Individuals Preview
Photo by Don Rich
Aislinn Devlin won the District 1 Championship last season, outdueling Pennsbury's Olivia Sargent. But a week later, Sargent reversed her fortune and beat out Devlin is a classic back-and-forth.
Devlin enters her states in her senior year again as the District 1 champ, but she certainly doesn't want a repeat of 2015. The Downingtown West star is heavily favored to take the win on Saturday in the AAA Girls' race. She's in the best shape of her career, evidenced by her 17:12 mostly solo win at districts, a big PR for her. The Harvard-commit would certainly like to close out her PIAA XC career with a victory.
Photo by Phil Grove
So who, if anyone, can give a challenge to Devlin? The best bet looks like Clara Savchik of North Allegheny. The junior won at the PIAA Foundation Invitational in September coming off injury. Then she won at Tri-States and crushed the field at WPIALs to win in 18:00 on the challenging Cooper's Lake course in the wind and mud. She was 16th last year, but looks very fit and capable of a big race on Saturday.
Unionville's Anna Juul was third last season and proved she was in great shape rolling to a 17:40 at District 1 last week to take second to Devlin. The two will be teammates at Harvard next fall, but for now, they're still rivals. Juul is talented and well-coached and should be up their with the frontrunners.
There's plenty of talent coming out of District 3. Cocalico's Jamie Zamrin scored the upset win at Big Spring over the weekend and will hope to ride that wave into states. The two she beat at districts, Chambersburg's Abby Yourkavitch and Wilson's Alison Willingmyre, will be strong this week, though. Yourkavtich was 14th at states last year and she's definitely itching to improve on that. Willingmyre was fifth last year, running a great race. She is capable of another top five performance for sure.
Lauren Finikiotis of Oakland Catholic will be leading the top ranked team into the state meet, but surely she's got some individual aspirations as well. She was a distant second to Savchik at WPIALs, but she proved how fast she can be at Paul Short, running 17:49 in a tremendous race. If she can channel that kind of performance, a very high finish is in order (which will be a big help to the team, too!).
Photo by Bill Shearn
Abington Heights' Katie Dammer was seventh in AA last season, but now her team has made the move to AAA. She's a much better runner this season, though. She was fourth at Foundation is a good field and the District 2 champ will have her eyes on a high finish on Saturday.
District 1, as always, will be a strong group of individuals that should find themselves among the medals at the end of the day. After Devlin and Juul, Annie Glodek of Perkiomen Valley and Ariana Gardizy of North Penn both broke 18 minutes at districts. Both are team leaders of teams that will look for high finishes on Saturday. Glodek was tenth last season and Gardizy was 21st. Cheltenham's MaryGrace Rittler is in just her first season of XC, but she has really impressed. She was sixth at districts and has seen the state course earlier this season, so we'll see how she fares in her first XC state meet.
Emma Planck of Downingtown West should be up near the front. She was fifth in District 1 and a high placing will be crucial for her team's hopes. Pennsbury's Mary Webb was apart of a dominant Pennsbury squad from last year. She was only one of two returners from that team from last year, though. After injuries forced her to miss most of the beginning of the season, she looks fit and will look to finish strong like she did in 2015.
Cardinal O'Hara's Olivia Arizin was eighth last season at states. She's recently rolled to victories at Belmont Plateau, taking the PCL and District 12 titles. She'll be tested well on Saturday and the senior would definitely love to improve on her finish from last season. She has 2:06 half mile speed, which always comes in handy.
Others to watch for include Stroudsburg's Allana Powlette, Liberty's Rasia Kochmaruk, Souderton's Emily Bonaventure, Unionville's Madison McGovern, Hershey's Andrea Demko, Butler's Maggie Welty, and Upper Saint Clair's Savannah Shaw.