( )-WPIAL Championship Meet Place Finisher
* *-PIAA Championship Meet Place Finisher
5/25/03 (5:25 pm)--All results from the PIAA Championships are now included in the final rankings. If I am missing any marks from the season that would alter the final listings, please forward them to me. Also, the All-Time WPIAL Top 25 is now updated through the 2003 PIAA Championships.
Despite less than ideal weather conditions at Shippensburg, WPIAL athletes still produced their share of gold medals and good marks. The area's only double winner and the lone AA gold medalist was Valley senior Mycah Clemons who won the 100 hurdles and the long jump for her third and fourth PIAA titles. AA did win five silver medals with Freeport sophomore Lacey Cochran taking two of them (200 & 400). Other AA silver medalists included Jeannette junior Cherel Brown (100), Riverside junior Nicole Pitchford (PV) and Quaker Valley senior Margi Smith (300H). Smith completed her high school career with eight PIAA medals.
In AAA action, the WPIAL produced three gold medalists. Chartiers Valley senior Dana Ventrone won the long jump with a career best mark of 18-3 while Montour senior Lindsay Bihler also did a PR with a gold medal high jump of 5-6. And by winning the discus, senior Christina Roadman became the first female to win a state title for Connellsville. Four AAA girls won PIAA silver medals. Hampton senior Julianna Reed, who ran an all-time WPIAL best time of 43.18 at the WPIAL finals took second at Shippensburg on Saturday. Butler senior Melanie Buczko, who tied for the best vault in WPIAL history by clearing 12-6 at the District 7 finals, also took home a silver medal from the PIAA championships. Other AAA silver medalists were juniors Elyse Goode (100) of Ambridge and North Allegheny's Shannon Yon (HJ). Although getting a bronze medal, the Penn Hills 400 relay team of Carletta Nance, Janiece Rash, Raquel Bender and Channing Richardson ran the fastest time (48.06) in the history of the WPIAL. As for team scoring, three-time defending WPIAL team champions North Allegheny and Quaker Valley both proved they are more than good dual meet teams as they both placed 4th in their respective classes, the highest showing among all WPIAL squads.
Jim Faiella (jfaiella@webtv.net)
(1-425-955-4849-fax)
(http://community.webtv.net/jfaiella)-website