No WPIAL individual won a title at yesterday's PIAA cross country championships at Penn State, but two WPIAL teams came home with gold trophies.
The North Allegheny girls won the Class AAA championship with 123 points, beating second-place Emmaus, which had 138. Mt. Lebanon won the Class AAA boys' championship with 117 points. Central Bucks East was second with 126.
North Allegheny's girls won the title one year after the NA boys won. North Allegheny had four girls finish in the top 40, and Stephanies were wild for the Tigers. Freshman Stephanie Madie finished 12th with a time of 19:00.08, junior Stephanie Dishart 34th and junior Stephanie Bartos 37th. Carrie Hucko was 39th.
The Mt. Lebanon boys had three runners finish in the top30. Senior Greg Costello, who won the WPIAL title last week, was 17th with a time of 16:16.28. Senior Shai Birmaher was 25th and junior Charles Vangombos 29th.
The North Allegheny boys finished seventh.
The top individual finisher from the WPIAL was West Allegheny's Lauren Shaffer, who placed third in the Class AA meet with a time of 19:12.57. Shaffer finished second to Brownsville's Jennifer Locke at last week's WPIAL championships. Locke used a strong kick at the end of the race and passed Shaffer about 30 yards from the finish line. But Locke couldn't catch Shaffer yesterday, finishing 16th at 19:36.90.
In girls' Class AAA, WPIAL champion Stacey Vidt of Hampton finished fifth for the second year in a row, running 18:16.49.
Liz Churchville of Upper Merion won the Class AAA championship for the second year in a row with a time of 18:06.01.
In boys' Class AAA, the top WPIAL finisher was North Allegheny's Luke Hilko, who was fifth in 16:01.85. Gateway's Jeremy LaBuff placed sixth in 16:02.82. Council Rock's Danny Coval won in 15:34.74.
The best race for a championship was in boys' Class AA, and it was between two teammates. Tom Parlapiano of St. Pius won with a time of 15:50.18. His teammate, Ryan Fennelly, was second with a 15:51.06.
The top WPIAL finisher in Class AA was South Park's Scott Munro, who finished with a 16:15.48.