The Mt. Pleasant boys track team, dominated by seniors, earned a section co-championship last season. The Lady Vikings posted a winning record but still were poised on the brink of excellence. This season, the situation is reversed, coach Bob Gumbita said. “This is their year. And if we do anything this year, next year will be a repeat of that,” Gumbita said of Mt. Pleasant’s girls. Gumbita said the Lady Vikings are loaded with talent and should challenge not only for the Section 4-AA title but for a WPIAL crown as well. “I have girls like Taylor Funk and Abbey Way leading the way as juniors,” he said. Funk and Way both reached the state meet last season. Though both are set to compete in as many as four events apiece this season, Funk’s main event is the 100 hurdles, while Way won a WPIAL championship in the pole vault last spring. Gumbita said they’ll be joined by several top competitors in a variety of roles. “I have a freshman (Brianna Dombrosky) who is going to be a heck of an addition to the team in our middle distance events. I also have a junior, Danielle Wiltrout, who is fabulous for us in the middle distances,” he said. Junior Kristin Farkosh qualified for the WPIAL championships in the sprints last season, and Gumbita said he also expects big things from senior sprinter Alyssa Kanuch. Though he said Southmoreland, Burrell and Greensburg Central Catholic always present a challenge within the section, Gumbita said he has set the bar high for the Lady Vikings. “Anything short of a WPIAL appearance — I’m not saying we’re going to win it, but if we wouldn’t be there this year, and if we didn’t win our section, then I think we’ve underachieved,” he said. On the other hand, the cards are stacked against Mt. Pleasant’s boys, but Gumbita said he still expects the Vikings to be successful. “I think we were going to be very competitive, but we were senior-heavy last year. We have a lot of holes to fill,” he said. “A realistic goal would be for them to make the playoffs.” Even that is going to be more of a challenge than it was last year. Gumbita explained that Mt. Pleasant’s boys will keep their Class AA status in the regular season, but the Vikings will be considered a Class AAA team for both individual events and the postseason. That means Mt. Pleasant will need to get past Burrell, Southmoreland and Greensburg Central Catholic and earn the Section 4-AA crown in order to reach the playoffs, Gumbita said. He said the Vikings do have several veteran athletes back this season. “Tyler Wadsworth set the school record in the high jump last year (as a junior). Ethan Keeler is also back as a sophomore. He’ll be in a number of jumping events and is also a member of our relay teams,” Gumbita said. He listed Ryan Naggy, John Sanner, Robbie Kantorik and Nathan Kopcho among returning athletes who should play key roles. Freshman Matthew Remaley will also be an important member of the team, running middle distance events. “It’s just trying to plug them into the right positions and trying to maximize the number of points we can get,” Gumbita said. Mt. Pleasant will open section competition on March 28 at home against South Allegheny.

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