South Fayette's Girls Cross Country Team Is Set For 2019

The South Fayette's Girls Cross Country team celebrate after winning the 2018 WPIAL 2A Girls Cross Country championship meet.

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A lot of WPIAL championship teams lose players the following year due to high school graduation. For example, the 2018-19 Mars Area Boys basketball team won the WPIAL 5A Boys basketball championship with Andrew Recchia, Brandon Caruso, and Khori Fusco. All three of those guys were seniors last year and Mars will figure out how to win a third straight WPIAL championship without those guys next season. The 2018 Pine-Richland Rams football team won the WPIAL 6A football championship with Andrew Kristofic, Michael Katic, Tyler King, and Michael Dorundo. Those four guys were seniors last year and Pine-Richland will have to figure out how to win a third straight WPIAL football championship without those guys in the fall.

South Fayette's Girls cross country team won the WPIAL 2A Girls Cross Country championship last season at California University of Pennsylvania. This was the second straight WPIAL championship that South Fayette won in Girls Cross Country.

When South Fayette won in 2017, they had 2 runners compete in that meet that were seniors in Maria DeCello and Katy Allen. DeCello's time in that meet was 20:13 (8th place in the whole WPIAL 2A meet) while Allen's time was 22:17 (45th place in the whole WPIAL 2A meet). A maximum of seven players can compete in a WPIAL cross country championship. South Fayette's Cross Country head coach, Joe Winans, probably wondered if the team could repeat in 2018 without DeCello and Allen.

They did repeat.

The 2018 South Fayette Girls Cross Country team was special. Out of all seven players that ran for South Fayette in that WPIAL championship meet last season, they were all placed in the "Top 51". You can basically say that they all finished in the "Top 50" and no one would argue with you. That's impressive considering that a total of 191 girls competed in the WPIAL championship meet.

In 2017, South Fayette was still able to win the WPIAL 2A championship meet with a girl that placed in 115th place. Another girl on the team placed 64th. That 2018 team had no player place less than 51 which is impressive.

As mentioned before, the 2018 South Fayette Girls Cross Country team had to figure out how to repeat without DeCello and Allen who were seniors at the time. The 2018 South Fayette Girls Cross Country team has an advantage in the offseason that the 2017 team didn't have. The advantage is that South Fayette has all seven returning WPIAL championship runners back on the team next year. There was no senior that ran for South Fayette in that 2018 WPIAL championship meet which is something to think about.

Now, perhaps one of the runners on the 2018 team might quit for some reason; but, as of now they have all seven runners back for 2019 in hope of winning their third straight WPIAL Cross country title.

One of the runners that you should expect to return to South Fayette next year is Hailey Poe. She will be a senior in the fall and placed fourth in the WPIAL Cross Country championship meet last season with a time of 20:15. Her mom, Lori Poe, is the head coach of Chartiers Valley's Cross Country and Track & Field teams.

Two other runners that you should also pay attention too is Gabby Baiano and Lauren Iagnemma. Both girls will be sophomores next season and they both finished in the "Top 10" in the WPIAL 2A Girls Cross Country championship meet last season. They both have three more years to help win more WPIAL championships for South Fayette; so, they have a lot of time to improve. Perhaps, they can even help South Fayette win a state title in Girls Cross Country in the future.

South Fayette has good high school sports programs as their Girls Cross Country team continues to keep on succeeding.

BY Hilton: bythebossandgoat@gmail.com and Twitter @BYHilton13