Hoprich, Kosek Lead Lady Hornets To 3rd Place Finish At PIAA Track Championships

By: Ed Weaver  /  May 24, 2026

Wellsboro's "Dynamic Duo" of juniors Piper Hoprich and Lauren Kosek led the Wellsboro Girls Track & Field team to a 3rd place finish at the PIAA Track Championships at Shippensburg University.

The Lady Hornets finished with 37 points, two points behind 2nd place Hughesville, and 3 shy of champion Shenango.

Hoprich became the first Lady Hornet to win a pair of state gold medals, and the first Lady Hornet since the 1997-98 4x800m relay team of Flori Simonis, Kim Sayre, Daria Guelig, and Tara Guelig to capture state gold. She is also the team's first individual champion since Tom Mann won the high jump in 1964.

On Friday Hoprich won her 100m heat in 12.08 to earn a #3 seed heading into Saturday's finals. She did the same thing in the 200m with a time of 24.40 to claim the top overall seed in the event. In the 4x100m relay, along with teammates senior Sophia Yoder, sophomore Luna Moyer, and freshman Paige Rush, she anchored a #9 seed team to a 2nd place finish in the final heat to tie for the 4th seed for the finals.

Hoprich owned the track on Saturday, running a new school record of 11.90 to win gold in the 100m. In the 4x100m relay, the team ran a 50.25 to bring home a 4th place finish. She then went "double gold" with a 24.39 later in the day to capture the 200m crown.

"I was definitely very nervous in the morning, but I trusted my training to put me through my races," said Hoprich. "The weather did not have much of a mental effect on me just because we've been running in this type of weather all season. I had a super strong start in both the 100 and 200 and just used that to push me through to the end!"

Kosek kicked off Friday's track events with a 5th place finish in the 1600m with a time of 4:58.65, a new school record. Kosek ran splits of 1:13.98, 1:14.38, 1:14.43, and 1:15.87.

"I definitely had really big goals and I really thought, I had a lot of confidence in myself that I was going to be able to run really well and to get some good times and places this weekend," Kosek said. "Going into the 1600, the weather was actually pretty good on that day. I did get boxed in on the start and I just tried to stay relaxed and just start moving up. I did move into second place and I really just tried to set my eyes on the back of Baylee's head and just try to push. I did get passed in the last 200 meters, which is never ideal, but I was able to PR by just under a second and qualify for New Balance."

On Saturday Kosek kicked things off for Wellsboro in the 3200m, finishing 2nd overall in 10:35.87, shattering her old 3200m record. Kosek held the lead in the event after the 1st lap with a 1:17.42, then ran near identical splits to eventual champion and District IV rival Baylee Espinosa (Lewisburg) to claim silver.

"I really was just focusing on trying to stay with Baylee for one more lap," Kosek said of her 3200m run on Saturday, "She really helped pull me through the race. It was impossible to stay dry but I just had to keep telling myself that it was go like at least it wasn't ninety-five and sunny. So, that's like was the mentality that kind of helped me. It was a really great weekend and it was super cool to see all of us perform so well and be able to pull off a third place finish."

Also medaling on the day was the Hornets' 4x800m relay team of seniors Henry Whitney, Max Macias, Jude Cuneo, and David Seeling. The team finished 6th overall in 8:13.26. They were 10th after the first lap, worked their way up to 7th, then moved into 6th on the final lap.

Whitney placed 26th overall in the 1600m, running 4:33.80.

Seeling hit 5-ft, 10-inches in the high jump to finish 24th.

"I got home from the state meet last night after 9:30 - wet, exhausted, hungry - and as I was trying to wind down, my first thought was, I don't want this season to end." said girls head coach Elizabeth Hoover. "And, of course, it was partly because we just had an historic meet. Piper Hoprich is the ladies' first athlete to ever win a state title, and she did it in two events, and Lauren was right on her heels with a record breaking second place finish in the 3200, and the Lady Hornets finished in third place as a team, overall, with the help of the 4x1 relay, just missing second place by the last event - but to me, it wasn't just those amazing feats.

"Wellsboro is one of the teams that travels the furthest to attend this state meet in Shippensburg. We are one of the smallest schools there; this year, arriving in a school van and a suburban. One whole parking lot is filled with school buses and coach buses. Tent city is an entire field of tents from larger city schools around the area. But when you look up into the stands, the largest cheering section of the day was green and white covered with ponchos, mostly made of plastic bags. Yes, we had parents, but we also had aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, students who traveled all the way from Wellsboro, just to watch our athletes run. And they didn’t stay there for 20 minutes or even for two hours, they stayed the entire day. We even had athletes and parents from other schools asking us to cheer on their teammates when our athletes weren’t running. And every time our athletes got down into their starting blocks, the cheering section overpowered the speaker, and the athletes would look up into the stands and raise their hands in the air, and that just made us louder. The bond between our athletes and our fans was evident. The accomplishments of this season would have never happened without everyone coming together as one team. I am so proud of Piper, and Lauren, and that 4x1 team, and the alternates that came ready to jump in at any time (Dillyn Patt, Isla Twoey, and Kristina Belz).

"We are Wellsboro!"