2022 Meet Schedule & Results
Scrimmage w/Peters Twp.................Wed. Aug. 24, 2022................(Directions/Info) (Results) (pics) Cal Univ. Invitational.........................Saturday Sept. 3, 2022............(Meet Info) (RESULTS) (Results)(map) Red, White & Blue Invite..................Saturday Sept. 10, 2022...........(MileSplit) (Info) (RESULTS) @ Ligonier Valley + Indiana .............Tuesday Sept. 13, 2022.......... (RESULTS) Penn Trafford + Derry......................Tuesday Sept. 20, 2022...........(RESULTS) Blue Devil Invitational.......................Saturday Sept. 24, 2022..........(Meet Info) (RESULTS) (MAP) @Greensburg + Hempfield................Tuesday Sept. 27, 2022...........(Boys + Girls Results) Bald Eagle Invite (@ White Oak).........Saturday Oct. 1, 2022...............(MileSplit) (Info) (RESULTS) @ Latrobe + Yough..........................Tuesday Oct. 4, 2022................(RESULTS) Westmoreland County Champs.........Wednesday Oct. 12, 2022..........(INFO) (RESULTS) (MAP) TSTCA JV Championship Meet(@ White Oak).........Monday Oct. 17, 2022............(MileSplit) WPIAL Championships (@ Cal U).......Thursday Oct. 27, 2022............(MileSplit) PIAA Championships @ Hershey.............Sat. November 5, 2022............(Results) |
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2022 Season is underway... Officially the 2022 season kicked off on Monday August 15, 2022. We had a great summer and logged lots of miles on Strava, met almost 40 times in person, had picnics and team bonding. We are looking forward to our 2nd Annual Knight under the Lights 3K Time Trial and Parent meeting on Monday August 22nd at the Norwin stadium. In spite of the rain, the time trial went off fantastic with lots of athletes running a personal best 3K time on the track. LINK to the results of time trial here. Following our time trial on Monday, the XC squads traveled to Peters Township for a scrimmage at hot and hilly Peterswood Park. The Knights ran a controlled effort and many completed their first 5K of life or season. The boys and girls both won the meet if scored as a dual meet over the #3 ranked WPIAL girls' team and the #7 ranked WPIAL boys' team. Results found above with schedule. The official meet season kicked off Labor Day weekend at the California University of PA Invitational in a hot 85 degree muggy day with race times at noon. The day started off fantastic with both the middle school boys and girls capturing the team titles in the MS Division. In the girls race, the heat took a toll on some of the girls in the last mile and the team fell from 2nd to 6th due to some racers not finishing or struggling. The girls were in great shape through the mile and 2 mile, with Annie Czajkowski leading the way in 5th place with just under a mile to go and the team in 2nd place, but the heat took hold and unfortunately Annie did not finish. The varsity girls used a great pack to still keep in the hunt led by medalists Rosemary Gaydos and Audra Fedor, followed by Emma Jiancristoforo, Julia Walko, and Anna Rakvic. On the boys' side, the boys finished the race as they began and held on for a trophy winning 3rd place finish behind University High and Upper St. Clair. The boys made huge improvements from last year where they finished 13th. The boys were led by 1-2 duo Andres Breauchy and Noah Wilson, followed by fellow medalist Oliver Hinson who led the pack of Thomas Gaydos, Enzo Jiancristoforo and Mario Breauchy. Lots of runners had some great PR's on the course and major improvements from last August in spite of the heat. The season continued as the Knights traveled to White Oak Park for the biggest meet of the year Red, White & Blue Invitational. The weather was perfect and there were lots of great performances. The girls varsity led off the day with a 7th place finish. Leading the way for the Knights was Annie Czajkowski who placed 20th with a top freshmen time of 19:25! Anna Defazio made it back to the lineup for the Knights and finished strong. The Boys Varsity race was next with the boys running a strong race and finished in 9th and 6th in the WPIAL. The boys average time of 17:36 was a vast improvement from last year's 19:05 average. Andres Breauchy led the boys with a 34th place finish in 17:04, followed by Noah Wilson (17:22) and Thomas Gaydos (17:30). Thomas moved up from 104th at the mile mark to finish 53rd. The JV girls ran a strong race led by senior Bella Brozeski who ran an impressive race with the NA girls. Bella's time of 21:30 would have been a top 5 finish for the