South Fayette third at RWB
South Fayette made a statement finishing third in both the boys and girls Class AAA divisions during the Red, White and Blue Classic cross country meet.
“We know nobody qualifies for states in September, but we certainly put our name out there as a contender,” said SF head coach Joe Winans. “Solid early season performance.”
The boys finished third in the team standings behind North Allegheny and Greencastle-Antrim while the girls took the bronze behind Morgantown, W.Va. and North Allegheny.
North Allegheny has won the past four WPIAL and PIAA Class 3A girls team championships, while the boys have four consecutive WPIAL titles and state banners in three of the past four years.
Seniors Jake Borgesi and Roman Galioto finished in the top 10 individually. Borgesi clocked a 16:08 for seventh overall while Galioto finished in 16:11 for 10th place. Junior Alaa-Eddine Guetari was 19th in 16:37.
Other contributors included Tim Danziger, Zack Warchol, Josh O’Korn and Brandt Scholar.
Abby Poe was the first Lady Lion to cross the finish line. The freshman placed 28th in 19:48.
Other top performers for the girls were Lily Colombo, Zoe Poe, Siya Joshi, Nina DiMartini, Madeline Stock and Jenna McCoy.
Winans said that there was no secret recipe to SF’s success in the meet, which was run at White Oak Park.
“Just great kids that work hard and are open to direction and redirection,” he said.
“The standard of expectation remains high every year and our athletes always answer the call. It’s always exciting to be in the conversation (for contention for championships), but we have plenty of room to grow on both sides.”
CV improving
As the season progresses, Lori Poe predicts her Chartiers Valley runners will improve.
Lilah Turnbull led the Colts. She finished ninth with a personal best time of 19:06. Eva Kulbago had a strong showing by setting a personal record of 19:48 and placing 29th. Julianna Betts crossed the line next, followed closely by Rachel White. Hiba Chaouk rounded out the Lady Colts’ top 5.
“I was pleased with how the girls performed,” Poe said. “We had a tighter pack but we still need to tighten things up moving forward.”
Each CV male runner set personal records. Santo Riccardi and Eric Wilson finished in the top 50 while Sebastian Crosby, Landon Smith and Brady Laughlin followed.
“Our boys are running well as a pack,” Poe said. “We just need to work on moving the pack up and tightening our spread.”
The future is bright for the Colts as Austin Tornabene finished in the top 20 and Gia Kwasniewski placed 39th in the freshman boys and girls races.
According to Poe, the pair demonstrated an ability to lend depth to the varsity lineup.
USC speeds up
Upper St. Clair showed remarkable improvement from last year’s RWB showing.
The Lady Panthers finished 10th in the AAA girls division while the boys were 11th in the team standings.
Meredith Rhodes (17th) and Lydia Rhodes (18th) both earned awards for their races. Ella Unice, Jillian Fishell and Cauley Mack also contributed to the team’s showing.
Sawyer Weinmann (8th) and Evan Sarkett (22nd) were the award winners for the USC boys. Caleb Guarino, Andrew Hess and Henry Ginsburg were the next best performers for the Panthers.
In the JV and freshman races, Olivia Gray and Nolan Sarkett earned Top 25 honors.
“We were very pleased with our performance as many of our athletes drastically improved their times,” said USC head coach Doug Petrick. “At the end of the day, that’s pretty much all you can ask for from your team — improving week to week, season to season, year to year.”
Riggs wins
Irene Riggs coasted to victory (17:03) and led Morgantown to the team championship in the Class AAA division.
“Irene blew away the field and showed why she is a nationally-ranked runner,” said CV coach Lori Poe
While North Allegheny’s Wren Kucler finished runner-up with a 17:54 time, Mt. Lebanon’s Logan St. John Kletter and Bethel Park’s Jenna Lang finished fourth and fifth with respective times of 18:11 and 18:14.