Hampton runners reflect on WPIAL championship season

By: John Grupp
Saturday, November 16, 2024 | 11:01 AM

The Hampton girls cross country team this season had a ritual of eating at Olive Garden after each big race.

One meal was especially tasty.

The Talbots put together a historic 2024 season that included the first WPIAL Class 2A cross country championship in program history.

“It was just overwhelming,” senior Kevyn Fish, who placed third at the Oct. 24 WPIAL finals in 18 minutes, 53 seconds. “Some of the girls wore their (gold) medals into dinner, so that was really fun.”

Often overshadowed by their three-time WPIAL champion boy counterparts, the girls continued to improve in recent years and, at last, enjoyed their day in the sun at White Oak Park.

The WPIAL-title season also included a top-10 finish at the PIAA championships — the Talbots’ first trip to states in 24 years — as well as first-place finishes at the Red, White & Blue and Grove City invitationals.

“It was really unbelievable,” longtime coach Heather Dietz said. “The group of girls this year have been so driven and worked so hard. It was such an amazing accomplishment. It was just special all around.”

The defending PIAA champion Hampton boys team, meanwhile, saw its WPIAL-title run end with a third-place finish behind Quaker Valley and Beaver. The Talbots were trying to become only second cross country program in 61 years to win four straight WPIAL Class 2A titles. Senior Chris Belch placed second and sophomore Lu Santos was 11th. Belch took fourth at the PIAA Class 2A championships Nov. 2 in Hershey.

At the WPIAL finals, the Talbot girls placed three runners in the top 10 and got strong support from their No. 4 and No. 5 runners to finish with 65 points and hold off rival North Catholic (75).

“We always knew that North Catholic was the team that we had to focus on,” Dietz said. “The red jerseys with the yellow hair bows, we were able to target. The girls knew what they had to do.”

Joining Fish as top-10 finishers were sophomore Claire McKinney (seventh in 19:46) and senior Abby Hall (ninth in 19:51). Not far behind were sophomores Rebekah Hall (22nd in 20:24) and Karina Bonnar (28th in 20:46) as the Talbots turned the tables on North Catholic.

Hampton had lost to section foe North Catholic, 25-32, in the regular season and placed a distant second to the Trojanettes at the Tri-State Invitational one week before the WPIAL meet, on the same White Oak Park course as the championships.

Fish said the Talbots used the Tri-State as a warm-up for WPIALs and winning the in-season meet was not a priority. So when North Catholic won easily with 36 points (runner-up Hampton had 78), the Talbots didn’t panic.

“Going in, I think we all understood that Tri-States wasn’t the goal,” Fish said. “We didn’t need to win Tri-States and honestly, mentally, it was better for us going into WPIALs as the underdog. We followed the plan. Tri-States was just a practice run, and we knew we could pull it off when it really mattered.”

The Talbots ran the race of their lives at the WPIAL finals. Abby Hall and McKinney shattered their personal-bests on the course, and Rebekah Hall and Bonnar secured the win with top-30 finishes.

Hampton’s non-scoring runners were junior Marissa Bigante (40th in 21:18) and sophomore Charlee Sciulli (67th in 22:12).

The Talbots weren’t as successful at the PIAA championships, placing 10th. Fish took 23rd out of 250 runners to cap her decorated cross country career.

Fish, a four-time PIAA qualifier who will run in college, is leaning toward the Coast Guard. Hall placed 67th in her final high school meet.

Other seniors were reserve runners Cara Herock, Elin Boyce and Sienna Lasek.

“It’s just been such a roller coaster of emotions the past four years,” Fish said. “It was so surreal when we were able to pull it off.”

Dietz, who has coached Hampton cross country for the past two decades, called the season “phenomenal” and let the runners know how much it meant to her.

“I wrote a letter to the girls before states,” Dietz said, “just telling them that this season is one that I will never forget.”

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