Fillies breeze to Section 2-AAA triangular sweep
Laurel Highlands cross country coach Bob Costello had a pretty defined race plan for his Fillies Tuesday afternoon in the opening Section 2-AAA triangular against visiting Albert Gallatin and Elizabeth-Forward.
“We wanted to go out hard the first two miles and treat the rest like a tempo run,” explained Costello.
The Fillies did just that by taking the first five places in a 5-second span for a sweep, defeating Albert Gallatin and Elizabeth-Forward by the identical score of 15-48. The Lady Colonials earned a split by beating the Lady Warriors, 25-32.
Mariah Custer, Elli Monaghan, Melissa McCann and Marisa Deichert ran together once the group split from the rest of the pack as they exited the track onto the road outside of the stadium.
The four maintained the same pace throughout, finishing tied for first in 21:17. Bristyn Yanik completed the top-5 sweep when she finished in 21:22.
“We have a big meet this weekend,” Custer said of the PIAA Foundation Race, which will be run on the state cross country course in Hershey. “Today was like a tempo run with the top girls running together.
“We ran a nice good pace.”
The girls started in a light rain, but the intensity of the precipitation picked up as the race progressed on the cool afternoon.
Not that the weather was a concern to Custer.
“I’d rather take this than hot weather,” said Custer.
The Lady Warriors’ Braelyn Tracy broke the string when she finished sixth with a time of 22:14, 18 seconds ahead of Albert Gallatin’s first finisher, Hannah Abraham.
Costello was pleased his squad followed the plan.
“We knew they weren’t as solid as us. We ran against Elizabeth-Forward at the Red, White & Blue Invitational, so we knew what they could do,” explained Costello. “We had a chance to run on the state course this weekend, and the team raised some money, so we will run in Hershey Saturday.”
The Fillies’ Emily Rice was eighth in 22:46, and her sister Anne was next in 23:41. Elizabeth-Forward’s Rachael Pell rounded out the top 10 in 24:07.
Albert Gallatin coach Joe Thomas was not pleased with his girls’ performance.
“We didn’t run well. They just didn’t step up,” said Thomas.
Albert Gallatin returns to competition Saturday morning in the annual A.J. Everhart Invitational hosted by Uniontown at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus.