Pittston Area coach Katie O’Boyle could see her boys cross country team developing into a potential contender in the years ahead.
Wednesday’s Wyoming Valley Conference cluster meet opener gave an indication that the young distance runners may also be capable to speeding up that process.
Pittston Area went 6-0 in the meet at Kirby Park in Wilkes-Barre.
“I had high expectations, but we’re young,” O’Boyle said. “ … I feel like we’re on a two-year plan.
“We have big goals for next year, but it’s pretty exciting to be reaching some things this year.”
That 6-0 effort included knocking off highly regarded Crestwood, one of the conference’s co-champions a year ago.
“That was huge,” O’Boyle said of beating Crestwood. “We were going to try, but it was unexpected to come out with the win.
“They run such a good program, they get so many kids out and they are strong every year. We were very pleased.”
A postponement from a week earlier meant that Pittston Area and Wyoming Area were scored on both their scheduled first-week meet and this week’s meet for a total of six-team competitions each in the seven-school meet.
The Pittston Area boys went 6-0, the Wyoming Area girls were 5-1, Pittston Area girls 4-2 and Wyoming Area boys 1-5.
Pittston Area defeated Crestwood, 27-29; Hazleton Area, 22-34; Wyoming Area, 19-36; Wyoming Valley West, 17-38; Wilkes-Barre Area, 15-40; and MMI Prep, 15-48, in boys meets.
Wyoming Area defeated MMI Prep, 15-50. Its other losses were to Wilkes-Barre Area, 27-28; Crestwood, 19-44; Hazleton Area, 20-40; and Wyoming Valley West, 24-31.
The Wyoming Area girls lost to defending champion Crestwood, 25-36, while defeating: Hazleton Area, 25-38; Pittston Area, 21-32; MMI Prep, 12-24; Wyoming Valley West, 21-34; and Wilkes-Barre Area, 15-50.
Pittston Area beat Hazleton Area, 26-29; Wyoming Valley West, 24-31; MMI Prep, 18-46; and Wilkes-Barre Area, 15-50. Its other loss came to Crestwood, 18-45.
The Pittston Area boys do not have a senior on the roster and are led by junior Preston Klem.
“The rest of the team is mostly sophomores and freshmen,” O’Boyle said.
Jacob Mead, who has been running second behind Klem, is a freshman. Sophomore Sam Capitano, who ran track in the spring but is in his first season of cross country, is third and another freshman, Caden Boettger, follows them.
Junior Matt Volpitta was the fifth runner at the season-opening Cliff Robbins Sr. Memorial Race.
Sophomore Franklin Garcia was fifth on the team Wednesday.
“He had a huge meet,” O’Boyle said. “He dropped a lot of tme.”
The team, which had just four runners last season, is making major strides.
Mead and Boettger were the only runners on the boys junior high team when they were in seventh grade. Now, O’Boyle can look forward to a strong group of current eighth-graders running on the junior team.
Klem was second out of 49 entries Wednesday, finishing the 3.1-mile course in 16:36, six seconds behind winner Weston Medvitz from Crestwood.
Mead and Capitano came in four seconds apart in fifth and sixth.
Boettger was 10th and Garcia 17th.
Wyoming Area was led by Patrick Branley in fourth in 17:25. Colby Walsh was 22nd for the second-best finish by a Warrior.
Madelyn Keating, Wyoming Area’s state track medalist and past state cross country medalist, won the girls race by 30 seconds in 18:07.
Teammate Hannah Stoss placed sixth in the 34-runner field. Hollis June was 11th.
Olivia Scalese from Pittston Area took fifth.
Wyoming Area’s Kierstyn Orlandini was 16th, followed in the next two places by Pittston Area’s Molly Fetchko and Dina Albertelli.
