Highlanders Indoor Track & Field Has Strong Showing at TSTCA Championships

The boys and girls indoor track & field teams competed in the Tri-State Track & Field Coaches Association championships at Edinboro University's Mike S. Zafirovski Sports & Recreation Dome on Saturday, Feb. 19.

Every athlete that participated in this year's TSTCA championships had to qualify based on his or her performance(s) at earlier meets during this indoor season, so in many ways, the TSTCA championship meet is the indoor equivalent to the WPIAL championships during the outdoor season, except that the TSTCA championships also include some athletes from Ohio and West Virginia high schools. (Certainly, less high schools sponsor indoor teams as well as outdoor teams, though.)

As stated in , Baldwin Head Coach Ed Helbig said that the indoor season is about preparing for the outdoor schedule. Still, as he said in the same interview, performing well and even winning events during the indoor season are certainly things that his teams aim for.

And Baldwin's indoor teams, which historically fare very well at the TSTCA championships, had more success this year.

The Highlanders posted 10 top-six finishes at this year's championships, including seven on the boys side.

Baldwin's Paul DeGregorio is the 2011 TSTCA champion in the boys 3,000-meter run, beating 18 other runners with a time of 8 minutes, 57.73 seconds. DeGregorio edged out a runner from North Allegheny High School by 0.42 seconds to capture the title.

Baldwin's George Kelly was one of the 18 other runners to finish behind DeGregorio. Kelly earned a fifth-place finish with a time of 9:06.54.

Baldwin's Krista Kuss turned in a pair of top-four finishes, claiming second and fourth places in the girls 200 and 400 dashes with times of 26.27 seconds and 1:04.16, respectively.

The Highlanders' Randy Bush claimed fourth place in the boys shot put with a toss of 50 feet, 3 inches, while teammate Andrew Kuchta placed fifth in the 1,600 with a time of 4:39.52.

Dorian Brown was the Baldwin boys' other individual top-six finisher. Brown placed sixth in the 400 in 53.29 seconds.

The Highlanders also scored a third-place finish in the boys distance medley relay, finishing in 10:49.12, and a fourth place in the boys 3,200 relay with an 8:39.84 time.

Sarah Espy was the other Baldwin girl to finish in the top six in an event, tying for fifth place in the pole vault with a height of 10 feet even.

As a team, Baldwin's boys finished in fourth place, while the girls placed 11th.

Full meet results are available to the right of this page (in the photo gallery).