North Catholic’s girls grabbed another WPIAL Class 2A cross country championship in a runaway.

Pun intended.

Thanks to their top five runners all placing in the top 16, the Trojanettes finished first in the team standings by 71 points over runner-up Belle Vernon, 50-121, Thursday at White Oak Park.

It is North’s fourth title overall and third in four years. The program graduated three top runners from last year’s team that also won WPIALs.

“But we brought some really good ones back and had some talented young girls coming into the program,” North coach Tim Souders said. “We thought we had a good chance to repeat.”

Nora Narwold, a freshman, paced the effort with a fifth-place time of 19:46.3, followed by Caroline Sell (6th, 19:52.1), Anna Morris (10th, 20:05.5), Anabel Poirier (13th, 20:18.1) and Maggie Killian (16th, 20:27.5).

“On paper, we knew we were the clear favorite,” Souders said. “Everything went according to plan today.”

The effort was especially satisfying for Sell, a junior who suffered a torn ACL while skiing in February.

“At the start of the summer, I didn’t know if I’d be able to run, and after that, I didn’t know if I would be an alternate for the varsity team,” she said. “It shows how much determination to come back really matters. You can’t just go by the regular timeline for an injury like that. I was told nine months (to recover) after my surgery.”

Narwold prepared to be a contributing member of the team, and she ended up leading it at a district championship meet.

“I was running 30 to 35 miles per week back in the summer,” she said. “My goals were to work hard, stick to the training and see what I could do.

“I couldn’t have done it without my teammates. We pushed each other to be our best.”

Knoch’s Aubrey Spencer (25th, 21:04.4) qualified for states individually.

Riverside’s Reese Anderson won the individual title with a time of 18:22.4.

North Catholic’s Jack Steineman wants to win every race in which he competes.

He also knows that defending state champion Jonah Montagnese of Quaker Valley is at a different level.

“My strategy was to stay as close to him as I could and just coast off of that,” Steineman said.

That’s a foolproof plan if there ever was one.

While Montagnese won his second WPIAL title in a blistering time of 15:12.5, Steineman created his own separation. His runner-up time of 15:35.3 was 46 seconds better than third-place finisher Josh Wukitch of Hampton.

Steineman will now be preparing for his third cross country state championship meet.

“Within about a mile of today’s race, it was just the two of us,” Steineman said. “I was disappointed that I was eight seconds from getting a personal record, but I’m happy to get second.”

The Trojans placed second as a team, 46 points behind the Quakers, to reach the PIAA team competition. Also scoring for North were Jack Davison (24th), Colton Ginsburg (32nd), Victor Wagner (33rd) and Jacob Birchok (36th).

Yellowjackets coach Melissa Schaeffer knew she had a talented runner returning this season in David Kristine.

John Hart was an unknown.

“He transferred in from Harvest Baptist, a small Christian school in the area,” Schaeffer said. “It took me some time to get to know him, what kind of talent he had.”

Which turned out to be really good.

Kristine and Hart placed eighth and ninth, respectively, with times of 16:40.2 and 16:46.8 to book their trip to states.

“They’re two peas in a pod,” Schaeffer said. “They work well together.”

Knoch senior Carter French also qualified for states by placing sixth (16:36.5). He could not be reached for comment.