Sep 25, 2025 By Jonathan Guth 6 min read

Chances are anyone who has knowledge of athletics at Uniontown Area High School is familiar with the Everhart name.

The school’s gymnasium is officially titled, the “A.J. Everhart Memorial Gymnasium,” and when there are discussions of Uniontown basketball, the Everharts are included, as the Red Raiders have a storied tradition that includes four state championships and eight WPIAL titles.

While A.J. Everhart Jr.’s name will always be linked to basketball, he was dedicated to coaching cross country, which doesn’t always receive the top headlines or attention from the media, but has athletes that train just as much, if not more, than other competitors.

Everhart, who was affectionately known as “Abe,” made sure all his basketball players participated in cross country in the fall if they didn’t play football, and there wasn’t any negotiating.

Ever the student of the game in basketball, Everhart applied the same dedication to cross country, which led to a plethora of solid runners, including Joe Thomas, who won two state championships in cross country in 1958 and 1959 under Abe’s tutelage.

Thomas, who was one of the best mile runners in the country during the track & field season in the spring, won state championships in 1959 and 1960 in the mile. His time of 4:14.9 at the Mount Lebanon Invitational his senior year in 1960 was the third-fastest mile of any runner in United States history at the time.

High school track & field runners run 1,600 meters in today’s meets, which is a tad shorter than the mile.

Thomas is currently the cross country coach at Albert Gallatin, and he worked with Abe’s son, Joe, on bringing back the Uniontown Invitational in 1991.

Joe is the third Albert Joseph Everhart and wanted to continue his father’s legacy. Joe is the Red Raiders cross country coach along with Joe Foster. He started his coaching career under another legendary basketball coach at Uniontown who also guided the cross country team.

“Lash Nesser coached for a while, and he let me come on before I was hired so I could get to know the kids,” Everhart said. “It used to be, back then, that cross country kind of started with the basketball coaches because they weren’t allowed to condition any runners until November, and so this way, if they weren’t doing football, they made them do cross country so they could get in condition for basketball.”

Nesser guided the Red Raiders to one of their four state basketball championships in 1981. Everhart’s grandfather was the coach of the first state title team in 1925, and his father was on the bench for state championship teams in 1962 and ’64.

The invitational has been run at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus, every year but two since 1991.

The invitational was contested in 2003, but at Fort Necessity National Battlefield in Farmington due to the construction of a new gymnasium at Penn State Fayette, and the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the event in 2020.

“We couldn’t run at Penn State Fayette in 2003, but that was the only time we had to switch to another course,” Everhart said. “We weren’t able to hold the event in 2020 because of the pandemic.”

There will be a new individual champion this year, as Penn-Trafford’s Jake McGhee and Uniontown’s Grace Trimmer have graduated.

The Lady Red Raiders are one of the favorites to win the team championship, which would be their second straight and third in four years. Canon-McMillan is back after winning the boys team title last season.

“It will be tough Saturday for our girls to repeat because there are a couple of solid teams that are coming, including Canon-McMillan, who was second in last year’s invitational and didn’t lose any of their runners,” Everhart said. “It will also be tough for our boys, but we are looking forward to the competition. You always run better times when you face top-level competition. We expect to see some good runners on Saturday.”

Everhart said 540 athletes are registered to compete, as the races begin at 8:30 a.m. with the middle school boys. The middle school girls race follows at 9 before the boys varsity at 9:30. The girls varsity follows at 10 before the boys junior varsity (10:45) and girls junior varsity (11:15) end a busy day of racing. The awards ceremony is scheduled for noon in the lower gymnasium at Penn State Fayette.

There has never been a four-time champion, but the host school had a three-time winner in Julie Friend (2010-2012). Southmoreland’s Chris Dugan (1994-1996) is the lone three-time boys champion.

The Red Raiders’ Shawn Goss (1991) and Mike Tanner (1992) won the first two championships before Brownsville’s Josh Horner earned the individual title in 1993.

“Mike (Tanner) is now coaching in Virginia, and he is bringing his team on Saturday,” Everhart said.

Connellsville’s Kenny King proved he could win in the high elevation at Fort Necessity and on the course at Penn State Fayette with back-to-back championships in 2003 and ’04.

Trinity’s Ben Junko (1997-1998), Greensburg Salem’s Jeff Hite (2000-2001) and Waynesburg Central’s Ben Bumgarner (2015-2016) are two-time winners.

Uniontown’s Nate Edenfield won the individual championship in 2013. Laurel Highlands’ Jeff Palya (2006) and Matt Schwertfeger (2022) and the Falcons’ Zach Bigam (2021) also earned titles.

Jake West of University High, W.Va., set the boys course record in 2023 with a time of 16:17.

The Fillies’ Jennifer Adamovich won back-to-back individual championships in 1994 and ’95. The Scotties’ Jennifer Anthony followed Adamovich with titles in 1996 and ’97 before Laurel Highlands’ Michol Monaghan earned victories in 2001 and ’02.

Bethel Park’s Hillary Boxheimer won in 2008 and ’09 before Friend pulled off the three-peat.

Brownsville’s Gionna Quarzo topped the field in 2016, but had to wait until her senior year to win it again in 2019. Sister Jolena Quarzo crossed the finish line first in 2021. Jolean set the girls course record when she won the race with a time of 18:38.

In addition to the host team, Albert Gallatin, Brownsville, California, Carmichaels, Connellsville, Geibel Catholic, Laurel Highlands, Mount Pleasant, Southmoreland, St. Johns of Uniontown, Waynesburg Central and West Greene are scheduled to compete in this year’s event.