Laurel sprinter Tori Atkins makes history with unprecedented WPIAL 4-peat

By: Chris Harlan
Wednesday, May 14, 2025 | 11:08 PM

The drawstring in Tori Atkins’ warmup pants was maybe the toughest opponent the Laurel sprinter faced in her four years at the WPIAL track championships.

It’s a freshman year story that the senior can laugh about now as a 10-time champion.

Atkins cemented her track legacy Wednesday by winning four WPIAL gold medals at Slippery Rock, and she made history by winning both the 200- and 400-meter titles for the fourth year in a row. No other athlete has accomplished that “quadruple-double” since the WPIAL started measuring races in meters more than 40 years ago.

“I knew I was trying to make history with that four-peat,” Atkins said. “I felt some pressure, but I just calmed my nerves and controlled what I could control.”

If she was nervous, it didn’t show.

The Youngstown State recruit defended her WPIAL Class 2A titles in the 200- and 400-meter runs, celebrated her first 100-meter gold and willed the 1,600 relay to victory with a come-from-behind effort in the anchor leg.

“She has definitely earned everything she’s got,” Laurel sprints coach Scott Sauders said.

Ladies and gentlemen, the LEGEND of Tori Atkins.
100m prelims
200m prelims
100m finals
400m finals (broke own meet record)
200m finals
(Her fourth district gold in both 400m & 200m, first to ever do it)
Anchor the 4x400m
Do yourself a favor and watch her… pic.twitter.com/sszFCjcezo

— Lawrence County SportsNet (@LCSportsNet) May 15, 2025

Up next is the state meet May 23-24 in Shippensburg, where Atkins is the defending PIAA champion in the 400.

A confident champion nowadays, her coach recalled how her WPIAL winning streak almost didn’t get started. As a freshman running in the 200 finals, the race was moments away and Atkins couldn’t get her warmup pants off.

“The knot was tied too tight, and it’s stuck,” said Sauders, whose daughter, then a senior teammate, tried to help her. “They were pulling on them. She’s on the ground. It took everything to get out of her sweatpants and into the starting blocks. Since then, she carries scissors with her.”

It’s a moment Atkins hasn’t forgotten either.

“I remember the (other runners) getting on the line ready to get in the blocks and I couldn’t get my pants untied,” she said. “My dad was having a stroke in the stands stressing about me missing finals. But I got out there and was able to win it.”

She hasn’t stopped winning since.

A year ago, Atkins joined Farrell’s Jennifer Sims (1986-88) as the only WPIAL runners to win 200- and 400-meter titles in three consecutive years. Now, Atkins stands alone.

The daughter of former Penn State football player Todd Atkins, she won the 400 meters by more than two seconds Wednesday. Her 55.35-second time was about two-tenths of a second faster than her meet record from last year.

She won the 200 meters in 24.6 seconds and the 100 in 12.07.

If that weren’t enough, in her WPIAL championship finale, Atkins overcame a 50-meter deficit in the 1,600-meter relay and chased down three other runners. She ran her anchor leg in 53.6 seconds for her fourth gold medal of the day.

“That was something special,” Sauders said. “I knew most likely she was going to be behind (when she got the baton). … To be 50 meters down to an excellent runner and you split 53.63, that’s a competitor. That’s a champion right there.”

Sauders said Atkins’ ability to bounce back from one event to the next is a skill that helps to make her exceptional. Counting preliminary heats, it was her sixth race of the day.

“I wanted to push myself and see what I could do,” she said of the four events. “To be able to run the 400 and go straight to the 200, it’s tough. Your legs have to recover. But mine seem to have been able to do it these past couple of years.”

Looking back at how she’s grown over her four-year championship streak, Atkins said she’s a stronger runner, more skilled and surely better at calming her nerves.

“And,” she added. “I definitely don’t tie my pants as tight anymore.”

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.