PIAA TRACK & FIELD: ATHENS' BURGESS LOOKS TO WIN ANOTHER MEDAL IN THIRD AND FINAL TRIP TO STATES (May 21, 2026)

By TIM BIRNEY
Valley Sports Report
SHIPPENSBURG — Athens senior Abby Burgess will run at the PIAA Track & Field Championships this weekend, and she's looking to duplicate last year's fourth-place medal performance.

"I am really excited and relieved to make it back," she said. "I'm just gonna try to do the same thing I did last year. I couldn't really do anything different."

Burgess said there are a couple things she's focused on.

"Keeping my head in the race and not worrying about the other people I'm racing against because that's something I tend to do," she said. "I just have to worry about myself. 

"There's not really much to strategize," added Burgess. "It's just going as hard as I can the whole time."

There are also a couple of things she's looking to avoid.

"Breaking my form is something I have to avoid, and not running all the way through the line," she said. "I have to make sure I run completely through it.

"I don't pace myself. I'm just out there and I just got to give it everything I have in the 100 meters," added Burgess.

Burgess qualified for the Class AA Championships as a sophomore, then for the Class AAA meet last year, and surprised a lot of people by placing fourth.

"It's definitely a great feeling to know that I can compete in both double-A and triple-A, but I don't really think too much about it," she said. "I know the time that I have to hit, and that's just the time I work toward every year."

Athens coach Mike Bronson is happy to see Burgess go out with a third trip to States.

"I'm really happy for her," he said. "To go three years in a row, in AA and AAA is a huge accomplishment.

"She went down last year, we were AAA and she ended up fourth, made the finals and just ran great," he noted. "I think she goes back down and tries to do the same thing.

"We kind of have a little bit of a routine now when we go down there, we try to stick to doing the same things each year," added Bronson. "Just go down, stick to the routine and have a good race."

The forecast is for temperatures in the low 60s and rain Friday, and low 50s and rain all day Saturday.

"I'd like to think that it doesn't really make a difference," said Bronson. "And I like to think, maybe it's a little bit of an advantage to us to have not great weather because we're so use to cold, wet, windy conditions up here. 

"Really, I don't think it will have an impact really too much on our kids at least," he noted. "We try not to worry about those kinds of things."

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IN PHOTO: Athens senior Abby Burgess. ... VSR STOCK PHOTO.

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