Costello, Mt. Lebanon unseat North Allegheny
from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Friday, October 30, 1998
By Maria Sciullo
Post-Gazette Sports Writer
He never panicked, not even when it appeared somebody else would run away with the championship many expected him to win.
So when Mt. Lebanon senior Greg Costello came flying up the last hill, moving swiftly toward the finish line and his first WPIAL
Class AAA cross country championship yesterday at Slippery Rock University, it was a quiet victory.
"He knows when to sit back and glide and when to move," Blue Devils coach Mike Agostinella said.
NOt only did Costello overtake the front-runners in the final three-quarters of a mile to win in 16:09, but the Blue Devils also became the first team in the 1990s to defeat defending champ
North Allegheny in the District 7 final. Mt. LEbanon's girls' team will join the contingent at Penn State next weekend, qualifying for the PIAA championships by placing fourth in Class AAA.
Mt. LEbanon had four runners in the top 12, building a 47-92 edge over North Allegheny. The top five teams
in Class AAA, plus the first 25 runners not affiliated with a qualifying team advanced to Penn State. In Class AA, it's three teams and 15 individuals.
Hampton's Stacey Vidt, teh defending Class AAA girls' champion, won by 48 seconds over runner-up Jessica Pentz of Indiana, finishing in 18:52.
Hampton (143) also placed second as a team behind defending champion North Allegheny (63).
"I ran my race," said Vidt, who won the WPIAL as a junior in her first season of cross country last year.
"I think this was a little easier [this time] because I'm much more comfortable with the sport in and of itself."
South Park's Scott Munro won the boys' Class AA event after opening a 50-yard lead before the first mile marker. [Actually, Bell was winning at the half-mile and Scooter didn't get more than 50 yards away until the third mile,
so it was actually about a 12 yard lead at the mile mark as I saw it.]
Shady Side Academy's Andrew Bell was 27 seconds behind Munro in 16:59. For the Indians, it was another WPIAL title.
Shady Side, with four runners in the top 20, scored just 67 points to Quaker Valley's 105.
the afternoon to a rousing start when Brownsville senior Jennifer Locke overtook West Allegheny's Lauren Shaffer in the final 30 yards of the finish-line chute to win the girls' Class AA
race. Shaffer, a sophomore running her first season of cross country, ran almost the entire race with Locke about 15 yards behind.
West Allegheny took the team title with 71 points.
NOTE: Greg Costello is really fast. People don't realize that in Pennsylvania, if you run the Foot Locker nationals, then you're disqualified for that sport next year, so only seniors can run it. Chris Dugan ran a 16:30 on SRU's course
and he got 6th in the Foot locker national's his senior year. I saw him run twice. He also got 2nd in the nation in the 2 mile by .1 seconds. Greg Costello is faster, and he just posted the second faster time ever on that course, so I think he can win states, except that some sophomore from
Council Rock named Dan Coval ran a 15:47 or something last year at states. People don't realize how good runners in western Pennsylvania because the courses are slow becuase of the hills, and no one can go to nationals till they're seniors.