Mar 22, 2007 By Les Harvath For The 4 min read

With some 60 athletes on the Uniontown girls track team roster, coach Bob Manges is looking at “a lot of competition” from a team that went 8-1 overall, 5-1 in Section 2-AAA last season. Team MVP Brea Belt, Track MVP Kelsie Herring, Rookie of the Year Annabel Mosco and a solid 3,200-meter relay team return for the Red Raiders.

“We’re deep and the girls are pushing each other to work harder,” Manges said.

Senior letter-winners Belt, Paige Festa, Anna Girod and Devan Grote will serve as team captains this season.

For the second time in team history, Uniontown was a part of the WPIAL team playoff tournament last year during which the 3,200-meter relay team of Chelsi Festa, Stacy Lloyd, Jessica Dzara and Kelsie Herring, all juniors, set a new school record with a time of 10:19.

Uniontown’s 1600-meter relay teams, consisting of Lloyd, Dzara, Chelsi Festa and 2006 grad Candace Adams, and Lloyd, Dzara, Girod, and Adams also set a school record of 4:25.

At the Fayette County Coaches Association Championships, Uniontown’s girls finished second to Laurel Highlands. Belt finished first in the triple jump, setting a county meet record, and second in the long jump, sharing Field MVP honors.

Herring captured three individual events (800m, 1,600m, 3,200m) and anchored the 3,200-meter relay team to a win and a record at the county meet. For the second year in a row, these wins gave her a share of the Track MVP honors.

Herring “excelled her first two years,” Manges said. “We want to limit her events to keep her stronger and enable her to go further in the post-season, to the WPIALs.”

Herring competes in the 4×800 relay, 800, mile and also does the two-mile.

“She’s a warrior,” Manges said. “We want her to be stronger by the end of the year. She’s the toughest girl on the team and refuses to lose. There have been races when she has been behind and comes back to win. She runs four distance events and will run four events if we want her to, but will also run only one if we want her to run only one, depending on what is best for the team. She is very coachable.”

Belt participates in the triple jump, long jump, 100 meters and 4×100 relay, qualifying for the WPIAL in all four events last year.

“Competing in four events, she is a versatile athlete and has no chance to sit at meets,” Manges said. “She is a leader and a champion. For four years we’ve depended on her for a lot of points. But she also has asthma, which hampers her somewhat. She is also strong academically.”

Breaking her school record in the triple jump with a leap of 35-feet, 4¾-inches, Belt, was fifth in the WPIAL in her best event, Manges noted, and narrowly missed qualifying for the state championships. Belt also medalled in the long jump with a sixth-place finish. Belt went to states as a freshman member of 4×100 relay team.

Ten players competed at the WPIAL Championships, including the 3,200-meter relay team of Festa, Lloyd, Dzara, and Herring, where they eclipsed their school record with a time of 10:09. Other qualifiers included Alicia Lee (400m relay), Lauren Wagner (400m relay), and Mosco (triple jump). Lee is a senior this season, Wagner a junior, Mosco a sophomore.

Rookie of the Year as a freshman, Mosco “has a lot of potential,” Manges said. “She could be very good in the pole vault and triple jump. Last year was the first time she practiced the pole vault every day and she responded by setting a school pole vault record. That’s big when a freshman does that.” Mosco set the record with a leap of nine-feet.

“We have a strong distance team in the 3,200 relay and they’ve been working hard all year,” Manges noted, “but we also have several freshmen to maintain that depth in our distance events. However, we are a little young in the sprint events where we were overpowered on several occasions last year. Our goal is to win the section and individually we hope to return at least as many girls to the WPIALs. We have the potential to take three or four girls to states.”