ANOTHER ONE FOR THE RECORD BOOKS:
CROSS COUNTRY GIRLS WIN GOLD
C
oach Tom
Moul could
barely
contain
his excitement when
reliving the highlights
of the 2017 PIAA
Girls’ Cross Country
Championships. And,
with good reason.
For the first time in
the 39-year history of
the program, the girls’
team won it all. They
not only came home
with a gold medal for
the school’s showcase,
but also with the
satisfaction of knowing that what they
had dreamed about and worked so hard
for in the past years had actually come
to pass.
“These girls have been unbelievably
focused, starting with summer practices
that began last June right after school
ended,” says Coach Moul. “They have
been a special group since they were
freshmen and have always been self-
driven to set and reach their goals.”
Under a partly sunny sky and a perfect
temperature for running, the Foxes
group collectively outpaced a total
field of 212 runners. Junior Sarena
Seeger crossed the finish line first for
the team in 11 th place overall with a
time of 19:09. Junior Annika Urban
was the second finisher for the Foxes,
senior Caelan Miller was third for the
team, and sophomore Grace Sisson
was fourth. Sophomore Brooke Krally
finished in the team’s fifth place
slot, and junior Anna Folkerts and
sophomore Isabelle Doerr followed her
to contribute to the win.
While none of the girls finished
individually in the top-10, it was a
testament to their strength and balance
as a team that won them the gold medal
with 104 points, 19 points better than
Manheim Township High School and
local rival Oakland Catholic, who tied
for second place.
The win was especially satisfying
because the team had battled Manheim
22 Fox Chapel Area
states that season,” says
the coach. “They really
set the pace for the
team at that point, and
since then they’ve been
joined by some really
great other runners
who also want to do
well.”
all season for the state’s top ranking,
and had been disappointed with their
second-place finish behind Oakland
Catholic at the WPIAL championships
in October. After that race, Annika
said being the runner-up only served to
motivate them even more. “We knew
we could win it,” she said.
At the end of PIAAs, Coach Moul
said he was checking his iPhone and
refreshing the race site several times to
see how his team did. “I was standing
beside Grace’s mom, and when the
results were finally posted, I turned to
her and quietly said, ‘We did it.’”
It was a moment that the recently-
named Pennsylvania Track & Field
Coaches Association Female Cross
Country Coach of the Year won’t
forget, nor what led up to that
monumental day.
“I remember when Sarena and Annika
were freshmen and they were the only
two girls on the team that qualified for
Of Sarena, he says,
“She just seems to
own the course in
Hershey. The runners
all say it’s the toughest
course they face all year
because of the really
steep hills and curves,
but Sarena loves it.”
It also helps that Sarena has a great pace
on the uphills and a very strong kick at
the end, but her thoughts while she’s
running have a tremendous influence
on her performance too. “The whole
time I just kept thinking about how
well I wanted to do, and how much we
wanted to win, and how hard we’ve
worked as a team.” She continued, “We
had such a great season and when we
actually won, it was amazing. All of us
were crying because we were so happy.”
One runner the team will miss next
year is Caelan, who has committed to
run cross country and track for the
University of Pittsburgh. However,
Caelan and her teammates had the
opportunity to lace up their running
shoes one more time after states as they
were invited to participate in the Nike
Cross Regionals Northeast qualifier
November 25, where the team placed
third.
BOYS’ CROSS COUNTRY
F
or the first time in school history, the boys’ and girls’ teams both
won their respective section championships at the same time and
both teams were undefeated. Junior Ian Brown and sophomore
Christian Fitch both advanced as individuals to the PIAA Class
AAA championships. It was Christian’s second trip to the state meet.