Class AAA: Unionville ends the streak; PA have best year on national stage
In the past six seasons, there had only been two AAA girls champions, Emmaus and defending three time champions Pennsbury. 2013 was the chance to go for four. Sara Sargent may have graduated, but she left behind her sister Olivia and a very talented group of young runners. 4 in a row had never been done, but if any team had a chance to do it, it was Pennsbury.
An opening invitational win at PTXC 5 was a great start for the champions. That performance was followed by a close 78-90 win over District 7’s Mount Lebanon at the PIAA Foundation Meet in Hershey. September went well for Pennsbury. But the big matchups with Unionville were still to come in October.
Meanwhile, Unionville was ready to make a second attempt at the Falcons for the championship after coming close in 2012. For the core of the Unionville team, including champion Courtney Smith, this was their last shot at team glory. With all the talent and experience at their disposal, Unionville wasted little time showing how good they really were.
First, Unionville went to the 2 mile Cherokee Invite in New Jersey and had their top five inside the top 20 out of 100 plus schools that competed. Next up was the first of two trips to New York and the McQuaid Invitational. Lying in wait were the seven time reigning national champions Fayetteville-Manlius. Just how good were Unionville? A 45-78 win over the national champions led by a Courtney Smith victory sent shockwaves across the country. Was the sky the limit for Unionville?
Their 2nd trip to New York had a lot at stake. First, it was their rematch against Fayetteville-Manlius. Second, it was their first head to head matchup against the three time state champions Pennsbury. Would the momentum continue or would Pennsbury and F-M send Unionville back to earth?
Despite the 89-92 scoreline, Unionville still defeated F-M, while Pennsbury finished 4th. Unionville were on track for big things, but two more matchups with Pennsbury still remained. After the events of 2012, nothing was a certainty.
Unionville won the district 1 championship in 2012, only to miss out on state glory to the Pennsbury girls and their new black uniforms. In 2013, Unionville was very impressive at Lehigh, placing four in the top ten, and a 17:18 performance from Courtney Smith led to a successful title defense for the US#2 ranked team.
Next up was the final hurdle. The state championship meet had arrived. Could the undefeated Unionville team finish the task at hand or would Pennsbury dash their hopes and make it 4 straight? Pennsbury were at their best on that day, but Unionville matched Pennsbury runner for runner to come away with a 51-57 victory. Unionville had reached the top of the PA mountain and ended Pennsbury’s shot at a 4-peat. But next was the opportunity to reach greater heights.
Both teams entered the NXN Northeast Regional championship at Bowdoin Park. Pennsbury was looking to make it two NXN Finals in a row, while Unionville was doing the post state season for the first time. They may be rivals in PA, but at NXN, they were a strong 1-2 punch that proved to be too much for the rest of the region. A Courtney Smith gold medal winning performance led her team to the regional title, while the sophomore duo of Hannah Molloy and Olivia Sargent led Pennsbury to the runner up position. Both teams had earned the right to go to the NXN Finals, the first time PA ever sent two girls teams in the same season!
In the national championship race, Courtney Smith finished 10th and led her team to a 7th place finish, while Pennsbury finished 11th with Hannah Molloy leading the way.
The AAA division was once again dominated by district 1, as they accounted for 4 of the top 7 spots at states. District 7 had a strong 2013, with Mount Lebanon and Seneca Valley earning top five finishes. Cardinal O’Hara had the best finish for a district 12 school in their 6 year history in PIAA (6th), while district 3 had two teams in the top ten.
Class AA: A year-long return well worth the wait
In 2012, Dallas suffered a tough 3 point defeat at the hands of Palmyra at the state meet. The 12 month wait to get another opportunity to make up for the disappointment can drag on. November 2, 2013 couldn’t come soon enough for Dallas.
Dallas gave it everything they had in 2013. They brought back a majority of a top 7 that were on that runner up squad and they were led by state bronze medalist and Foot Locker finalist Regan Rome. Standing in the way of a state championship were Archbishop Wood, Villa Maria Academy, and the champions Palmyra.
Archbishop Wood were new to the AA division after spending five seasons in AAA. In 2012, they had their best ever finish in AAA (7th) and had won their first league and district titles for many years. With the core of that team intact, a move to AA couldn’t have come at a better time.
Villa Maria Academy were coming off a 4x8 AA state title and a 2012 fall with a very young team made up of mostly 9th and 10th graders. The talent started off on such a high that with improvement and experience, the sky was the limit.
Palmyra had a huge 2012-13, winning cross country and then shocking the state by upsetting the district 1 4x8s and winning the AAA championship. Two key members of that team had moved on to college. Could the champions find the runners to fill those spots and contend?
At the start of the season, Dallas, Palmyra and Villa Maria got out of the blocks well, while Wood stumbled in the early going. Dallas finished 2nd at the Cliff Robbins Invitationals behind AAA’s Council Rock North, followed by a 4th place finish at PTXC 5. They would not contest another invitational for nearly 6 weeks due to the heat cancellation of the Paul Short Run, making the stretch run even more important for them to perform well.
Palmyra won their first couple invitationals and then followed those up with a 4th place finish at Carlisle’s Champions race. The champions were in the hunt, but with plenty of work still to do.
