09/13 |
Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational
Penn State University
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Photos by David Beyerle
![]() AAA boys 800 meter champion Zach Brehm of Carlisle is starting to show the rest of the state his wide range of distances he can excel in. On Friday, he took on the Penn State cross country layout and came out on top with a winning time of 15:46 to win by a small margin of 8 seconds over Griffin Molino of South Williamsport. Brehm nearly inspired his squad to the top of the team standings, but his Carlisle sqaud came up 7 points short of State College and their 46 second 1-5 spread 57-64. The winners were led by a 4th place finish from Will Cather and a 6th place finish from Chris Golembeski. ![]() For the girls, Mount Lebanon impressed for the 2nd week running. After a big victory at last week's Red, White and Blue Invitational at Baldwin, Mount Lebanon carried that momentum to Penn State and cruised to a big 61-144 win over State College. The winners were led by a runner up finish from Kelsey Potts (17:50) and a 4th place finish from Jillian Hunsberger (18:16). Cumberland Valley's Mady Clahane finished between the Mount Lebanon duo with a time of 18:09 and a 3rd place finish. |
University Park, PA RESULTS POSTED |
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09/13 |
Newark High School
Joi Carter of Governor Mifflin ran 20:34 to win the 9th grade girls race down in Delaware. Her teammate Nicki Heath finished 3rd in 22:03 with Kennet's Julia Sharp finishing 4th right behind Heath. Nicole and Kelly Moyer finished 2-3 for Governor Mifflin in the 10th grade race. Nicole ran 20:01 while Kelly ran 20:24. Teammate Hannah Mansell won the 11th grade race in 19:51. Bayard Rustin's Jess Delviscio (20:21) and Amber Hontz (20:57) finished 3rd and 4th respectively. Kellie Boyle of Kennett finished 5th in the 12 grade girls race in 21:10. Governor Mifflin won the team title with a score of 45 points with West Chester Rustin finishing 2nd with 32 points in the grade level invite.
For the boys, Brandon Hontz of West Chester Rustin won the 9th grade race in 17:44 ahead of Austin Maxwell of Kennett (17:57) and Josiah Mansell of Governor Mifflin (18:23). Jack Carmody of West Chester Rustin ran 17:11 to win the 10th grade race. West Chester Rustin finished 3rd in the team title race with 25 points ahead of Governor Mifflin's 4th place 22 points.
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Newark, DE RESULTS POSTED |
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09/14 |
19th Lackawanna County Commissioners Inv.
Holy Redeemer boys edged past Wallenpaupack and Valley View to take home the county team title 70-71-75. Holy Redeemer had their top three score in the top ten led by Korey Holby (8th) and Cameron Gill (9th). Wallenpaupack had a 1-5 spread of an impressive 35 seconds led by senior Brian Rose's 11th place finish. Jason Held led Valley View's team title push with a 4th place finish and kept them close. Individual honors went to Dominic Hockenbury of Lake Lehman, who ran 15:54 to win by 14 seconds of Lakeland's Nate Morgan.
For the girls, Wallenpaupack had a much easier time at the top of the race, cruising to the county championship over Pittston Area 45-85. Pittston had the individual winner in sophomore Tara Johnson, who ran 19:08 to win by 20 seconds over Wallenpaupack's Alyssa Lafave (19:28). Payton Padgett of Delaware Valley ran 20:18 to finish 3rd.
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Scranton, PA RESULTS POSTED |
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09/14 |
24th Bulldog Cross Country Invitational-Rose Tree Bulldog Invitational
Special to PennTrackXC by Tom Kennedy
Junior Kevin James shattered the meet record and led last year’s state team runner-up ~ Cardinal O’Hara ~ to a convincing win in their big meet debut at the Bulldog Invitational’s Large School Boys’ race in Rose Tree Park Saturday.
