NORTH SEWICKLEY TWP. — The Riverside boys track and field team was on the brink of winning its second straight WPIAL Class 2A team championship at Baldwin High School last month.
And, as the 4 x 400 relay team took the track, coach Chuck Kotuby relished in the success of his three relay teams throughout the season.
“When you do that, you have distance runners, sprinters, mid-distance runners, you have it all,” Kotuby said on that night.
The three relay teams proved to be a big part of that WPIAL championship, but as the postseason continued, they continued to get better. All three relay teams — the 4 x 100, 4 x 800 and 4 x 400 — qualified for the PIAA championships and had the opportunity to show what they were truly capable of on the biggest stage last weekend at Shippensburg University.
The 4 x 800-meter relay team of Ari Kendra, Colby Belcyzk, Nash Ridgley and Jackson Coyne came into the weekend ranked 13th in the state. But on Friday, and in the first event of the weekend, they turned in a top qualifying time of 8:09.54, which was almost six seconds better than their previous best.
When it came to the finals of the event on Saturday, the team of two seniors, a junior, and a freshman decided to improve their personal record one final time. They improved their personal record by seven more seconds, clocking an 8:02.10 which was good enough for a fourth-place finish.
“We came into this weekend ranked 13th in the state, qualified first and finished fourth, it feels amazing,” Coyne said.
But it wasn’t easy.
Senior Kendra jumped out to a small lead in the first 800 meters, but several runners made moves down the final 100 meters into the first baton pass, and he dropped into fourth. Freshman Belcyzk and senior Ridgley held their positions for the most part, battling with teams throughout. As Ridgley passed the baton to Coyne for the anchor leg, the lone junior on the team sat in sixth position and dropped into seveth heading into the final lap.
Coyne started evaluating his position and knew he had what it took to at least jump up a couple spots. He just needed to time his final kick just right.
“Once we got to the 200, I began to move into lane two and pick up the pace for about 50 meters, and in the last 150 meters, I blew by the two teams in front of me,” Coyne said. “When I was coming in on the straightaway however, I noticed the fourth place struggling a little bit, so I did what I had to do.”
Their time of 8:02.10 was their not only their best of the season, Kotuby believes that time also ranks near the top of the charts in Beaver County history.
“Beaver had an unbelievable 4 x 800 team back in 1982 that ran a 7:52.2,” Kotuby said. “But, I’ve been coaching for 20 years, and I can’t remember any team running better than 8:02 (in Beaver County).”
While that was the only event of the weekend for both Kendra and Belczyk, Coyne and Ridgley weren’t done.
The 4 x 400 team of Brett Hart, Coyne, Ridgley and Calvin Wetzel capped off the state championship weekend with a fourth-place finish with a time of 3:22.19. According to Kotuby, that time bested a Beaver County record that was set in 1985 by a Beaver Falls team that clocked a 3:22.23. To Coyne, it was just a result of all the hard work they put in this season.
“We worked hard all season to produce these results,” Coyne said. “So, it’s just really great to know we have placed ourselves in Beaver County history.”
While they will lose Kendra and Ridgley to graduation, Coyne, Wetzel, Hart and Belczyk will all be back next year. In Coyne’s opinion, the only way to go is up.
“All of us are willing to work as hard as possible to be even better,” Coyne said. “This is a magnificent group of athletes that we have here. Losing Ari and Nash is tough, but we still have most of our runners back. We just have to buckle down this next school year and put our focus on getting to a point where we can produce elite level times anytime, anywhere.”