Butler finishes 1-2 at WPIAL meet
October 31, 2020 High School Track & Field
CJ
Singleton, Butler junior wins the WPIAL Class AAA Cross Country Class AAA
championship.
McKEESPORT — Knocked down, falling down ...
it didn't matter.
Butler juniors CJ Singleton and Sage Vavro
got up and kept on going, finishing 1-2 in the WPIAL Class AAA Boys Cross
Country Championship race Friday at White Oak Park.
Seneca Valley junior Noah Peterson was third
overall in the 210-runner field.
The Triple-A portion of the WPIAL meet was
originally scheduled for Thursday, but was pushed back a day due to inclement
weather.
“The course was terrible,” Butler coach Rick
Davanzati said. “On a decent day, you could easily knock 10 or 15 seconds off
the times posted today.
“All three of our top runners fell at least
once today. CJ and Sage both fell while making the turn at (1,200) meters. Sage
fell on top of CJ.”
Singleton and Vavro were leading the race at
the time.
“There were pools of mud around every single
turn,” Vavro said. “When CJ and I went down, a group of four runners passed us.
“I guess it was the adrenalin of the race,
because we jumped back up and were running first and second again after another
400 meters.”
Singleton won the race in 15 minutes, 50
seconds. Vavro came in second at 16:03. Skyler Vavro will join them at the PIAA
Championships Nov. 7 in Hershey. He took 15th in 16:39.
The downside is Butler's team will not go to
Hershey, Due to COVID concerns in 2020, the second- and third-place teams, who
would normally qualify, are forced to stay home.
The winning team and top 10 individuals (not
on that winning team) qualified for the state meet.
Butler finished second in the team standings
with 82 points. North Allegheny won the meet with 40 points.
“We were hoping to beat out NA today, but I
have to give them credit. They ran fantastic,” Davanzati said. “Their top five
ran between 16:06 and 16:38. Their sixth and seventh runners were 18th and 20th
overall.”
“It's a different feel when the whole team
is out there,” Vavro said of the state meet. “Our team got to go last year and
this year's team is probably better than that one. I'm disappointed for the
rest of our guys.”
Peterson's time was 16:06. Seneca Valley
placed third in the team standings with 134 points.
Singleton has not lost a race all season. He
was happy to see a Butler uniform be the first runner behind him to cross the
finish line.
“Sage and I have been talking about this
since the season started,” Singleton said of the teammates placing 1-2 at the
WPIAL meet. “It's pretty cool we were able to make it happen.”
The order in which it happened was of no
consequence.
“We didn't care which one finished first, as
long as we were up front,” Vavro said.
Singleton's time was nine seconds off the
course record he set at White Oak Park earlier in the season.
“On a dry day, he would have beaten that
record again,” Davanzati said.
“I feel good about my chances at the state
meet,” Singleton said. “I know there's good runners on the eastern side of the
state, but I'm not sure how many races they've gotten in or what type of shape
they're in.”
Seneca Valley sophomore Eli DeWitt placed
eighth overall in 16:28. He joins Peterson in qualifying for the state meet
with the Raiders.
In the girls race, Seneca Valley finished
third as a team with 115 points, trailing North Allegheny (67) and
Pine-Richland (98). Raider senior Dylan Kirchner finished 12th in 19:12 and
qualified for the state meet.
Seneca Valley had five other runners finish
among the top 38: Abby Kreber 15th, Gabrielle Kutchma 21st, Bailey Royhab 30th,
Lauryn Young 37th and Ruthie Highes 38th.
Butler's top female finisher was junior
Jennifer Cichra, who took 17th in 19:43. She fell two spots shy of qualifying
for states. The Golden Tornado's Ava Brewster was 35th.
Butler finished 10th in the team standings.
Mars' top placer was Kalin Wilson, who
finished 78th.
Moon's Mia Cochran won the girls race in
17:46, beating out Bethel Park's Jenna Lang by 36 seconds.