girls varsity. The 9th graders ran the next race and had some very strong finishes. Freshmen Elin Bash and Alex Oestreich earned medals in the race and Elin's time of 21:12 would have also been a top 5 varsity time on the day. Marek Moenssens and Liam O' Donnel paced the freshmen boys with a 29th and 36th place finish. Freshmen Mike Makay completed his first 5K of the season as well! In the final race of the day, the Boys JV team captured 2nd place behind North Allegheny with only 94 pts, almost 50pts ahead of 3rd. The boys were led by senior Jack Chaney and junior Dave Shepherd who earned medals (shirts) for their performance. The JV Boys averaged 18:55 and had a :31 second spread. Great day at White Oak followed by team picnic at the Gaydos household. The boys and girls opened Section meets on Tuesday Sept. 13th @ scenic Antiochian Village against Ligonier Valley and Indiana. Both teams leave with a 2-0 record after the first section race. The boys opened the meet by running away from Indiana with a score of 19-40 on what could have been a much closer matchup. Andy Breauchy led the Knights with a 17:01 time to take first overall followed closely by teammate sophomore Thomas Gaydos with a time of 17:11. The top 5 boys all finished in the 17's with Noah Wilson and Enzo Jiancristoforo and Luke Simpson rounding out the top 5 with times of 17:39, 17:40 and 17:59 respectively. The JV pack continued their dominance by pulling ahead of many varsity runners on Indiana. Cole Kubistek took the pack out and closed the gap on the Indiana runners, while Dave Shepherd led the group by finishing 7th for the Knights with a time of 18:27. On the girls's side, the girls won handily with a score of 17-42 over Indiana and 15-50 vs. Ligonier Valley. Anne Czajkowski and Rosemary Gaydos and Audra Fedor led a 1-2-3 sweep upfront to close the meet early for the Knights. Freshmen Elin Bash had her best race with a time of 20:57 with teammate Emma Jiancristoforo right on her tail with 20:58. All the Lady Knights broke 30:00 on the scenic course at Antiochian Village. On Tuesday September 2oth, the Knights faced off against section opponents Penn Trafford and Derry. The Knights boys and girls both ran away with resounding victories over both teams to improve to 4-0 on the season. Senior Knight was the focus of the meet with our lone home meet. The Knights 8 seniors (Chaney, Hinson, Breauchy, Defazio, Brozeski, Anzelone, Jiancristoforo, Anticole) presented their parents with flowers before the race and the team celebrated the seniors after with pizza and cupcakes. The girls race started off the meet with the girls using a controlled attack and dominating both teams by securing spots 2nd through 7th overall in the race with Czajkowski, Gaydos, Fedor, Jiancristoforo, Bash and Defazio leading the way for the Lady Knights. Lots of girls had a bittersweet moment and closed out their final race at Oak Hollow yesterday. On the boys side, the Knights also used a controlled, balanced, pack race to defeat both section opponents. The boys captured 18 of the top 20 spots in the meet and easily defeated PT and Derry. Leading the attack for the Knights was senior Andres Breauchy in 2nd overall, followed by Gaydos, Jiancristoforo, Wilson, Hinson, Simpson, and Mario Breauchy. The Knights ran in a nice pack through much of the first loop and closed out the race by securing the race at the end. On Saturday September 24, the Knights XC Program traveled to Buhl Park for the Blue Devil Invitational. The Knights took home all 6 team trophies and dozens of medals! The ladies opened the meet with a fantastic showing beating the second place team by over 30 pts with a low score of 52 pts. The Lady Knights put all 5 runners in the top 23 finishers of the close to 200 and 22 teams. Annie Czajkowski led the way with a 2nd place overall finish in 18:57. This is the first time a girl runner has broken 19:00 barrier since 2010 Jenna Kuhn. Congrats. The Knights were followed by Rosemary Gaydos (9th), Elin Bash (10th), Audra Fedor (12th), and Anna Rakvic (19th). Elin Bash used a strong second half of the race and kick to PR with a time of 20:12. Anna Rakvic also had a major breakthrough clutch race finishing 5th on the team with a PR of 20:57. The varsity boys continued the Knights' dominance by winning a tight team race 72-74 over WPIAL A #1 ranked team Eden Christian. The boys used a :36 spread from 1-5 to close out the race and a great 6-7 runners to displace Eden's #4 and 5 runners. Times for the **3-mile course (due to all runners cutting final