Foot Locker Northeast Championships (Seeded Race Results Posted)
Girls
Brianna Schwartz of Shaler Area kept the Foot Locker Northeast championship in the state of PA for the 2nd straight season and for the 3rd time in the past four seasons! The senior and Colorado signee maintained her perfect record for the season by defeating fellow All American Hannah Debalsi from Connecticut to win in 17:35, 15 seconds better than the field! Schwartz has not run slower than 17:48 all season, and that was in her first race of the season 6 weeks ago. Schwartz and Debalsi will be looking to earn back to back All American honors by finishing in the top 15 on December 13!
Schwartz will be far from going to the meet alone, as three more of PA’s elite female runners will be joining her on the plane to San Diego in two weeks. Training partner Madeleine Davison of North Allegheny earned another top five finish in her incredible season by finishing 4th in 17:53.6.
Marissa Sheva of Pennridge was the 7th and final runner in the field to break the 18 minute mark today, running 17:58.7 to earn her first trip to San Diego.
After struggling to hang tight to the state’s best for most of the season, Kelsey Potts of Mount Lebanon managed to hold on with the rest of the state’s elite this time around to earn a trip to the finals with an 8th place finish. Marianne Abdalah of Vincentian Academy finished as the top sophomore in the field with a 13th place finish.
Pennsylvania finished the day with the title of best state in the Northeast with a score of 29 points to beat Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York!
Boys
The boys race did produce two qualifiers, but it also produced several close calls from some of the state’s best on what has been a banner season for the males of PA.
For the first time in his career, Casey Comber of Hatboro Horsham finished ahead of AAA state champion and state course record holder Jake Brophy of Central Bucks East. For his efforts, Comber finished 4th in the Northeast Regional to qualify for the Foot Locker Finals in two weeks with a time of 15:36.4.
Brophy did well to stick with Comber to finish 5th, a full second behind Comber, to earn his first trip to the Foot Locker Finals as the top junior in the field!
Behind them was a 14-15-16 finish of some of PA’s best who were still inside the top ten with under half a mile to go. Paul Power of Spring Ford (15:53.3), AA state champion Dominic Hockenbury of Lake Lehman (15:53.7), and state leader Colin Abert of Easton (15:56.9) earned 2nd team all-region after battling in a big crowd of 15 runners for nearly the full 5000 meters. Hockenbury finished as the 3rd best junior in the race.
For their gutsy efforts, PA finished 2nd in the Northeast Region state team standings, trailing New York by just 2 points, 52-54.
Nike Cross National Northeast Regional (Results Posted)
Girls
The strategy put in place from the start of the 2014 season by the defending NXN Northeast champions Unionville girls paid off with massive rewards!
Despite missing out on a repeat state championship, Unionville managed to successfully defend their NXN Northeast championship with an emphatic performance that sent shockwaves through the region. Led by a bronze medal finish from 1st team all-state runner Olivia Young, the champions placed five in the top 39 overall places to score a total of 84 points and defeat the field by a whopping 60 points! They did it the Unionville way, with the team making a huge push in the last third of the race that got everyone else by surprise! The top five all finished under 20 minutes for the race!
District rivals Pennsbury got a gold medal winning performance from their superstar Olivia Sargent. The junior ran 18:18.2 to cruise to her first career Northeast regional title by nearly 20 seconds. She will be making her 3rd straight appearance to the NXN finals. Unfortunately, her performance was not enough to carry her team to a return appearance to the NXN Finals, as her squad finished 6th with 179 points. Cardinal O’Hara girls did well and improved on their first ever NXN Northeast appearanceby from 16th to 10th with 275 points, led by a 20th place finish from Liz Mancini.
Aislinn Devlin of Downingtown West will also be joining Sargent and the Unionville girls in Portland after finishing 6th in the race with a time of 18:52.5!
Boys
AAA team state champions North Allegheny continued their impressive late season form with a 3rd place finish in the boys Northeast Regional race with 193 points! Matt McGoey led the squad once again with a 15th place finish in 16:27.6 to lead a 60 second spread from their 1-5. Cardinal O’Hara finished 7th with 253 points, and they were led by Kevin James, who finished 4th overall with a time of 16:05.9, making him the first PA male athlete in the history of NXN to qualify for three NXN Finals in a career! Aaron Gebhart of New Oxford cracked the top ten with his performance of 16:20.4.
Conestoga finished 12th with a score of 343 points, with Andrew Marston leading the way in 16:50. Downingtown West finished 13th with 362 points, while Henderson finished 16th and Germantown Friends finished 23rd.
