It had been a challenging week for Our Lady of the Sacred Heart’s fall sports teams – and their supporters.
In a span of seven days, starting on Oct. 25, Chargers fans saw their girls soccer team, girls volleyball team, boys soccer team and football team all stumble in the WPIAL playoffs.
Some advanced further than others – the boys soccer team, for example, was undefeated before losing in the finals of the Class 1A tournament. And the girls volleyball team wound up playing for third place in the Class 2A tournament with a chance to reach the PIAA tournament, only to lose.
The football team, meanwhile, was two minutes away from advancing to the Class 2A quarterfinals before suffering a heartbreaking loss on a last-second field goal Friday night.
But the Chargers’ girls cross country team put an end to that misfortune Saturday.
Buoyed by two top-12 individual finishes, OLSH sped to a second-place finish in the PIAA Class 1A championship meet, held at Parkview Cross Country Course in Hershey.
It was the Chargers’ second runner-up finish in as many years at the state meet.
The Chargers wound up with 128 points and finished six points behind champion Shady Side Academy and seven points ahead of Winchester Thurston. The top three finishing teams in the state meet all hailed from District 7 – the WPIAL.
OLSH coach Jim Hamilton said he was proud of the way his team competed.
“It was their best race of the year,” he said. “We were only six points away from the state champ, which which is really close for states.
“We peak for states.”
A total of 26 Class 1A schools participated as teams, and the field included 250 runners in all.
Freshman Jules Goshen placed ninth overall for OLSH with a time of 20 minutes, 26 seconds.
Teammate Hannah Hayes wound up three spots behind her in 20:35.
OLSH’s Eva Crofford finished 27th in 21:40, followed by Mira Mosca (37th, 22:01), Lindsay Bressler (43rd, 22:18), Charlotte Gauntner (73rd, 23:16) and Molly Gauntner (95th, 24:22).
The runner-up finish at the state meet was actually an improvement over the Chargers’ third-place finish in the WPIAL meet, where Goshen and Hayes finished fifth and sixth, respectively.
Runners from three other West Hills schools also ran in Saturday’s PIAA meet.
Three Carlynton competitors participated in the Class 1A race. Maria Leithauser finished 119th with a time of 22:58, Ava Pancake wound up 166th in 23:43 and Lani Blevins came in at No. 168 with a time of 23:48.
In the Class 3A girls meet, Moon Area’s Elise Ashcroft finished 124th among 238 runners in 21:00.
In boys competition, Carlynton’s Ethan Moldovan finished 18th among 257 runners in the Class 1A meet with a time of 17:18. OLSH’s Brayden Douglass placed 29th overall in the same race with a time of 17:50.
In the Class 2A race, which featured 242 runners, Montour had a trio of participants. Jacob Chacon wound up 68th in 17:50, Lucas Benson finished 88th in 18:03 and Andrew Ludwick was 124th in 18:26.
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