Keeley Misutka shined at the TSTCA Championships on Thursday. The North Allegheny senior ran a career-best for an XC 5K, traversing the White Oak Park Course in 18:13 to grab the victory against a good field of WPIAL rivals.
TSTCAs has served as a bit of a preview for the WPIAL Championships the last few years. This year is no different with the TSTCA meet being held at White Oak Park, the same location many of those teams will return to next week for the District 7 meet. Though the race was minus a few big names -- like defending AAA state champion Mia Cochran -- there was still a talented field of teams and individuals.
Misutka out-dueled impressive Bethel Park freshman Jenna Lang and Baldwin's Gina Bolla -- two girls that have grabbed solid wins already this fall. Lang took second in 18:20 and Bolla came across third in 18:34.
It was also a strong meet for the North Allegheny girls, who are in pursuit of their third straight PIAA Class AAA team title this fall. After Misutka's one-stick, NA went 9-13-16-24, putting all five of its scorers inside the top 25 to score 63 points to nab the team TSTCA win. Freshman Eva Kynaston (19:19) got inside the top ten with a ninth place finish, while sophomore Alexa Sundgren was 13th in 19:33. Maura Mlecko and Rachel Hockenberry rounded out the scorers for the Tigers.
Pine-Richland ran well to take second as a team with just 86 points, 23 off of NA. Meredith Price paced PR with a fourth place run in 18:47. Just one team will make it out of the WPIAL in Class AAA next week. Pine-Richland will be looking to bridge the gap to the two-time defending state champions to grab that single state qualifying spot.
Watch the AAA girls race from TSTCAs above and check out an interview with Misutka below.