North Allegheny runners look to maintain momentum after victories at Red, White and Blue Invitational
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Friday, September 14, 2018 | 12:18 AM
Slogging through a wet course at Schenley Park wasn’t going to provide the North Allegheny cross country program with a major hurdle.
The Tigers had already put in a strong summer’s worth of work and were ready for whatever Mother Nature had in store for them, rain or shine, at the Red, White and Blue Invitational.
“That’s the thing,” Tigers coach John Neff said. “It does test you. If you did the work and go to the starting line knowing you’ve done everything you could, even though it’s raining on everyone or even though it’s blazing hot you know you’ve done the work and it’s going to affect you, but you hope it effects you less than everyone else.”
Both teams collected team titles, with the girls surprising the defending WPIAL champion Oakland Catholic and defending PIAA champion Fox Chapel at the Sept. 8 meet.
“I was really pumped about where we were,” Neff said. “We had a great summer. We had a great first several weeks of mandatories here. It always looks good in paper and practice, and it’s nice to see what it looks like in a meet. The kids are dynamite.”
Hannah Lindgren led the North Allegheny girls with a third-place finish in an event featuring 80 teams. Keeley Misutka (seventh) and Caroline Daggett (eighth) also grabbed top 10 finishes for the Tigers.
On the boys’ side, North Allegheny won while its two top placers — Zach Kinne and Dan McGoey — cross the finish line in first and second place, respectively.
Neff was pleased with how Kinne and McGoey were able to come out in front of the field.
He thought there was a possibility they would challenge for the top spot.
“I have nothing but confidence in Dan and Zack,” Neff said. “There are a lot of good guys in the WPIAL, so you are never really sure. I thought maybe and it was good to see it come true.”
North Allegheny followed up the Red, White and Blue Invitational by sweeping Mars in a dual meet. Neff wants to see both squads continue to build off a strong start and ride the momentum into a strong performance at WPIALs.
“We talked about that at practice (last Monday),” Neff said. “It felt good to come out on top on Saturday. If you want to continue to feel like that, it’s in your power. You have to do the right things in practice everyday and keep fighting in meets.”
Josh Rizzo is a freelance writer.
Tags: North Allegheny
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