Defending champs hoping for more WPIAL gold medals

Tri-State Sports & News Service

Reaching 21 with your first two cards is the best you can do in blackjack.

The magic number at next Thursday’s WPIAL track and field championships is 19 — that’s how many returning champions hope to again hold a winning hand.

A few hundred athletes will converge on Baldwin High School in search of WPIAL gold. And while nearly all of them are hoping to stand atop the medal podium for the first time, 19 will enter as defending champions in individual events.

Will they have that Midas touch once again?

South Fayette junior Rachel Helbling is seeking her third consecutive Class 3A title in the 400-meter dash. What’s interesting is that Helbling is probably not even the favorite. Avonworth/Northgate’s Hunter Robinson won the 400 in Class 2A last season. Her team has sinced moved up a class, and at last Friday’s Pine-Richland Invitational, Robinson ran the second-fastest time in WPIAL history. Butler’s Alexis Leech is another top challenger.

Helbling admits that she does feel some pressure to three-peat.

“Maybe a little bit. I

For a complete breakdown, event by event, of the upcoming WPIAL track and field championships, visit post-gazette. mainly just try to improve my times. But definitely a little more pressure, yeah,” Helbling said.

Laurel Highlands senior Casey Phelan is the defending champion in the Class 3A girls pole vault. Phelan, Hempfield’s Molly DeBone and Butler’s Taylor Weaver finished 1-2-3 at last year’s championships and all three are back. Phelan has a unique take on this meet, saying that winning is not her primary goal.

“I really don’t have any pressure on myself because my only goal at WPIALs is to make it to states,” said Phelan, a South Florida recruit. “If I don’t do well at WPIALs, as long as I make it to states, I’m going to be happy. At least I’ll have one more week to help myself get better. So, that’s my main goal, is just to make it to states.”

New Brighton senior Anthony Milliner is the twotime defending WPIAL Class 2A champion and the reigning PIAA champion in the triple jump. At last Friday’s Baldwin Invitational, Milliner leaped a personalbest 49 feet. It was the longest jump in the state this season. Milliner, a Kent State recruit, said he doesn’t feel any added pressure to win a third-consecutive title.

“It’s always been just fun,” said Milliner. “Sophomore year when I got it, I had a jumper, [New Brighton’s] Alex Burns, who was a senior. We were first and second [at WPIALs] and we were trying to get first and second at states and we got third and fourth, which was sad. We weren’t satisfied. But it was fun. And then the next year I defended my WPIAL champ title and then I got state champ. I plan on doing the same thing, defending state and defending WPIAL.”

The defending WPIAL champions in Class 3A boys are Armstrong’s Zane Dudek (100), Penn Hills’ Brennon Hill (400), North Allegheny’s Ayden Owens (300 hurdles), Hempfield’s Hayden Fox (pole vault) and Knoch’s Jordan Geist (shot put and discus). The returning Class 2A boys champions are Milliner and Union’s James Thomas (high jump).

For the girls, Helbling, Robinson and Phelan are joined as defending Class 3A champions by Avonworth/Northgate’s Hayden Robinson (100), Oakland Catholic’s Lauren Finikiotis (1,600) and Jayla Ellis (100 hurdles), North Allegheny’s Clara Savchik (3,200), Connellsville’s Madison Wiltrout (javelin) and Hempfield’s Rachel Hutchinson (discus). Burrell’s Nikki Scherer (200) and Lizzie Weimer (shot put and discus), and Shenango’s Miranda Schry (long jump) are reigning Class 2A champions.

Jessica Stever won the Class 3A long jump crown while a junior at Indiana last season, but she transferred to IMG Academy in Florida for her senior year.

Odds and ends

• Connellsville’s Madison Wiltrout (javelin) can become only the sixth girl since 1995 to win four consecutive WPIAL gold medals in the same event. The others are Laurel Highlands’ Breehana Jacobs (100), Freeport’s Lacey Cochran (400), Springdale’s Emily Lelis (100 hurdles), Ambridge’s India McCoy (high jump) and Waynesburg’s Jocelyn Lindsay (pole vault).

• Two longtime records could be broken. Knoch’s Jordan Geist will take aim at the Class 3A discus record. Upper St. Clair’s Mark White holds the top mark of 192-11 set in 1985. New Brighton’s Anthony Milliner is shooting for the top mark in the Class 2A triple jump. Washington’s Keith Cushenberry jumped 46-8½ in 1991.