The 2024 Track & Field season has been an incredibly special one for both the Men and Women’s team. This year, over fifty students from the 9th-12th grade signed up to compete on the team.
The girls ended up with a total of 13 athletes on their team while in years past we have struggled to get even seven! More competitors made for more opportunities for the team and the Women tied for 3rd place in the WPIAL, just missing a chance to compete in playoffs. Nevertheless, 2024 was a historic year for the Falcon women. On April 24th, Head Coach, David Jones wrote in an email to the team, “I am thrilled by the fight in our girls this year, especially when one considers how young a team we have. Our girls finished tied for 3rd in our section with a 5-3 record (8-3 overall), our first winning season since 2019.”
On top of our team success, individual athletes had huge moments. For weeks junior Eilidh Edgar was ranked 1st in the entire state of Pennsylvania. This season she set not one, but two school records. In her main event, the 800 meter dash, she came in 3rd in the state among all AA teams with a 2:14.76 race on Saturday, May 25 at the PIAA Championships. In the mile (1600 meter run), she set a school record of 5:27.32! Her success earned her both the TCS Scholar Athlete Award and the TCS Girl’s Team MVP award at the 2024 High School Award Ceremony. Our Girls 4X400m team broke the oldest track & field record in the book, the only record remaining from the last century (1999)! Elena Myers, Norah Koerber, Keira Gaunt, and Eilidh Edgar finished 8th overall during the WPIAL Championships with a 4:12.06. All school records now date from the time Coach Hommes and Coach Jones have taken over responsibilities for the team. The oldest record on the books now dates back to 2008, our girls Triple Jump. Lastly, at the WPIAL Championships, freshman Elena Myers finished 10th in the 200m Dash with a time of 26.69, and Junior, Teresa Conway-Phillips also earned herself 10th place in the 3200m Run with a 12:47.82.
Regarding the boys team, our boys completed their team season in the semi-finals of the WPIAL playoffs, defeating Deer Lakes and South Side, but losing to Hopewell and Shenango. Overall, it was our best team performance of the year, and likely our best performance in the playoffs ever. While we do not know our final WPIAL ranking, we do know that we are in the top 15 teams in the WPIAL in AA (80 schools total)! In individual events it was the “Year of Calebs.” At the WPIAL Individual Championships, Caleb Bates ran an impressive 52.27 as only a freshman (12th place), and Caleb Schmidt earned himself 5th place with a 4:30.07 1600m run. Our 4x4 relay team ran a 3:30.61 race, but sadly just missed the State Qualifying mark which would have brought them to the PIAA State Championship. Lastly Caleb Schmidt blew everyone away at States with a 4:27.39 in the 1600 meter. He holds the school record, and his teammates and coaches couldn’t be more proud.
These last days of the season our team also took the opportunity to honor all of the seniors that are leaving us this fall. AJ Jackson (thrower and long jumper), Jenna Conway-Phillips (100 and 200m sprinter), Joshua Maurer (400m sprinter), David Blackburn (long jumper and 100m sprinter), Adam Janvier (thrower), and Theo Koerber (Sprinter and thrower), Max Bovard (thrower), and Nathan Fu (sprinter). Congratulations to our seniors! We know you will do great things next year both inside and outside of athletics. And in closing, congratulations to everyone this season. It was an extremely accomplished one. Each person should be incredibly proud of their hard work and next year will be even brighter! God bless.