When you think of tradition and sustained success in Western Pennsylvania Class 2A girls cross country, it’s hard not to mention North Catholic. Since 2020, North Catholic’s girls cross country program has captured three WPIAL team championships, winning titles in 2020, 2023, and 2025, while establishing itself as one of the classification’s most consistent programs.
Now, a talented junior core has two more seasons to add to that tradition. Caroline Sell, Anna Morris, Annie Puhalla, and Maggie Killian have already experienced both sides of the championship chase. They finished as WPIAL runners-up as freshmen in 2024 before returning one year later and helping North Catholic capture the WPIAL Class 2A team championship in 2025.
Despite losing key pieces from last year’s championship lineup, North Catholic appears ready to keep that momentum going in 2026. With four of its top seven runners returning, this junior group enters the season with championship experience, higher expectations, and two more years to leave its mark on North Catholic’s already successful tradition.
For North Catholic’s junior core, the past two seasons have been about more than results. They have also been about growing into the leadership roles once held by the upperclassmen they followed as freshmen.
“As a freshman, I was more just following the upperclassmen,” Anna Morris said. “Now it’s my job to be a leader and do for the underclassmen what the upperclassmen had done for us before.”
That transition from follower to leader is something this group learned firsthand from last year’s senior class. Caroline Sell believes their impact went beyond what happened during races.
“I think last year’s seniors did a great job of teaching us how to be good leaders toward the underclassmen,” Sell said. “They taught us all of the pre-race traditions that we still use today and how to be a good team, including both JV and varsity in our pre-race traditions and superstitions.”
Those lessons take on even more importance entering the 2026 season. North Catholic enters this fall in a different position—this time as the defending WPIAL Class 2A champion. For this junior group, that also means understanding the higher expectations that come with being the team everyone is chasing.
For Maggie Killian, that means understanding that another championship won’t happen simply because North Catholic won one last year.
“It definitely feels different,” Killian said. “We have to make sure that we’re strong throughout the season and really train throughout the season. We can’t let our mileage drop off or let our training fall through. We have to be strong the whole season and make sure that we’re the leaders who uphold that.”
But another WPIAL championship isn’t the only thing this group is chasing.
Despite North Catholic’s success at the WPIAL level, Annie Puhalla pointed to the state meet as one accomplishment still missing from this group’s résumé.
“One thing that we really want to accomplish is definitely getting on the podium at states,” Puhalla said. “Every year we’ve done really well at WPIALs and TSTCAs, but we’ve kind of faltered when it comes to states. I definitely want to get on the podium, especially because that’s a goal our coach has wanted us to have for a long time.”
With two seasons remaining, there is still plenty of time for this junior class to add another chapter to North Catholic’s recent run of success. They have already experienced being WPIAL runners-up and WPIAL champions. Now they are becoming the leaders responsible for carrying the program’s traditions forward while chasing something they haven’t accomplished yet.
And when their time at North Catholic eventually comes to an end, the four juniors used four words to describe how they hope this group will be remembered:
Iconic. Friendly. Consistent. Community.
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