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Saturday, January 18, 2025, TRIB-LIVE
Fox Chapel senior Alyssa Quackenbush knows what happens when a relay team isn’t in sync. She was a member of a Foxes relay team that was disqualified from a race because of issues handing off the baton.
During the Tri-State Track Coaches Association No. 2 meet at Edinboro, Quackenbush was part of a 800-meter relay team that had never run together. The Foxes’ group — which also featured Anna Kintner, Ella Shevchuk and Ella Ettinger — won the race with a time of 1 minute, 53.48 seconds.
The time was just short of the school record of 1:51.53.
“We didn’t have high expectations,” Quackenbush said. “We wanted to do well, but we weren’t going to beat ourselves down about it. Two of the girls had never run the relay before. We were hoping for the best and happy with the outcome.”
Quackenbush and Kintner were on the school’s record relay team, along with Anna Troutman and Taylor Wilkinson.
Troutman graduated, and Wilkinson chose not to run this winter.
Foxes coach Tom Moul hopes this relay team will be able to earn a medal at the Tri-State Championship meet later this season.
“They are close to the school record,” Moul said. “We didn’t have too much of an idea that they would run like that. Especially with Shevchuk, we didn’t know what she could do. She is a good athlete, and she was someone we threw in there to see how she could do it.”
Quackenbush said it will be important for the relay teammates to continue to improve on their fundamentals. Fox Chapel would like to see gradual improvement after its fast start.
“I think it is definitely important,” Quackenbush said. “The handoff is more important than the speed. Not having a good handoff takes more time off than running faster would. The chemistry between you and the person handing off is important.”
David Black was one of Foxes’ other top performers at the event. Black finished third in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 9:31.22. Nicky Clump placed sixth in the 3,000. Jack Viti finished seventh in the pole vault with a height of 10 feet, 6 inches, and Max Youkers placed eighth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 24.03.
On the girls side, Cecilia Ressler finished fourth in the 3,000 (11:23.88); Zelia Herald finished fifth in the mile (5:59.67) and Claire Conti placed fifth in the shot put (31-7). Anna Kintner finished third in the long jump (16-3) and sixth in the triple jump (32-4).
Moul said he expects things will get better for Fox Chapel as the season progresses.
“The distance runners are moving into the second phase of their training,” Moul said. “I wouldn’t have expected them to be in peak form. They have another five weeks to run some good times.”