Plum athletes off to strong start during indoor track season

By: Michael Love
Saturday, February 12, 2022 | 11:01 AM

Purchase Photo Options

Plum cross country and track and field coach Stephanie Kennedy is optimistic as she looks ahead to the outdoor track season.

Those positive feelings, she said, have their genesis in the work a number of Mustangs athletes have put in this winter in advance of moving outdoors early next month.

Strong results in competitions, too, have provided an additional boost.

“We had a really good group of kids come out this year with the goal of seeing how they do in competition and also preparing for the outdoor season, which is only a couple of weeks away,” Kennedy said. “Last year, unfortunately, with covid being as heightened as it was in the winter, the kids didn’t have many meets, so there wasn’t much of an indoor season.

“So, this year, the kids have really been going for it and are excited to be able to improve themselves and build that base for the outdoor season. They have been able to knock some of the rust off in a couple of meets.

“The kids are getting into their specific events, too, which is nice. This is not mandatory, but for the kids who have been here, its shows just how much they want to get better.”

A group of six Plum athletes, with hopes of feeding off several structured, voluntary workouts at the high school, competed at the first Youngstown State high school meet Jan. 15, and Kennedy said she was excited to see them turn in strong performances.

“The kids began to get even more excited once they had that taste of racing and competing,” Kennedy said.

While Tri-State Track Coaches Association meets at Edinboro require all participants be at least a freshman, Youngstown meets have an open format, and Plum eighth grader Owen Proskin took advantage of the opportunity.

Competing against juniors and seniors, Proskin captured the high jump title with a top leap of 5 feet, 8 inches. He also finished ninth in the triple jump (35-4).

“He is excelling at the junior-high level, which doesn’t always have many opportunities for indoor,” Kennedy said. “For him to compete and have that high level of competition he might not always see, it is just an awesome opportunity. He really made an impression on a lot of people there, and he also surprised himself a little bit. He was calm, confident and collected.”

Also reaching the medal stand at that first Youngstown meet was the 1,600-meter relay quartet of Proskin, senior Ethan Jones, junior Nate Mienke and Connor Pivirotto with a seventh-place finish in a time of 4 minutes, 15.45 seconds.

Pivirotto, a junior distance runner, was to represent Plum in the 1,600 and 800 runs this past Saturday at the fifth TSTCA regular-season meet at Edinboro.

He said he went into the meet with a lot of motivation as he was just 1.08 seconds away from the qualifying standard in the 1,600 for the TSTCA championships, set for this Saturday at Edinboro.

“These indoor meets are a great jumpstart to the outdoor season, and just the training we are able to do in the workouts at the high school are really getting us ready,” said Pivirotto, also one of the top runners on the Plum cross country team in the fall with Mienke and sophomore Gabriel Powell.

Pivirotto recorded a season-best time of 4:50.48 in the 1,600 at the season’s third Youngstown meet Feb. 5. The TSTCA qualifying standard is 4:49.40.

“Last (spring), he broke five minutes in the 1,600 with a 4:59 at the Butler meet,” Kennedy said. “That was a really big breakthrough for him. His time at Youngstown was also huge because that early in the year and on an indoor track with more turns, kids aren’t having a huge time drop and PR like he did.

“That is showing his hard work and his growth. He is just getting more and more excited for the outdoor season because he is seeing the reward for all the work he’s putting in.”

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: Plum