Silverman paces Penn Hills runners at WPIAL meet

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, November 3, 2017 | 11:50 PM

While enduring a season filled with injuries and illness, the Penn Hills cross country team had a bright spot with the performance of senior Micah Silverman.

Heading into the season, the Indians were dealing with the graduation of two key runners from last year's team — Isaiah Bailey and Cole Bishop. Coach Lee Zelkowitz was leaning on Silverman to pick up the slack.

Silverman didn't disappoint as he finished in 91st place with a time of 18 minutes, 20 seconds at the WPIAL Class AAA championships at Cooper's Lake on Oct. 26.

Last season, Silverman finished 170th in 19:46. The performance capped off a season filled with personal bests on each of the courses he ran.

“He has improved tremendously. I'm really looking forward to doing indoor and outdoor because he's just spent the time with getting into shape. It's really going to carry on with track,” Zelkowitz said.

“He put together some really good races. He PRed all year. He took a minute and a half to two minutes off his course times from last year, which is a lot.”

This season, Silverman ran a 19:48 at the Gateway Invitational, then followed up with a time of 18:17 at the Red, White and Blue Invitational.

Silverman ran a 17:53 in a three-mile race at the Kiski Invitational and came back later in the season and ran an 18:38 in the Section 4-AAA championship meet, which was a 5K race, in 18:38. At the Uniontown Invitational, Silverman finished in 19:32, while running a 18:57 at the Mack Cooper Invitational.

The rest of the boys team was filled with youth and inexperience. Junior Kaleb Lester and senior Wesley Trower paced the rest of the Indians at WPIALs as Lester finished 205th and Trower was 206th.

Sophomore Darien Mallory finished 209th in 21:56. Freshman Josh Gerken finished 214th, and sophomore Raymond Giles finished 219th.

“I was hoping the kids would respond and run better than they have all year. I was happy with how they performed, and they definitely gave everything they had. That is all you can ask for,” Zelkowitz said.

The girls team didn't have one of its top runners at full strength for WPIALs. Freshman Irene Bowser, who has been battling a lower-leg injury, finished 205th with a time of 25:43.

“She ran in a lot of pain, and it was a microcosm of the whole season,” Zelkowitz said. “We just couldn't get healthy. With having low numbers, it really hurts you because you can't replace people.”

The Indians were paced by junior Caroline Webb, who finished 152nd in 23:21. A couple spots later, senior Kaylee Ellsler finished 156th in 23:31. Sophomore Ruthie Ressler finished 164th, while junior Kristina Hilko finished 201st.

“We need to move on to have a better indoor track season. Distance running is like a progression. It's almost like building a staircase,” Zelkowitz said.

“We are going to progress from there. It's all about developing our youth and getting more numbers.”

Andrew John is a freelance writer.

Tags: Penn Hills