Observations from the Washington-Greene County Track Meet

Another Washington-Greene County Coaches Track meet came and went Friday afternoon/evening/night at Peters Township High School.

• The meet normally takes place on a Saturday. The Friday start had its pluses and minuses. As a few of us were waiting for the boys high jump to finish at 10:30 p.m., it was tough remembering the positives.
• Nice to see a pair of athletes from McGuffey High school – senior Shelby Ward and junior J.T. Deschamps (pictured right) put together fantastic efforts. Ward won three sprints (100, 200,400) and medaled in the triple jump. Deschamps won both hurdles races (110 and 300) in addition to the 200. Plus, he medaled in the 1,600 relay. This is a meet often dominated by Canon-McMillan individuals and it was unique seeing two athletes from a smaller school turn in such strong performances.
• Speaking of Canon-McMillan, the boys team won its 11th straight team title. Trinity and Peters Township believed this year would be the year the streak ended as the Big Macs are a wildly different team than the one that claimed the WPIAL Class AAA team title. No dice. Honestly, I'm not sure if this streak will be broken any time soon.
• The Peters Township girls snapped Canon-Mac's five year team win streak with a strong outing led by distance runner Kayla Keddal and jumper Kayla Howard.
  
• For the meet to remain interesting, it's going to take more performances like the ones put forth by the PT girls and McGuffey's Ward and Deschamps.
• For not having a track, Fort Cherry has very good boys and girls teams. Too bad the boys have to compete at the club level again this year. A few athletes who would medal at the WPIAL Class AA championships won't get the chance because the FC boys can't enter any relay teams and can only place one individual per event.
• After watching the meet, chances that area athletes will bring home more medals from the PIAA championships than the two won last year.
  
• In Class AAA boys, Peters Township's Christian Brandstetter looks strong as does Canon-Mac's Matt Gregory in the two-mile and Trinity's Nate Lojek in the shot put. In Class AA boys, Waynesburg pole vaulter Nick Patton turned in an exceptional performance with a meet record-tying vault of 14-0. Deschamps, teammate A.J. Weaver, Fort Cherry's Brian Lauff (pictured left) and Andrew Lucarini, Burgettstown's Bryon Dean and Jefferson-Morgan's Hans Lubich should be competing at states.
• In Class AAA girls, Keddal, Trinity's Tiara Williams and the Hillers' distance relays as well as C-M thrower Chelsea Zahn have medal aspirations. At the Class AA level, Ward, Bentworth's Amanda Kennedy – the lone returning PIAA medalist from 2008 – Fort Cherry's Mia Sember and Sidney Walter, Chartiers-Houston's Gabby Provenzano and Burgettstown's Tara Powell should be threats.
• Finally, kudos to Peters Township and head track coach Buzzy Scott for running a good meet. It ended late but the meet continued to move and results came in quickly.