'Anything can happen' with QV track and field

The Quaker Valley boys track and field team will compete today for a WPIAL Class AA team championship at Baldwin, and the Quakers needed a team effort to get there.Quaker Valley's boys and girls had their first-round team playoff meets last Wednesday at South Fayette. The girls didn't advance to today's championship, the boys made it in by the closest of margins.In the WPIAL's unique playoff format, four teams took to the track last Wednesday but competed in individual dual meets against one another. Even though Quaker Valley lost its meet to Beaver, 75-74, the Quakers moved on by beating Ellwood City and South Fayette each by the same score, 77-73.South Fayette also finished the meet 2-1, but Quaker Valley took the tiebreaker because of its head-to-head win that wasn't certain until Nat Fox anchored a second-place finish in the 1,600-meter relay and Joey Rakowski topped the rest of the pole vault field.Quakers coach Jerry Veshio said he's never been in a playoff meet where it was that close, putting further emphasis on many of the little things that happened last Wednesday, leading to Quaker Valley's matchups with Riverside, Riverview and Washington for the title today."It certainly is a total team effort for kids, and that's what we stress all year," Veshio said. "One of our goals at the beginning of the year — I've coached track here a long time — is to win every section meet, win the section, which we did for the boys, get in the playoffs, win in the playoffs and win the WPIAL championship. So now, we're at the next step. Anything can happen."The meet last Wednesday had that vibe. While Quaker Valley got first places out of several of its top competitors, including Roy Hadfield in the 800, Rakowski in the pole vault and Brian Yankello in the high jump, several instances that might not otherwise have caught much attention came to light in such a close meet.For instance, Sam Peduto finished third in his heat of the 110-meter hurdles but initially was disqualified. However, Veshio appealed it and had it overturned. Without the credit for that place, the Quakers don't advance.On top of that, an ailing Joe Stark ran hard in the sprint events, and Veshio had hurdler Chris Heath run in the 1,600 relay, a race Heath normally doesn't run. Although the Quakers narrowly finished second to Beaver in that race, they beat South Fayette thanks to a strong effort by Fox on the final leg."And as it turned out, that was the difference in the meet," Veshio said. "This kind of a track situation is not anything that's like pretty much anywhere in the country. The strategy is very, very different as well, because you end up having to put people in some events that may not ordinarily run in those events."In a meet like that, it almost always comes down to that final relay," Veshio said. "Nat Fox did a heck of a job, and he almost caught the kid from Beaver. What's ironic is (Beaver) beat us by one point, but we ended up winning the meet."Mohawk won the girls side of the playoff, going 3-0. The QV girls lost to Mohawk, 118.5 to 31.5, to South Fayette, 97-33, and to Beaver, 99-50.