Apr 25, 2016 6 min read

MONONGAHELA – Whenever Rodd Kavic approaches his top sprinter in the hallways of Belle Vernon Area High School, he has made a habit of asking her, ‘Are you OK?’

It’s a question he’s posed to Sierra Lynn frequently over the past three years, and though it’s a light-hearted joke these days, it was a serious inquiry during Lynn’s first two seasons on the Leopards’ track and field team.

Lynn, a junior, dealt with minor injuries throughout her freshman season, and days before the first practice date last year she lacerated her spleen in a snowboarding accident.

The injury slowed her times and progress in 2015, but more than one year after the accident, Lynn looked anything but slow on an 80-degree afternoon at Ringgold High School’s Joe Montana Stadium Monday.

Lynn ran a school-record 12.86 to take first in the 100-meter dash and came within .02 seconds of rebreaking the school record she set last week in the 200-meter dash to place first, crossing the finish line in 27.26 seconds for the gold medal at the Mid Mon Valley Track Classic.

She also helped the Leopards’ 400-meter relay team finish first (51.70) and the 1,600 relay team placed second with her running the third leg. The big day was enough to lift Belle Vernon to a third-place finish with 91 points in the team scoring behind first-place Elizabeth Forward (145.5) and Brownsville (113).

“She’s coming on amazing this year,” Kavic, Belle Vernon’s girls head coach, said. “Her times keep getting lower and lower. This is the first time since we’ve had her that she’s been healthy. She’s so accident-prone; it was always a bizarre gardening accident or something. This is what we always thought she could do.”

Lynn didn’t think so, especially in the days after surgery. She had to be life-flighted from Seven Springs to Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh after she fell to the ground snowboarding and couldn’t stand up.

It forced her to miss almost half of last season and she didn’t qualify for the WPIAL Championships. After progressing as a freshman with times near 13.1, she became frustrated last season. Matters got worse when she pulled a calf muscle.

She thought similar bad luck was bound to creep up this year, but she found herself standing atop the medal stand against the top sprinters in the Mon Valley, including Beth-Center’s Hannah Lacey, who placed second in the 100, and Charleroi’s Jessica Day, who was behind Lynn in the 200.

“I was running times last year that were worse than my freshman year, so I expected to do worse this year,” Lynn said. “I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m just going to get slower and my freshman year was my best.’ I guess it wasn’t.”

Not even close, actually. Despite not conditioning in the offseason – Lynn’s offseason was spent on the soccer pitch as the Leopards’ top scoring threat – she continues to get faster.

Using an unorthodox running style where her torso shifts left to right with her arms positioned awkwardly away from her body, Lynn raised plenty of eyebrows Thursday. She doesn’t even have the luxury of practicing on a track because Belle Vernon doesn’t have one.

Even she’s surprised, and relieved, that her times keep dropping and the injury bug has stayed away.

“I’ve gotten better every meet,” Lynn said. “My times keep lowering and I’m like, ‘How are they dropping like this?’ At the beginning, I was running a 13.5. My coach said, ‘Oh, it’s windy you’ll drop a second.” I told him it doesn’t work like that. I didn’t believe him, but I did it.”

Days after his junior track season ended with a fourth-place finish at the PIAA Championships, Raymond Sitton got back to what he knows best.

As one of the top hurdlers in the WPIAL, Sitton wanted to gain speed between the hurdles. Winning the WPIAL Class AA title in the 110-meter high hurdles last May wasn’t enough. Sitton wanted a gold medal in Shippensburg.

So, he decided to take advantage of the hills around Monessen. A cross country runner in Florida before moving to district as a freshman, Sitton has the stamina to suffer through the terrain.

At every practice, he’s repeating 100-, 200-, 300- and 400-meter dashes to improve his speed. Less than one month until the PIAA meet, Sitton looks ready to compete for a state title.

He ran 15.03 in the 110-meter hurdles – 0.02 seconds faster than his championship-winning time last season – to finish in first place. Sitton also took first in the 300 hurdles (40.39), which matches last season’s state qualifying standard.

Sitton added another gold medal in the 1,600 relay. The success hasn’t gotten to his head.

“I wouldn’t say I’m the best,” Sitton said. “There’s always someone out there who can beat me. I want to win WPIALs again and then states.”

That attitude is universal on Monessen’s team. Just ask Andrey Bolton. The senior sprinter had the second-fastest time in the 100 dash preliminary round of last season’s WPIAL Championships, but he placed seventh. The surprising finish came after ran a personal-best of 10.5 seconds – one of the top marks in the state.

He also finished fifth in the 200 dash and saw his dream of reaching Shippensburg evaporate. Like Sitton, Bolton has worked on speed and agility.

Though his times haven’t reached his personal best, Bolton ran the 100 in 11.35 and the 200 in 22.85 to win two gold medals and he ran the first leg of the 1,600 relay.

Sitton and Bolton helped Monessen finish fourth in the boys team scoring (104 points) behind Belle Vernon (144), and Ringgold and Elizabeth Forward both had 105 points.

“We always push each other at practice,” Bolton said. “We always try to be the best each time and compete in each practice to get better. I’m ready to go to states and I’m ready to win it all.”

Sarah Lucas didn’t know what to expect entering her junior year at Ringgold. She did know the 800 run is her strongest event.

It was that race that took her to Baldwin for the WPIAL Championships last May, when she finished 17th. With the graduation of Kirsten McMichael, Ringgold’s top competitior in the 1,500, Ringgold head coach Jennifer McMichael told Lucas to get ready for distance running.

“I said, ‘OK, I’ll do it. Why not?” Lucas recalled.

Lucas looked like a veteran in the race Monday. She finished first in 5:38.96 and was third in the 3,200. Oh, and the junior continue to progress in the 800, winning with a time of 2:28.82. Lucas also ran achor on the Rams’ second-place 3,200 relay team, and she’s already thinking about the postseason.

“I’m probably going to start focusing on the 800 now that we’re getting toward the bigger meets,” Lucas said. “It’s a challenge because you sprint two laps in a row. You have to keep up with the girls on the first lap, then it’s, ‘Oh, this is the last lap. I have to start kicking again.'”