Penn Hills runners gaining experience at early-season invitationals

By: HSSN Staff
Thursday, September 6, 2018 | 11:48 PM

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After a season filled with a slew of injuries and illnesses, the Penn Hills cross country team will look to stay healthy and replace the production lost from last season’s top runner.

The Indians will miss Micah Silverman, who finished 91st at the WPIAL Class AAA championships last season.

With the lack of numbers and inexperienced runners, the Indians will lean on seniors Kaleb Lester and Brennon Williams-Howard, junior Darien Mallort and sophomore Jonah Silverman. Last season, Lester finished 205th while Mallory was 209th-place at WPIALs.

Williams-Howard will participate in his first cross country season after picking up track and field for the first time last spring. Jonah Silverman, who’s Micah’s younger brother, is also on the Indians soccer team.

“We have a young and inexperienced team, but they all have been working hard. It’s a great bunch of girls and guys. I see some promise in them. I think they will improve as the season moves along,” coach Lee Zelkowitz said.

The girls team will be paced by senior Caroline Webb, who looks to be the healthiest in years after battling numerous injuries. At WPIALs, Webb led the girls with a 152nd-place finish in 23 minutes, 21 seconds.

The girls team will include seniors Kristina Hilko, Aujanique White and Blake Miller.

Webb will captain the Indians with Lester this season and has made sure there has been accountability with her teammates during offseason workouts at Boyce Park.

“At practices, everyone is very encouraging and we’re cheering each other on. Cross country is an insanely hard sport,” Webb said.

“People always look down at it since they think it’s all about running. But it’s a lot more than that. A lot of it is mental. I like to push everyone, and I like to let them know their efforts will pay off.”

Since the Indians experienced a lot of injuries last season, Zelkowitz decided to start the offseason workout program a little bit earlier in June this year. Zelkowitz believes the early jump has built a strong physical base as they navigated the different terrain at Boyce Park three times a week.

“Taking them off the pavement and putting them on the grass and trails at Boyce really helps and builds a lot of strength. You try to change some little things and try to not make the same mistakes you make from season to season,” Zelkowitz said.

“Boyce is a really hilly place. It makes it a lot easier on your joints. It’s a more forgiving surface. You don’t get a lot of shin splints from running on the pavement.”

In their first meet, Jonah Silverman paced the Indians with a time of 21:04 and 47th-place finish at the Gateway Invitational on Sept. 1. Williams-Howard finished 61st in 22:01.

Webb paced the girls team with a 70th-place finish in 30:05.

“The season is only a couple months long, and you want steady improvement. I don’t want them to get frustrated early on, especially with the new runners that haven’t done this before,” Zelkowitz said.

“It’s a tough sport. We want to continually improve throughout the season and run our best in October.”

The Indians participated in the Red, White and Blue Invitational at the Schenley Oval on Saturday. The results for the invitational weren’t available prior to this edition’s deadline.

Penn Hills will also participate in the Kiski Invitational on Sept. 15.

Andrew John is a freelance writer.

Tags: Penn Hills