Photo by Phil Grove
Red, White & Blue Classic (Pittsburgh, PA)
- COMPLETE RESULTS
- Photos by Phil Grove (on the way!)
- Race Videos (by Tony Russell)
- Post-race interviews (by Phil Grove)
AAA BOYS RACE
Zach Skolnekovich moved up in classification from last year's RWB Classic and the result was the same: a win. Skolnekovich ran 16:05 to take the win over a strong group of AAA runners, but that didn't seem to faze the Quaker Valley senior. It's slightly slower than his RW&B time from last season, but the hot weather likely played a role. He spoke with us after the race
There was a close battle behind Skolnekovich for the next few places between some big names. Franklin Regional's Mark Provenzo started off his season well, taking second in 16:14. South Fayette's Aaron Pfeil edged out Baldwin's Casey Conboy for fourth. Taylor Allderdice's Amadou Diallo continued his impressive start to his senior season, placing fifth.
The story of the day had to be the North Allegheny boys, though. The Tigers were 42 point winners over second place Mount Lebanon in a dominating performance and just a SEVEN SECOND 1-5 GAP. Wowza. Clark Smith was the first across for NA, taking 14th. Luke Turkovich was 18th, Jacob Greco 19th, Daniel McGoey 21st, and Cam Phillips 22nd. For good measure, sixth man TJ Robinson was 25th and seventh man Mark Hartigan was 39th. For perspective on NA's depth, Robinson (the sixth man) was better than any other team's third man in the race. It's an impressive start to North Allegheny's run at another District 7 title and high state placing. NA coach John Neff talked with Phil Grove afterwards:
Mount Lebanon, led by Bryce Brandenstein, who was seventh, took second following up on a team win at Cal U last week. Seneca Valley was strong, taking third behind top 15 finishes from Sam Owori and Trey Razanauskas. Both Mount Leb and SV had 1-5 gaps under one minute, which may not be seven seconds, but very strong early on in the season nonetheless. As former Seneca Valley and current Harvard University runner Mike Kolor requested, yes, Seneca Valley is certainly now on our radar.
AAA Girls Race
It was deja vu for Oakland Catholic's Lauren Finikiotis. The senior was a runaway winner for a second straight week, in nearly the same exact finishing time. Finikiotis took the lead early and it was game over from there, traversing the course in 18:30, a tick faster than her winning time at McDowell last week. She talked with us after the race:
It was the same start Finikiotis had last year---winning McDowell and RW&B to open her season---but the difference this time around was a dominating team performance to go along with it. Oakland Catholic, which was third at this meet last year, won by 41 points over 2015 meet champs Villa Maria. Megan Nagy was eighth after not running last week. Hannah Schupansky was 19th, Sophie Young 26th, and Kathryn Aldrich 34th to make up a very strong quintet for a team that will be a definitely threat in District 7 and the state. We talked with coach George Rudolph afterwards, too:
Upper St. Clair's Savannah Shaw kept up her great start to her 2016 XC season taking second to Finkiotis after winning last week at Marty Uher. She was 24th at this meet last year, so the senior continues to show improvement and could surprise some folks in D7 this year. Ambridge Area's Elyssa Penson was third in 19:15 and Quaker Valley's Anna Pawloski was fourth. For Pawloski, that's over a two minute improvement in time from this meet last year and a great way to open up her invite schedule. Her Quaker Valley squad took third as a team.
Villa Maria, which won this meet last year and went on to win the PIAA-AA state title were second to Oakland Catholic. Grace Brown paced the team, finishing fifth. Carlee Constable was ninth for Villa, which was without one of its top girls, Hannah Ricci on Saturday. Also noticeably absent on Saturday was North Allegheny's Clara Savchik.
Fox Chapel was impressive, taking fifth as a team and placing three in the top 11. Annika Urban (seventh), Sarena Seeger (eighth), and Caelan Miller (11th) made up the top three for Fox Chapel.
A-AA BOYS RACE
Winchester Thurston's season got off to a great start on Saturday, scoring just 36 points to top Greensburg Salem and Elk County Catholic to take the win in the smaller schools' division. They were led up front by Tristan Fortsythe, who pulled away from G-S's Mark Brown (winner last week at Cal U) in the final 400 meters to grab the win. Brown kept up his great start to his season, proving to be one of the state's top sophomores. We caught up with Forsythe after the race:
After Forsythe, Ben Littman was third for Winchester Thurston in 16:48. Shaun hay was seventh, Gordon Pollock was 13th and freshman Sean Heintzleman was 17th. Forsythe noted the disappointment his team had after a fourth place finish at states last year, and early on WT looks like a team that can redeem itself later this season.
Washington's Ben Heim took fourth in 16:58 for a nice result. Elk County Catholic took third in the team race, and they were led by Logan Hoffman and Zachary Wortman, who finished fifth and sixth respectively. Greensburg Salem was three points better than ECC, with solid performances by Frankie King and Cameron Binda after Brown.
GIRLS AA-A RACE
It wasn't Marianne Abdalah, but there was still a Vincentian Academy uniform up front in the AA-A race at RW&B. This time it was Katherine Fedko. VA, which was without Abdalah on Saturday still turned in a very impressive performance. Fedko led the way, winning in a time of 19:40. While she was mostly under the radar last season because of her state champion team leader, she still ran great as a frosh, and Saturday was a great day for Fedko, who maybe isn't under the radar so much anymore. She spoke with us afterwards:
Marissa Canzian was eighth, freshman Hollie Walters was tenth, and Delaney McCarthy (18th) and Makara Smocer (22nd) made up a strong top five for Vincentian. They scored just 50 points on Saturday to win by 48 points. Coach Dan Carlino talked with us on Saturday:
Haley Hamilton, a freshman from Our Lady of Sacred Heart was an impressive second place in her first invitational, running sub-20 with a 19:56.