Deep North Allegheny girls track and field team takes aim at defending WPIAL title

By: Chris Harlan
Saturday, April 15, 2023 | 11:01 AM

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Recent history says the North Allegheny girls have a good chance to repeat as WPIAL team track champions later this spring. Consider, in the past 30 years, no Class 3A girls champion has won the title only once.

Teams tend to win it again and again.

For instance, the Butler girls had won four team titles in a row before North Allegheny ended their streak last season. Before that, Hempfield had won five in a row. The Tigers now are poised to maybe become the latest WPIAL dynasty, but coach John Neff won’t let his team start celebrating yet.

There’s still a long regular season ahead.

“We’ve got a great team again this year and a lot of kids with experience, but you can never take it for granted,” Neff said. “You can’t say that’s our goal. Our goal has to be to get better every day because you know everybody else is getting better. There’s a championship at the end that everybody wants.”

The girls roster features sophomores Wren and Robin Kucler, sisters who rank among the WPIAL’s top runners. They placed second and third in the 3,200 meters last year at the WPIAL individual championship, were top six in the 1,600 and each ran a leg on a 3,200-meter relay that won gold.

The Kuclers and junior Eva Kynaston lead a strong group of distance runners. The trio also helped North Allegheny win WPIAL and PIAA cross country titles in the fall.

“They know what it’s like to step up in meets,” Neff said. “They’ve been doing it for years now.”

The sprinters are led by seniors Arianna Tegtmeier and Lucia Wells, part of a 400-meter relay team that finished fourth in the WPIAL last spring. Senior Rachael Johns is back after finishing fifth in the 100-meter hurdles.

Senior javelin thrower Alaina Fantaski could contend for a WPIAL medal after placing 10th last season. Junior Jamie Frisco could do the same in the shot put after finishing seventh.

“We’ve got a pretty good kid in every event,” Neff said, “and that’s a fun place to be.”

What wasn’t fun was last month’s weather.

Cold, rainy days caused North Allegheny to skip its first three contests, including a scrimmage at Bethel Park and a season-opening home meet against Altoona. They also missed a meet in Erie hosted by Cathedral Prep.

“We had a rough March,” Neff said. “There’s nothing like that mid-30s and rain weather. Nothing is more miserable than that. I’d rather have it snowing.”

Once the weather improved, the team jumped straight into its section schedule.

“It took us a while to get out of the gate, but we traded those early meets for work days,” Neff said. “Meets would’ve been nice, but we made the best out of it, for sure.”

The WPIAL individual championships are May 17 at Slippery Rock. A week earlier, the WPIAL will crown team champions May 9 at West Mifflin.

This year’s boys roster also has some standout distance runners in sophomore Jack Bertram and senior Greg Kossuth. Bertram placed fifth in the 3,200 at the WPIAL meet last season and Kossuth was 12th in the 1,600.

Leading the middle distance runners are sophomore Zach Nash and senior Jackson Pajak. Junior Khiryn Boyd, a football standout, could contend for a WPIAL medal in the sprints.

“Like I said about the girls, we’ve got a pretty good kid all over,” Neff said.

Last year’s WPIAL team title was the first for the North Allegheny girls since 2005. The Tigers had won six in a row from 2000-05, but then saw other teams celebrate in the years since. The Norwin girls won three in a row (2006-08), followed by three for Butler (2009-11), five for Hempfield (2012-16) and four more for Butler (2017-21).

The North Allegheny boys finished third at the WPIAL team championship last season. They have won a league-record 13 team titles overall, the latest in 2018.

“We don’t really talk about that stuff in practice too much,” Neff said. “We talk about what we’ve got to do today to get better today. Let’s hope that when it comes down to it, we’re good enough and we’re there.”

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: North Allegheny