Thrilling 3-peat!
MCMURRAY — Winning three straight district titles in anything shouldn't be easy.
For Butler's girls track and field team, a third consecutive WPIAL crown came down to the final event — the 4x400 relay.
With Seneca Valley and North Allegheny having already been dispatched, first place in Class AAA was left to Butler and Norwin to decide at Peters Township Stadium Monday night.
The Knights held a 73-72 lead entering the relay, but Butler's foursome of Chesna Tomko, Gabby Boden, Anna Baxter and Liz Simms brought home the hardware, winning with a time of three minutes, 59.03 seconds.
Norwin finished nearly six and a half seconds behind.
“All four of those girls have competed at states,” said Butler coach John Williams. “So yeah, there's a lot of confidence there.”
The Tornado and Knights were virtually even when Simms took off on the anchor leg. By the end of the back straightaway, she had opened up a sizable lead and added to it.
Simms had already competed in and won the 400, 800 and 4x800 relay earlier in the day.“No matter how much gas I had left, I was going to give even more,” said Simms. “That's what it comes down to for the team title.“The individual meets are great,” Simms added, “but l've always been a team person and nothing is better than winning here.”Seneca Valley's girls placed fourth in the district while the Raider boys finished third.WPIAL team titles in track often come down to second and third place finishes. This one, the 12th in program history for Butler, was no different.Prior to the final relay, Chelsey Kabel had a crucial runner-up finish in the 3,200 run against Norwin. She was in third place during the race. Had she placed third, Butler would have earned just one point in the event as opposed to three.“My coaches told me how important that event was,” said Kabel. “I passed the girl up (for second) with about 200 meters left.”Butler also received clutch efforts in the field. Autumn Pettinato and Heidi Gross placed first and second, respectively, against all three teams in the javelin.“That was huge,” said Williams. “You finish 1-2 in an event against everybody, the news of that spreads throughout the team and it gets all the girls going.”Pettinato, a junior, has now contributed to the last two of Butler's district crowns.“This meet is a great way to bond with the team,” she said. “It feels good to have people supporting you and backing you up.”
Butler's other overall first place finish came from Baxter in the 300 hurdles.The Tornado's WPIAL championship comes two weeks after they dropped a meet against rival Seneca Valley.“We hadn't lost a meet in a few years and that one did not feel good,” said Williams. “It was not a comfortable ride home, but our group was ready to go today.”SV's girls had overall wins from Lauren Chappell (100 hurdles), Chrissi Guerrero (shot put) and Katelyn Caccamo with a school-record effort in the pole vault of 11 feet, one inch.“We had some girls who were banged up today and weren't able to go,” said SV coach Ray Peaco. “It would have been nice to go after it with our best, but you have to give credit to Butler. They were very strong today and you could tell that from the first event.”Hempfield won the boys meet, followed by NA, Seneca Valley and Mt. Lebanon. Final team scores were not available due to the pole vault finishing very late.Raiders taking first place overall included Luke Smith in the 300 hurdles, Sam Owori in the 800 and Zack Duda in the triple jump. SV also won the 4x100 relay.“We wanted to win it all and fell short of our goal,” said Peaco. “Just to be here, competing against these other great athletes and coaches, our kids appreciate that opportunity.”
