PIAA Cross Country Championships | North Catholic’s Jack Steineman picks up silver, girls have fuel for 2027
Good night of sleep. Good race. Good keepsake.
"Pretty good day," said North Catholic's Jack Steineman, who finished runner-up in the boys Class 2A race at Saturday's PIAA Cross Country Championships, held at Big Springs High School.
Steineman, a junior, completed the course in 15:39, behind only Quaker Valley's Jonah Montagnese (15:02). The former ranked his showing in the top five favorite of his running career, trailing a few of his track efforts last season.
"I knew I had a chance to get on the podium, that was kinda the goal," Steineman said.
"We thought he was clearly the second-best runner in 2A," Trojans head coach Tim Souders said, adding Steineman shaved nearly 20 seconds of his time at the PIAA Foundation Cross Country Invitational in September, held at the same course.
Steineman’s approach was to get out to a fast, but feasible, start before taking on the hilly latter half of the course. North Catholic finished 11th out of 21 teams at the meet, with junior Colton Ginsburg (17:26) placing 39th individually as the Trojans next best performer.
"He's just all in on distance running," Souders said of Steineman. "He eats, sleeps and breathes running, and he worked really hard over the summer, put in a great base. We upped his mileage. I think he might've hit 60 miles during his biggest week of the summer."
Steineman learned from overtraining as an eighth grader, suffering a stress fracture in his right tibia then, and pacing himself better. He runs "somewhere between 45-50 miles a week currently," he said. He credited the behind-the-scenes effort of early-morning runs in the summer for his success.
North Catholic's girls entered the day with their sights set on taking the team title. Freshman Nora Narwold said the WPIAL champion Trojanettes lined up at the starting line in a good mood, "and I feel like we all left it out on the course as much as we could."
Still, North Catholic finished in fourth, marking "the third or fourth year that we've placed fourth," Souders said. "We just can't seem to get over that hump, for whatever reason, at the state meet."
Norwald crossed the finish line in 19:26, leading the Trojanettes and finishing 11th overall. Juniors Maggie Killian (29th, 20:30), Anna Morris (39th, 20:45) and Annie Puhalla (40th, 20:45) and sophomore Anabel Poirier (42nd, 20:47) were also in the top 50.
"Really bright future," Souders said of Narwold. "She was a medalist. She ran a personal-best time today."
Souders also applauded Narwold's consistency. She wasn't the Trojanettes' No. 1 runner at the beginning of the season, either, but climbed up the ranks throughout the campaign while getting used to higher mileage on the prep level compared to the middle school stage.
"It seems like every time she goes out there, no matter the course, she seems to be running a personal best," Souders said.
Narwold finished ahead of Cathedral Prep's top runner, Sophie Becker (13th, 19:46), but the Ramblers — who North Catholic beat at the Foundation meet — had a stronger 2-5.
"We're bringing everybody back next year," Souders said. "We have a core group of juniors that are coming back for one more shot at it, and Nora will be back, and it sounds like we might have a couple freshmen coming in that could make an impact, so we expect to be right in the hunt again next year."
"This will be, definitely, a big motivation for us coming into the next season," Narwold said. "For sure, it'll help us get over the hump."
