Quaker Valley, Sewickley Academy runners set for WPIAL cross country championships

By: HSSN Staff
Thursday, October 25, 2018 | 10:15 AM

The WPIAL cross country championships are Thursday at Cal U (Pa.), and runners from Quaker Valley and Sewickley Academy are ready to test their mettle against the district’s best.

The Quakers will compete in the Class AA races, while the Panthers are in Class A.

QV’s Annie Wicker, Anna Cohen and Daniel Ford are ones to watch Thursday. Wicker won her race at Red, White & Blue, while Ford won the boys AA race at last week’s Tri-State Track Coaches Association meet at Cal U.

Sewickley Academy senior Henry Meakem leads a Panthers boys squad who placed ninth at WPIALs last year.

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 AAA boys race at 4:30. Each team is permitted to enter eight runners. Seven will compete, and five will be counted towards the team score.

The AAA and AA boys and girls squads will be in contention for the three automatic team qualifier spots to states in their respective races. In Class A, the top four boys and top four girls teams punch tickets to states.

Individually, the top 15 finishers not on one of the team qualifiers also earn berths to the state meet, set for Nov. 3 in Hershey.

Boys soccer teams enter WPIAL quarterfinals

The Quaker Valley and Sewickley Academy boys soccer teams continue WPIAL play Thursday with quarterfinal contests.

The Class AA top-seeded Quakers (16-3) rolled past Freeport 6-1 in the first round Tuesday, and they will face No. 8 Mt. Pleasant at 6 p.m. at Seneca Valley High School.

The Panthers, seeded fourth in Class A, topped No. 13 Monessen 5-2 on Tuesday and now match up with No. 5 Springdale at 6 p.m. at Mars High School. Sewickley Academy enters the match 13-4 overall.

QV girls soccer eliminated

The Quaker Valley girls soccer team saw its WPIAL run halted Wednesday with a 2-1 loss to No. 3 Deer Lakes in the Class AA quarterfinals at Deer Lakes High School.

The Lancers led 1-0 at halftime and made it 2-0 with a little more than two minutes left.

Grace Wirth scored for QV with 45 seconds remaining, but Deer Lakes thwarted a last-second offensive push by the Quakers.

Quaker Valley, the No. 11 seed, ends its season at 9-9 overall. It qualified for the quarterfinals with a 1-0 overtime victory over No. 6 Brownsville last Saturday.

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

Tags: Quaker Valley, Sewickley Academy