were eliminated from playoff contention.

Munyon represented Gateway at the Gateway Invitational at Boyce Park on Aug. 31, and she also ran at the A.J. Everhart Uniontown Invitational on Sept. 28.

She now is with her cross country teammates getting ready to run at her first WPIAL meet. Rogus said she is looking good ahead of her debut.

Munyon finished seventh in the girls varsity race at Uniontown with a time of 22:01.20.

“We’ve understood that she is of the mindset that soccer is her No. 1 and cross country is her No. 2,” Rogus said. “Now, we’re excited to see her run. She has her goals set for what she wants to run at WPIALs. It was good for her to get on the White Oak course (at Tri-States) and test herself before WPIALs. We’re hoping for a minute or so improvement from Uniontown because the White Oak course is flatter.

“We know she has the ability to do really well at WPIALs from seeing what she did at the Gateway Invite, at Uniontown and through her training with us during the summer.”

Rogus said he’s seen steady improvement in practices and on the course from sophomore Jai’Anna Mahoney. She ran a personal-best by three minutes (26:58.57) at the Bald Eagle Invitational on Oct. 5 at White Oak and held that time at Mingo five days later.

“We were really happy to see the hard work pay off with her best time,” Rogus said.

Rogus said attempts have been made to gather some athletes from other Gateway sports to form the necessary five-runner team to achieve a girls team score at WPIALs.

“With that, we want to give Piper and Jai’Anna a sense of competing for a team goal rather than them being out there running just for themselves,” Rogus said.

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Gateway