Butler’s Singleton quietly going about his business
C.J. Singleton came out of the gate this season, guns blazing, when he rolled to an easy victory in the Class 3A division of the Marty Uher Invitational at California (Pa.) University.
Since then, though, it has been radio silence from the Butler senior and defending WPIAL and PIAA cross country champion.
And that has been by design.
“I’ve kind of been not really racing and saving my legs for the more important races like the WPIALs and states,” Singleton said. “I’m just going on a lot of longer training runs and trying to race as little as possible right now.”
Singleton has been among the best in the WPIAL and the state for the past two years. As a sophomore he finished fifth overall at the WPIAL Class 3A finals when he ran a 16:22 that was 41 seconds behind champion Patrick Anderson of Mt. Lebanon, who was a two-time Gatorade Player of the Year in cross country.
He was also the only sophomore to finish in the top six in the WPIAL finals that year and followed that up with a 13th-place finish at the state championships in Hershey.
But he was just getting started.
Last season he came out of the chute with a win at the Red, White and Blue Classic, which was held for the first time at White Oak Park. Since it was also the host of the WPIAL finals because Cal. U. shut down all sporting events on campus the fall semester because of COVID-19, it turned into a precursor for his first individual title and a 15:50 finish.
He parlayed that into a sixth-place finish in the state meet — which was a difficult setting as the runners went onto the course in segments and weren’t able to truly run against each other — and came in at 16:29, 22 seconds behind champion Brady Bigger of State College.
Runners were broken up by district with Districts 1-6 in the first heat and Districts 7-12 in the second. Singleton won his race, but the pace wasn’t as quick as in the first heat.
This year, however, Singleton enters the season as the top returning finisher in the state and is considered to be a favorite to win it all, even if he is training privately.
“I ran a lot in track and a lot of races and I really felt it at the end of the year. I’m really trying to avoid that and kind of keep my legs fresh for the bigger races,” Singleton said. “I kind of gauge times on similar workouts throughout the year and I’m doing the same workouts I did last year, but you don’t really know until you come out and race.”
Singleton will be doing that soon enough. He will return to the grass and hills on Oct. 21 for the Tri-State Track Coaches’ Association meet at Cal. U., which will be held one week prior to the WPIAL finals on the same course.
Even though he hasn’t been racing, he has been active in other ways. He recently committed to Notre Dame.
“That’s just always been a dream school for me and it checked all the boxes for me as a really good program, a really good school and a place I would want to go if I got hurt and wouldn’t be able to run while I was there. It’s a place I would be comfortable,” Singleton said. “That’s the kind of school I was hoping to go to to begin with.”
Montour girls
Over the past few years, the Montour girls have been silently moving up the ranks among the elite programs in the WPIAL.
This year, though, the Spartans may be ready to take the next step and win their first Class 2A team title.
“I think, finally, we are being targeted,” Montour coach Rob Naylor said. “Last year we were the runner-up and we were running the same average splits as [2020 champion] North Catholic and didn’t go to states, which was disappointing because our team was very strong.”
And the thing is, they may be even stronger this season.
Montour returns sophomore Lakyn Schaltenbrand, who finished second overall behind Brownsville’s Jolena Quarzo in the individual race, but was first among players who were there as part of a team. Quarzo runs for the Falcons, but because they don’t have a full team, she is essentially an independent and doesn’t count toward the team totals.
Junior Harley Kletz finished sixth overall and was one of the seven runners who were not from North Catholic to move on to the state finals last year.
In fact, Montour returned all seven runners who participated in the WPIAL finals. They also showed they would be a formidable opponent from the start when they won the Marty Uher Invitational, 72-91, over secondplace North Catholic.
“It’s been a long time because, this is my 10th year at Montour and, when I first started, we could barely win a section meet and now we’re in a position where people are talking about us, which is exciting for everyone involved,” Naylor said. “Even the alumni are coming out to see us running meets which is really nice to see.”