Bella Dessoye finished first and Olivea Scalese came in third Wednesday to lead the way as the Pittston Area girls went 4-0 during an eight-team Wyoming Valley Conference cross country cluster meet hosted by Wyoming Valley West at the Luzerne County Rec Fields in Forty Fort.
Hannah Stoss finished second in the 42-runner field as Wyoming Area went 3-1 with just a three-point loss.
Dessoye completed the 3.1-mile course in 20:05 for a 44-second victory over Stoss.
Scalese posted a time of 21:21 as Pittston Area used the four wins to improve to 9-1, trailing only unbeatens Crestwood and Dallas in the WVC standings.
The Lady Patriots defeated Wyoming Seminary (21-34), Nanticoke (21-35), Holy Redeemer (19-39) and Hanover Area (15-50).
Wyoming Area edged both Holy Redeemer and Nanticoke by 27-28 scores, defeated Hanover Area, 25-31, and lost to Wyoming Seminary, 28-31.
Addison Ramirez was sixth and Molly Fetchko 10th for Pittston Area.
BOYS CLUSTER MEET
Pittston Area had three of the top five finishers to post three wins while dropping a 29-30 decision to Holy Redeemer.
Preston Klem was second, Caden Boettger third and Jake Mead fifth out of 61 runners from eight schools.
Wyoming Seminary’s Jack Novelli completed the course in 16:24 for a 37-second victory.
Pittston Area (6-4) defeated Wyoming Seminary, 22-39, and topped both Hanover Area and Nanticoke by the maximum score of 15-50.
Colby Walsh and Roger Orlandini were 15th and 16th to lead Wyoming Area.
PIAA FOUNDATION MEET
Three boys and one girl from Pittston Area finished in the top half of the Class 3A fields Sept. 23 during the PIAA Foundation Meet on the Hershey Parkview Course.
Caden Boettger, Preston Klem and Jakob Mead were 96th, 104th and 116th out of 321 boys runners.
Sophomore Olivea Scalese was 138th out of 287 runners. Freshman teammate Bella Dessoye came in 153rd.
The Foundation Meet annually brings together some of the state’s top programs and potential title contenders as a preview of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Championships on the same course in November.
Rain and the large fields of runners made for difficult, slick and muddy conditions, which deteriorated as the day progressed. There were slips and falls in some spots on the hills.
Nine runners from District 2 finished in the top 10 in their races.
