With grit, hard work, and perseverance, the Norwin girls’ cross country team strives for a championship run.
The girls, per usual, are having a stellar season. They took the Sction title, County title, and are currently ranked #1 in the WPIAL and PIAA.
The first meet for the season was Hoka Riverside Kickoff Classic Night XC Race in Ohio on August 23rd. The Norwin girls won the meet with a score of 62 points and Pitt commit, Annie Czajkowski, came in second place overall, only losing to a Michigan State commit from Avon, OH.
At Pittsburgh’s largest invitational the Red, White, and Blue invitational, the Lady Knights secured a big win for the team with only 55 pts, well ahead of South Fayette’s 129 pts and beat the other 57 teams entered in all classifications. It was the first time the Lady Knights won the meet since 2009.
The girls averaged a school record of 18:53 as well to seal the deal and continue to drop those times.
Czajkowski ran a patient race with the lead pack for most of the race and pulled away in the final 2K to clock a school record time of 17:52.9 and become the only girl in NorwinXC history to break 18:00!
“I think we’re so dominant this season because we’ve trained throughout the summer consistently,” said Czajkowski. “We’ve been working hard to be dominant for the past 3 to 4 years”.
Following Czajkowski, the Knights Junior Knight Train of Anna Dansak in 9th (18:47), Emily Dansak in 14th (19:08), Jillian Ryba in 20th (19:15), Addison Farrah in 21st (19:24), Kaelyn Lazar in 38th (19:57), Cierra Berthelsen in 74th (20:57).
At the PIAA Foundation Meet, which hosted 5 of the Top 10 teams in the state. The girls had a low total of 45 pts in the Gold race.
Czajkowski won the race in 19:00 and the Lady Knights put 4 in the top 10 overall: Czajkowski (1st), A. Dansak (5th), J. Ryba (7th), E. Dansak (8th).
The girls had 4 girls sub 20:00 on the challenging, long state meet course at Hershey.
The key to the race was the even splits or negative splits from the girls who had 45 pts at the halfway point and 45 pts at the finish line as well.
In the merged results, the Lady Knights beat all 87 teams and had 4 runners in the top 15 overall of over 650 runners!
“I felt calm and confident, and that my team knew what they were doing, and had what it took to win”, exclaimed E. Dansak. “I think we were able to win through our teamwork.”
The Lady Knights train year round in order to prepare for their season. Their consistency and hard work has clearly paid off.
“We have already been training all our high school career so our times are just actually going down”, A. Dansak explained. “By being able to push each other we are able to perform our best”.
On Wednesday October 8th, NorwinXC traveled to Westmoreland County Community College for the Westmoreland County Coaches Association Championship.
In the Girls Varsity race, the Knights took the first 6 spots overall to sweep the varsity race with a perfect score of 15 pts, second place Kiski had 63 pts.
Czajkowski paced the squad with the overall title in a time of 18:52. Following Annie was the junior was Ryba in 2nd (19:02), E. Dansak in 3rd (19:05), A. Dansak in 4th (19:27), Farrah in 5th (19:40), and Lazar in 6th (19:43).
Ciera Berthelsen finished in 19th place to round out the varsity squad. The Lady Knights ran in a pack the first mile and then gradually broke away from the field as the race continued over the 3.1 mile course.
“My race strategy is mostly just to stay comfortable at the beginning so I don’t like burn out at any time that I feel a lot of pain during a race,” said Ryba. “I just tell myself that I’ve worked so hard to get here and I wanna make it all worth it”.
The Lady Knights prepare for a championship run with the ultimate goal of winning State.
“So far, we are ranked first in the WPIAL and PIAA, but we still need to put in the work to be able to accomplish it,” Farrah explained.
Norwin girls’ country team runs for the state title on November 1st. They hope to take the win. Their consistency, hard work, and grit show they can do nothing less than take home gold medals.
