The Wyoming Valley Conference conducted its Ed Narkiewicz Coaches Championship Meet Wednesday, but there was still some regular-season business to complete.
Several teams were scored head-to-head against each other to make up meets that were postponed and the conference’s three best teams from the regular season were also scored in dual-meet competitions to break a tie and settle a championship.
While Lake-Lehman was winning the conference meet title, Hazleton Area was putting together a second-place finish in that meet and running well enough to beat both Pittston Area and Hazleton Area and claim the Division 1 title.
The Cougars, Patriots and Comets all went 15-1 during the WVC cluster meets and went 1-1 against each other.
They were scored against each other for the second straight week and Hazleton Area took the title.
The Cougars beat Crestwood 25-32 and Pittston Area 28-29.
Crestwood and Pittston Area were harder to separate. They were again even at 28-28, but the Comets beat the Patriots because their sixth runner finished first.
Lake-Lehman beat Hazleton Area 58-73 for the team scoring with the help of four of the top 11 finishers.
The Black Knights also won four dual meets scored from those results and won the Division 2 title.
Michael Fritz from Northwest and Mason Staude from Crestwood finished 1-2 individually for the second straight year.
Crestwood and Pittston Area were third and fourth overall.
Caden Boettger led Pittston Area, finishing sixth out of 136 runners.
Jakob Mead, Brady Tucker and Jameson Radle finished in succession for the Patriots in 15th, 16th and 17th.
Wyoming Area placed 12th out of 14 teams, beating Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech and MMI Prep.
The results of the day helped finalize standings.
The final WVC Division 1 standings: Hazleton Area 15-1, Crestwood 15-1, Pittston Area 15-1, Wilkes-Barre Area 11-5, Dallas 6-10, Wyoming Valley West 4-12.
The final WVC Division 2 standings: Lake-Lehman 13-3, Holy Redeemer 12-4, Tunkhannock 7-9, Berwick 5-11, Wyoming Area 3-13, Nanticoke 0-16.
Jameson Dessoye from Pittston Area finished fifth in the junior high
