PIAA Track Championships Begin Today

The atmosphere surrounding the PIAA Track and Field Championships has been compared to a carnival, and Quaker Valley High School’s speedy boys relay team will be a prime attraction this year.

All eyes will be on the Quakers as they attempt to defend their Class AA 2-mile relay title Saturday afternoon at the PIAA Championships at Shippensburg University. The meet begins with today's preliminary races.

“We have a great team again with two new members this year, but there are some great teams coming in from the East, and we’re going to have to run lower [times] than we have all year,” Quakers relay member Nate Fox said.

The Quaker four-man team returns on a high note after winning the WPIAL 3,200-meter relay title May 19 at Baldwin High School.

“We’ll need to step it up to be a major contender at states,” said Andrew Hotchkiss, who ran the second leg of the 800-meter race.

The relay team consists of starter Roy Hadfield, Hotchkiss, set-up runner Fox and anchor L.J. Westwood. They ran away with the WPIAL title in 7 minutes, 59.94 seconds.

That marked the first time the team had finished under 8 minutes.

They predicted they’ll have to go five to eight seconds faster,” Westwood said.

Quaker Valley hits the track early for the opening event at 9 a.m. today, the 3,200-meter relay preliminaries.

The state 3,200-meter relay finals are scheduled to start about 10:45 a.m. Saturday, just when action begins to heat up on the track before a knowledgeable and enthusiastic track crowd usually numbering more than  6,000.

Here is the PIAA schedule for other area athletes:

• Fox also will compete for the mile-run title in today’s noon preliminaries and at 12:30 p.m. Saturday if he advances as expected. He put on a big kick to win the WPIAL title in 4:29.75.

• WPIAL half-mile run champion Westwood joins teammate Hotchkiss in the 1,600-meter race preliminaries at 3:30 p.m. today. The finals are scheduled for about 1:30 p.m. Saturday. Westwood won the WPIAL title in 1:55.65, and Hotchkiss crossed the finish line in third place with 1:59.41, giving Quaker Valley two of the top three medals in the race.

• Caitlin Bungo of Sewickley Academy will compete in two preliminary races Friday and won’t have much time to rest between the two events. She’ll compete in the 1,600-meter run at noon and the 800 at 3:30 p.m. If Bungo advances, she will return to the track for the 1,600 final at 12:30 p.m. Saturday with the 800 final to follow at 1:45 p.m. At the WPIALs, Bungo won the 800 title in 2:21.26 and finished second in the 1,600 in 5:06.46.

• Quaker Valley’s Sarah McKendry, who placed third at the WPIAL championships in the girls 2-mile run in 11:46.73, will race again at 9 a.m. Saturday. There is no preliminary race in the 3,200-meter run.

• The Quakers’ Joe Rakowski will compete in the Class AA boys pole vault preliminaries and finals starting at 12:30 p.m. today. He placed fourth at the WPIALs at a height of 12 feet and predicted he’ll have to match his personal best over 13 feet to get into the finals.

        “I know there’s a lot of competition at states, so this will be a chance for me to test myself against the best from all over,” Rakowski said.

• In the 100-meter hurdles, Quaker Valley sophomore Abby Rausch is scheduled to hit the track at 10:30 a.m. today for her preliminary race. She will return at 12:10 p.m. Saturday if she advances to the final. Rausch advanced to states with a 16.38 finish at the WPIALs.