CHAPMAN LAKE – Wyoming Area wrapped up its most successful boys cross country season in more than a decade by using excellent balance to finish sixth out of 20 Class 2A teams in Wednesday’s District 2 Championships at Lakeland High School.
The Warriors had just a 45-second spread from their first to fifth runner, the second-best bunching in the field behind only unbeaten team champion Holy Redeemer.
Holy Redeemer won the team title with 27 points after placing five runners in the top 10.
Abington Heights earned the second state berth for the district with 78 points.
Lakeland took third with 138, followed by Dallas with 173 and Lake-Lehman with 177.
Wyoming Area put up a score of 211, 15 lower than seventh-place Scranton Prep.
The Warriors were the only team in the top seven without a state qualifier or medalist. Their success came from the balance of getting their team score from five runners between 29th and 54th in the 139-runner field.
Michael Branley led the way in 29th, completing the muddy, 3.1-mile course in 18:57.8.
Jacob Katulka was 35th, Kyle Emsley 42nd, Grant Smith 51st and Nicholas Katulka 54th.
They made sure Wyoming Area finished in the top half of the field for the first time since it was a Class 3A team in 2009.
By beating 14 team in Wednesday’s team standings, Wyoming Area finished ahead of more district opponents than in the previous seven seasons combined. Since 2013, the Warriors had been 12th of 14, 15th of 17, 15th of 16, 18th of 18 and 15th of 18.
The district success followed up a 14-4 Wyoming Valley Conference record from a program that had been 5-13 each of the previous two seasons and had only one other winning record in the 2010s.
Pittston Area finished ninth with 260 points.
The Patriots were led by Dominick Angradi in 22nd place.
David Bulford was 34th, Kyle Mlodzienski 55th, Nathan Ridgley 68th and Peyton O’Boyle 81st.
The day’s highest individual performance from the Greater Pittston teams came by Pittston Area’s Nicole Zambetti, who was 12th out of 56 in the District 2-4 Class 3A girls field.
Zambetti earned her second straight district medal. The top 10 District 2 runners receive medals and two of the runners ahead of Zambetti were from Williamsport in District 4, making her the 10th runner from District 2.
The Lady Patriots were seventh of eight in the team standings.
Wyoming Area did not have enough runners to score as a girls team.
Aubriana Marranca was best among the school’s four entries, placing 35th of 95 in Class 2A girls.