James’s 15:12.5 topped a strong race from senior Chris Cummings (15:30.7) of West Chester East. Both harriers eclipsed the meet record of Greg Thomas of Cardinal O’Hara (15:36.0), run in 2006. Last year’s top frosh finisher in the State AAA race ~ Jake Brophy of CB East took 3rd in 15:38.4. As has been the practice for the last several years, the Bulldog Invitational uses the “Floyd” course at Rose Tree Park, an alternative 5k design, different from the traditional course, that was first used in 1999 after damage from Hurricane Floyd temporarily blocked the park’s usual paths. O’Hara placed its first 5 runners in the top 9 of the race and 7 among the top 24. There were 112 finishers in this divisional race. Senior Jim Belfatto (15:46.2, 4th), sophomore Rob Morro (16:01.8, 6th), junior Drew Pastore (16:05.7, 7th), senior Nick Smart (16:11.3, 9th), junior Jack Nolen (16:41.5, 21st) and senior Christian Donnelly (16:46.3, 24th) rounded out the team win for the Lions. Although it was a cross country race, standout 800 meter runners shined in the Large School race. Half-milers Billy Caldwell of Downingtown East (16:08.7, 8th), Joe Logue of Pennridge (16:19.7, 11th) and Kyle Francis of Bensalem (16:21.3, 12th) mixed in good races with Eric Distelow of WC East (10th, 16:16) and Josh Smith of Avon Grove (15:53.2, 5th).
Small School Boys The Inter-Ac League was showcased in the Small School Boys’ race as Scott Mason (15:55.7) of Penn Charter grabbed the individual title and Malvern Prep (53 points) outdistanced Radnor (79) and Upper Merion (91) to take the team crown. Mason, a senior, held off a great 1-2 punch from Radnor ~ Connor Holm (15:59.3, 2nd) and Watson Hanson (16:06.3, 3rd). Malvern placed 5 runners in the top 20 in their team win, led by Jaxson Hoey (16:14.6, 5th) and Billy McDevitt (16:16.2, 6th). Austin Cooper of Upper Merion was 4th in 16:10.9.
Large School Girls
PA #8 CB East was impressive and efficient, winning the title with 40 points, and 6 girls in the top 18. Along with CB East, two unranked teams ~ North Penn (2nd, 85 points) and Cardinal O’Hara (3rd, 88 points) ~ upset PA #4 CB West (4th , 97 points). North Penn used 8th, 9th and 10th place finishes from Phoebe Clowser (sophomore, 19:02.9), Ali Valenti (junior, 19:11.6) and Brianna Mengini (senior, 19:16.7) to fuel their efforts. O’Hara were led by 5 runners in the top 27, getting top 20 performances from senior Amy Kelly (5th, 18:52.5), sophomore Grace Mancini (12th, 19:21.1) and freshman Sarah Hayes (19th, 19:44.8). Finishing behind Steinke, sophomore Elizabeth Huuki (2nd, 18:42.7) led the CB East team title charge. Backing her up were frosh Tate Dawson (4th, 18:50.8), junior Elizabeth Morris (6th, 18:57.4), frosh Hannah Morris (14th, 19:25.6), senior Louise Huuki (17th, 19:40.4) and senior Meaghan Willcoxen (18th, 19:42.2). Wissahickon sophomore Lohe Black took 3rd in 18:48.4. CB West was led by Maddie Villalba who took 10th in 19:18.1.
Small School Girls’ Race This divisional race was clearly black and white. As in Strath Haven. The PA #9 Panthers took the team title with 26 points behind 1-2-3 individual sweep. Runner-up Upper Merion scored 101 points. Haven harriers Abby Kennedy (senior, 1st, 19:24.2), Allie Wilson (senior, 2nd, 19:37.8), and Claire Wolters (junior, 3rd, 19:44.0) led the sweep. Samantha Snyder (senior, 10th, 20:33.1), Sara Peeleman (senior, 12th, 20:38.4),Caroline Lentz (junior, 16th, 20:49.3) and senior Christina Cheruka(20th, 20:55.7) ably backed up the dominating team effort.
