The Norwin Track & Field Team has a lot of pressure to live up to after both the boys and girls won a WPIAL Team Championship last year. The girls brought into the season a 36-meet Section win streak, while the boys won 26 straight Section meets as well. Along with that pressure comes the new challenges for the teams to overcome, such as the unfavorable weather, lack of a home stadium, and injuries to vital athletes from both the boys and the girls sides.
The Knights Track & Field teams made a valiant effort and the boys finished 2nd in the WPIAL at the team championship, while the girls finished 3rd at the WPIAL Team Finals. The boys finished as either the champion or runner-up in the WPIAL or champion each of the last 3 seasons; the girls finished in the Top 3 in the WPIAL for 9 straight seasons. All of this despite having a home stadium to practice regularly on.
Due to Norwin’s new stadium construction, the team has had to be very flexible. Practices have been at East Allegheny High School, which has made many aspects of the season slightly more difficult. Regardless of that, the boys and girls track teams are still competing at a high level.
“This year has been different with the stadium under construction for sure,” said senior track member Alexandera Oestreich. “As a team, we have been putting in the work no matter where we have to practice. We haven’t talked much about not having a home track, and making sure to put in 100% no matter where we have to practice has helped us.”
The first section meet of the year for both teams was against Penn Trafford. Both the boys and girls teams put up dominant performances with numerous personal records in the team’s ice breaker meet. The boys toppled PT with a score of 138-12, and the girls did the same with a score of 109-35.
Next on the plate for both teams was a duel meet against both Indiana Area High School and Greensburg Salem High School. During some of these earlier meets, the boys’ side was without one of their best athletes in senior Jeremiah Francis, and the girls were missing two of their star runners in juniors Myla McCabe and Karina Karadus. Despite missing these key pieces, multiple athletes have been able to step up and fill their roles. With some massive personal records from numerous athletes, the boys beat Indiana 106.5-43.5, and Greensburg Salem 114-36. On the girls’ side, they also beat Indiana 137-13 and Greensburg Salem 109-41.
”I think we were doing very good and looked very strong,” said senior Annie Czajkowski.
Despite the lack of a stadium, the Knights still had senior night to celebrate the amazing careers of all the senior participants. For the senior night meet, the boys and girls both faced off against Latrobe and Derry. The meet had numerous great performances from seniors and underclassmen to secure two more wins for both teams.
“I was pretty excited to walk out,” said senior Lily Chaney. “I’ve spent years of track watching the seniors walk out and always looked up to them, and when I walked out, I heard all my teammates and running buddies cheering for me, and it just made me feel very grateful to have been a part of the team and had the opportunity to experience running and racing with everyone.”
All of these dominant meet performances were in anticipation of both teams’ first goals of the season, which is a section championship. The only requirement left to secure the section title was to beat Hempfield. Hempfield has many amazing athletes, and an incredible well rounded team on both the boys and girls side of the equation.
Unfortunately, the girls team lost to Hempfield 80-70. Despite the loss, the girls still had many amazing performances. Even though they lost, the girls team still has more goals to achieve in the season, and will do their best to fight for each one of them.
“It was a very close meet last time against Hempfield,” said track junior Anna Dansak. “I think when we go against them again, we would have a shot at winning.”
The boys had clutch performances coming from the throws side, who was able to secure a sweep of discus. Along with that senior Jeremiah Francis came back for first-place finishes in the 110-meter hurdles and in long jump. Junior Tyler Beck and senior Joseph Cramer also showed up when needed to secure many much-needed points. The distance squad also had important finishes coming from sophomores Ben McBride and Alex Barrett. In the end, though, to secure the meet, junior Alexander Irwin won the pole vault with every member of both teams watching, and under immense pressure. In the end, the boys were able to defend their section title, winning the meet 78-72.
After only one day of break, both teams had to be ready to compete again at the county championships. Many athletes medaled in the county with impressive times, distances, and heights. But both the girls and boys teams came up short in the team aspect of the meet.
“Most of our preparation for WPIAL championships is a lot mental,” said distance track coach Brian Fleckenstein. “We try to get everybody in the right state of mind so they believe in themselves they believe in their teammates and they’re ready to rock ‘n’ roll when it comes time to race we don’t change anything drastically because we train hard all year we just have to make sure we’re in the right frame of mind getting a little extra rest and nutrition as well and just being confident and believing in ourselves in our team.”
On Tuesday, April 28, the Track team competed in the WPIAL Team Playoff at Baldwin High School. The team had to win the playoffs in order to go to the WPIAL championship. The Norwin boys went against Canon-McMillan, Baldwin, and Uniontown Area High School. In this meet, the boys had to face off against some of the top WPIAL athletes from each of the mentioned schools. Despite going against stiff competition, many of the boys cleaned up and ended up beating all of the other teams to advance on to the WPIAL finals.
The girls team had to face off against Connellsville, Upper Saint Clair, and the dominant South Fayette. In each event, the girls met challenges from each of the schools. The most notable challenge was South Fayette. In previous years, this team has dominated the WPIAL, and this year, they were again fielding a strong team. The Norwin girls fought tooth and nail and got the score to dead even at 75-75. In a normal dual meet, the tiebreaker would go to the team with the most first places (barring any disqualifications). In this scenario, South Fayette wins. This meet was not a normal dual meet. Being a quad playoff, the tiebreaker became the team with the most overall points against all competitors at the meet. So in this case, the Norwin girls won.
The WPIAL Team Finals happened on Tuesday, May 5, at West Mifflin. The Boys battled with Butler, Seneca Valley, and Hempfield; while the girls battled with North Allegheny, Mt. Lebanon, and Hempfield. The Boys finished 2nd overall in the WPIAL, defeating Seneca Valley and Hempfield, but fell short of the favorite, Butler. The girls defeated Hempfield, tied with Mt. Lebanon (but lost on a tiebreaker), and fell short of the preseason favorite, North Allegheny.
“I think we ate it up,” said senior Annie Czajkowski. ” We did way better than expected because we were so close to not even qualifying, and then ended up tying for second.”
Next up for the Knights was the WPIAL Individual Finals at Slippery Rock to determine which athletes make it to the state championship on May 22-23 at Shippensburg University.
