In winning an individual title at the WPIAL cross country championship, Jenna Gigliotti credited her teammates.

That might seem a bit unusual, especially because nobody from Norwin High School finished within 30 seconds of her on the 3.1-mile course at Cooper's Lake Campground near Slippery Rock.

In fact, none of her teammates were with Gigliotti after the first mile but that doesn't mean they weren't part of her success.

A junior, Gigliotti covered the course in 18 minutes, 26 seconds and beat North Hills sophomore Margo Malone and Hampton senior Elaina Balouris to the finish line.

"I had my strategy and it was to work up the last hill and then try to pull away on the downhill," Gigliotti said. "I like running the down hills. I feel that's an opportunity. I try to capitalize on the down hills and relax my legs."

It was on the down hill stretch in the final mile that Gigliotti got some separation from Balouris, who had beaten her twice during the season. She made her move farther out than in other races against Balouris.

"If she stayed with me, she stayed with me and I was just going to have to work harder," Gigliotti said. "But it worked out for me.

"I could hear people yelling for her and yelling for me [down the stretch], so I didn't know how close she was. I had an idea of how far ahead I was, but I didn't want to look back. That's not my style."

Gigliotti, who was second at the WPIAL championships a year ago, was just as excited about the Knights winning the team title as she was taking the individual crown. Norwin finished with 112 points in winning its first WPIAL girls' cross country championship.

The Knights will now try to run down a PIAA Class AAA title Saturday morning at the Parkview course next to the Giant Center in Hershey. Norwin is ranked No. 2 in the state behind defending PIAA champion Emmaus by penntrackxc.com.

Sophomore Jenna Kuhn finished 10th at the WPIAL championships for Norwin with senior Shelby Haitz 21st. Freshman Abby Pristas was 39th and sophomore Autumn Greba was 41st. The split between Gigliotti and Greba was a neat 1:56.

"I wouldn't have been able to do this [win the WPIAL title] without my teammates," Gigliotti said. "It's one thing to be able to go out on long runs by yourself, but when you are on the track doing repeats and you are in the third or fourth one and you don't feel like running any more, it's nice to have teammates there to help get you through it.

"No, I wouldn't have been able to do this [win the title] without their help."

n PIAA cross country championships are Saturday at the Parkview course next to the Giant Center in Hershey. Race times are 9 a.m., Class AA girls; 10 a.m. Class AAA girls,; 11 a.m., Class AA boys; noon, Class AAA boys.

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