Fort Cherry’s Frankovich finishes 4th in state meet
Jonathan Guth/Observer-Reporter
Fort Cherry’s Emily Frankovich had a sweet finish in “Chocolate Town” Saturday morning in placing fourth in the PIAA Class A girls cross country championship around the 5K course at Hersheypark.
The senior finished the 3.1-mile course in 19:58 at a pace of 6:26 per mile. She was 25th at the half-mile point in 2:45 and moved to 18th at the mile mark in 5:58.
Frankovich moved to ninth at the halfway point, as she reached the split in 10:17. She fell back to 11th in 13:08 at the two-mile mark before picking up five places with a kilometer to go in 16:22.
Frankovich passed two more runners down the final stretch.
Frankovich’s teammate, sophomore Lucia DeMicco, was 78th in 22:15. California’s Lucia Meiss finished her final high school race in 23:50.
South Fayette qualified as a team in the Class 3A girls race, and the Lions finished eighth overall.
South Fayette was led by freshman Angela Zeng, who was 28th overall in 19:29.
Maddie Stock (58th in 20:09), Abby Poe (103rd in 20:40), Siya Joshi (111th in 20:47), Ellana Gibbs (158th in 21:26), Nina DiMartini (180th in 21:46) and Brenna Schmitz (196th in 22:21) helped pace the Lions, who only lose one senior in Joshi.
Belle Vernon freshman Brooklyn Steeber was 86th in the girls Class 2A race in a time of 21:24. Ringgold sophomore Lily Brenneman was four seconds behind Steeber in 98th place.
South Fayette sophomore Griffin Martin placed 49th in the Class 3A boys race with a time of 16:53. Fellow 10th grader, Devin Junko of Trinity, was 112th in a time of 17:25 in Class 3A.
McGuffey senior Elihu Dale completed his last high school race in 18:22 for 134th place in the Class 2A boys race.
California sophomore Carter Kent was 60th in Class A at 18:10.