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*-Time converted from yardage ( )-WPIAL Championship Meet Placement * *-PIAA Championship Meet Placement 5/26 6:50 pm The weather at Shippensburg was very hot, but so were many of the performances by the WPIAL athletes. AAA picked up 33 medals, the most of any year in this decade. And this was done despite the fact that the WPIAL only garnered two medallions from the five sprinting events. The field athletes really came through as the WPIAL picked up 19 medals in those seven events. Winning the WPIAL's only gold medal out of those 19 field ones was Hempfield's Rachel Serafin. The Spartan sophomore went from not placing at 2008 WPIAL's to 2009 WPIAL and PIAA champion. Rachel will enter her junior year as the 14th ranked discus thrower in WPIAL history. Winning her school's first gold medal in a track event was Norwin's Leslie Kovach. The University of Pennsylvania bound senior who was the PIAA runner-up in cross country was not going to be denied in the 3200 meter run. Leslie forged to the lead in the seventh lap and never looked backed as she cruised in with an excellent 10:35.19, the third fastest time in WPIAL history. The WPIAL's third and final gold medal of the meet also went to a Westmoreland County athlete, the incomparable Natalie Bower. As if I wasn't totally impressed by the Latrobe "superwoman" prior to the meet, her performance at the 2009 PIAA Track Championships left me in total awe. In Friday's morning heat and humidity, the Penn State bound senior ran a sub 2:15 anchor split in the 3200 relay to enable the Lady Wildcats to qualify for Saturday's finals. Then she came back in the noon time heat to run her 1600 meter qualifying trial in a swift 5:00.44. At mid-morning Saturday, the four time WPIAL cross country champion ran a fantastic 2:14.6 split to make up ground and move her Wildcat relay team into a 5th place finish with the seventh best time in WPIAL history (9:17.97). And in less than two hours, Natalie had to run the 1600 final in mid-80's heat. She went to the lead from the start and many of the media thought Natalie would die out before the end of the race, especially after she crossed the 800 mark in a quick 2:27. But Natalie proved every doubter wrong as she not only didn't die in the last half mile, but actually sped up and pulled away from the pack in the final 400 with a blistering 69 second last lap to record an amazing 4:52.65, the 2nd fastest 1600 time in WPIAL history. With her victory, Natalie became the first Latrobe girl to win a gold medal in a running event. Three of the 33 medals earned by the WPIAL were silver ones. Junior Taylor Doaty of Oakland Catholic finished second in the 100 meter hurdles with a time of 14.46. She won her Saturday morning semi-final heat with a smoking 14.28, a time that places Taylor 4th on the All-Time WPIAL Top 25 list. Taylor, who also won a 6th place medal in the 300 hurdles, turned in a 43.83 qualifying time on Friday, a mark which places her in 6th place on the All-Time WPIAL chart. Another junior who came home with a silver medallion was Baldwin's Brittany Edwards. She hit her longest jump ever in the triple jump (39'9") to claim second place. Brittany will enter her senior year as the 3rd ranked triple jumper and the 11th ranked long jumper in WPIAL history. The WPIAL's final silver medalist was Laurel Highlands' Maressa Guynn. On Saturday afternoon, the senior thrower hurled the discus 131'1" to place 2nd in that event. On Friday morning, Maressa won one of the WPIAL's four bronze medals when she put the shot 39'0¾" to claim third place in that event. With her discus toss of 135'5" at this year's WPIAL Championships, Maressa ends her scholastic career in 22nd place on the All-Time WPIAL Top 25 list. Winning two of the WPIAL's four bronze medals was Upper St. Clair's Elizabeth Kline. The Pitt bound redhead ran the two fastest races of her career Saturday as she placed third in both the 100 and 300 meter hurdles. Liz's 14.52 leaves her in 14th place on the All-Time WPIAL 100 meter hurdles chart while her blazing 43.24 makes her the 2nd fastest 300 meter hurdler in the annals of WPIAL girls' track. The WPIAL's final bronze medallion was earned by Elizabeth-Forward's Tori Paterra. On Friday afternoon, the Warrior junior threw the javelin a career best 144'11" to claim third place in that event. That mark earns Tori recognition on the National Federation Honor Roll and positions her in the number 15 spot on the All-Time WPIAL Top 25 chart. Earlier on Friday, Tori placed 8th in the shot put to capture a PIAA medal in that event. In PIAA team competition, the highest placing teams from the WPIAL were Norwin and Greater Latrobe who tied for 7th place with 17 points each. jfaiella@webtv.net (to submit marks) http://community.webtv.net/jfaiella (website)
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