May 9, 2016 5 min read

PITTSBURGH – There was no chanting or cheering to celebrate when Washington’s team heard the final scores at the WPIAL Team Track & Field Championships at Baldwin High School Monday.

Though there were a few surprises that helped elevate the Prexies to finish second behind Freeport in Class AA, no one seemed to be complacent with watching an opponent hoisting the championship trophy.

It didn’t matter that this Wash High track team is unlike most in the program’s exceptional history and it had every reason to make excuses for falling short of a third championship in five years.

The Prexies’ top sprinter doubles as one of the top hitters on the baseball team, the top distance runner was sick all weekend and they surrendered nine points by not having a pole vaulter. Freeport defeated Wash High 94-56 while the Prexies held off Freedom, 77-73, and South Park, 78-72.

Though Wash High finished second behind WPIAL champion Freeport and ahead of South Park with strong individual performances, there’s a different expectation at Wash High.

“It’s bittersweet,” senior Kurt Adkins said of the second-place finish. “It’s always nice to go home with a trophy, but you always want to win. I hate to lose, especially to the team that beat us in football.”

Adkins, who was a 1,000-yard rusher for the Prexies’ football team that lost to Freeport in the WPIAL Class AA quarterfinals, ensured Wash High would have a shot at spoiling the Yellowjackets’ championship hopes.

After being disappointed with a sixth-place finish in the 100-meter dash, he ran the anchor on the 400-meter relay team that placed first and took first in the 200-meter dash with a time of 23.11 seconds.

It was his final performance that locked up second place. After junior Isaiah Robinson had an exceptional finish to the third leg to put the Prexies in second place in the 1,600-meter relay, Adkins ran anchor and held off third-place South Park.

Adkins, a Seton Hill football recruit, even skipped his final baseball game to try to take home a title. Though the athletes weren’t satisfied, head coach Teresa Booker was considering the lost points in the pole vault and a young roster.

“I’m pleased. I was even surprised – the way our season was going this year – to even be here,” Booker said. “We weren’t strong everywhere I thought we’d be and I knew coming in losing nine points with the pole vault in the championship is tough. It’s tough to regain those points.”

The way Wash High’s season has gone can be summed up with the various injuries and ailments junior Ben Heim has dealt with this spring. A stress fracture slowed him early in the season then he had to sit out two weeks because of tendinitis in his knee.

Just as his times began to get back to normal, Heim woke up with a cold Friday morning and had a 100-degree temperature Sunday night. Prexies assistant coach Susie Koehler told him that if his fever didn’t improve, he shouldn’t run at Baldwin High School.

It was gone Monday morning and he looked anything but slow. Heim helped the Prexies finish second in the 3,200-meter relay, he ran a personal-best in the 1,600-meter run (4:43.93), took third in the 800 and finished the night taking fifth in the two-mile run.

“It’s rough running all four events,” Heim said. “I’ve been enjoying the two-mile more this season though, but during that second lap, I noticed I was slowing down.”

Wash High has developed the reputation for having top sprinters and though Adkins reinforced that with his performance in the 200, the field events have become a strength for the Prexies.

Junior Isaiah Robinson, who broke the Washington-Greene County Coaches’ Track & Field Championships meet record last month in the triple jump, continued his dominance in the event by taking first in Class AA.

His jump of 43-7 ½ was more than four feet further than second place. He also ran the pivotal third leg that turned a possible third-place finish into second by speeding past a South Park runner around the final bend.

Junior Liam Wolf won the javelin with a personal-best of 153-9 and finished third in the shot put with 40-9. Both earned the praise of Booker, who projected Wash High to take second or third in the javelin.

“Liam in the javelin was a pleasant surprise,” Booker said. “He’s been struggling with this shoulder and getting his form down the last several meets. In the last couple practices, we saw it increasing a little bit more. Liam also did well in the shot put, too, and that was big for us.

“I couldn’t be happier with how we did as a team.”