Butler senior making a run

at WPIAL gold

BRAD EVERETT

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Growing up, Noah Beveridge didn’t care for riding a bike.

When he and his buddies left Northwest Elementary School in Butler each day, his friends would hop on their bikes and ride around the neighborhood. Beveridge joined them, only he ran.

“I would always be running everywhere,” Beveridge said, smiling.

Years later, Beveridge, a senior at Butler, is one of the top high school distance runners in the state. Who would have thought his dislike for riding bikes would kick start his journey toward being a star runner?

Beveridge has a thirst for winning. He is the defending WPIAL Class 3A champion in the 3,200-meter run and won the WPIAL Class 3A cross country championship last fall. He also has an Orange Crush: he’ll run collegiately at Syracuse.

Beveridge turned heads by breaking school and meet records in the 1,600 after running a winning time of 4:12.58 at the 54th annual Butler Invitational. Surprisingly, it was likely the one and only time Beveridge runs the event this season as he said he much prefers longer races. He said he will begin to focus on the 3,200, and will also anchor the 3,200 relay team. He’ll run the 5K at junior nationals this summer.

The 3,200 is Beveridge’s bread and butter. His personal record is 9:07.26. He ran that when he finished fifth at last year’s PIAA championships. Beveridge said his goal this season is to go under nine minutes.

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“We have the Baldwin Invitational [May 4], my favorite race of the year besides states,” Beveridge said. “I’m going to run it there. If everything is just checkmarks on the list of being healthy, I’m going to try to break nine there.”

Last year’s PIAA champion, Nathan Henderson of Lancaster McCaskey, won the race with a time of 9:01.77. Beveridge and Henderson will be future teammates at Syracuse.

“These guys, I know their times from when they were in high school. You want to be in that realm, and you know you can be,” Beveridge said.