
Caden Boettger helped Pittston Area remain unbeaten in Wyoming Valley Conference boys cross country with his third-place finish in a seven-team meet Wednesday.
Tom Robinson | For Sunday Dispatch
WILKES-BARRE — Pittston Area coach Katie O’Boyle predicted during the preseason that her team’s depth would prove helpful this season.
That was clearly the case again Wednesday as the Patriots won three more times to improve to 6-0 in the Wyoming Valley Conference.
Northwest’s Michael Fritz and Oliver Heintzelman finished 1-2, but Pittston Area was the only team to go unbeaten during the seven-team cluster meet at Kirby Park.
Fritz finished in 16:18, Heintzelman in 17:08 and Pittston Area’s Caden Boettger in 18:24.
Berwick’s Brennan Spaide was fourth, followed by Wyoming Area’s Colby Walsh and the Wilkes-Barre Area combination of Kaike Gonzales, Cam Gradowski and Ben Delgado.
Pittston Area had eight boys finish between 10th and 21st, giving it the place points it needed to get past challenges from Berwick and Northwest.
The Patriots defeated Berwick 27-30 and Northwest 27-32. They routed Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech by the maximum 15-50.
Jalen Moore and Cash Radle were 10th and 11th. Jack Scagliotti and Albert Schardien completed the five-runner team score while J.D. Gladish and Franklin Garcia contributed to the wins by displacing runners from other teams, pushing their scores higher.
Northwest went 3-1, Wilkes-Barre Area was 2-1, Berwick 2-2, Wyoming Valley West and Wyoming Area 1-2 and CMVT 0-4.
Wyoming Area beat Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech 17-38, but lost to Berwick 23-32 and Northwest 18-37.
Chris Viadock, who was 27th out of 44, was the second finisher for the Warriors.
Commissioners Invitational
Caden Boettger placed fifth out of 145 varsity boys Sept. 7 in the Lackawanna County Commissioners Cross Country Invitational at McDade Park in Scranton.
Wallenpaupack won the title with a score of 82. Abington Heights beat out Riverside for second on a tiebreaker after each posted a score of 110.
Pittston Area was sixth with 171.
Wyoming Area 15th out of 16 teams.
Wallenpaupack’s Aiden Janowicz won in 16:18.6.
Boettger finished in 16:45.6.
Jakob Mead from Pittston Area was 18th.
Jalen Moore was 44th, Geno Canfield 48th and Ryan Kosek 68th.
Wyoming Area was led by Colby Walsh in 28th.