EXETER – Paul Hindmarsh has found various ways to help the Wyoming Area cross country program in recent seasons.
Now, he will be responsible for leading the school’s boys and girls teams.
“I’ve been in and around the program for the past few years,” said Hindmarsh, who took over as head coach this summer.
Hindmarsh served as a volunteer coach, guided the program through the teachers’ strike in 2013 and was junior high coach last season.
The Warriors have just nine boys in the program and one of those is injured and they did not have the minimum five girls needed for a team score when the Wyoming Valley Conference season opened this week.
They do, however, return four of their top five boys from a year ago and their top four girls.
Seniors Ryan Marvin, Joe Buczynski and Nico Vasquez and junior David Alberigi are back from a Warriors team that went 8-9.
Sophomores Addison Orzel and Sarah Holweg, the top two runners who missed the opening week with injuries, teamed up with senior Mackenzie Bilbow and sophomore Gwen Glatz last year when the Lady Warriors went 6-11.
Freshman Justin Alder was the team’s third finisher at the Sept. 5 Cliff Robbins Invitational when they placed 19th of 28 and in their first WVC tri-meet Wednesday. Wyoming Area defeated Wyoming Seminary, 22-33, and lost to defending champion Dallas, 15-50.
Marvin and Buczynski were the top two.
Seniors Patrick Heck and Austin Rought have been in the program in previous years and may be ready to help with the team’s scoring.
Freshman Jaryn Polit-Moran is also part of the lineup.
Junior Matthew Hindmarsh missed the start of the season with an injury, but may be able to help later in the season.
“The league is extremely competitive right now,” coach Hindmarsh said. “Lake-Lehman, Tunkhannock, Dallas and Valley West all have strong programs and they’ve got some real good numbers in their programs.
“Our kids have been working real hard in the summer with (previous coach) Mike Stefanik up until his departure a few weeks back. They’ve been training very aggressively. We’re just looking to be competitive.”
Being competitive as a team on the girls side will require some recruiting on Hindmarsh’s part. Teams need five runners to have a team score and the sixth and seventh runners can be used to displace opponents and increase their team score.
Orzel was 33rd out of 104 runners in the District 2 Class AA Girls Championship last year as a freshman.