South Hills notebook: Brentwood Firecracker 5K a success for 1st-time directors

Taylor Lee and Steve Evans were co-race directors of the 38th annual Brentwood Firecracker 5K Run.

It was their first year at the helm.

“Considering all the unknowns during the planning process and not having enough time to do the traditional big race and celebration, I’m so happy with the way the race turned out,” Lee said. “We had a great group of excited participants and tons of support from the community and borough. Without that support, we wouldn’t have been able to make this year’s race such a success.

“As a first-year director, the most obvious challenge was trying to plan something with the unknowns and changes covid brought. Thankfully, (ex-race director) Kira Kellner left detailed instructions. But the knowledge and dedication of the entire race committee also made my first year a breeze.”

Lee and Evans were assisted by a veteran group of 5K committee members, all familiar names in the local race arena. The group consisted of Kellner, Jeanne Berk, Pat Cunningham, Tina Famiglietti, Mary Lou Nees, Alicia Reece, Laura Wenger and Rich Wright.

“Each member of our committee has years of knowledge, skills and connections that wouldn’t have made any of this possible,” Lee said. “I really credit the committee to making this happen. It was such a fun experience and we can’t wait to bring back the full race in 2022.”

Jacob Halasowski, 24, and Ann Mazur, 35, were the individual champions this year. Halasowski crossed the finish line in 15:42; Mazur logged a time of 18:35.

“I’m always in awe of the runners at any race who finish first,” Lee said. “Their speed and athletic ability is amazing, and that definitely stands true for the winners of this year’s race.

“We are sending out awards via mail to the top finishers overall, as well as age group winners.”

Milcic, Race capped careers with top honors

The Brentwood athletic office announced a modified list of individual award winners in 2020.

The Spartans did not field teams in baseball, softball and track since those seasons were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“There was not an all-sports banquet in 2020 or 2021,” said Rick Huffman, Brentwood’s athletic director. “A video presentation was created during which the award winners were announced and this was made available for viewing. We named award winners last year except for the spring sports.

“The district decided not to have an in-person banquet this year due to the restrictions that were in place during the planning stages of this event.”

The top two honorees in 2020 were John Milcic, who landed the prestigious Mark Reider Award, and Mandy Race, the equally prestigious Booster Athlete Award recipient.

Jayneil Latham and Adele Sedlar earned the Senior Scholar Athlete Award.

And the most outstanding team members consisted of C.J. Ziegler (boys basketball), Maura Daly (girls basketball), Carly Vickless (cheerleading), Mike Umbel (boys cross country), Bailey Wertz (girls cross country), Luke Bauer (football), Peter Carozza (golf), Shashak Gurung (soccer), Qulik Evans (boys swimming), Stella Barker (girls swimming) and Jaden Schwartz (volleyball).

Ziegler, Vickless, Bauer, Carozza, Gurung, Barker and Schwartz were seniors in 2019-20; Wertz and Evans were juniors.

The two youngest recipients were Daly, a sophomore a yea ago, and Umbel, who was a freshman.