Mt. Lebanon’s Logan St. John Kletter breaks PIAA championship record in 3,200 meters

By: Chris Harlan
Saturday, May 27, 2023 | 1:35 PM

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SHIPPENSBURG — At this time last year, Logan St. John Kletter was suffering from a nerve condition in her foot and wondering when she’d run competitively again.

She missed WPIALs and states.

“I didn’t know if I could ever get back to this,” the Mt. Lebanon junior said Saturday while fighting back tears at Seth Grove Stadium.

Not only did she run this year, she ran faster than anyone in state championship history. St. John Kletter won the 3,200 meters and broke the Class 3A girls record on the second day of the PIAA track and field championships.

She finished in 10 minutes, 12.86 seconds and led a deep contingent of WPIAL runners across the line. Pine-Richland’s Natalie McLean finished second, Montour’s Harley Kletz was third and North Allegheny sisters Robin and Wren Kucler placed fourth and fifth.

The race resembled the WPIAL championship, which St. John Kletter also won.

“The WPIAL is pretty stacked in the 3,200, so I knew there was going to be a pack with them,” said McLean, who finished about two seconds behind St. John Kletter. “Logan and I came in with very close PRs. We’ve raced each other this whole year, so I kind of knew we’d be together.”

St. John Kletter’s winning time was about eight-tenths faster than the PIAA meet record set last season by then-senior Mia Cochran (10:13.62) of Moon.

With the win, she also joined her father Todd Kletter as fellow PIAA champions. He won relay gold with Mt. Lebanon in 1990 and later ran for Penn State.

“It feels amazing,” St. John Kletter said. “I saw him over there (by the track) when I was passing the finish line. I’m really happy to be able to make him proud.”

She was one of eight WPIAL athletes to win a gold medal this weekend, a list that included double-winner Jolena Quarzo (Class 2A girls 1,600 and 3,200) of Brownsville.

The others were Hempfield’s Liz Tapper (girls shot put) and Peyton Murray (boys discus), Hampton’s Dale Hall (boys 1,600), Our Lady of the Sacred Heart’s Antonio Votour (boys 110 hurdles), Riverview’s Amberson Bauer (boys 3,200) and Waynesburg’s Andrew Layton (boys pole vault).

This was the first PIAA gold medal in St. John Kletter’s collection, after winning two WPIAL track titles last week, a WPIAL cross country title in the fall and a PSTCA indoor title in the mile this winter. She took sixth Friday in the 1,600 meters at states, but found herself on top of the PIAA medal stand Saturday for the 3,200.

“It hasn’t been a perfect year, but I’ve been able to get through all of the challenges,” she said, “and to end it on this note today is amazing.”

St. John Kletter emerged as a freshman standout two years ago and placed second as a sophomore at both the WPIAL and PIAA cross country championships. But the foot injury last spring interrupted her running career. She said her issue was diagnosed as Baxter’s nerve entrapment, a painful nerve impingement in the inner foot.

The injury was treated with physical therapy but left her idle last year from March until June.

“It was a long recovery,” St. John Kletter said. “It’s taken a lot of patience to get me to where I am right now.”

She credited a team of supporters for keeping her going whenever her patience ran out.

“It took so many different trainers, coaches, friends, teammates and my family,” she said. “Everybody just kind of worked with me and stayed patient with me. They believed in me when I couldn’t believe in myself.

“That’s what it took to get here.”

.@wpial7 @piaa the 3A 3,200 meter race was dominated by the WPIAL: St. John Kletter, Natalie McLean, Klets, R Kucler, W Kucler. @TribLiveHSSN @TribSports @Schofield_Trib @schofield_jp pic.twitter.com/tp1eJ5KmFa

— J. Paul Schofield (@Schofield_Trib) May 27, 2023

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: Mt. lebanon