Allen saves day for Lions in Class 3A
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Dane Anden of Belle Vernon clears the bar to win the high jump competition during the WPIAL Class AAA track and field championships.
Dane Anden of Belle Vernon clears the bar to win the high jump competition during the WPIAL Class AAA track and field championships.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Haiden Litwinovich of South Fayette gets up to speed on his approach to the pole vault during the WPIAL Class AAA track and field championships.
Haiden Litwinovich of South Fayette clears the bar during the pole vault competition in the WPIAL Class AAA track and field championships.
By Eleanor Bailey/Almanac Sports Editor/ebailey@thealmanac.net
Abby Scott of Peters Township clears the bar during the pole vault.
Amy Allen takes the handoff from Olivia Renk during the 4x100 relay. Allen anchored the South Fayette team to victory in the event.
Amy Allen of South Fayette shows grit and determination as she sprints to the finish line in first place in the 400-meter dash during the WPIAL Class AAA track and field championships.
By Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Justin Egizio of Canon-McMillan sprints out of the exchange zone after taking the handoff from Trenton Jubin and begins a race to the finish line among competitors from Mt. Lebanon (Andrew Pinkovsky), North Allegheny (Luke Grimes) and Seneca Valley (Tyler Yurich). The Big Macs finished runner-up to Seneca Valley. Their time of 42.79 was .23 off the winning pace by the Raiders but qualified for the state championships.
Amy Allen lunges for the finish line and wins the 200-meter race in 25.33 ahead of among others Alyssa Clutter from Trinity, who finished fourth in 25.82.
Amy Allen of South Fayette displays one of the three gold medals she captured during the WPIAL Class AAA track and field championships. The senior won the 200- and 400-meter dashes and anchored the South Fayette 4x100 relay team to victory.
Canon-McMillan's Jadon Rahman battles Central Catholic's Antonio Pitts during the second leg of the 4x400 relay. Rahman helped the Big Macs to victory in a state-qualifying time of 3:22.79.
Blake Lauper, Jadon Rahman, Trenton Jubin and Justin Egizio of Canon-McMillan capped the WPIAL Class AAA track and field championships by winning the final race. The four combined to win the 4x400 relay in a state-qualifying time of 3:22.79
SLIPPERY ROCK – The only way you can make Amy Allen run faster is to attach an engine to her legs.
The senior from South Fayette is something to see on the track, especially when she is running the 400-meter dash, arguably her strongest event.
And there were three other first places to talk about too. Allen also took first place in the 400 relay, 200 and 1,600 relay.
Her victories came in the WPIAL Class 3A Track & Field Championships on a perfect Wednesday at Slippery Rock University.
Here’s the bad news for opponents: Allen plans on running in all four events at the state tournament.
“I think I’m going to stay in all of them,” she said. “I think they are spaced nicely enough to compete in them all.”
Allen’s time in the 400 of 56.01 was well under the state qualifying time of 58.80 and more than in shouting distance of the WPIAL record of 54.49, set by Hunter Robinson of Avonworth in 2017.
Her time in the 200 was 25.33.
Allen’s win came shortly after South Fayette won the 400-meter relay. Dea Monz, Melana Schumaker, Olivia Renk and Amanda Marquis got the baton to the finish line in 47.85, just .18 off the WPIAL record of 46.67, set in 2004 by Penn Hills.
Allen bid everyone good night by taking the baton the final 400 meters for a victory in the 1,600 relay.
While Allen was basking in the glow of of winning the 1,600 relay, Canon-McMillan thrilled the fans who stayed with another big win over Butler in the boys version of the event.
The race was nearly exactly the way it went off two weeks ago in the WPIAL Team Tournament at West Mifflin.
Trenton Jubin was solid in the leadoff spot and he handed off to Jadon Rahman who built a big lead. Blake Laupier was next and Justin Egizio took it home. Butler’s Guinness Brown made it close again, gaining two spots but couldn’t catch Canon-McMillan.
“I felt the excitement in the air again for this race,” said Rahman. “The last race of the day always gets the crowd excited. We won.”
Canon-McMillan owns the top Class 3A team in the 1,600 relay.
“Guinness (Brown) is a really an impressive runner,” Rahman said. “Last week was very close. He ran a 47.0 split. We barely won. We were fresh this time. Runners didn’t get their best time because they wen’t fresh. This time, we were fresh and he wasn’t catching us.”
Maybe the most shocking results of the day belonged to Grace Henderson of Belle Vernon. One of the top distance runner in the WPIAL, Henderson finished seventh in the 1,600 with a time of 5:17.51.
This disappointment came before her sixth-place finish in the high jump with a 5-1 height. Emma Pavelec of Beaver won the event with a 5-5 effort.
Belle Vernon did get some good news when Dane Andone won the high jump in boys Class AAA.