turn) were scorching. All 7 varsity runners were in the 16:00's with Andres Breauchy leading the way in 16:06 followed closely by Noah Wilson 16:12 and Thomas Gaydos 16:17. Enzo Jiancristoforo and Oliver Hinson closed out the top 5 with a 16:32 and 16:42 respectively. With a 16:22 average or right around 17:00** with normal 5K, the boys' average was one of the fastest in many years. The Middle School Boys and Girls XC teams both brought home team titles as well. The boys won with just 63 pts led by Logan Plichta with a sub 10 time of 9:46. The Middle School Girls XC teams also brought home a trophy with a score of just 41 pts, led by new meet record holder Anna Dansak with a time of 10:14 beating last year's teammate Annie Czajkowski's previous meet record. The JV girls and boys, closed out the meet with dominating performances. The Girls JV squad scored just 24 pts with Emily Schaeffer getting her first XC victory in a blazing PR of 20:59. Alex Oestreich and Carlie Goretzka finished the 1-2-3 sweeps for the Lady Knights. Autumn Stoken in her season debut finished 4th for the girls and Brooklyn Kotch secured the scoring for 5th. The JV Boys obliterated the field capturing the first 9 spots of the entire field. David "thinks this course is short" Shepherd captured 1st with a time of 18:16. Following Shepherd in the next 8 spots of the race were: Ola, Hladek, Kubistek, Chaney, Patter, Cade Kubistek, Douglass, and Monenssens. Many of the boys had massive PR's on the day! Great day to be a KNIGHT! On Tuesday Sept. 27, the Knights XC squads traveled to Greensburg Salem for a big showdown with Hempfield. The Knights came away with a couple of victories each to establish perfect records of 6-0 in the section with only one meet left. The Boys began the day with a dog fight with the section rival Hempfield. Hempfield came in ranked in the top 5 in the WPIAL, but the Knights were up to the task. The race began on a wet course and the Knights trio of Breauchy, Gaydos, and Wilson went right to the front with the top Hempfield boys with the rest of the chase pack right behind. The Knights were leading at the half way point, but the meet was still too close to call. As the boys came across the bottom field with 600 meters to go, the Knights were in commanding lead as Wilson raced to the front. However, the Spartan top 2 were able to close on the boys up the final hill and stretch to the finish and secure 1-2, but the Knights closed the next 3 spots in 3-4-5 place. Hempfield took 6th, but the Knights went 7th, 9th and 10th to put their 6th runner ahead of Hempfield's 5th runner and secure the win on a tie break of 28-28! Luke Simpson stepped up huge for the Knights and beat Hempfield's 5th runner to displace their score and secure the tie break. The Girls Race was delayed 45 minutes due to thunderstorms, but the Lady Knights carried the boys momentum into their race and won a dominating 19-37 pt victory and secured a 1-2-3 finish with Czajkowski, Gaydos, and Bash beating the Hempfield top girls. Rounding out the top 5 for Norwin were Audra Fedor and Emma Jiancristoforo. The Knights put 8 runners ahead of the Hempfield 5th runner with Rakvic, Schaeffer and Oestreich beating Hempfield's final scoring runner. The girls put themselves in sole possession of first with one remaining meet to go. On Saturday Oct. 1, the Knights traveled back to the friendly confines of White Oak Park for a rainy and muddy day at Bald Eagle Invite. The rain began early and continued through most of the day to create some very muddy and challenging conditions. The Knights were resting a good deal of the varsity runners due to the volume of races in last week. The Knights used 7 new runners in the varsity race with Dave Shepherd, Jack Chaney and Austin Hladek leading the way for Knights with runs of 18:40 and 18:52 and 18:57. Liam O' Donnel and Maerek Moenssens had season best times of 19:04 and 19:05 to round out the top 5. The boys finished in 10th overall against a strong field. The JV Races happened next in the muddy park. The boys race ran first, and Nick Patter led the JV field with the lone sub 20:00 performance. Freshmen Mike Makay had a fantastic run of 24:49, to take over 6 minutes off his time from White Oak one month earlier. The JV Girls were led by first year runners Brooklyn Kotch and Carmela Lio in 26:27 and 26:29. In the varsity race, the girls only had 2 runners toe the line due to steady rain and deteriorating conditions. Alex Oestreich and Emily Schaeffer ran 22:50 and 22:53 to complete the Lady Knights