Girls Gold Race Recap - PIAA Foundation Invitational
Moon Area's Mia Cochran picked up the biggest win of her career on Saturday, topping a strong field of WPIAL rivals for the victory. The sophomore went 18:21 and was able to break free of North Allegheny's Hannah Lindgren and Bethel Park's Emily Carter in the final mile.
Cochran, who was second in 17:54 at Red, White & Blue a few weeks ago, followed up that performance with a big win. Her Hershey time of 18:21 is over a minute faster than her state meet time from last year, when she took seventh. Lindgren took second in 18:40, just off her overall 5K PR and well ahead of her Hershey best. Carter was third in 18:53, also a Hershey course best. The race proved just how strong and deep the WPIAL is. This isn't the last we've seen of this impressive trio of runners go head-to-head-to-head.
West Chester East's Michaela Schiele took fourth in 19:18, the second best 5K time of her career. Neshaminy's Kaylee McCullough was fifth in 19:21, keeping her strong season going. Dallastown's Emily Schuler took sixth in 19:23, followed by Council Rock South's Marisa Kilgarriff, who placed sixth in 19:27. Claire Zubey of Owen J. Roberts was the top freshman in the field, taking seventh in 19:30.
In the team battle, it was all North Allegheny as expected. The PA No. 1 Tigers put 97 points on the board to take the team title. In addition to the big day from Lindgren up front, Keeley Misutka took 11th, Alexa Sundgren was 16th and Maura Mlecko was 24th.
State College Area was strong once again, taking second with 157 points. Marlee Kwasnica led the way for SC with a 12th place finish. Seneca Valley showed it will be a factor this season, placing third with 170 points. Gabrielle Kutchma was the top finisher a 19th place finish. Perkiomen Valley was fourth followed by fifth-place West Chester East.