Norwin takes home 2 trophies from WPIAL 3A team track and field championships
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Tuesday, May 6, 2025 | 9:57 PM
Norwin’s Ryan Schiller wins the 300-meter hurdles during the WPIAL Class 3A team track championships Tuesday at West Mifflin.
Norwin’s Melani Schmidt wins the 100 meters ahead of South Fayette’s Micaella Schuler during the WPIAL Class 3A team track championships Tuesday at West Mifflin.
Butler’s Adraya Baxter beats Norwin’s Karina Karadus in the 300-meter hurdles during the WPIAL Class 3A team track championships Tuesday at West Mifflin.
Norwin’s Annie Czajkowski wins the 800 meters during the WPIAL Class 3A team track championships Tuesday at West Mifflin.
Norwin’s Ryan Schiller wins the 100 hurdles during the WPIAL 3A team track championships Tuesday May 6, 2025 at West Mifflin High School.
Mt. Lebanon’s Nicholas Machado edges North Allegheny’s Zach Nash and Butler’s Aaron Stebick in the 400 meters during the WPIAL Class 3A team track championships Tuesday at West Mifflin.
Butler’s Kevin Shriver edges Norwin’s Daniel Maddock in the 100 meters during the WPIAL 3A team track championships Tuesday May 6, 2025 at West Mifflin High School.
Norwin’s Luke Simpson edges teammate Enzo Jiancristoforo in the 800 meters during the WPIAL Class 3A team track championships Tuesday at West Mifflin.
Norwin’s Melani Schmidt wins the 400 meters against North Allegheny’s Isabella Costa and Butler’s Jocie Slesinski during the WPIAL Class 3A team track championships Tuesday at West Mifflin.
Norwin’s Annie Czajkowski wins the 1,600 meters during the WPIAL Class 3A team track championships Tuesday at West Mifflin.
Norwin’s Brandi Brozeski wins the 100-meter hurdles during the WPIAL Class 3A team track championships Tuesday at West Mifflin.
North Allegheny’s North Allegheny wins the pole vault during the WPIAL Class 3A team track championships Tuesday at West Mifflin.
Norwin’s Melani Schmidt wins the 200 meters over North Allegheny’s Isabella Costa during the WPIAL Class 3A team track championships Tuesday at West Mifflin.
North Allegheny’s Jack Bertram wins the 1,600 meters during the WPIAL Class 3A team track championships Tuesday at West Mifflin.
Norwin’s Nicholas Puskar wins the pole vault during the WPIAL Class 3A team track championships Tuesday at West Mifflin.
Norwin’s Annie Czajkowski wins the 800 meters during the WPIAL Class 3A team track championships Tuesday at West Mifflin.
North Allegheny’s Jack Bertram wins the 3,200 meters during the WPIAL Class 3A team track championships Tuesday at West Mifflin.
The Norwin boys hadn’t won a WPIAL team track title in almost 50 years, but senior hurdler Ryan Schiller had hungered for one for months.
A title and maybe a steak dinner.
“I made a bet with some friends,” he said. “I told them they were going to have to buy me food (if we won) because I knew we were going to win.”
What Schiller couldn’t have known then was that Norwin would be taking home two trophies. The Knights swept the Class 3A boys and girls titles Tuesday at the WPIAL team track and field championships at West Mifflin.
The boys title was Norwin’s first since 1977. The girls hadn’t won since 2008.
“We’ve been working for a while for this, boys and girls,” Norwin coach Tim Van Horn said. “When you see some of their faces, I don’t think you can really describe the feeling. We’ve been close. I had a couple of kids tear up when I told them, ‘You’ve got it.’ ”
The Norwin girls won three consecutive team titles from 2006-08.
A year ago, the two Norwin teams both finished as the WPIAL runner-up.
This time, the Norwin girls outscored second-place North Allegheny, 83-67. The Tigers had won the past three girls titles.
Butler finished third, and South Fayette was fourth.
The Norwin boys narrowly held off second-place North Allegheny, 78-72, and third-place Butler, 77-73. Mt. Lebanon was fourth.
This was the Norwin girls’ eighth consecutive appearance in the team finals. The boys were here for the fifth time since 2017.
“Every year you feel like you’ve got a crew,” Van Horn said. “You say, ‘This could be it.’ And then you start seeing all the other teams dropping crazy times and distances. … This time we said, ‘Hey guys, nobody’s going to give this to us.’”
The Norwin girls celebrated a first-place finish in nine events. The boys won six events outright and dominated in the hurdles.
In the 300-meter hurdles, Schiller, junior Jeremiah Francis and sophomore Tyler Beck finished first, second and third overall. In the 110 hurdles, they crossed the finish line in first, second and fourth.
Those points proved invaluable.
“I’ve been confident that we were going to win since November,” Schiller said. “I came in here fully expecting us to win. I knew this was our year. I’ve been saying it since the beginning of winter.”
Among the girls events, Norwin sprinter Melani Schmidt finished first overall four times. The senior won the 100, 200 and 400 outright and also ran a blazing anchor leg in a 1,600 relay win that was a key race for the Knights.
The relay foursome of Alex Oestreich, Myla McCabe, Annie Czajkowski and Schmidt finished less than two seconds ahead of North Allegheny’s team. Schmidt had to rally to win.
“I got the baton in second, and I think the girl had maybe a 50-meter lead on me,” Schmidt said. “My coach told me: ‘Just be you.’ I had to go get her. … We knew we had to win that to secure the win.”
Schmidt brought Norwin’s relay team across the finish line in 4 minutes, 1.89 seconds, just ahead of North Allegheny (4:03.55).
“We knew we needed it, and I think they knew they needed it as well,” said Van Horn, noting that Norwin’s foursome captured the sport’s team aspect. “You’ve got a jumper, two sprinters and a distance runner. It’s kind of cool to see.”
Czajkowski also finished first individually in the 800 and 1,600. Norwin’s Brandi Brozeski won the 100 hurdles, triple jump and high jump.
The Norwin boys got outright victories from Nicholas Bognar (long jump), Nicholas Puskar (pole vault), Dane Petrarco (discus) and Luke Simpson, who was first in the 800 and second in the 1,600.
Simpson and teammate Enzo Jiancristoforo finished first and second overall in the 800.
The North Allegheny boys finished second by defeating Butler, 76-74, and Mt. Lebanon, 109⅔-40⅓. Butler placed third with a 115⅓-34⅔ victory over Mt. Lebanon.
The North Allegheny girls defeated Butler, 99½ -50½, and South Fayette, 107-43. Third-place Butler topped South Fayette, 92½ -57½.
The WPIAL adopted the current dual-meet format for the team championship in 1984. In years prior, the team champion was decided based on points accumulated at the individual championships.
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: Butler, Mt. lebanon, North Allegheny, Norwin, South Fayette
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