lineup. The Knights prep themselves for Tuesday's final section meet against Latrobe, where both teams can wrap up Section titles with wins at Latrobe and Yough. Congratulations to both teams as they close out the 2022 season with perfect 8-0 records and Section 1 Champs. The boys and girls teams traveled to Latrobe for the final meet of the season against the Wildcats and Yough. Both teams left victories to seal up the section titles. The girls ran first and beat Yough 15-50 and Latrobe 23-38. The race was won by Skatell from Latrobe, with freshmen Annie Czajkowski right on her heels most of the race on the hilly, muddy course. Annie crossed the line in 19:49. Gaydos (2nd), Fedor (5th), Bash (6th), Jiancristoforo (7th), Rakvic (8th), DeFazio (9th) and Schaeffer (10th) rounded out a strong pack to seal the win. The boys picked right up where the girls left off and defeated Yough 15-50 and Latrobe 21-38. Similar to the boys, the Knights used a strong pack to seal the win. Thomas Gaydos was the first finisher for the Knights in 2nd, followed by Jiancristoforo (3rd), A.Breauchy (4th), Hinson (5th), Simpson (7th), and Ola in 8th for the Knights 5th finisher. Congrats to both teams on successful titles and let's move on to the postseason. Championship October kicked off with the Westmoreland County Coaches Association Championships on Wed. Oct. 12 @ WCCC campus. The weather was perfect with a cloudy 70 degree fall day. The Boys Varsity began the day with a tight race with Hempfield. The Knights unfortunately took runner up to the Spartans who avenged their earlier season loss. The Knights lost 45-58 to Hempfield. Leading the boys were All County Medalists Andres Breauchy (7th), Noah Wilson (8th), Thomas Gaydos (11th), and Oliver Hinson (12th). The boys 1-4 spread of :17 was not enough to overcome the tight pack of the Hempfield varsity boys. It was the boys first title since 2019. The Lady Knights recaptured the momentum by capturing the 2022 County Title 56-58 to Hempfield. The girls used a tight pack as well to hold off the Spartans. Leading the Knights were Annie Czajkowski (4th), Audra Fedor (8th), Rosemary Gaydos (11th), while Elin Bash (16th) and Anna DeFazio (17th) rounded out the top 5 just ahead of the 5th Lady Spartan. It was the girls first title since 2018. The JV Boys and Girls closed out the meet with impressive performances as well by capturing the team titles. The girls finished 1,2,3, and 5 up front led by Alex Oestreich with a season best 21:03, followed by Emily Schaeffer, Bella Brozeski and Carlie Goretzka. Closing out the top 5 was Avery Anzelone in 14th, and the kick of the meet was Brooklyn Kotch out sprinting Carmela Lio at the finish. The Boys were equally impressive with a finish of 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 9th and 11th. Teddy Ola led the JV Boys with an impressive runner up in 18:31, followed by Dave Shepherd, Hayden Douglas with big kick, Maerek Moenssens and Austin Hladek closed out the top 5 for the JV Boys. To wrap up the season, the Knights XC teams competed in the WPIAL Finals on Thurs. Oct. 27 at Cal U to see if anyone can advance to PIAA Championships. It was an unseasonably warm day and the both teams improved drastically from last year. The boys team jumped from 20th place in 2021 to 7th place this year in the District Championship. Leading the boys was sophomore Thomas Gaydos with a 30th place finish, followed by Andres Breauchy (41st), Oliver Hinson (46th), Enzo Jiancristoforo (54th), Noah Wilson (55th), Luke Simpson (65th) and Mario Breauchy (68th). Last year the Knights top finisher was 63rd place. The boys 7th runner beat all other teams except North Allegheny, demonstrating the Knights pack depth in a tough field. The girls team moved up from 11th place last year to 6th place this year and first in the County. Annie Czajkowski led the Lady Knights with a 21st place finish followed by Rosemary Gaydos (32nd), Audra Fedor (35th), Elin Bash 37th, Anna Defazio (60th), Emma Jiancristoforo (61st) and Anna Rakvic (62nd). Norwin girls finished with the top 6 + 7 runners other than North Allegheny. With her 21st place finish, freshmen Annie Czajkowski qualified for the PIAA Championship next week at Hershey, becoming the first girl to qualify since Courtney Kosanovic in 2018. At the PIAA Championship at Hershey on at 75 degree day Nov. 5th, Annie Czajkowski finished in 57th place with a time of 20:45. Annie improved her County finish with a 3rd place and was the 5th overall freshmen girl in the AAA Race. Great way to cap off the season! |