Fort Cherry girls settle for second in team finals
McMURRAY – The Fort Cherry girls track and field team was on the cusp of its first WPIAL team title in Tuesday’s Class 2A Championships at Peters Township’s Confluence Financial Partners Stadium.
The Rangers defeated Knoch 76-74 and Shenango 83-67 but lost to Quaker Valley 79-71 to finish the team portion of their season at 12-1.
Fort Cherry had a one-point lead over Quaker Valley, but the Rangers were hindered by not having a pole vaulter and were down by nine points to each team when the meet started.
“There are very few Class 2A schools that have pole vault, so it’s a big advantage if you are a Class 2A school and have it,” Fort Cherry coach Ben Maxin said. “Those points are key in a meet like this, but if we get a track, I hope the pole vault would be in the works, but it’s expensive, a very technical event, and some liability and insurance issues that come with that, but it didn’t cost us the meet today.
“We knew coming in that we were down nine points and I always joke with the kids about the other teams having their free nine points because they are going to need it. I love these kids, and they were dogs all day. They put a hurting on those teams and made them push themselves to the brink.”
Fort Cherry made a change in its 1,600-meter relay team with Brooke Cornali coming in and teaming with Raney Staub, Ava Menzies and Bella Bianchini bringing home the win as the anchor leg in 4:12.64.
“I have run the 4×400 once before, but I loved being able to come in and do it, especially when they needed me to step up,” Cornali said. “We are really proud of our accomplishments, especially against some of the schools here that are bigger than us and traditional powers in track and field.”
Cornali will be competing in the WPIAL individuals in the high jump. Teammate Menzi Sherwin jumped 4-10 in the high jump, which is a personal best, and scored points in the team race. Bella Rodriguez placed second in the triple jump.
“I didn’t do as well as I would have liked in the high jump, but I am ranked in the WPIAL and looking forward to next week,” Cornali said.
Bianchini was struggling with an ankle injury and pulled out of two other events, but she wanted to finish the meet in the final event on the track.
“I was just focused on keeping the lead and bringing home the win for the team in the 4×400,” Bianchini said. “I usually don’t run the anchor leg. This was a big step for our team doing this well, especially since we don’t have a home track and can’t compete in the pole vault.”
Menzies won the 200-meter dash in 26.37 and the 400 in 1:01.96.
“Track is so individualized, but today, we were all running for the team and knew we were a part of something bigger than ourselves, and I feel like that’s why we were able to get runner-up because we knew we were in it for each other and not for ourselves,” Menzies said. “Chartiers-Houston lets us practice on their track, so we would like to give a big shout out to them and Peters Township for allowing us to use their facilities.”
Staub was first in the 800 in 2:27.85.
“I came up short in hitting my personal record today, but I was just looking for placing,” Staub said. “I felt good in the race and I knew I needed to push myself to get us points for the team competition. The relay always comes through for us. It has been a great year at Fort Cherry for sports. We have won five section championships. Our school is so small so we have to compete in multiple sports. I do volleyball and basketball.”
The Rangers’ Emily Frankovich was second in the 1,600 and 3,200 behind Knoch’s Ava Santora, who won both. Frankovich crossed the finish line in 5:24.82 in the 1,600 and 12:32.59 in the 3,200.
“Knoch was against us in an invitational before this year and she (Santora) is really tough,” Frankovich said. “I do cross country, so that really helped running distance races. This is my first year running track, and our coach kind of convinced me to do it, but I really enjoy doing both sports now. Cross country has better scenery but more people are watching track meets, so that’s exciting.”
Fort Cherry has its eyes on the WPIAL Individual Championships next Wednesday at Slippery Rock.
“We are excited for next week,” Maxin said. “It really has been the year of the Ranger. It has been fun and great. They work harder than any team in the WPIAL to come in and compete against some of these teams without a track.”