Many Borough residents know mild-mannered Cate Murway as the “Pilot Lady” who visits local businesses, youths, seniors and characters to interview them for the Pilot’s weekly featured “Borough Spotlight” articles.
Most do not know that Cate also coaches girl’s high school track and field at
Villa Joseph Marie in Holland Pa.
On 5/26/07 her 4X4 relay took BRONZE at states.
Some will think, but that’s 3rd place...
When you consider that the team is comprised of 1 freshman and 3 sophomores, has no track to practice on at Villa Joseph Marie, and they workout in a steel corrugated garage located in the furthest habitable corner of the Villa campus, Bronze is a Rocky story.
Even with no track facilities, just a coach that can coach, a team that is "coachable", a dream, a plan, a load ‘o guts and a lot ‘a heart, these lady athletes and scholars wowed the crowd at Shippensburg as they almost took silver. Another 1/10 of a second would have done it. But this team is not brooding, For this year they have proven that they can! They are
already planning next year’s effort. Congratulations girls! Super job!
VJM advances to states
By JASON HASLAM Bucks County Courier Times
COATESVILLE — When the season opened, Villa Joseph Marie's 4x400 relay was an unknown quantity.
At first, the group was a motley one, made up of a sprinter, a distance runner, a middle-distance runner and a hurdler. As of just two weeks ago, JEMS coach Cathleen Murway still was tinkering with the lineup.
But everything came together on Saturday at the District One Class AA/AAA championships at Coatesville High School. In the final event of the day, VJM's
Shannon Geddes ‘09, Colleen Geiss ‘10, Katie Brady ‘09 and Megan Rother ‘09 won the 4x400 in a school-record time of 4:05.77.
The previous record was 4:07.99, set last year. [Megan Rother anchored that relay also- with Camille Knight ’06 [St. Joseph University], Lauren Conicella ’06 [Muhlenberg College] and Natalie Sheils ’07.]
“We just worked on it every day as a team and have improved as individual runners all the time,” Geiss said.
During the first three legs of the race, VJM and St. Basil Academy exchanged the lead. But by the time anchor Rother took the baton, she pushed forward and never fell back.
With the win, the relay qualified for the PIAA Class AA championships next week. The JEMS finished in second place in the District as a team with 80 unofficial points.
“We knew this would be a hard goal to achieve, but I knew we could accomplish it,” Geiss said.