WPIAL cross country event has high stakes for A-K Valley runners
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Wednesday, October 23, 2024 | 6:09 PM
Knoch’s Carter French wins the Tri-State Coaches Invitational Class 2A race last week.
Fox Chapels’ Ethan Vaughan wins the Tri-State Coaches Invitational Class 3A race last week
Kiski Area’s Sam Plazio finishes fourth at the Westmoreland County Coaches’ Association Cross country championship earlier this month.
Kiski Area senior Lauren Ciuca places third at the Westmoreland County Coaches’ Association Cross country championship earlier this month.
Freeport senior Michael Braun finished second at the Kiski Invitational in September.
The journey to the WPIAL championships for hundreds of cross country runners and their teams concludes Thursday at White Oak Park.
Individual and team gold and trips to the PIAA championships are on the line in six boys and girls races.
The Riverview boys hope to return to the top of the WPIAL mountain in Class A after claiming the team title last year with all five scoring runners placing in the top 20.
Senior Holden Deasy, who battled through injury this season, led the way for the Raiders last year with an individual seventh.
He hopes for big things Thursday as does the lead core of seniors Chris Barnes and Micah Ivy, sophomore Ashton Saunders and freshman Oscar Smith.
Raiders coach Palma Ostrowski said it will be a challenge to repeat with her team going up against a formidable Winchester Thurston team ranked No. 1 in Class A.
“Thinking about Winchester Thurston, it’s like looking in the mirror,” Ostrowski said. “We both have three medal-winning seniors at the front followed by two of the top sophomores and two of the top freshmen in the WPIAL. Both have strong, experienced sixth men. From a team perspective, we’ve gotten the best of Winchester over their first three years with two WPIAL championships, two PIAA top threes and a 7-4 record head-to-head, all of which, I am sure, will make them incredibly hungry to beat us as they have their best team since their 2019 state championship.
“We are excited, but at the same time, we realize it is a huge task to beat them in either of the big postseason meets.”
The Raiders girls squad hopes to contend for a return trip to states and will have senior Lily Bauer, sophomore Hannah Hudak, junior Rosa Lascola and freshman Kirsten Laversa leading the way.
Class A races kick everything off at 11 a.m. Class 2A starts at 1 p.m., and Class 3A races begin at 3.
The top four Class A girls and Class 2A boys teams and the top three Class A boys, Class 2A girls, and Class 3A boys and girls teams qualify for the PIAA meet Nov. 2 in Hershey.
In addition, the top individual finishers not on one of the qualifying teams — 20 for Class A girls and Class 2A boys and 15 for Class A boys, Class 2A girls, and Class 3A boys and girls — also will punch tickets to the state meet.
Last Thursday’s Tri-State Coaches Invitational at White Oak provided a chance for many of the top individuals and teams to see where they stood and what strategies could be employed between then and Thursday.
Knoch sophomore Carter French (15 minutes, 51.71 seconds) and Fox Chapel senior Ethan Vaughan (15:38.31) strengthened their resumes with first-place finishes in the Class 2A and Class 3A boys races, respectively.
Vaughan hopes for redemption Thursday as a stress fracture kept him out of last year’s WPIAL meet.
Senior David Black placed fourth (15:53.34) for a Foxes team hoping to be in the mix for a title. Black was ninth at WPIALs last year as Fox Chapel took third and qualified for states.
The Kiski Area boys bumped up to Class 3A this year, and junior Sam Plazio hopes to make a similar impact to the one he made in Class 2A at WPIALs last year when he took 11th and qualified for states.
Plazio finished 14th in the Class 3A boys race at Tri-States with a time of 16:27.81.
Fox Chapel sophomore Cecelia Ressler (sixth, 18:39.88) and Kiski Area senior Lauren Ciuca (eighth, 18:49.99) earned Class 3A girls top-10 finishes at Tri-States.
Ciuca fronted the Cavaliers girls team as it won its second Division I, Section 4 championship in three years Oct. 2 at Northmoreland Park. She also placed third in the varsity girls race at the Westmoreland County Coaches Association Championships one week later.
While many of the WPIAL’s top runners ran at Tri-States, Freeport senior Michael Braun, one of the favorites to claim the WPIAL title in boys Class 2A, opted to test his mettle last Saturday in a race in Virginia.
Braun, who won the Class 2A boys race (15:49.30) at the Red, White & Blue Invitational at White Oak on Sept. 7, ran a season-best 15:05.50 to place ninth overall at the Virginia Cross Country Showcase in Mechanicsville, Va.
Braun lowered his Red, White & Blue time 11 seconds when he returned to White Oak to win the Bald Eagle Invitational (15:38.34) on Oct. 12.
“There are so many who are ready to run their best race at WPIALs,” said Braun, who place seventh (16:19.1) at last year’s WPIAL Class 2A meet. “It’s going to be fun and pretty competitive.”
Braun also hopes to lead the Freeport boys to one of the four automatic Class 2A bids to states. Freeport was fourth in a recent WPIAL ranking.
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.
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