MESHOPPEN – Pittston Area placed three runners among the top eight in Class 3A boys Wednesday during the District 2 Cross Country Championships at the Wyoming County Fairgrounds.
All three earned medals.
For Preston Klem and Caden Boettger, that meant qualifying for the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Championships Saturday in Hershey.
Jakob Mead joined Klem and Boettger in earning district medals, but fell one place and 5.4 seconds short of landing one of the state berths.
The top five teams in the eight-team field were packed closely together.
Hazleton Area won the title on a tiebreaker over Scranton after each scored 67 points while Delaware Valley was one point back. The title was decided by the best sixth-runner finish after the first five runners were used for the team score.
Defending champion Abington Heights was fourth with 79 points and Pittston Area settled into fifth at 93, well in front of sixth-place Tunkhannock’s 157.
Scranton’s Brian McCormack repeated as champion in a course record time of 15:50.9.
Klem was fourth in 17:14.5, Boettger sixth in 17:23.8 and Mead eighth in 17:37.3.
The top 10 finishers received medals. The Hazleton Area team and the top five other individuals advances to Hershey.
Class 2A
Wyoming Area finished 15th out of 17 teams in the day’s first race, which also was the largest.
Colby Walsh led the Warriors, finishing 36th out of 116 runners from 18 total schools.
Scranton Prep won the team title and Crestwood claimed the second state berth.
Riverside’s Daniel Danilovitz won the individual title, adding to his victory in Class A in 2021.
The top 20 individuals received medals.
Class A
Old Forge was last out of 10 teams in a race that was won by Montrose.
Kendel Jones, a sophomore, repeated as champion while leading Elk Lake into second place.
Aiden VanLuvender, in 43rd, led the Blue Devils.
