Sitton, Bolton do well in Class AA
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac The Canon-McMillan 4x100 relay team compete at the WPIAL track individual championships at Baldwin High School.
After taking the baton from Ronnie Paith, Kurt Adkins of Washington focuses on the finish line during the 4x100 relay at the WPIAL track and field championships. Washington finished fifth with a 44.92 time in the Class AA division.
Raymond Sitton clears a hurdle during the 300-meter intermediate race. The Monessen senior won the high hurdles in 14.49 and clocked a 40.92 to tie for second in the intermediates with during the WPIAL track and field championships. He is now qualified for the PIAA finals to be held May 27-28 in Shippensburg.
Nick Wolk set the winning pace during the 3,200-meter run during the WPIAL Class AAA track and field championships. The Peters Township won the race and is qualified for the PIAA championships to be held May 27-28 in Shippensburg.
BALDWIN – The hills around Monessen are either the best friend or worst enemy of the city’s athletes.
The terrain makes for an exhausting workout, but it was on those hills where Monessen seniors Raymond Sitton and Andrey Bolton tirelessly ran to become two of the top track athletes in the WPIAL.
Maybe it was no coincidence when the two ran at the WPIAL Track & Field Championships Thursday afternoon, it looked like most of their competitors were running uphill.
Sitton repeated as Class AA champion in the 110-meter hurdles with a personal-best of 14.49 – 0.05 off the WPIAL record – and Bolton claimed the championship in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.10 at Baldwin High School.
Sitton and Bolton were two of four local runners to win WPIAL titles. The top-five in each event in Class AA and the top-four in Class AAA, as well as athletes that hit the state qualifying standard, qualified for the PIAA championships
“In practice, we push each other every day,” Bolton said. “If one of us sees the other slacking, we aren’t afraid to tell each other we’re slacking. We’ve been working to get here. We had that WPIAL mind already and we were coming out here to show out.”
It was certainly a show when Sitton, who also took third in the 300-meter hurdles, shocked the crowd by defeating Freeport’s Dylan Hochbein, who previously held the best time in WPIAL Class AA, by 0.09 seconds. Sitton also came close to breaking the WPIAL record set by Mike Heiser in 2000.
Sitton won the WPIAL title as a junior and finished fifth at the PIAA Track & Field Championships, but he was far from satisfied. That’s what drew him to the hills of Monessen, where he worked on endurance.
It also made a difference with his speed between the hurdles. Though Hochbein’s long stride gave him the early lead, Sitton’s speed helped him pull away in the final 20 meters.
“I knew he couldn’t beat me,” Sitton said of Hochbein. “This is my senior year and I wanted to go out with a bang. I felt it. I made myself mad and I just won. That’s what I always do.”
Bolton didn’t need anger to propel him up the track. His motivation dates back to a year ago when he entered the WPIAL championships as the top seed but left Baldwin High School with a seventh-place finish that did not qualify for the state championships.
The feeling of disappointment haunted Bolton and motivated him to spend the majority of his free time sprinting up the hills in Monessen, running on the treadmill and lifting weights every chance he got.
He defeated Clairton junior Lamont Wade, one of the nation’s top football recruits, by 0.03 seconds after the two tied for the fastest times in the preliminaries.
“All I’ve been thinking about was WPIAL, WPIAL, WPIAL; that’s been on my mind since last year,” Bolton said. “I’m feeling good right now.”
Bolton also took second in the 200-meter dash and it was another local senior that beat him for the title. Wash High senior Kurt Adkins won the gold medal with a time of 22.37 seconds after not qualifying for the PIAA championships last year.
As Adkins walked off the medal stand, his gold medal broke away from the ribbon. For all the work he put in to become Wash High’s latest WPIAL champion and qualifying in three events – he also qualified in the 100-meter dash and 400-meter relay – it made sense that it wore away that quickly.
“It’s surprising to be the WPIAL champion, but I did what I had to do,” Adkins said.
Adkins certainly isn’t worn down after a breakout senior season in football, another strong winter in wrestling and batting .400 this spring while also running for the track team.
Since the Prexies’ baseball team was eliminated from playoff contention, he’s finally been able to practice his starts and his kick in the 200-meter dash. Adkins also ran the anchor on the Prexies’ second-place 1,600-meter relay team.
It was the kick which sent him to the WPIAL title and ignited his confidence heading to Shippensburg.
“Next week will be the biggest test, but I’m really confident,” Adkins said. “I have to go into it the same way I came into today, thinking I can beat anybody if I put my mind to it.”
Peters Township senior Nick Wolk knows a thing or two about confidence. He points to a lack of it for his fourth-place finish in the 1,600-meter run last year, but a WPIAL title in cross country changed his thinking.
Wolk earned another gold medal by taking first in the 3,200-meter run with a time of 9:13.68.
“I’m happy with my race,” Wolk said. “It wasn’t a blistering pace and I didn’t know what to expect. I decided to use whatever moves I had and go for it.”
Though he’s been the favorite to win the race for much of the season, Mount Lebanon’s Todd Gunzenhauser closed in after two laps. That’s when Wolk pulled away for the win.