Individually, Warren athletes qualified for the PIAA Championships in four events, and there were a bunch of Dragons named region all-stars, including one breaking a 19-year-old school record in the pole vault.

But that was last year, and Warren coach Kevin Dustin said the bar is set just as high or higher for the 2025 Dragons.

“We have been fortunate to have a passionate coaching staff that gets these kids ready to compete at their highest level, which has resulted in region titles, state qualifiers, and school records,” said Dustin. “Every year, we set the same expectations of greatness on the athletes. That greatness looks different to every person — it can be a new personal best, it can be qualifying for districts for the first time, it could be to get to the state meet or cement your name in Warren track and field history with a school record. No matter what it is these athletes are trying to accomplish, we are there as coaches to foster the best environment for them to meet that success. We are very proud of where this program has been and continues to go and that is all thanks to the hard work of the coaches setting those expectations and the athletes meeting them. We hope to continue with the success into the 2025 season as well.

“The first goal set for the season is to win a boys and girls region title,” said Dustin, whose Dragons compete in Region 4 with Eisenhower, Youngsville, Seneca, and Union City. “The boys came up one loss short last year and that leaves a bitter taste in our mouth. Seneca is that strong team we have to get by and we face them first this year. It’s a great opportunity in the sense that we know right off the bat where we stand as a team. We want to add trophies to the trophy case representing the program. After that, it’s a numbers game for the team. We want to see how many kids we can get through to districts. Both teams move up to (Class 3A) this year where there is some different competition, but we are prepared to meet the new challenge. All year, we race in navy blue jerseys, but when you qualify for championships (districts and states), you earn a white jersey; it’s our championship attire. It is meant to represent excellence in your events and to instill some pride in what you are doing. We call them up in front of the group to recognize them and give them their jersey when they meet that standard. I hope just getting the opportunity to wear that jersey at championship meets creates some great memories and a feeling of self-accomplishment.”

Some returning athletes have experienced that type of accomplishment and aren’t done.

“On the guys’ side, we have Samuel Lindell (distance), who qualified for states in the two-mile last year and is closing in on some school records this year,” said Dustin. “We also have Quinton Norris for our mid-distance crew, Tomasso Clemente in sprints, and Andrew Haight and Landon Pritzl for throwing. We are expecting them to be leaders to the many younger kids and new faces that are out this year. For the girls, we have Lindsay Madigan, Madeyln Nosel, and Lilly Newton in the sprints and jumps and returning as part of the 4-by-100-meter relay that qualified for states last year. We also have Morgan Alexander and Emma Peterson in the distance events. Zoe Rodgers also stepped up big last year and we are expecting more out of her this year as well.

“We have a lot of new faces on the boys team and we are seeing some promising things after the first weeks of practice,” added Dustin. “We will be looking to Cole Fitzgerald, Leyton Salvatore, Max Spiegel, Austin Fiscus, and Chase Sitler to get us some points this season. For the girls, we are seeing good things out of Michaela Dolan, Lara Pearson, Attie Corey, Leona Hovan, and Leucelia Begelow.”

Seniors for the Lady Dragons include Lindsay Madigan, Bigelow, Allie Lauffenburger, Zoe Gearhart, Gwenith Damon, and Grace Carr. Juniors are Rodgers, Nosel, Newton, Alexander, Kylee Madigan, Riley Evan, Morgan Ceriola and Brady Caudill.

Sophomores are Peterson, Hovan, Corey, Ellen Straight, Rose Rioux, Alyssa Reichle, Gracie Page, Brynn Norris, Paiden Johnson, Julia Getner, Mara Dussia, Adison Cullers, Bella Campbell, and Peyton Cabisca. Freshman include Dolan, Pearson, Addison Brown, Hailey Cabisca, Ella Cull, Sawyer Fields, Tia French, Karolina Martinelli and Kailea Snyder.

File Photo by Mark Evans QUINTON NORRIS

In addition to Lindell and Sitler, seniors on the boys’ team include Logan Kramer, Douglas Harkins, Dylan Harkins, Lionel Chapel and Jordan Cameron. Juniors are Clemente, Haight, Andrew Heffern, Norris, Fiscus, Blake Albaugh, Alexander Gulnac, Tyson Harkins, Adon Maier, Domenic Mangione, Jack Monroe, Parker Mowrey, Scott Nichols, Patrick Ross, Johnny Sensenig, and Wyatt Stearns. Sophomores include Pritzl, Spiegel, Noah Bleech, Trey Carrington, Carson Creek, Reed Grubbs, Gavin Heeter, Kyle Jones, Cory Ristau, Carson Sobkowski, Amari White, Sammy White and Reed Wilson. The freshmen are Fitzgerald, Salvatore, Grayson Collopy, Ayden Corbett, Liam Ferry, Jude Gatto, Aaron Gausman, Timothy Giger, Anthony Green, Adam Haibach, Noah Hill, Kahle Kuzminski, Reilly Morgan, Grant Newton, Brian Polley, Mahonri Potter, Carson Rutherford, Alex Schultz, Aidan Sweet, and Devon Wilson.

The Dragons are scheduled for an away meet on Tuesday at Titusville. Warren has a home meet against Kane at War Memorial Field on Tuesday, April 1. The region schedule starts on Tuesday, April 8, by hosting Seneca at War Memorial.

“We have Seneca to start region competition, which is a big challenge,” said Dustin. “They handed the boys team their only loss last year and we are looking to redeem ourselves. If the teams can get by them with a win, we quickly shift focus to a strong Eisenhower team. We are going to try to get these kids into some competitive invitationals to give them a chance to face some of the state’s best competition to see where they stack up and hopefully they can get some great performances of their own.”