In Pennsylvania high school track and field, there are only two classifications: 2A and 3A. Our Avonworth/Northgate co-op program now competes at the highest class; 3A. It's a tall order to qualify for WPIAL Championships, as they only take the top 24 in each event. From there, medaling (top 8) is even harder. And qualifying for states? That’s reserved for the very best of the best. However, Our kids still brought the thunder to the biggest schools in western PA!
The boys 4x100m relay, with members Zion Ward and Savian Baptiste, came into the meet seeded 11th and proceeded to grab 6th place medals and broke a 10 year-old program record! Their time came extremely close to the state qualifying standard, missing by just 0.05 seconds. Still, the performance marked a major accomplishment on the biggest stage.
In the girls 4x400m relay, Hope Stiteler and her teammates arrived seeded 21st—well outside medal range. But that didn’t stop them. They finished 8th overall, claiming a spot on the podium and logging the 7th fastest time in program history. Unfortunately, they did not hit the state qualifying standard.
The last event of the day was the boys 4x400m relay. Seeded 12th, the boys relay squad; Tyler Harold, Will Smith and Savian Baptiste needed not only a top 8 finish, but also to hit the state qualifying standard of 3:24.03 in order to punch their tickets to states. To do it, they’d have to shave nearly two seconds off the program record and because of their seed, they would not be able to battle in the same heat against the top 8 seeds.
Nonetheless, the boys dominated their heat and finished in 6th place with a time of 3:23.47 and a ticket to the PIAA State Championships. Only powerhouse programs like Butler, Moon, Penn Trafford, Norwin and North Allegheny placed higher schools with far larger athlete pools.