Tornado girls claim title
WHITEHALL — Determination.
Pride.
Grit.
“These guys came out today and used all three,” said Butler girls track and field coach John Williams.
The Golden Tornado ended Hempfield's five-year reign as WPIAL Class AAA team champions with an 84-66 win over North Allegheny, a 94-56 triumph over Norwin and an 87-63 win over Hempfield on a chilly Monday evening at Baldwin High School.
“These are great teams when you get to this level,” Williams said. “And everyone is going to improve as the season goes on. People work hard. This thing doesn't happen over night. You have to plan for this. We started during indoor season.
“We're an unusual program. We have 12 coaches and we have a coach for every throwing event and a coach for every jumping event. There's just so many people who put their hearts and souls into this.”
Butler finished runner-up last season to Hempfield and has spent the past year itching to get back.
The Tornado wasn't about to let the 10th team title in school history slip away.
Alexis Leech won the 400-meter run and also ran legs on the winning 3,200- and 1,600-meter relay.
The win by Leech, Shana Hoy, Liz Simms and Maddie Tonini in the 1,600 with a season-best time of 3 minutes, 59.72 seconds put an exclamation point on the win and sent the team into a full celebratory frenzy.
Simms won the 800-meter race.
“We're telling them coming into this meet that we know Alexis Leech is going to win events. We know Liz Simms is going to win events,” Williams said. “We needed those second and third places and we got them. That was huge.”
Senior Juliana DiPippa and freshman Kylee Lewandowski got a key second- and third-place finishes in the triple jump.
DiPippa's leap was a season-best 33-6.
“Last time at NA, they went 8-1 on us in that event,” Williams said. “This time it was 8-1 us. That was big.”
Butler also got a big win from Heidi Gross in the javelin with a throw of 102 feet, 3 inches.
Jena Reinheimer won the discus (127-7) and Taylor Weaver emerged with a win in the pole vault (11-10).
“(Weaver) has been awesome,” Williams said. “I don't know what Taylor vaulted in ninth grade, but she just came on the scene last year and said, 'I'm going to be good at this.'”
It's Butler's first WPIAL team title since 2011. The Golden Tornado also won it in 2010.Freeport didn't fare as well, losing to champion Burrell, 96-54, Beaver, 99-51, and South Park, 109-41.Freshman Sidney Shemanski was a definite bright spot for the Yellowjackets, however.Shemanski, fresh off breaking the school record in the 800-meter run at the Pine-Richland Invitational on a soggy Friday, won the 800 with a time of 2:26.80.She also ran a leg of Freeport's winning 3,200-meter relay along with Sarah Lipniski, Lexi Dell and Kim Mixon.“It's a great experience,” Shemanski said. “We were just trying to do our best and give it all we got.“It's awesome to be here,” Shemanski added. “The scores didn't turn out too well for us, but it was a good chance for us to get better times of individuals.”GirlsClass AAAButler 84, North Allegheny 66Butler 94, Norwin 56Butler 87, Hempfield 63Butler overall winners3,200 relay: Butler (Alexis Leech, Maggie Welty, Shana Hoy, Liz Simms) 9:35.23; 400 run: Alexis Leech 56.21; 800 run: Liz Simms 2:22.6; 1,600 relay: Butler (Maddie Tonini, Liz Simms, Shana Hoy, Alexis Leech) 3:59.72Discus: Jena Reinheimer 127-7; Javelin: Heidi Gross 102-3; Pole vault: Taylor Weaver 11-10Class AABeaver 99, Freeport 51Burrell 96, Freeport 54South Park 109, Freeport 413,200 relay: Freeport (Sarah Lipniski, Lexi Dell, Sidney Shemanski, Kim Mixon) 10:08.87; 800 run: Sidney Shemanski 2:26.80
