Shaler runners eye improvement

By: HSSN Staff
Sunday, September 3, 2017 | 11:00 PM

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Having the boys and girls cross country team stocked with freshmen is an encouraging sign for Shaler coach Justin Eskra.

Getting middle school runners into the high school program is a big focus for Eskra and his coaching staff. It's not enough to get them out, the Titans want to retain as many runners as possible.

This season, Eskra is expecting the Titans' top finishers to be underclassmen.

Ten of Shaler's 13 female runners will be freshmen, while there will be five out of 10 on the boys' side.

The foundation to keep these athletes is laid at the start of the summer.

“We build the freshmen up slow to where they feel comfortable doing a 5- or 6-mile run,” Eskra said. “The big thing is to get them to enjoy the sport of running. We do a lot of stuff to get them to bond with their teammates. Right now, the older kids have taken them under their wing and made them feel a part of the team.”

Shaler returns a few runners with WPIAL experience. Sophomore Bella Pilyih was the Titans' top finisher at districts, placing 163rd with a time of 24 minutes, 8 seconds. Senior Adeline Kubisek also competed at WPIALs, finishing in 25:49.

Eskra expects freshman Danielle Eshelman to compete with those two to be the team's top runner.

Shaler's boys placed 26th at WPIALs last season. Sophomore Dalton Kalbaugh was the team's top finisher at districts, finishing 97th with a time of 18:36.

Junior Eddie Sheets and Noah Paszkowski also return.

Eskra would like to see both teams improve on their finish at WPIALs. Setting other goals would be a difficult exercise now.

“That's a big question mark,” Eskra said. “With how young they are, these kids are going from running a 1.5-mile race to a true 5K. Any improvement off last year's WPIAL standing is a success for us right now. They've never done a 5K, never done a full season of doing as many miles as we do. If we get through healthy and get better standing as a team is improvement for us. That's what we want.”

What Shaler desires is to keep building up their young talents' confidence.

That way the Titans will be able to build for the future.

“This summer, we had almost the entire team coming for summer workouts,” Eskra said. “We started at two days a week, we went to three days a week to July and all five days in August. They are buying into the program and seeing it's getting easier. It's been very positive.”

Josh Rizzo is a freelance writer.

Tags: Shaler