Gateway’s Piper Munyon sees better times after putting focus on cross country

By: Michael Love
Sunday, September 7, 2025 | 11:01 AM

Piper Munyon split her time as a Gateway freshman last fall between soccer, her first love, and competing as a member of the Gators cross country team.

It was a several-month balance, combined with her school studies, that she worked on through the end of the soccer season in mid October before turning her attention to a championship opportunity at the WPIAL cross country meet at White Oak Park.

Now, as a sophomore, she has dedicated herself solely to making a big impact in cross country running, and so far, things are coming together nicely for what could be a season full of top-level accomplishments.

“Last year, I was doing cross country just part time, but I felt that it would be better for my career as a runner to do cross country full time,” Munyon said.

“I felt I had a better chance at things down the road if I concentrated more on my running. It was tough to give up soccer because I had been doing it since I was 7. At one point, I was playing on three teams. It was a hard decision to make, but I really do like running. I know I can go far if I keep it up and continue to train hard.”

Munyon starting running with events on the track in seventh grade.

“There was definitely improvement from my seventh-grade season to eighth grade,” she said.

“I started doing longer and longer distances. As soon as I tried some summer cross country stuff, I kept doing longer runs. I found out that I was far better at that than sprinting.”

Munyon set a pace for the Gateway teams with a lot of miles logged over the summer in preparation for the season. She used momentum gained from a successful first varsity track season which saw her place 10th in the 3,200-meter run at the WPIAL Class 3A championships in May at Slippery Rock.

Munyon said she also recalled all that she achieved on area courses last fall.

“Last season helped because I learned a lot of good running techniques to help me improve as a runner,” she said.

Munyon put her abilities on display at the season-opening Gateway Invitational on Aug. 30. Last year, in her varsity debut, she finished seventh on her home course at Boyce Park with a time of 22 minutes, 29.32 seconds.

This time, she rose to second in a time of 19:44.01.

“I was really happy that I got sub-20 (minutes),” Munyon said.

“The main thing I need to work on is hills, and running Saturday’s race helped me see that.”

Munyon said she tried to stay close to West Allegheny senior Grace Fritzman who ended up winning the girls varsity race by 55 seconds.

“I was trying to get up there as much as I could,” she said.

“She is just a powerful runner. It did give me that push because I always try to focus on passing up one person at a time, as many as I can get to. At one point, I couldn’t see her anymore, so I was just trying to work my way up as best as I could.”

Munyon moved into second place just after the first mile and never lost that position. She finished 10 seconds clear of the third-place finisher, West Allegheny freshman Camryn Bruno.

“Piper has been working hard and doing all the right things,” Gateway coach Brent Rogus said.

“She’s always talking to us about what she can do to improve. You can see that improvement on the course from last year. I liked what I saw from her in the scrimmage and also in the first race. She knows she has a couple of little things to work on. She is never satisfied with where she is at any point. But she is coming along really well, and there are a lot of big races coming up where she can break out and show her talents.”

Munyon and the rest of the Gateway cross country runners were slated to run at Saturday’s prestigious Red, White, and Blue Invitational at White Oak Park. The meet was to conclude past the deadline for this week’s edition.

She ran to 43rd place (20:07.50) in the WPIAL Class 3A girls race there last year.

“We’re going to run that course three or four times this year,” Munyon said.

“It will definitely be good practice for WPIALs.”

Gateway runners will join several other area teams at Friday’s annual Kiski Area Invitational at Northmoreland Park. The first race goes off at 11 a.m.

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