PREVIEW Six top 10 PA teams at Rose Tree-including PA#3 O'Hara's debut...including PA #6 Pennridge, #10 West Chester East Boys and PA#4 CB West, #8 CB East and #9 Strath Haven... |
Media, PA RESULTS POSTED |
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09/14 |
Twin Valley boys were victorious for the 2nd invitational in a row, taking home the team title in a 25 team field with a score of 71 points to defeat Holy Ghost Prep by 16. Twin Valley were the only team to have their scoring five in the top 25 overall. Individual gold went to Quakertown's Alexander Balla, who ran 16:38 to win by 13 seconds over Parkland's Daniel Kyvelos. For the girls, Northwestern Lehigh survived a close finish over Perkiomen Valley and Parkland by a score of 81-85 -90. Both Parkland and Northwestern Lehigh had two in the top ten and Parkland even had the individual winner in Mikayla Stoudt (19:41). But Northwestern Lehigh had five inside the top 30 overall to come away with the win.
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Center Valley, PA RESULTS POSTED |
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09/14 |
Boardman
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Meet Feature and Photos by Phil Grove:
For each of the past three seasons, a team title at the Spartan Invitational was something North Allegheny always brought back on its lone road trip to Ohio.
This year’s journey to Boardman resulted in another championship for John Neff’s Tigers, although it didn’t come from his talent-rich boys’ squad. With Madeleine Davison running against the clock, the North Allegheny girls grabbed the Division I title, while the boys rested four of their top seven and traded a Boardman title defense for possible larger prizes come November. Sophomore’s Strong Move Leads to Victory
Moments after she reached the front of the nearly 300-runner pack, the sophomore kicked up the intensity and the speed on a lengthy straightaway. Nobody knew it at the time, but the race was now for second place. “She’s got the leg speed that she can handle it, she showed that in track,” Neff said of Davison’s ability to quickly put distance on the competition. “You just have to be careful against her. “She’ll open up a gap, and you think she might come back and she’s not going to. I have to take my hat off to her. She was awesome today.” Acknowledging that it was a plus to have a familiar face in Hampton’s Gina Alm near the front in the early going, Davison pulled away from Alm and early leader Alexis Szivan of Amherst Steele after covering the opening mile in 5:43. “I just kind of surged around the corner, and then I was suddenly like all by myself,” the sophomore said. “I was a little nervous then because I really didn’t know what to do.” It surely didn’t look that way to her competitors or the spectators lining the double-loop course as Davison suddenly was all alone with an ever-widening lead. She looked back with less than a mile to go but found nobody close enough to stop her from claiming her first invitational title. “She’s a coach’s dream to have on the team,” Neff said. “She does everything to the letter. She will do exactly what you ask. She gives you her opinion when she has it, but she’s never disagreeable, just a super great kid. She knows you have to do all of the little things to succeed here, and she’s willing to do them.” The end result was victory in 18 minutes, 22.6 seconds, a time worthy of the No. 8 spot on the invitational’s all-time top 10. “I saw my time at the 4K, and I didn’t really know what that meant because I don’t usually go by the kilometers,” Davison said of her performance. “I wasn’t sure how fast I was running, but I was really happy with the time.” With Davison in front, North Allegheny’s girls returned to the winner’s circle after claiming the top prize in 2010. The rest of the scorers for the Tigers – seniors Katie Guarnaccia, Caroline Bojarski and Caroline Cwalina, and junior Erin Keelan – were only separated by 13 seconds as they topped runner-up Nordonia by 31 points. Alm finished sixth overall in 19:29.3. NA Lineup Tweak Aimed at Late-Season Goals Having the opportunity to run against top teams from the Buckeye state is worthy of a special place on the North Allegheny schedule. However, an extravaganza attracting more than 5,000 runners doesn’t quite measure up to an affair on the first Saturday in November in Chocolatetown, USA. “We’ve sort of had this in mind from the beginning,” Neff said of holding would-be varsity runners out of meets during the 2013 season. “We want to come over here because we love coming here, and we wanted to give some of the guys the chance to run here and run in an unfamiliar environment and on something that’s like a flat track meet type thing. “But some of the guys don’t need that right now, and the whole team