The Pittston Area girls cross country team and its top individuals will no longer have to get through a subregional to try to reach the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Championships.

Williamsport, the lone Class 3A team from District 4, has been moved for the next two-year cycle and will not be included with District 2 in a subregional in cross country for the first time since the sport switched to three classifications in 2012.

In each of the previous eight years, the Williamsport boys and girls competed in the District 2-4 Class 3A Subregional championship where they had a chance to earn the team berth or any of the five individual berths available for the state meet in each race. Last season, the Millionaires claimed two of the five individual boys cross country spots in the state meet in Hershey, reducing the number of District 2 runners who advanced.

Pittston Area ran against Williamsport in the Class 3A girls subregional all eight of those seasons. The Patriots also faced Williamsport in the Class 3A boys subregional in the first four years of that format before dropping to Class 2A in the review of separate boys and girls enrollments that the PIAA conducts every two seasons.

Related Video

Following the latest review of enrollments, Pittston Area is returning to Class 3A in boys and remaining there in girls cross country. The Class 3A meet, however, now will be strictly a District 2 event.

Pittston Area will be among 10 girls and nine boys teams competing in Class 3A at the District 2 Championships in 2020 and 2021. They will be pursuing the usual one team and five individual state berths.

Wyoming Area will remain in Class 2A. There are 16 boys and 14 girls teams in that class where two team and 10 individual state berths are at stake.

Williamsport will now be part of a new District 4-6 Subregional in the sport. District 4 covers the central part of the state, including State College and Altoona.