D7-A Girls - Team & Individuals Breakdown
- Preseason Rankings: Team | Individual
- State Qualifying Spots For Teams: 4
- State Qualifying Spots For Individuals: 20
- 2020 Individual Champion: Carmen Medvit (Shenango) - 19:10
- 2020 Team Champions: Mohawk - 63 points
Individuals Breakdown
Last year's Class A WPIAL and state champion Carmen Medvit from Shenango has graduated, but that doesn't mean the WPIAL isn't jam-packed with returning talent this season. D7-A, Class A's largest district, has a boatload of strong girls back this year, set to duke it out for a WPIAL title and high state meet finishes. Four state medalists from the WPIAL are back this season.
Among them is the veteran Corinn Brewer of Greensburg Central Catholic. The versatile Brewer (she is a 12-foot pole vaulter and competes in the multis in the summer) enters her senior year on the heels of a second place WPIAL finish and 15th place state finish. In 2019, she was third at the state meet. The experience is there and Brewer is certainly a state title contender this fall.
The top WPIAL returner from last year's state meet, though, is Alexis Abbett of Aquinas Academy of Pittsburgh. As a freshman last year, Abbett was eighth in the district, but 11th at the state meet, running her best race of the season at Hershey. She'll be one to watch in her sophomore season. The other returning state medalists are Shady Side Academy's Chelsea Hartman and Mohawk's Natalie Lape. Hartman was fourth in the WPIAL and 14th at states. Lape led the strong Mohawk team with a seventh place WPIAL finish before taking 16th at states. They are also both freshman so it will be interesting to see how they fare in a more normal season.
Winchester Thurston's Cyd Kennard was fifth at districts and 29th at states. Kennard went 20:05 last year and should be a serious factor as well. The same goes for Northgate's Lydia Valeriano, who was sixth at WPIALs last year and will be looking to close out her career on a high note.
Team Preview
Mohawk was the breakthrough team of the year last season in Class A statewide. Out of relative obscurity, Mohawk made its presence known at the WPIAL meet, scoring 63 points to win the district title by 64 points with a top four of all ninth graders. That won Mohawk the lone state qualifying spot and it went on to place second at the state meet behind only state champions Penns Valley.
This year, Mohawk may be the team to beat in the state in 1A with six of its top seven runners back this season. Lape emerged as a solid No. 1 during her freshman year, but Evelyn McClain, Lillian McClain, and Aricka Young made up some terrific depth. Those four move into their sophomore seasons and this team is under the radar no more.
A welcome sight to WPIAL Class A this season will be the three additional state qualifying spots. With only one team going to states per district/classification last year due to the pandemic, a lot of strong teams were left at home, particularly from the large D7-A.
One of those teams is Our Lady Of Sacred Heart, who took second to Mohawk last season, but of course, didn't qualify for the state meet. OLSH may not have had a frontrunner, but it had depth and a strong pack, managing just a 7-second spread at WPIALs. Four of those top five girls are back this season and if that pack can make its make up through the field, this will be a dangerous team both at the district and state level.
Winchester Thurston was third last season. The Bears lose just one girl from last year's top seven, so Thurston should be a factor for a high placing at WPIALs and should be contender for a top five state spot. Teams like Shady Side Academy, Serra Catholic, and Ligonier Valley each have some talented returners this season that will make them factors in the race for top four finishes at WPIALs.
It's going to be an interesting year on the teams side in D7-A and, like last year, the door is wide open for some surprises to come forward.