Jack Bertram’s roller-coaster senior year continued Wednesday.
One of the top distance runners in the state, Bertram, a senior at North Allegheny, wasn’t himself during cross country season, the result of a medication he was taking to treat acne.
“I was on Accutane,” he said. “It affected my running pretty significantly. I still competed, but my times just weren’t what they were the year before. It affected me a lot. The joint pain was pretty bad. Just overall fatigue set in.”
Bertram stopped taking the drug during the winter, he said, adding that he doesn’t regret going on it. But not long after he was off it, Bertram began to run like himself again, and on Wednesday his personal roller coaster hit a crescendo.
After a bevy of near-misses in his career, Bertram saved his best for last, winning not only the first, but also the second and third WPIAL titles of his career at the Class 3A championships at Slippery Rock University. Bertram won the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs while running the anchor leg on North Allegheny’s 3,200 relay team that also finished first.
Bertram was the WPIAL Class 3A runner-up in cross country his sophomore and junior seasons, and last season finished third in the 3,200 and fifth in the 1,600 at the WPIAL track championships. Like most WPIAL distance runners, Bertram ran in the shadow of Butler’s Drew Griffith, Ringgold’s Ryan Pajak and others in recent years, but Bertram knew this was his season to shine, as the spotlight was finally his. A Notre Dame recruit, Bertram will actually be teammates with Griffith and Pajak next season.
“I really miss them, first of all,” he said. “This is really special. They did a great job of paving the path my whole high school career. I couldn’t have done it without them, so shout out to them.”
Bertram led wire to wire in both of his individual events Wednesday. He ran the 1,600 in 4:15.93 and the 3,200 in 9:16.98. He was given a fight in the 1,600, as four runners finished within two seconds of him, among them runner-up Chris Belch of Hampton (4:16.33). Bertram’s win in the 3,200 was more comfortable, with him topping the rest of the field by more than six seconds. The 3,200 relay team finished with a winning time of 7:55.60. The team also included Greg Abel, Sebastian Klimchak and Wyatt Case.
Bertram hopes to hit another high point at next weekend’s PIAA championships. He placed fifth in the 1,600 and fourth in the 3,200 at the meet last year, with Griffith and Pajak going 1-2 in both races.
“I definitely want to get some first-place medals, but I know there are a lot of guys out east that can compete,” Bertram said. “It’s not going to be easy, but I’m going to try my best.”
Scoop delivers another title in the 100
Scoop Smith might have not been 100%, but he was still good enough to repeat as champion in the 100-meter dash.
A junior at Woodland Hills, Smith earned a second straight title after running a winning time of 10.72. That was more than enough for him to get past runner-up Kaevon Gardner of New Castle (10.90), the champion in 2023, and Latrobe speedster Preston Miller (10.92). Gardner rebounded by later winning the 200.
Smith has been dealing with a left hamstring injury this season. He had only run in one meet entering Wednesday, and on Monday reaggrevated the injury while running the 40-yard dash in front of some college football coaches, putting his status for the championships in doubt.
“I was telling people I’m still trying to run depending on how my warmups feel,” Smith said. “When I warmed up a little bit, it hurt bad, but it didn’t stop me from at least going to try. I told people, if I pull it, whatever the case may be, I’m going to at least try and give it everything I got.”
Smith said he was in a lot of pain afterward. He ran the top qualifying time in preliminaries (11.00) before deciding to run in the final.
While there was a repeat, there might not be a three-peat in the cards for Scoop.
“This was definitely a big thing for me because I don’t know if I’m going to be here next year. I might go to school early for football, so winning this year, winning back to back, is definitely a great accomplishment that I can add to my books,” he said.
Gateway’s Nadarevic a double winner
Dino Nadarevic laughed and nodded his head when a reporter suggested that he might be the first athlete born in Bosnia to ever win a WPIAL track and field title.
While successfully figuring out if that’s true might be a pipe dream, Nadarevic’s dream of winning WPIAL gold became reality Wednesday when the Gateway senior claimed titles in the discus and shot put.
“It’s been a journey. Lots of ups and downs,” said Nadarevic, whose family emigrated from Bosnia-Herzegovina when he was 10 years old.
Nadarevic, who has been throwing for just three years, was the top seed in both events. He used a heave of 59 feet, 1 inch to beat out Central Valley’s Tyler Ondrusek (58-2) in the shot put before unleashing a PR throw of 187-0 to win the discus by more than 29 feet. Nadarevic’s big throw came on his final throw.
Nadarevic finished fifth in the discus and fourth in the shot put his junior season.
Kerstetter a champ (again) in the javelin
Penn-Trafford senior Logan Kerstetter sat in third place in the javelin with just one throw to go and needing eight feet to leap into first.
“I knew I had it in me. I just had to hit it,” Kerstetter said.
Kerstetter responded with the best throw of his career, one good enough to help him repeat as champion.
Kerstetter delivered a huge throw of 188-1 in his final attempt, allowing him to edge out Butler’s Nico Baggetta (187-2) and Mt. Lebanon’s Patrick Smith (183-3).
And when Kerstetter threw it, he knew it.
“Absolutely. The second I threw it,” he said. “I knew it was my last throw. I knew I had to give everything I had left in the tank. Every ounce of energy that I had left I knew I could put it, so that’s kind of what I did. That was my mindset.”
Kerstetter’s previous PR had been 179-6, which he achieved on April 4. He threw 177-0 to win last year’s title.
Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.