Cranberry Twp, PA - RUNNERS SET… "BANG" roars the gun, and they're off! The North Catholic Trojans and Trojanettes participated in the annual Red, White, and Blue Invitational at White Oak on Saturday, September 6, 2025. This is the same course that the runners will take on late in October for WPIALs, making it beneficial to have a race under their belts here and to have a better understanding of pacing and the terrain. After both the boys and girls teams won their first two meets of the year, they were eager to continue their success early in the season.
The Trojanettes steam-rolled over the majority of their competition and placed 2nd out of 21 teams, only losing to a dominant Shady Side Bulldogs team by 16 points. The Trojanettes were led by Anna Morris and Madeline Meeuf placing 7th and 9th overall in the race. Then, sophomores Annie Puhalla and Maggie Killian, each 2 seconds apart from each other, secured commending times in the top 20. To round out the Trojanettes top 5, Sydney Dunn placed 21st, staying strong down the last stretch of the race. The varsity team clearly had a fantastic day overall, but let's not overlook the success of the freshman group in their first ever high school cross country invitational. 9th graders Caroline Opiela, Aislyn Schessler, Kate Mulzet, and many others all crushed their previous times, improving their pace drastically! Talk about early improvement from the young XC squad! The Trojanettes are optimistic about the remainder of the season and are keeping their eyes on the WPIAL first place trophy.
Meanwhile, the North Catholic Trojans also had a stellar day overall, placing 5th as a team out of 26 schools. Jack Steineman and Tyler Carroll's one-two punch has already turned into a one-two knockout! The dynamic duo took home first and second place in meet. Steineman had the meet's fastest time across all divisions and also set a new North Catholic Trojans 5k record with a blazing time of 15:32! Carroll only trailed him by a quick 10 seconds. With both setting huge personal records, Steineman is now ranked 4th in the state and Carroll 10th. In addition, Steineman also placed 2nd in Athlete of the Week voting on PA Mile Split. Brandon Szuch, Jacob Birchok, and Jack Davison rounded out the 5 scoring runners, with Gavin Bartus just seconds behind. Runners Jacob Hauser and Gabriel Wohar had impressive personal records as well, dropping their previous times by minutes! This was the first meet that the boys had all of their varsity runners competing in, and they proved that they will be a very competitive team going forward.
Ultimately, North Catholic Cross Country has had an incredible first few meets. On Tuesday, September 16, the team will duel Shady Side on their difficult home course at Chatham's Environmental Campus for "Senior Night". Then, on Saturday the 20th, the boys and girls varsity teams will head out to Hershey, PA to run at the state-wide "Foundations" meet. This competition is on the state championship course, which may be the most grueling challenge the Trojans and Trojanettes encounter all year.
