Last WPIAL run ends well for North Hills' Malone

"North Hills senior Margo Malone knew that the 3,200-meter run at last week's WPIAL individual championships was going to be the last WPIAL race of her career.

She had one last shot to add to her already expansive WPIAL medals collection, and, perhaps more importantly, one chance to erase the disappointment of finishing second in the 1,600-meter run -- an event in which she was the defending WPIAL and state champion -- earlier in the day.

Malone didn't disappoint, pulling away at the end to claim gold with a time of 10 minutes, 57.17 seconds.

"I wanted to start out conservatively because I wasn't really feeling that good after the 1,600, so we started out conservatively," she said. "It also got sort of clogged up in the beginning."

Malone said she stuck with Bethel Park senior Hilary Boxheimer for most of the race, but kicked it up toward the finish to win by just less than 10 seconds."