BEAVER FALLS — Over 20 Beaver Valley schools raced Wednesday afternoon at Brush Creek Park at the MAC Championships as schools begin to tune up for the WPIAL championships in two weeks.
It was a successful afternoon for Quaker Valley as seniors Cecilia Montagnese and Clark LaLomia finished in first place in both the girls’ and boys’ 5K races Wednesday afternoon.
While Montagnese finished in the top spot in the girls’ race, posting a time of 19:04.57, she was not too familiar with the course beforehand but was able to fight through the adversity and run at a 6:08 pace.
“I saw not being familiar with the course as a mental challenge,” Montagnese said. “It helped me out a lot running without being familiar with it and my coaches and dad were pointing things out at me.”
The Quaker Valley senior was grouped in a pack with Moon Area’s Alyson Stepp and West Allegheny’s Grace Fritzman through the first mile.
But towards the back half of the race, she broke free and finished 23 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher Stepp.
“Out of the second mile, I was with everybody, and as I went with the group I thought to myself that I needed to push through because this was my last time competing in this race and I felt good to push forward.”
In the boy’s 5K, for the second straight year, LaLomia was the top finisher and this year put together yet another strong time of 16:21.
Winning MACs for the second consecutive year was big for the Quaker Valley senior due to the rich history that the Quakers cross-country program has.
“A lot of our historically great Quaker Valley runners went back-to-back here so I wanted to follow in their steps and do what I could for my team.”
During the race, LaLomia and Beaver Area’s Tyler Biss went stride for stride and the pair ,along with Moon Area’s Tyler Giunipero, has competed against one another on several occasions.
More: Here are the Times' top high school sports performances from Sept. 30 through Oct. 5
Coming into the race, the senior knew it was going to be a challenge but knew that if he could keep pace, he would be able to finish with a fast time.
“They are excellent competitors, I have raced them many times in cross-country and track so coming into it I knew that they would be pushing the pace, which is great for competition.”
Biss was the second-place finisher, five seconds behind LaLomia with a time of 16:26 and running at a 5:17 pace.
Coming into the race, the Bobcat senior wanted to make sure to save enough energy for its back half.
“I approached this race a little more strategically. I have been going out in races too fast in the beginning by sprinting so I held it back with Clark [LaLomia] and Jonah [Montagnese] and just raced with them and pushed whenever they did. I felt like I had a lot more energy not pushing out early.”
Now that Biss finished just seconds behind the Quaker Valley senior during the MAC Championships with WPIAL’s right around the corner, he knows he has a chance to finish at the top.
“This race has given me a lot more confidence coming into the WPIAL Championships. If I put the work in, I can give him a run for his money,” Biss said.
Girl’s 5K Top 10 Finishers
- Cecilia Montagnese, Quaker Valley 19:04.57
- Alyson Stepp, Moon Area 19:27.44
- Grace Fritzman, West Allegheny 19:51.30
- Joelle Ludwick, Montour 20:07.88
- Bridget McNamara, Carlynton 20:21.99
- Elise Ashcroft, Moon Area 20:40.88
- Emma Palmieri, Hopewell 21:01.63
- Tiffany Miller, Montour 21:01.82
- Teagan Schaltenbrand, Montour 21:28.21
- Danica Purtell, Beaver Area 21:32.61
Boy's 5K Top 10 Finishers
- Clark LaLomia, Quaker Valley 16:21.6
- Tyler Biss, Beaver Area 16:26.0
- Jonah Montagnese, Quaker Valley 16:37.4
- Tyler Giunipero, Moon Area 16:42.3
- Brennan Patterson, West Allegheny 17:13.2
- Brayden Freund, Moon Area 17:17.3
- Kyle Kochanski, Mars Area 17:21.6
- Brody Graham, Blackhawk 17:23.4
- Jacob Chacon, Montour 17:27.3
- Isaac Burtt, Beaver Area 17:28.9
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Pair of Quaker Valley runners finish first at MAC Cross-Country Championships
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