Upper St. Clair High School students to run Pittsburgh Marathon Relay in honor of late friend

Five Upper St. Clair High School students are running the Pittsburgh Marathon Relay this weekend in honor of their friend who died of brain cancer. 

The five 10th graders, who call themselves the Lumberjacks, are running for Sam Levine, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2024 and died in December 2025. Now, they hope to raise $5,000 for ChadTough Defeat DIPG Foundation and bring awareness to DIPG, an aggressive and difficult-to-treat brain tumor that killed the 19-year-old Levine. 

"Sam kept going months on end," runner Makis Sobel-Drum said. "If he can do that, then I can keep going in the marathon relay." 

"I want people to know about Sam's courage and strength," Levine's dad, Steve Levine, said. 

Steve Levine is a teacher at Fort Couch Middle School in the Upper St. Clair School District. He took a leave of absence to help take care of his son. But he is back to teaching, and now he is ready to cheer on the Lumberjacks this weekend. 

"Running this marathon is such an honor," runner Anthony Mastro said. "I was really happy to be able to contribute my part, help raise money for DIPG and to really support Mr. Levine."

It's an incredible gift for the Levine family. 

"To honor Sam and to keep his memory alive, I really don't have the words to describe it," Steve Levine said. "We were humbled. We were honored."

The group has one goal: to fight and keep fighting until there is a cure. And they want to remember the important life lessons. 

"Just to raise awareness and to spread the message that we can do hard things, just like Sam did," runner Sam Cranganu said. "He persevered. And we felt like running a marathon would represent that."