In recent years, WPIAL track and field has seen its fair share of versatile athletes, but few who can compare with Melana Schumaker.
Now a freshman at Youngstown State, Schumaker starred in several events for South Fayette over the previous four years, capping off her career with a WPIAL title in the pole vault with a mark of 11-9 along with a third-place finish in the long jump — not to mention back-to-back WPIAL titles in 2021 and 2022 as a member of the Lions’ 100 relay team. Schumaker also placed sixth in the pole vault and ninth in the long jump at last year’s PIAA championships, and she previously excelled in the 200 meters before narrowing her focus to the field events.
She may be gone now, but South Fayette seems to have found a worthwhile replacement on the roster in her little sister, Delaney Schumaker.
“We had a pretty good idea,” Lions girls coach Scott Litwinovich said. “She’s a track junkie. We’ve known basically for a year or so. … She’s a very coachable kid. We’re really not surprised. She had really good success in the indoor season.”
A freshman sprinter and hurdler, Schumaker took home first place in the 300 hurdles last weekend at the TSTCA Outdoor Championship meet at West Mifflin High School with a time of 46.74. She also earned a fourth-place finish in the 100 hurdles, posting a time of 15.79 while finishing just behind teammate Grace Howard, who took third place with a time of 15.66.
When it was all said and done, South Fayette reigned supreme as the girls team champion on the day — and nobody was more vital to the Lions’ victory than Schumaker.
“At the start, they were like, ‘Oh, you’re Melana’s sister,'” Schumaker said. “People know my last name, but I’m setting my own title for myself, and I’m kind of proud of it.”
As expected, Schumaker is well aware of the sizable shoes her older sister left for her to fill at South Fayette. Still, she doesn’t seem bothered by it or even affected by it in the slightest. Instead, she said she’s choosing to carve out her own legacy while stepping out of her older sister’s shadow rather than trying to emulate what Melana accomplished.
“I was definitely nervous today,” Schumaker said on Saturday. “I’m more new to the 300 hurdles. I just started them this year. … I knew there were some other girls who run faster than me when I came in. Then I was on the straightaway, and I was like, ‘I think I can win this.’
“I didn’t know if I would win or not, so it was definitely excitement when I crossed the finish line.”
Time will tell whether Delaney can match or exceed Melana’s medal count, but one thing is abundantly clear — the Lions have another sprinting star on their hands.
“In terms of what I’ve seen from her as a hurdler, as far as a freshman girl is concerned, she’s the best that I’ve seen at that level at that age,” Litwinovich said. “She has very lofty goals for herself, and I have no doubt she’s going to attain them.”
Bethel Park girls shatter 46-year-old school record
Going into the season, Bethel Park girls coach Mark Jacobs set a goal for his elite crop of 400 relay runners to clock a time under four minutes flat.
The school-record time of 4:03.70 was set all the way back in 1977, so needless to say, the request from Jacobs was easier said than done — or so it seemed.
The Black Hawks’ fearsome foursome of Artemis Conaboy, Lauren Heh, Sadie Orie and Jenna Lang blew the doors off the competition at the TSTCA Outdoor Championship on Saturday with a blazing-fast time of 3:59.37 and broke the 46-year-old school record in the process. In the immediate aftermath, the runners and their coaches hugged and celebrated while posing for pictures together, visibly overwhelmed with the emotions of achieving a longtime dream at the end of a long day at the track.
“It’s a big thrill,” Jacobs said. “We set the whole day up for them to do one event, do well, and then go for this record afterward. … We just missed it last year by like [0.3 seconds], so that’s why it was a real monkey off our backs to get it today.
“I kind of joked with the other coaches that this was the main event. We waited all day for the main event.”
Conaboy and Lang both took home individual medals as well, with Conaboy just missing out on a second gold medal after posting a time of 57.71 seconds in the 400 meters. Laurel sophomore Tori Atkins narrowly edged her out with a time of 57.17.
“The atmosphere was amazing,” Conaboy said about the record-setting 400 relay. “Just the setting, all my friends — it felt so unachievable. Now that we actually got it, there’s no other feeling in the world [like it].”
Lang captured first place in the 800 meters with a time of 2:17.06 to finish 2 for 2 in gold medals on the day. She was the runner-up in the 800 at the WPIAL championships last spring, finishing behind only the one-of-a-kind Mia Cochran, now a freshman at Arkansas. Conaboy finished sixth in the 400 at last year’s WPIAL meet.
“It was such a great achievement. Just thinking about it gives me chills. It makes me teary-eyed, just because we put in so much work for this,” said Lang, who anchored the 400 relay. “We never thought we could ever break 4:00. It just was a dream that we had. We all wanted it today.”
Both Conaboy and Lang are juniors, and Orie is only a sophomore. That means the 400 relay team will have plenty of opportunities both later this season and beyond to keep dropping their record time — and there could be plenty more hardware coming their way in the near future.
“The sky is the limit,” Jacobs said. “They’re a great group. They train together, they push each other, and I’m really excited to see how far we can get this year.”
Dani Prunzik’s dominance continues
Dani Prunzik’s exploits as one of the top sprinters in the state are well documented, and there really isn’t much more to say about the Upper St. Clair senior.
Just in case you were wondering, though, Prunzik remains extremely fast — as shown by her trio of gold medals from the TSTCA Outdoor Championship, including a personal-best time of 11.79 seconds in the 100 meters. The Penn State recruit swept both the 100 and 200 while also anchoring the Panthers’ 100 relay team to a first-place finish with a time of 49.54. Prunzik finished the 200 in 24.90, beating out Atkins by .27 seconds.
“I’m very happy with my times,” Prunzik said. “Some of the other meets, I haven’t had as much competition, so my times haven’t been nearly as good. … I’m definitely happy that I broke 25 [seconds], just because that was my first official 200 of the season.”
Steve is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at srotstein@unionprogress.com.
