From left, Jake Mead, Caden Boettger and Preston Klem ran together Wednesday to lead Pittston Area to three victories.
YATESVILLE – Pittston Area teammates Preston Klem, Caden Boettger and Jake Mead set the pace on their home course Wednesday afternoon, running together, well ahead of the rest of the field throughout the Wyoming Valley Conference cross country opener.
The trio ended the suspense about the outcome of the cluster meet for the Patriots by holding that status as the top three – although trading the exact positioning late – to clinch team wins over three opponents, regardless of what happened behind them.
Klem edged Boettger for the win with both posting times of 18:06. Mead finished a second behind.
“It takes care of things,” Pittston Area coach Katie O’Boyle said of the 1-2-3 finish, “especially with Wilkes-Barre, they had a lot of people between our three and four.”
Nobody finished within a minute of Klem, Boettger and Mead.
Wyoming Area’s Roger Orlandini finished fourth in 19:17 and teammate Colby Walsh was sixth.
The Wolfpack had runners finish fifth and seventh through ninth.
Pittston Area beat Wilkes-Barre Area, 23-34; Wyoming Area, 19-42; and Wyoming Valley West, 18-43.
Wilkes-Barre Area went 2-1 on the day.
The Warriors lost to the Wolfpack, 25-35, but won, 21-37, over the Spartans, who lost to all three opponents.
“Our biggest concern right now is that we need people to step up and fill our gaps,” O’Boyle said. “The thing is there are a lot of different runners who could do that, so hopefully a couple of them do.”
Pittston Area’s Matt Volpitta was 12th out of 35 boys from four schools.
Lackawanna County Commissioners
Preston Klem and Jakob Mead finished sixth and seventh Sept. 9 to lead Pittston Area to fourth place out of 10 varsity boys teams in the Lackawanna County Commissioners’ Cross Country Invitational at McDade Park in Scranton.
Klem, the team’s number-one runner in the 2022 regular season before suffering an injury late, finished the 3.1-mile course in 17:12.6.
The race drew a field of 117 runners.
Scranton’s Brian McCormack and Riverside’s Daniel Danilovitz finished 1-2, repeating their performance a week earlier at the Cliff Robbins Sr. Memorial Invitational at Misericordia University’s Letterkenny Fields.
McCormack led Scranton to the team title, 66-72, over Valley View.
Pittston Area finished with 85 points, four behind third-place Wallenpaupack.
Caden Boettger came in 10th, making the Patriots the only team with three runners in the top 10.
Wyoming Area and Old Forge finished ninth and 10th.
Colby Walsh led Wyoming Area, finishing 21st.