doesn’t need that right now. Having two meets in three days, if you have the horses that you can split it up a little bit, it’s wise and that’s what we’re doing.” Healthy scratches from North Allegheny’s roster Saturday were senior Cordon Louco, junior Hunter Wharrey, senior Nicholas McClure and junior Peter Savchik. Those four were Nos. 2, 5, 6 and 7 in a North Allegheny lineup that overwhelmed the competition at the Red, White & Blue Classic with a 1-7 spread of just 42 seconds. Junior Matt McGoey was eighth in 16:00.2, while classmates Seamus Love and Scott Seel were 15th and 16th overall in 16:25.6 and 16:27.6, respectively, as the Tigers were the first team to put three runners across the finish line. With four standouts taking the day off, North Allegheny could not hold off the field as Olentangy Liberty claimed the Division I title with 111 points to 147 for host Boardman and 150 each for Louisville and the Tigers. While Neff admitted that it was a difficult decision to put his team’s event winning streak at greater risk against several of Ohio’s top ranked Division I teams, he said resting some of his top runners was the right choice in the long run. “Winning the Boardman Invitational is a big accomplishment, and hats off to Olentangy Liberty. But winning a state meet is more important,” he said. Villa Maria Tops PA Entries in Division II Another team with a future in-state meet on its mind was Villa Maria Academy, which headed west as Pennsylvania’s preseason #2 in Class AA. They were up against the top Division II teams in Ohio in Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary and Bay. After a hard week of training, the Victors were no match for the Ohioans. St. Vincent-St. Mary and Bay each had three runners in the top 10, finishing with 44 and 58 points, respectively. Woodridge was next with 114, while Villa Maria had 121 for fourth. “We knew coming in that these teams are always so good, but we are running in the Foundation meet next weekend so this week we actually had a really tough week,” coach Therese Brown said. “I kind of pushed them hard. As much as we would like to do well here, we really have to focus on PA sooner or later. “It is such a great opportunity, and these Ohio teams are good. It’s good for (our team) to see teams like Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary. To run like a pack like that is huge.” As she did a year ago, Bernadette Prichard led Villa Maria, finishing fifth in 19:26.5 behind a pair of runners from the top two teams. As a freshman in 2012, Prichard was the race winner. “She’s grown a lot,” Brown said of Prichard. “She hasn’t had any interruptions in training.” FLASH SUMMARY: Madeleine Davison’s runaway victory powered North Allegheny to the top spot in the Division I girls’ race Saturday at the Spartan Invitational.
In the boys’ race, North Allegheny rested at least three of its top seven runners from the roster that dominated the Red, White & Blue Classic and saw its streak of consecutive titles in the Ohio invitational end at three. Olentangy Liberty was one of about a half dozen ranked Ohio teams in the meet and claimed the Division I title with 111 points, with host Boardman at 147 and Louisville and North Allegheny at 150. Matt McGoey led the Tigers in eighth, while Seamus Love was 15th and Scott Seel 16th. The Division I boys’ race provided the meet highlight as Mark Hadley of Boardman and 2012 Foot Locker finalist Nick Elswick of Chardon obliterated an 18-year-old meet record by more than 20 seconds in running two of the nation’s top times this season. Hadley won in 15:07.8, with Elswick nine-tenths of a second behind. In Division II, PA#2 Class AA Villa Maria Academy finished a solid fourth in a girls’ field that featured the top two teams in Ohio’s middle of three divisions. Sophomore Bernadette Prichard, who won at Boardman a year ago, was fifth in 19:26.5 to lead the Victors. Cathedral Prep’s Pat Kloecker was the top Pennsylvania finisher in the boys’ race, placing seventh in 17:02. |
Youngstown, OH DIVISION I BOYS RESULTS POSTED Videos
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09/14 |
Forest Hills Cross Country Invitational
Somerset boys held off up and coming Central Cambria 90-94 to win the boys title, thanks to having two in the top eight overall led by 4th place finisher Nick Bastian (16:26). William Kachman of Bedford ran an impressive 15:49 to hold off Bryce England of Williamsburg Community, who ran 15:59 to earn silver medal honors. For the girls, Central Cambria made up for their one point loss at PTXC 5 with a huge win, scoring 39 points to win by almost 90. Central Cambria had four in the top eight overall led by 2nd place finisher Samantha Koss. Koss ran 19:34, which was only seven seconds behind individual winner Arlee Simendinger of Penn Cambria (19:27).
