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Tuesday, May 7, 2024 | 9:48 PM
Norwin’s Melani Schmidt edges Mt. Lebanon’s Selma Gajgoric to win the 100 meters during the WPIAL Class 3A team track and field championships Tuesday at West Mifflin High School.
Butler’s Landon Lacey wins the 100 meters during the WPIAL Class 3A team track and field championships Tuesday at West Mifflin High School.
Mt. Lebanon’s Jenny Smith takes second in the pole vault during the WPIAL Class 3A team track and field championships Tuesday at West Mifflin High School.
Norwin’s Ryan Schiller wins the 110-meter hurdles during the WPIAL Class 3A team track and field championships Tuesday at West Mifflin High School.
Norwin’s Brandi Brozeski wins the 100-meter hurdles during the WPIAL Class 3A team track and field championships Tuesday at West Mifflin High School.
Butler’s Drew Griffith, Owen Dressler and Brendan Eicher win the top three places in the 3,200 meters during the WPIAL Class 3A team track and field championships Tuesday at West Mifflin High School.
North Allegheny’s Sophie Aglietti wins the pole vault during the WPIAL Class 3A team track and field championships Tuesday at West Mifflin High School.
North Allegheny’s Nicholas Humphries takes third in the long jump during the WPIAL Class 3A team track and field championships Tuesday at West Mifflin High School.
Butler’s Orein McBride-Cager wins the long jump during the WPIAL Class 3A team track and field championships Tuesday at West Mifflin High School.
Norwin’s Melani Schmidt came from behind to win the 1,600-meter relay at the WPIAL team track championships, a highlight for the Knights who spent the whole day trying to chase down the defending champions.
“For me, it’s easier when there’s somebody in front of me and I have to chase them down,” said the junior sprinter, who finished first in four events, but that wasn’t quite enough for Norwin to match the scoring depth of North Allegheny.
The 14-time champion North Allegheny girls celebrated their third straight WPIAL Class 3A title with a six-point win over Norwin. Mt. Lebanon finished third and North Catholic was fourth in the four-team championship at West Mifflin.
The Norwin girls placed first in seven of the 18 events, with junior Brandi Brozeski taking the 100-meter hurdles and triple jump. Knights junior Alexis Heller added a first-place finish in javelin.
North Allegheny won six girls events outright, including a 1-2-3 finish in shot put that helped the Tigers pile up points.
“We do have superstars … but we also have kids who are looking to scrap for seconds and thirds,” North Allegheny coach John Neff said. “That makes me very proud of them. We’re going to try for first. If we can’t get first, we’re getting second.”
Butler won the boys title behind national record-setting senior Drew Griffith, a distance runner who won three individual events and ran the anchor on a winning relay. The team title was Butler’s third in four years, joining wins in 2022 and ’21.
The Norwin boys finished 34 points behind Butler for second. North Allegheny took third and Penn-Trafford was fourth.
Griffith, who broke a national high school record for the indoor mile this winter, won the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 meters, while also running a leg on Butler’s winning 3,200-meter relay.
“We don’t tell him you have to do this,” Butler coach Mike Seybert said. “It’s his choice. He wants to do this with his friends. We take the team title very seriously at Butler.”
The boys title was the Golden Tornado’s 11th overall. They defeated Norwin, 92-58; North Allegheny, 97-53; and Penn-Trafford, 98-52. The NA boys were the defending champions.
The race for the girls title was much closer. The North Allegheny girls defeated Norwin, 78-72; Mt. Lebanon, 81-69; and North Catholic, 113-31.
As a former computer science teacher, Neff built a spreadsheet to keep a running score on his phone. When he checked the numbers late in the afternoon, he knew his girls team was in a battle.
“Not until the high jump did we actually have it,” Neff said. “We needed those points against both Norwin and Mt. Lebanon. So it was the very last event where we finally got over 75.”
The North Allegheny girls got first-place finishes from Izzy Costa in the high jump, Sophie Aglietti in pole vault, Audrey Maxwell in discus, Jamie Frisco in shot put and Erin McGoey in the 3,200 meters, along with a team win in the 3,200-meter relay.
Schmidt helped Norwin keep pace by sweeping the 100, 200 and 400 meters, as well as running a strong anchor leg in the 1,600-meter relay. She took the baton in second place before running down the leader for the race win.
“I just think about my teammates,” Schmidt said. “When they’re cheering me on, I think, ‘I’ve got to do this for them.’ So I kick it and I go.”
Along with Griffith’s wins, the Butler boys got individual first-place finishes from Landon Lacey in the 100 meters, David Graef in the 200, Orein McBride-Cager in the long jump and high jump and Ayden Davis in the triple jump.
The Norwin boys were led by Ryan Schiller, who won the 110- and 300-meter hurdles, and Luke Denny, who won the 400. Penn-Trafford’s Logan Kerstetter placed first in the boys javelin and teammate Matt Sarnowski won discus.
Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at [email protected].
Tags: Butler, Mt. lebanon, North Allegheny, North Catholic, Norwin, Penn-Trafford
