Moon Area’s Rachel Stepp defended her Class 3A 400-meter crown and picked up another gold medal for good measure Thursday at the WPIAL Track and Field Championships, held at Slippery Rock University.
Stepp, a sophomore, is one of a handful of West Hills athletes to earn a berth in next week’s PIAA championships, set for May 22-23 at Seth Grove Stadium on the campus of Shippensburg University.
Our Lady of the Sacred Heart junior Owen Wasko punched his PIAA ticket by winning the Class 2A javelin event with a throw of 178 feet, 11 inches. He bested runner-up Karter Brown of Freedom Area by more than nine feet.
Also qualifying for states from OLSH were Tre Moses, who placed fourth in both the javelin and (163-07) and discus (141-03) and the girls 4×800 relay team of Lindsay Bressler, Charlotte Gauntner, Eva Crofford and Hannah Hayes, who placed fifth in 10 minutes, 16.68 seconds.
In Class 3A girls action, Stepp posted a time of 54.93 seconds to finish well ahead of runner-up Gracie Reed of Indiana Area in the 400. Reed finished in 57.47.
Stepp won last year’s event in 55.54.
In the 200, Stepp edged defending champion Sadie Tomczyk of Upper St. Clair, finishing in 24.21 to Tomczyk’s time of 24.33.
Stepp is one of nine Moon athletes to bring home medals Thursday. She also picked up a third-place medal for her role in the Tigers’ 4×400 relay effort, teaming with Maria Depner, Alena Taylor and Sonya Taylor to post a time of 4:03.60. That effort was good enough to qualify for the PIAA meet.
Also qualifying for states in their individual events were Sonya Taylor, who placed third in the 800 with a time of 2:17.74, and Alena Taylor, who placed fourth in the 300 hurdles at 45.05.
Also medaling for the Tigers were Ellen Senkevich, who wound up seventh in the triple jump with a leap of 36-5¼; Elise Ashcroft, who placed seventh in the 800 in 2:20.18; and Senkevich, who earned a second medal with her eighth-place finish in the high jump with a mark of 5-1.
On the boys Class 3A side, Moon’s Samuel Herrera placed third in the 800 with a time of 1:57.48 and Jared Moyer finished fourth in the 300 hurdles with a time of 39.85. Both will advance to the state meet.
Marcus McGill placed sixth in the 400 in 49.81 and teammate Evan Senkevich finished seventh at 50.45.
Herrera, McGill, Moyer and Evan Senkevich also combined to place third in the boys 4×400 relay event, finishing in 3:20.68. That quartet also will advance to next week’s PIAA meet.
Also advancing to the state meet for Moon is Nathan Kustra, who qualified in the wheelchair division’s 100-, 200- and 400-meter races. Kustra won the 400 and placed second in both the 200 and 400.
Our Lady of the Sacred Heart’s Owen Wasko shows off the hardware he claimed for winning the javelin event in the Class 2A portion of the WPIAL Track and Field Championships Thursday at Slippery Rock University. (Photo courtesy of Roger Rees)
In the Class 2A boys meet, OLSH’s Wasko also collected a sixth-place medal with a 44-foot, 5-inch effort in the shot put.
In the Class 2A girls meet, OLSH’s Hayes barely missed out on another medal, finishing ninth in the 300 hurdles with a time of 48.98, just a shade behind eighth-place finisher Madalyn Arrow of Neshannock, who clocked a time of 48.94.
OLSH’s Mira Mosca earned a medal by placing sixth in the 3,200 meters, finishing in 11:37.26.
Carlynton’s Lani Blevins medaled in the same event, finishing eighth with a time of 11:48.72.
Blevins also helped the Cougars’ 4×800 relay team finish eighth with a time of 10:31.90. Also on that relay team were Isabella Sysak, Ava Pancake and Maria Leithauser.
A host of other athletes from Moon and Montour in Class 3A and OLSH and Carlynton in Class 2A competed but did not finish in the top eight in their respective events.
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