Sixteen track and field teams remain in the journey to a WPIAL championship, and the Burrell girls and Riverview boys will test their mettle in the Class 2A finals Tuesday at Peters Township’s Confluence Financial Partners Stadium.
The Raiders and Lady Bucs punched their tickets to the finals with wins April 28 at the semifinals at South Park. They were two of seven Alle-Kiski Valley teams to compete in semifinal meets.
The Riverview boys, who qualified for the WPIAL team playoffs for the 11th year in a row after finishing 7-0 in Section 4-2A meets, will compete in the finals for the second time in program history (2012). The Raiders seek their first title in a challenging four-team meet against North Catholic, Greensburg Central Catholic and Quaker Valley.
“This season has been incredibly special for me as head coach, marking one of our most successful seasons in years,” Riverview coach Dave Illnicki said.
“We have been led by an outstanding group of seniors who achieved back-to-back section titles, made the playoffs four consecutive years and now have advanced to the WPIAL team championships.”
The Burrell girls went 6-1 in Section 4-2A with their only loss coming to undefeated North Catholic. The Bucs fended off Freeport (5-2) and Deer Lakes (4-3) for one of the two playoff berths from the section.
The Bucs, in the team finals for the first time since 2018, will rematch with North Catholic on Tuesday and also face Laurel and Quaker Valley.
“The girls are very excited for the finals,” Burrell coach Faith Remich said.
“We didn’t expect this, necessarily, but we knew we had a chance. I think this will be a great experience for the girls as we are only graduating one senior. This will be good as we continue to grow.”
Both Quakers teams showed their power and depth in rolling past their semifinal opponents and are considered the favorites in their respective meets.
Both the Class 2A boys and girls meets begin at 3:30 p.m.
Burrell is the last Alle-Kiski Valley girls team to win a WPIAL team title, capturing gold at Baldwin in 2017. The last to do it on the boys side was Freeport, which triumphed for the fourth time in program history in 2016.
Riverview, 11-0 overall, defeated Mt. Pleasant (98-52), Southmoreland (109-41), South Park (78-72) in the semifinals and went down to the wire against Waynesburg.
Riverview tied Waynesburg, 75-75, but advanced on a total-points tiebreaker. Riverview scored 360 total points to 354 for Waynesburg.
The meet came down to the 1,600-meter relay. Riverview rallied to win the event and secure enough points to forge a tie with Waynesburg and edge the host Eagles.
Anchor Prince Govan, who also finished second in the 200 and 400 dashes and fourth in the 100, eliminated a 15-meter deficit with a 51-second split to help bring home the win with Trentin Johnson, Carter Baldwin and Braden Longstreth.
It was one of seven victories for the Raiders on the day.
Also claiming wins in the semifinals were the 3,200 relay of Longstreth, Ashton Saunders, Abe Smith, and Devon Uffner, Saunders in the 1,600 and 800 runs, Kaden Levy in the triple jump, Oscar Smith in the 3,200 and Jack Reynolds in the discus.
Levy scored in two other events (javelin, second and long jump, fourth) to finish with a team-best 54 points.
“We have a group of athletes who work hard, value their teammates, and trust their coaches,” Illnicki said.
“This team shows up every day, rain, shine or even snow, and puts in the effort to grind out wins. We have a well-rounded team with very few gaps as demonstrated by the fact that 21 different athletes scored at our playoff meet last Tuesday. We will make our opponents work hard for every point.”
The Burrell girls reached the finals with four semifinal victories.
The closest final was against Winchester Thurston (79-70). The Bucs scored a 91-59 win over Southmoreland and topped 100 points in victories over Bentworth (104-46) and Waynesburg (113-37).
Burrell flexed its depth while also winning the 400 relay (Lily Liotta, Makiah Buchak, Syndaya Miller and Mikayla Coury), pole vault (Abby Junod) and discus (Riley Quinn).
The Bucs were runners-up in the 100 dash (Buchak), 400 dash (Coury), 3,200 run (Raegan Ruckus), 100 and 300 hurdles (Isabella Miller), 1,600 relay (Liotta, Coury, Mylah Buchak and Nicolena Barbieri) and triple jump (Liotta).
“I knew that we would need to get a lot of seconds and thirds because Winchester has a lot of front-runners,” Remich said.
“We had more numbers to get those seconds and thirds. It was rewarding to see everyone have great days with so many personal bests. With it only being a nine-point difference, every point mattered.”