Vincentian

Marianne Abdalah spent most of the season standing on the sideline and cheering on the Vincentian girls.

It’s not a position the reigning three-time WPIAL and PIAA Class 1A champion has been comfortable with, but rest and staying away from the rigors of cross country running was a necessity if she was to come back this season from tendinitis in her right shin.

Over the past few weeks, though, she has been working her way back and, after running in her third meet last weekend in Virginia, she is now ready to make her way to Cooper’s Lake to try to join Latrobe’s Natalie Bower (2005-08) as the only girls in any of the three classifications to win four consecutive WPIAL titles.

She ran a time of 18:40.90 in the Third Battle of Winchester Invitational — good for sixth place — which is 21 seconds faster than her WPIAL championship time from a year ago and 10 seconds better than the 18:50 she ran at Hershey in the state finals.

“At first it was hard because I couldn’t go as hard in practice as I would have liked to and realizing that I couldn’t have run as much in practice as I would have liked,” Abdalah said. “It was a transition and, right now, it’s starting to become a less noticeable pain in my leg and I don’t feel it as much.”

Quaker Valley

Zach Skolnekovich will try to do something that no male athlete in the WPIAL has done in at least the past 20 seasons and possibly ever.

When the Quaker Valley senior heads to Cooper’s Lake for the Class 2A championship, he’ll try to become the first runner to win three consecutive individual titles in any classification since the sport was first split into two classes in 1996.