Plum runners set to test mettle on new WPIAL cross country course

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, October 19, 2018 | 7:33 PM

After holding its cross country championships at Cooper’s Lake Campground for numerous seasons through last fall, the WPIAL moved the event to Cal (Pa.).

Teams and individuals had to switch their preparation for the new course at Cal’s Roadman Park.

Plum coach Adam Molinaro said his runners are ready to test their mettle at Thursday’s WPIAL meet, and they got a good look at the new course last week at the Tri-State Track Coaches Association Championships.

“They’ve all been running well,” Molinaro said. “Anything can happen at WPIALs, but one of the main goals is to see improvement in each runner and see where that places them against the other teams and individuals. The Tri-State meet is always a good test to see where teams stand heading into WPIALs.”

Junior Angela Valotta hopes to bounce back from a 56th-place finish in the girls Class AAA race at WPIALs last year.

“I am really excited to do well and hopefully qualify for states,” Valotta said. “It’s good to run on this course before WPIALs to develop strategy.”

As a freshman, Valotta finished 27th and earned the final girls individual berth to the PIAA championships.

She began this season with foot and ankle issues and gave it a go in several meets while recovering. Molinaro said Valotta, who placed 30th in the girls Class AAA TSTCA race, has shown steady improvement and should be ready to produce a strong race Thursday.

“Angela’s been training well and running hard,” Molinaro said. “We’ve kept monitoring her, but she’s looking good.”

Molinaro also expects good things from freshmen Ashley Persia and Livia Paoletti in their WPIAL debuts.

Junior Kacie Persia ran at WPIALs last year and finished as Plum’s No. 2 runner.

The six WPIAL races from Class A to AAA will begin with the Class A girls at 12:45 p.m. and run every 45 minutes to the Class AAA boys race at 4:30.

Each team is permitted to enter eight runners. Seven will compete and five will be counted toward the team score.

Plum will be in contention for the three automatic team qualifier spots to states. Individually, the top 15 finishers not on one of the three team qualifiers also earn berths to the state meet, set for Nov. 3 in Hershey.

On the boys side, junior Robert Hankinson hopes for a better WPIAL fate Thursday after what he called a disappointing 150th-place finish last year.

“I am pretty confident it will go well, certainly better than last year,” Hankinson said. “WPIALs will be a second chance to run this course as we will be able to make corrections from the TSTCA meet.”

Hankinson started the month with a fourth-place finish at the Section 4 meet, and he took 44th out of 238 at last week’s TSTCA meet.

“Robert helped come up with a new racing strategy, and he’s done really well with it,” Molinaro said. “He really finished with a strong race at the section meet. The goal is to peak Thursday at WPIALs. If he runs to the best of his ability, we can talk about something really big.”

Hankinson is not alone with WPIAL experience as junior Justin Mascilli will compete for the third time.

Mascilli hopes to make another big jump as he rose from 188th as a freshman to 100 ^th last year.

He was 69th at the TSTCA meet.

“Our primary goal is for all the kids to keep running well,” Molinaro said. “Hopefully, we see more season-best runs.”

Michael Love is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Michael at mlove@tribweb.com or via Twitter @MLove_Trib.

Tags: Plum