Teams take on new adversaries
Joe Winans had a pretty good idea even before South Fayette became the first team since 1993 to win the PIAA Class 2A girls cross country title that his team would not have an opportunity to defend it.
It turns out he was right. Thanks to the PIAA biennial realignment, South Fayette moved up to Class 3A this season and will not be afforded the opportunity Ellwood City had in 1993 when it won two in a row.
“Yeah, we don’t get to defend because the girls got bumped up, but we’re certainly not coming in as an unknown entity,” Winans said. “We knew this was something that was inevitable. I think it was just a couple of days after coming back from the state championship and I said, ‘ All right, well, we’ve just got to go beat NA next year.”
Winans does have a solid group coming back, led by junior Lauren Iagnemma and sophomore Angelina Gabriel, who both finished in the top 10 overall in the WPIAL in Class 2A. But North Allegheny is a twotime defending state champion in the highest classification and brings back a wealth of talent including senior Keeley Misutka and sophomore Alexa Sundgren, who finished in the top 10 overall behind Moon’s Mia Cochran, who will be back to defend as a junior this year.
A move up isn’t the only thing Winans — and every other coach — will have to contend with when the regular season starts Sept. 14. Each team will only be able to have 12 runners per team at the starting line, which will, at the very least, make for longer meets as quite a few teams run the boys and girls together as a group.
That also depends on how the rule is interpreted. Some districts are interpreting it as 12 runners against 12 runners, while others as you can only take 12 total competitors to a meet.
Only the top five finishers are scored in cross country, but it remains a point of confusion with the season opening less than two weeks from now.
“I’m a PIAA official and I guess the way it reads is that, middle school, JV and varsity are to try to make efforts to be separate events, but I don’t know if they mean a separate event as a whole different meet because NFHS defines it as you start the gun, they cross the line and that’s an event,” Winans said. “Officially, we need to get together and figure out how to interpret that rule and how it all plays out and at least get the top five or the top seven from each team running out there against each other.”
South Fayette is a major addition to Class 3A, but it’s far from the only change in the girls field.
North Catholic has been the runner- up to Vincentian in Class 1A two of the past three years, but the Trojanettes won’t have an opportunity to supplant the Royals. Instead, they will try to take over for the Lions after a move up to Class 2A.
“We bumped up two years ago with the boys and this is the first time for the girls, and we’ve picked up a lot of talent,” North Catholic coach Stacy Kopchak said. “We added quite a few freshmen that are looking good.”
With no Vincentian and no North Catholic, Class 1A has become a mishmash of schools that are vying for the top spot. Our Lady of the Sacred Heart was the runnerup last year, but the Chargers lost two key runners, including WPIAL and state champion Haley Hamilton, while state qualifier Serra Catholic has six of its top seven, including senior Ava Dzurenda, back this year.
Boys
Winchester Thurston has had an impressive run with a two state titles in the past four years to complement its four consecutive WPIAL crowns.
Defending as WPIAL and PIAA Class 1A titlists could prove to be more challenging this year than in previous campaigns.
Not only did the Bears lose their top two runners to graduation, senior Benjamin Bermann, who finished the WPIAL finals in the top 20 overall, will be out for the season with a lower- body injury that will require surgery.
“His season is over before it begins, so that’s three out of five that don’t return,” Winchester Thurston coach Bruce Frey said. “We have two seniors, Gus Patrick Malone and Gus Robinson, who have seen anything but the gold, so they’re clearly motivated to run hard.”
With Winchester Thurston possibly down, it could open the door for Riverview, the runner- up in the WPIAL finals each of the past four years, to finally win its first championship.
New Castle shocked a lot of people in Class 2A last season when it won its first WPIAL team title since 1948. Though the Red Hurricanes lost three seniors, they also lost their toughest opponent as South Fayette moved up to Class 3A, while state qualifier Indiana also had three seniors graduate.
In Class 3A, North Allegheny has won 13 of the past 15 titles and will be in the mix again. Then again, the Tigers’ toughest task might just be winning their section as 2019 WPIAL runner- up Butler has six of its top seven, including its top three, back from last year, while state qualifier Seneca Valley returns three of its top five.