Penn Hills Eagles track club looks forward to regional, national competitions

Penn Hills Eagles track and field coach Chuck Carter knows from experience that the young athletes in his program respond well to any weather conditions. Having to train and compete in the recent heat wave won’t dampen their spirits at all.

“The kids just like summer, there’s something about it,” Carter said. “Adults who are watching the meet are usually suffering.”

The Penn Hills Eagles Track Club hosted a meet June 15 as a precursor to the Three Rivers Association Championships, which was held June 22-23 at Slippery Rock. The athletes who qualify at the Three Rivers Association meet will get an opportunity to qualify for the USATF Regional Championship at Rutgers.

The USATF Junior National Olympics will be held July 23-28 in College Station, Texas, at Texas A&M.

Carter was pleased with how Penn Hills hosted the race. There were 463 athletes who competed in the event from clubs all around the city. There were nearly 1,800 spectators who attended the event.

Carter said it was the second most-attended event the club had.

“It was beautiful; there were no incidents,” Carter said. “We had people from all over the area. It was a diverse crowd — we had people from Mt. Lebanon, Upper St. Clair, all of the city and from the suburbs. Everyone got along.”

Penn Hills’ team tied for first place as a team in the girls 9-10 division by finishing with 54 points, tied with Future Stars Athletics. The Penn Hills Eagles have athletes grouped together by age group. Athletes who are between ages 6 and 8 run together, while the rest of the divisions are grouped by two-year increments.

Carter said he wanted to wait to see what happened at SRU first, but believes he will have several athletes move on to nationals.

“Looking at projections, I have one girl who I believe may break a few records at the regionals,” Carter said. “Once we get to nationals, we’ll see what happens.”

Carter said they have been working on making sure the athletes are finding the right method of training.

“We stress the kids hydrate and not eat greasy and fatty foods because of the sodium,” Carter said. “We split the practices between Monday and Wednesday so we didn’t have too many people on the track. We give breaks when we need to. Any of the kids who are light-headed, we’ll give longer breaks to.”