Plum adds roster depth to track and field teams

By: Michael Love
Saturday, April 1, 2023 | 11:01 AM

Plum track and field coach Stephanie Kennedy saw a growth in numbers for both the boys and girls teams from last year to this spring, and the mix of veteran and new talent has her excited for what can be accomplished between now and the championship events in the latter half of next month.

“We have close to 120 on our rosters, and we were high 80s or low 90s last year,” Kennedy said.

“It is exciting to see some new faces and some younger kids coming up who got good experience in competing in junior high. We also have a few older kids who are back after taking a year off to do another sport. A lot of them are settling into their events, but there are still others where the coaches are working with them to find out where they will fit in. We have some kids now splitting between jumps and throws and sprints.

“There are a lot of moving parts, but we have had a cohesive coaching staff who knows the kids well and are helping things come together.”

A number of Plum athletes are back after competing at the WPIAL championships last year.

Senior Connor Domke returns after earning an eighth-place WPIAL medal in the 110-meter high hurdles.

Sophomore Gabrielle Layne made a strong debut last year and culminated her first varsity season by almost medaling in the girls 100 dash. She took ninth in the preliminaries with a time of 12.97 seconds, just three one-hundredths of a second away from eighth and a trip to the finals.

Layne also was 14th in the 200 dash.

Senior Cam Rogers and sophomore Danica Jones both ran the 400 at WPIALs and were a part of the 16th-place girls 400 relay.

Senior PJ McNeal and junior Tristan Ralph ran on the boys 1,600 relay (20th), and senior Connor Pivirotto hopes to make another run at WPIALs after being part of the 3,200 meters field last year at Slippery Rock.

Several members of both teams got a head start on the outdoor season with training and competition at indoor events over the winter months.

The season concluded Feb. 18 with the Tri-State Coaches Association indoor championships at Edinboro.

Pivirotto picked up a fourth-place medal in the finals of the mile run (4:29.64), and he was 12th in the 800 meters (2:09.08)

Domke added a sixth-place medal in the finals of the 60-meter hurdles (9.05).

Layne represented Plum in the 60 and 200 dashes, and senior Nate Mienke joined Pivirotto in the 800 and mile runs.

“Just like with outdoor track, we grew in our numbers for indoor track,” Kennedy said.

“This is our third season with the kids, and the first winter (2021) was covid, so there wasn’t an indoor season. Last year, we were starting from the ground up. This year, we had a nice group of kids that worked hard, and in that group, we had a core of eight to 10 who competed. But overall, they trained well and got conditioned and stronger to give them an advantage for the outdoor season. Once March hits, it really flies by. It’s hard to believe it’s already April.”

Before the calendar turned from March to April, the Plum teams ran, jumped and threw against Franklin Regional last Wednesday in the season and Section 5-3A opener for both schools.

Franklin Regional edged Plum by two points in the boys meet, while on the girls side, the Panthers finished with a convincing victory.

The Mustangs were able to post a number of first-place finishes against FR.

That included a win by 10 seconds from the boys 3,200 relay of Pivirotto, Mienke and juniors Aiden Steinagle and Gabriel Powell.

Also posting firsts on the boys side were Domke (110 hurdles), Pivirotto (800 and 1,600 meters), Mienke (3,200 meters), McNeal (200 meters), senior Eryck Moore (100 meters), sophomore Nick Sheffo (javelin), freshman Owen Proskin (300 hurdles and high jump) and the 400 relay (Moore, McNeal, senior Andrew Thompson and sophomore Nick Odom).

Earning firsts for the girls were Layne (100 and 200 meters), Rogers (400 meters), freshman Mayah Torres (3,200 meters) and both the 400 relay (Layne, sophomore Lilliana Dubois-Davis, junior Nia Hart and senior Mia Matolcsy) and 1,600 relay (Rogers, Layne and sophomores Josephine Sciulli and Serena Carnahan).

“Overall, I thought we had really great performances,” Kennedy said.

“Our girls team is really young, and we have a lot of new athletes. It also is smaller than the boys team, and we just don’t have the depth there yet. But the group we do have is solid and is willing to work hard.

“For the boys, we knew it was going to be a competitive meet. We had some who stepped up and rose to the occasion and others who didn’t perform quite as they would’ve hoped. But overall, it was a good check-in to see where we were and what we need to work on.”

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

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