Relays, hurdlers excel for Pine-Richland track
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Friday, April 6, 2018 | 4:18 PM
While inclement weather hasn't permitted coach Bill Crummy to fine-tune the techniques of all his runners, the Pine-Richland track and field athletes are preparing as best they can for a schedule that typically zooms by.
The Rams have two section meets left and a handful of invitationals before the postseason meets begin, but despite the lack of quality practice time, Crummy said he feels confident his boys and girls teams have enough talent in the hurdle and relay events to continue his program's recent run of success.
“For the guys, Luke Meckler is returning for us, and he went to states last year in the intermediate hurdles as a freshman, which is a very hard event to qualify in as a freshman,” Crummy said.
“He and Jordan Crawford are both returning for our boys (400) relay team that just missed going to states last year. So with Luke, individually and with that relay team, we think we have the ability there for a couple of good performances.”
Meanwhile, the girls team boasts a solid group of returning contributors from last season and is expected to have similar success in the same events.
In the 100 hurdles, sophomore C.C. Clarke is looking like a contender to place at this year's WPIAL championships after qualifying in the 100 and 300 hurdles a year ago.
In the intermediate hurdles, Crummy said he also expects Livie Miller to race well enough to make some noise in the postseason. Miller also runs as a member of the 1,600 relay team.
For the past few years, the girls 400 relay has been a point of pride for the program, and this year should be no different as the Rams return three members of last season's state-qualifying group.
“Jodie Berezo, Izzy Greco and Meghan Briski are all coming back for us in that event, and we have two promising freshmen in the mix with them as well in Danielle Bryant and Ella Rottinghaus,” Crummy said.
“Those three girls with those two freshman in the mix, we're hopeful that we'll be able to return to states with that combination. We've done it for the last couple of years, so it would be a lot of fun to see them have that success again.”
Pine-Richland will race at 3:30 p.m. Thursday at home against Fox Chapel.
Kevin Lohman is a freelance writer.
Tags: Pine-Richland
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