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Sidman, PA RESULTS POSTED |
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09/14 |
George Gerber Junior High Invitational
Annville-Cleona
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Annville, PA RESULTS POSTED |
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09/14 |
Cedar Crest boys were a Jeffrey Inman 5th place finish away from a perfect score in their county championship. The Annville-Cleona junior finished amongst a group of seven Cedar Crest runners who were separated by 45 seconds 1-7 and 34 seconds 1-5. Their score of 16 points is one off a perfect score and they were led by a 16:09 winning performance from Willy Bragg. For the girls, Miranda Salvo (19:17) and Kelsei Bixler (19:20) of Palmyra finished 1-2 and led their team to a score of 23 points and the county championship.
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Lebanon, PA
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09/14 |
Chenango Valley
Athens boys were 17th behind freshmanJeffery Gao and juniors Kyle Grady Sam Perri. Junior Maria Hudock led Athens to a 14th place team finish.
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Chenango Valley, NY RESULTS POSTED |
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09/14 |
Commodore Perry
Fairview's 1-2 finish from indivdual winner Dan Wilcko (16:55) and runner up Nick Samsel (17:17) was not enough to overcome
Seneca for the team title. Seneca had five runners in front of Fairview's 3rd runner to earn a 20 point team title victory 66-86. Seneca's 1-5 were separated by a solid 56 seconds. For the girls, Hickory also managed to get the best of Fairview with their own 1-2 finish from champion Jackie Abraham (19:57) and Lexi Bible (20:24) and five in the top 30 overall. Hickory finished with 51 points to win by 25. |
Hadley, PA RESULTS POSTED |
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09/14 |
Penn State Great Allegheny Invitational
Greater Johnstown
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, PA COLLEGIATE RESULTS POSTED |
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09/14 |
Penn State-Behrend Invitational
Penn State-Behrend
Mercyhurst Prep took home both the boys and girls team titles in comfortable fashion. The boys scored 20 points boosted by a 1-3-4 finish from Sebastian Curtin (16:05), Noah Curtin (17:11) and Nick Scrimenti (17:14.4). The girls scored 28 points to earn a 23 point victory over Iroquois, led by a 2-3 finish from Taylor Pletz and Henley Spracklen. Brooke Phelps of CASH won the girls race in 20:20.
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Behrend, PA RESULTS POSTED |
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09/14 |
Pittsburgh Central Catholic boys traveled to New York and came home with a team title trophy, scoring 63 points to defeat Lockport by 29. The winners were led by a 3-4 finish from Jeff Van Kooten (16:31) and Kyle Zenchak (16:39).
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Bemus Point, NY RESULTS POSTED |
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09/14 |
Slippery Rock University
Mount Lebanon's boys had a 2-4 finish from Patrick Quirk (16:47) and Todd Gunzenhauser (16:55) and a 1-5 spread of a solid 40 seconds to cruise to the team championship over South Fayette 65-147. South Fayette did have a 3rd place finish from Joncarlo Patton (16:54). The individual crown was seized by Carter Smith of Eden Christian Academy. The senior ran 16:40 to outpace the field by 7 seconds for the victory. For the girls, Seneca Valley had three in the top ten and a 1-5 spread of 48 seconds to win the team title over Hempfield 62-192. Freshman Marianne Abdalah of Vincentian Academy earned the gold medal with a solid time of 18:27 to win by 28 seconds over Alexis O'Shea of West Allegheny.
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Slippery Rock, PA RESULTS POSTED
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09/14 |
West Seneca West
Grove City boys made their own New York getaway and had a similar outcome to Pittsburgh Central Catholic. The Western PA school came away with the team title in the Large School B race with a score of 65 points, 20 points clear of the field Grove City were led by a 1-2 finish from champion Aaron Benka (16:27) and runner up Ryan Budnik (16:45). The Grove City girls finished 3rd with a score of 80 points, only 31 points behind the team title winners. Grove City were led by a 5th place finish from Mary Jaskowak (19:26).
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West Seneca, NY RESULTS POSTED |