Villa Maria made the biggest statement of all, finishing tied for 4th out of 60 teams at the Red White and Blue Invitational at Baldwin, trailing AAA powerhouses Mount Lebanon and North Allegheny for PA bragging rights. But a hurdle was hit on the way to the state meet thanks to a 4 point defeat to Archbishop Wood at the Foundation Invitational in Hershey, the boost Wood would need to get their season on track.
Wood would finish in the top three in their next four meets, including wins at Salesianum and District 12, and a runner up finish to Cardinal O’Hara on a tiebreaker at their league meet. Could Wood peak at the right time and win the title?
Villa Maria won the big Tri States invitational two weeks before the state championships, giving them huge confidence heading to Hershey. Dallas made it to states unscathed while Palmyra were nipped at the District 3 meet by York Suburban.
The state meet had arrived with no clear favorite. Dallas had redemption on their mind and their performance in Hershey was their best all season. Dallas had 4 runners score 9 points or less and they made what was supposed to be a close contest anything but. Dallas earned their long awaited state championship by nearly 30 points. Wood had their best ever state finish (2nd) and Villa Maria finished 3rd with no seniors. Palmyra was 7th with only one senior on the roster.
Class A: District 2 clash while a former powerhouse returns to the limelight
Historically, district 2 has been the best district in the old AA division in cross country. With the 2012 expansion to three divisions, was that dominance going to continue? Elk Lake emphatically said yes to that question, winning the 2012 Class A championship comfortably. Could the first ever Class A champions defend the title? Not if a local rival had anything to say about it.
Holy Cross came flying out of the gate in 2013 as a contender to the Elk Lake throne. Holy Cross started with a 3rd place finish at Cliff Robbins, one point behind Dallas and then gave Elk Lake a run for their money at the Foundation invitational, losing 58-60 to the champions.
Elk Lake had that victory and a strong performance at PTXC 5 to start their season, finishing 7th in the gold race. Dallas was the only team in front of them that was not a AAA school. Paul Short’s cancellation meant a rematch between Elk Lake and Holy Cross was going to have to wait until Districts.
In that rematch, Holy Cross showed no signs of race rust and came out the better of the two teams. Holy Cross used a 1-2-3 finish to take home the district title over the champions 26-42. Could Holy Cross do it one more time when it mattered most or would the champions regroup and come out stronger than ever?
Meanwhile, the former three time AA cross country champions, Central Cambria, were back after a 3rd place finish in 2012. 2013 was a season that brought in a big class of young, talented runners who looked set to bring the Red Devils back to their recent glory days. The inexperienced squad had a very good season, winning four races and finishing 2nd in two more, trailing only AAA teams. With no seniors on the roster, how were they going to handle the pressure of the big stage?
Three teams with a combined two seniors toed the line at the state final. Would Elk Lake defend? Would Holy Cross keep the title in district 2? Would Central Cambria return to the winners circle after a five year absence?
The trio of Tess Kearns, Mackenzie Greenfield, and Zoe Haggerty removed all doubt by scoring a combined 16 points and sent Holy Cross to the state title by 35 over their district rivals. The new Central Cambria finished 3rd for the 2nd year in a row, with three freshmen leading the way for the Red Devils.
District 2 kept the championship, it just went to a different school.
Individuals: One of the most talented groups in years
2013 was a year filled with unbelievable talent on the girls side. Runners like Courtney Smith, Tessa Barrett, Mady Clahane, Regan Rome, Marissa Sheva, Brianna Schwartz, Kennedy Weisner, and Elizabeth Chikotas were all back after great 2012-13 years. All that talent meant that special things were going to happen.
The headliner of the 2013 season was Tessa Barrett of Abington Heights. The senior was dominant virtually every time she stepped foot on a cross country course. Barrett went to Hershey and broke the course record not once, but twice, winning the state championship in 17:30 on a very hilly Hershey state course. Barrett then took her momentum to Foot Locker Northeast, where she went on to win the championship. At the Foot Locker Finals in San Diego, Barrett made history by winning the national championship, a first for PA, and the best way to cap off the best individual season in PA history.
Barrett wasn’t the only runner making noise in 2013. Shaler Area’s Brianna Schwartz made it to the Foot Locker finals along with Regan Rome of Dallas, who was making her 2nd straight appearance in San Diego. Kennedy Weisner of Elk County Catholic was taking on all comers and coming out on top, which included a championship at the Reebok Manhattan Invitational and PTXC 5. Elizabeth Chikotas of Saucon Valley took home the first ever state championship for her school in any sport after winning the AA crown, while Cumberland Valley’s Mady Clahane went a 2nd straight season without finishing worse than 5th in any PA race. Courtney Smith led her Unionville squad to the NXN finals and repeated as District 1 champion.
Because of all that talent, new stars developed and came to the forefront behind them. Western PA was boosted by the performances of Kelsey Potts and Jillian Hunsberger of Mount Lebanon, Madeleine Davison of North Allegheny, and Marianna Abdalah of Vincentian Academy. Potts, Hunsberger and Davison led their teams to top ten finishes at states, while Abdalah put herself on the map by ending the two year undefeated streak of Kennedy Weisner to win the Class A state championship.
In Eastern PA, Aislinn Devlin of Downingtown West was mixing it up with District 1’s best talent and succeeded at a high level, while Olivia Young and Kacie Breeding of Unionville represented the future for their program.
A future that can top 2013!
