MESHOPPEN – Bella Dessoye waited anxiously, uncomfortable with projections and in need of the confirmation that came with official results.
When the results of the Class 3A girls race were finally posted Wednesday, after a wait that lasted nearly as long as Dessoye’s trip around the 3.1-mile Wyoming County Fairgrounds course, Dessoye burst into tears.
The Pittston Area sophomore learned that she had indeed qualified for the final available individual berth at Saturday’s Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Cross Country Championships.
Dessoye had already made the Hershey trip once, qualifying as a freshman, but changes in the Class 3A field this year had made her uneasy before, during and after the race.
“It’s really stressful; really, really stressful,” Dessoye said, still fighting back the tears.
Abington Heights, a state runner-up and unbeaten Lackawanna League champion, was still loaded. Crestwood, the unbeaten Wyoming Valley Conference champion, had won three straight District 2 titles and now was back in 3A, moving up from Class 2A where it had competed the past two seasons.
Only one team could go to the state meet, so Dessoye knew the other would be a factor in claiming the five individual berths that go to the best runners from teams other than the champion.
“They kept saying I was in, but I just didn’t believe it until it was official,” Dessoye said. “I was just really tired. I was stressed about it. I really wanted to get to states, but since Crestwood is in our (classification) now, it makes it tougher.”
Dessoye, fourth a year ago, battled late in the race with Calli Gilboy from Abington Heights.
Gilboy “really killed the last hill,” according to Dessoye who had to settle in behind her in ninth place. Fortunately for Dessoye, Gilboy’s teammates took care of completing the team victory over Crestwood 32-41 so that spot did not make a difference.
Dessoye’s time of 20:16.4 earned her a district medal and made her the second-highest finisher not from one of the two unbeaten conference champions. She was fifth among those chasing the individual spots, joining Crestwood’s three top runners and Hazleton Area’s Milana Daiute, who was the runner-up in the field of 52.
Anna Pucilowski won her second title in three years to lead the way for Abington Heights.
Olivea Scalese, a state qualifier in 2022, improved 43 seconds and moved up one place from her finish a year ago to wind up 11th for the Lady Patriots. She missed a medal by one place.
Pittston Area finished fourth in the field of seven teams with 106 points.
Elinor Schardien was 26th.
Class 3A boys
The Pittston Area boys finished seventh in a 10-team field in Class 3A.
Wallenpaupack posted a winning score of 47, beating out Hazleton Area with 50 and Abington Heights with 58. The Patriots finished t 183, two points behind sixth-place Scranton and one in front of eighth-place North Pocono.
Jakob Mead led Pittston Area, finishing 17th out of 68 in 18:06.7. Albert Schardien was 33rd.
Aidan Janowicz finished first, leading Wallenpaupack to the title.
Class 2A boys
Wyoming Area finished seventh of eight teams.
Mid Valley beat out Crestwood 50-68 for the team title and both qualified for the state meet.
There were 10 individual berths available for the state meet, but Wyoming Area’s Colby Walsh, who was 18th overall out of 69 finishers, missed that by one place.
Walsh finished in 18:25.6. There were seven runners from the two state qualifying teams in front of him.
Class 2A girls
Kierstyn Orlandini was 47th out of 77 finishers, representing Wyoming Area, which did not have enough runners for a full team.
Dallas won the title 71-74 over Valley View, which also qualified for Hershey.
Madison Hedglin from Dallas won her third district title. The only time she came up short was in 2022 when she finished behind Wyoming Area’s Madelyn Keating.
Class A boys
Elk Lake used the 1-2-3 finish of Kendel Jones, Cody Adams and Parker Upright to win the team title 57-74 over Lakeland.
The Chiefs also made the state meet.
Old Forge was last in the 13-team field.
Class A girls
Old Forge was last in the eight-team field, but Lady Devils sophomore Elena Bialkowski ran the course in 23:29.0 to take 19th place out of 66.
Elk Lake won with 43 points. Holy Cross edged Mountain View 87-89 for the second state berth.
Emily Black from Lakeland won by more than 30 seconds.
