Shaler’s Brianna Schwart Runs Away With PIAA Cross-Country Gold

By: Bruce Markey
Sunday, November 2, 2014 | 11:09 AM

The golden career of Shaler’s Brianna Schwartz had another championship chapter written Saturday in Hershey. The three time WPIAL Class AAA girls cross-country champion finally captured a PIAA championship and was joined in the winners circle by one other famle runner and a pair of boys teams from the WPIAL.

Schwartz finished first in the near record setting course time of 17:39 , the second fastest time ever by a female runner on the Hershey course on a raw, rainy and windy afternoon with temps in the mid-40’s.

Also winning state gold was Marianne Abdalah of Vincentian Academy, who took first in the Girls Class A race with a winning time of 18:35.

Madeleine Davidson of North Allegheny and Lauren Gronbeck of Eden Christian finished in third place in the Class AAA and Class A girls state championship races.

On the boys side, the highest individual finisher in the three races was Griffin Mackey of Sewickley Academy, who finished third in the Class A race with a time of 16:09.

While there wasn’t a lot of individual success on the boys side, two district teams captured state gold. North Allegheny won the Class AAA boys team title with 72 points, beating runner-up Conestoga by 47 points. Winchester Thurston won the Class A boys team championship by beating another team from District 7, Sewickley Academy with the Bears registering 65 points to 111 points for the Panthers. 

Tags: Vincentian Academy, Winchester Thurston