Things just keep getting better for the Knoch boys cross country team.

Having set many school records and firsts this season, the Knights crossed off their top goal Thursday: qualifying for the PIAA Championships.

Led by medalists Artie Black and Kyle Reeping, Knoch placed fourth at the WPIAL Class AAA Championship meet at Cooper's Lake.

North Allegheny won the race with 85 points, followed by Central Catholic, Norwin and Knoch. Butler was fifth. The top four teams advance to Hershey next Saturday.

"I'm ecstatic," said Knoch coach Wess Brahler. "This has kind of been stressful all season because we we've been doing so well and we want to end with our ultimate goal and that as qualifying for states."

Black placed 13th with a time of 16 minutes, 53 seconds and Reeping was 17th just three seconds behind. Ben Hutterer cracked the top 30 by finishing 29th (17:17).

Last season Knoch finished 26th as a team and Black was 26th overall. This is the first team in the program's history to qualify for states and it had the first medalists since 1988, when Bill Schaefer was 15th.

"The kids worked so hard and deserved it," said Brahler.

Seneca Valley Chris Cipro placed 21st overall in the race to advance to states.

In the Class AA race, Mars' Cody Kier was ninth with a time of 17:17 to move on to the state meet.

The Seneca Valley girls team placed fourth in the Class AAA meet and also will advance to the PIAA finals. Megan Powell led the way with a 14th-place performance and a time of 19:42.

"They were 25th last year and lost to North Hills at least four times this year," said Seneca Valley coach Jim Nagle. "They couldn't have run a better race.

"You could see the potential. Even if they didn't make it, seeing how they ran (Thursday) I was very proud," Nagle added.

Also in that race, Mars' Brittany Zaborowski placed ninth with a time of 19:29 to advance to Hershey.

Results from Butler and Freeport were not available.

WPIAL Finals

Individual state qualifiers in bold

Asterisk indicates team state qualifier

Top 4 teams advance to state

*Knoch (4th):

13-Artie Black 16:53, 17-Kyle Reeping 16:56, 29-Ben Hutterer 17:17, 66-Chris Recio 17:50, 116-Cory Steinhagen 18:23, 179-Brian Tackett 19:05, 209-C.J. Burns 19:28

Seneca Valley (11th):

21-Chris Cipro 17:03

, 35-Dan Dickey 17:22, 45-Cam Staufer 17:37, 88-Louis Butler 18:04, 122-Ben Ronallo 18:27, 163-J.D. Mazzocco 18:51, 180-Vince Ulizio 19:05

Class AA Boys

Mars (10th): 9-Cody Keir 17:17

, 53-Justin Stadelmyer 18:40, 58-Alex Kokkinakis 18:47, 107-Devin Howes 19:44, 113-Mike Lewis 19:53, 141-John Ranza 20:23, 173-Justin Sable 21:05

Class AAA Girls

*Seneca Valley (4th):

14-Megan Powell 19:42, 33-Kelsey Sullivan 20:10, 38-Emily Wolfarth 20:27, 72-Joelle Scarnati 21:21, 78-Lauren Bezier 21:30, 109-Yolien Peeters 22:06, 144-Nicole Gostkowski 22:43

Mars (19th): 9-Brittany Zaborowski 19:29

, 96-Kaitlin Thompson 21:52, 100-Courtney Moran 21:55, 151-Chloe Pierre 22:42, 176-Amara Czech-Thompson 23:05, 217-Beth Pecora 24:05, 244-Jessica Moran 24:50

Knoch (35th):

147-Alyssa Kunkel 22:48, 169-Amber Wilks 23:09, 185-Dana McCarren 23:37, 220-Melissa Balsinger 24:42, 225-Nicole Fleishner 24:47, 226-Kayla Davis 24:49, 240-Kristin Robb 25:17

Jence Rhoads scored three goals and Slippery Rock finished its region schedule undefeated with a 4-1 win over Maplewood Thursday.Catherine Fodor scored the other goal for the Rockets (14-0 in the region).Slippery Rock will play in the District 10 playoffs Wednesday against a team and at a site and time to be announced.Grove City 4, Wilmington 3— Courtney Bright scored two goals and Helen Phipps and Christy Allison added a goal each for the Eagles in the season finale.Erinn Gilmore had three assists for Grove City.

Slippery Rock 4, Maplewood 1 —Mike Ramirez, Craig Bicehouse, Matt Durso and Dustin Hribal each had a goal to lead the Rockets.Slippery Rock (16-1-2, 13-0-1 in the region) will play in the District 10 playoffs Wednesday against a team and at a site and time to be announced.

Union 3, Karns City 0 —The Damsels prevailed in this KSAC match 25-17, 25-15, 25-13.The Gremlins (7-8) will open District 9 playoff action Tuesday at Kane.

Allderdice 5, Butler 2 —Mike Smith and Jon Ford scored for Butler in this game from Sunday at the Robert Morris Sports Center, Neville Island.Butler (1-2) will face Seneca Valley Catena (4-0) Saturday at Neville Island.