WPIAL AA/AA Northern/Southern Qualifiers
The WPIAL holds qualifiers for their district championships nine days in advance, with the top six in an event automatically moving on. There are three AAA qualifiers (North, Central, South), and two AA qualifiers (North, South). Most top athletes do their best simply to remain healthy, without expending too much effort. That's hard to imagine with an 800 time of 1:53.55 in the AAA Southern meet, but after his 1:50 two weeks ago, Sam Bair is simply in a class by himself. He also went 4:25 for a relaxed 1600 qualifier. In the AAA Central meet, Matt Evans of Hempfield ran a strong 1:53.2 to show his fitness level. In the AAA Northern girls qualifier, Stephanie Madia went 5:06 and 10:58.21 in advance in both events. The top Javelin effort for the girls came in same meet, as Butler's Holly Geibel achieved a 136.04. And in the girls' Central AAA, Amy Egan of Latrobe went 2:14.0 in the 800.
Southern AAA Qualifier Summary by Jerry Scott
It was a mild but stormy day at Butler Area High School as AAA teams from over a dozen high schools in the north hills of Pittsburgh came together for the right to qualify for the WPIAL AAA individual championships on May 16th at Baldwin HS.
In the guys events Baldwin Invite champion So. Andrew Johnson took the 100 and 200 with a 10.75 and a 22.14. In the 400 Aswani Hoggin of Ambridge was the winner with a 50.07. Two words say it all in the distance races...Sam Bair. Bair took both the 800 and the 1600 easily with a 1:53.55 and a 4:25 mile. Also in the 800 Jeff Justice of Shaler took 2nd with a good time of 1:57.04. Shaler continued their dominace of the distance races with Josh Dluhos taking the 3200 with a 9:43.14. Dave Griffith of Montour took the 110 hurdles with a 15.11 while Matt Puthoff of Nort Allegheny won the 300's in a 40.42. Seneca Valley's Jason Young finished 2nd in both races finishing a combined 8 hundereths of a second out of 1st place. In the relays Central Catholic, Shaler, and North Allegheny won the relays going 43.32, 3:28.95, and 8:16 flat. Butler dominated the jumping as they swept every event with Calvin Littlejohn winning the high jump with a 5'9", Jordan Gray winning the long and triple jumps going 21' and 43'4 1/2" respectively, and having 3 athletes tied at the the top of the pole vault. In the field Allen Billyk of New Castle won both the discus and shut put throwing 146'5" and 49'8". In the javelin Brian Heonberg of Seneca Valley won it with 172'8" throw.
In the girls events Elyse Goode of Ambridge was strong in the short sprints winning the 100m dash with a 12.42 and finishing in 2nd for the 200m dash with a 25.51. The 200 and 400 winnher was Caitlyn Ward from Hampton running 2 very strong times of 25.44 and 57.23. Ruth Mick of Seneca Valley took the 800 by almost 2 seconds winning with a 2:19.85. The distance champ was none other than North Allegheny's Stephanie Madia winning the mile a 5:06 and the 2 mile with a 10:58.21. The runner up in the 2 miles was Kate Pinta from Hampton running a 11:29.86. Julianna Reed from Hampton won both hurdles with a 14.84 and 45.04 in the 100's she just edged Kim Markel of North Allgheny out who ran a 15.06. Moon, Butler, and North Allegheny took the realys going 50.81, 4:04.57, and a 9:52. In the high jump it took 5 feet even to qualify and 6 girls matched that height. Javon Clark from New Castle won the long jump with a 16'3" and Victoria Barger from North Allegheny won the triple jump going 34'4". It took vaulting 8'3" in the pole vault to qualify for WPIAL's in the pole vault. Megan Gasparin of Seneca Valley won the discus with a throw of 108'5". Holly Geibel from Butler won the javelin with a heave of 136'4" and Lori Merriman of North Allegheny won the shot put with a toss of 36'5." And an impressive side note, North Allegheny qualified at least 1 person in 15/18 events only not qualifying in the javelin and the 100 and 200 meter dashes. Butler also qualified in all but 5 events.