Olivia Haas solo'd her way to a state title in AA girls, the first state win of her career. The Warrior Run girls were dominant en route to the team title by a wide margin, continuing what's been a terrific last four years from the girls from District 4.
Olivia Haas knew the deck might be a little stacked against her on Saturday. Haas was the big favorite in her heat, the second of the four heats in AA girls, and she wouldn't have much in the way of competition to push her throughout the race. Because she qualified with her Blue Mountain team, Haas was in one of the two "team heats."
She was right; Haas easily won the second heat by over a minute and a half. But in the end, her time of 18:56 was more than enough to give Haas the state title. Haas, who fourth last year in the loaded AA classification, moved up three spots to No. 1 in 2020.
The fourth heat, which figured to be the most competitive, as far as race favorites was concerned, did produce the second fastest time. Jolena Quarzo of Brownsville Area won that heat in 19:38, and that time netted her a second place overall finish. Meaera Shannon of Conneaut Area was second in the fourth heat and third overall in 19:45, but the senior struggled to the line. North Schuylkill's Cori McCormick, who was among the pre-race favorites and beat Haas a week earlier for the District 11 title, did not finish after leading past the two mile mark due to the heat.
Korie Dixon of Bradford Area, just a freshman, made an impressive state meet debut, taking fourth overall in 19:49. Lauren Trapani of Warrior Run was a runaway winner in the first heat, taking fifth overall in 20:04.
It wasn't hard to tell that the Warrior Run girls were in for a strong showing in the team standings on Saturday. In the first of two team heats, Warrior Run took the top two spots and five of the top six spots in that heat.
Led by Trapani's heat victory and fifth overall finish, a host of other blue jerseys came to the finish not long after. Alyssa Hoffman earned a medal, taking 17th in 20:44. Three others took home top 40 finishes. Sage Dunkleberger was 35th, Sienna Dunkleberger was 37th, and Alanna Ranck was 40th.
The second heat was no match for Warrior Run, which scored 40 points to win by 37 over second place.
Central Cambria, the District 6 champions, took second place with 77 points. Annaliese Niebauer (16th) and Stella Kuntz (20th) were state medalists for the Red Devils. North Catholic, which earned its spot in states by winning WPIALs, was third 117 points. The Haas-led Blue Mountain girls were fifth, and Saint Marys Area was fifth.