Editor's note: Following is the first in a series of articles that will feature local cross country teams. Next week: Plum.
HARRISON: It doesn't sound like the Highlands boys cross country team plans to back down from its biggest challenge.
Highlands intends to make a run at the WPIAL Class AAA title this season.
"If we don't suffer any serious injuries, and we don't get any sickness, and the creeks don't rise, I think we have the depth to do it," Highlands coach Tom Abbott said.
"We're recognized as a contender to take the whole thing," he said.
Highlands might set a course record Tues-day when the Golden Rams run the 5,000-meter trails at Harrison Hills Park at 4 p.m.
Fox Chapel, Gateway and Freeport's club team will supply the competition.
Running fans and Highlands alumni never will have a more conven-ient opportunity to see one of the best cross country teams in the state.
"This is one of those teams that comes along once in a, well, fill in the blank," Abbott said.
The high expectations are based on several factors.
Highlands has four of its top six runners back from last year's team, which qualified for states.
Highlands has the depth to challenge - and pass - traditional cross country powers such as North Hills, Hampton, Mt. Lebanon and North Allegheny.
"They said cross country teams are like good poker hands," Abbott said. "You've got to have five good cards."
The top two or three runners set up the opportunity by running in the top 20 places.
However, it's the fourth and fifth runners who close the deal in the last 500 yards of a WPIAL meet by moving up from 50th to 45th or 40th place.
"We take pride in the fact we can run with the big schools," Abbott said. "We rise to that level."
Highlands proved that by winning the Gateway Invitational for the second year in a row and by finishing seventh last weekend at the Spike Shoe Invitational on Penn State's golf courses.
Senior Andy Tomaswick, who finished 18th in the PIAA championship meet last season, hopes to end a standout career with his best season. A National Merit Scholarship finalist, Tomaswick is weighing cross country scholarship offers from Carnegie Mellon and Brown universities.
Tomaswick will be pushed all season by juniors Tom Slosky and Jake Karan.
"Any of those three can be my No. 1 runner in any given meet," Abbott said.
The key fourth and fifth runners are junior Josh Hutchinson and senior Cliff Wilcox.
Hutchinson is a former Plum cross country runner who beat the entire Plum lineup in a recent meet; Wilcox is a standout 800-meter track performer. It might come down to both runners' kick at the end of the WPIAL meet to win the title.
The final factor in Highlands' high ranking is Abbott, a 32-year runner and a ninth-year Highlands coach who always goes on training runs with his team.
"I don't ask them to do anything I wouldn't do with them," Abbott said.
