Moon’s Mia Cochran adding to track legacy by winning 3 WPIAL individual titles

By: Chris Harlan
Wednesday, May 18, 2022 | 10:46 PM

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What more could Mia Cochran have to prove?

The Moon senior and Arkansas recruit became a three-time state cross country champion in the fall, and she entered this spring as the defending outdoor track state champion in both the 1,600 and 3,200 meters.

Still, she wanted more.

So, Cochran decided about a month ago to add the 800 meters to her championship schedule, and she won all three events Wednesday at the WPIAL Class 3A championship at Slippery Rock University.

“Senior year,” she said. “I just wanted to make a little statement going into states.”

Cochran wasn’t chasing any personal-best times, but she won all three events by a comfortable margin. She crossed the finish line with around a four-second lead in the 1,600 and 3,200 and had more than a three-second lead in the 800.

That was her goal as she seeks PIAA history, hoping to add another achievement to her already impressive legacy.

“It felt really good today to get it done, and be able to cruise through it,” she said.

Cochran intends to run all three again at the PIAA championship May 27-28 at Shippensburg. Contending in all three events was essentially impossible in years past because of the number of preliminary-round races required.

However, the PIAA has eliminated the early rounds for the 800 and 1,600, so now it’s more doable.

“It’s fun to try something new,” Cochran said, “and go for all three.”

Cochran was the only athlete to win three individual events Wednesday on a cool and rainy day at Slippery Rock’s stadium. Ten others won two individual golds, including Butler distance runner C.J. Singleton, who nearly matched Cochran’s three titles.

Singleton won the boys 1,600 and 3,200 in Class 3A, but the Notre Dame recruit lost in the 800 by less than three-tenths of a second to Moon’s Jacob Puhalla.

Like Cochran, Singleton also plans to run all three events at states. The three races are spread out across the two-day schedule for the PIAA meet.

“I love (the schedule) and it’s fair,” Butler coach Mike Seybert said. “To beat these kids’ legs with all of these trials and running them into the ground, it defeats what you’re trying to do: that’s run the fastest times.”

Among WPIAL Class 3A competitors, Canon-McMillan’s Christopher Davis swept the boys 110 and 300 hurdles. Indiana’s Abbie Huey won the girls 200 and 400, and Hempfield’s Elizabeth Tapper won the girls discus and shot put.

The Class 2A meet had six athletes win two individual events including a double-double for Shenango throwers. Emma Callahan and Will Patton swept the girls and boys discus and shot put, each setting meet records in the process.

Laurel’s Tori Atkins won the girls 200 and 400, Brownville’s Jolena Quarzo won the girls 1,600 and 3,200, McGuffey’s Clara Barr won the girls 100 hurdles and long jump and Deer Lakes’ Carson McCoy won the boys 800 and 1,600.

Atkins, a freshman, was making her WPIAL debut.

“I’m really excited and pretty surprised,” she said. “I didn’t know if I was going to do it. … There were a lot of nerves. I just tried to calm myself and not let it mess up my performance.”

Some of the meets best suspense came in the 200-meter boys races.

With about 10 meters left in the Class 2A boys race, Butler’s Guinness Brown seemed to have the lead, but Central Valley’s Donovan Jones surged to the finish line and won by one-hundredth of a second.

“Nothing but adrenaline the whole time,” Jones said. “The was the best race I’ve ever had. That was amazing.”

Brown, a Duke recruit, was the reigning WPIAL 200-meter champion.

“This was circled on my calendar for sure,” Jones said. “I knew I’d get to run against Guinness. I didn’t get to run against him all this season.”

But their drag race wasn’t the closest finish.

In Class 2A boys, North Catholic’s Luke Mager and Steel Valley’s Nijhay Burt were separated by less than one-hundredth of a second in the 200 meters. Both were clocked at 22.91 seconds, but the timing system awarded the win to Mager, who leaned at the line.

Brown did win the 400-meter title, one of seven events claimed by the Butler boys. That success puts them in position to challenge for a team title at the state championship meet.

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.