The champions stayed the same from last year in AAA girls. Moon Area's Mia Cochran ran to her second straight title on the individual side finishing on top, capping off a dramatic couple weeks. The North Alleheny girls, meanwhile, won their third straight team title, beating a strong field of teams for the three-peat.
It was an interesting couple weeks for Mia Cochran, but ultimately it ended well for the Moon Area junior. She nearly didn't get the chance to run at the state meet after a classmate's positive COVID-19 test almost made it so Cochran could run at her district meet.
But Cochran was cleared at the last minute. She won her district, and on Saturday, Cochran won the state, too. Cochran went 18:28 for the win a Hershey, the fastest time of the day. Cochran handled the conditions well and ran to the win by 18 seconds.
Wilson's Caryn Rippey won the third heat in 18:46 to place second, clocking the second fastest time of the day overall. Northeastern's Margaret Carroll won the first heat, as she and West Chester Henderson's Jenna Mulhern both struggled with the heat coming down the stretch. Carroll ended up third overall in 19:01, while Mulhern was sixth in 19:20.
Greencastle-Antrim's Claire Paci was fourth in 19:08, a strong showing for the freshman breakthrough. She ran the fastest ninth grade time of the meet overall. North Allegheny's Keeley Misutka won the second heat in 19:10 to lead the NA girls to the win.
Tow other impressive freshmen were Bethel Park's Jenna Lang (seventh in 19:21) and Bensalem's Shana Kearney (eighth in 19:37).
The North Allegheny girls completed the three-peat, turning in a strong team performance to win the day and take home the top AAA girls trophy yet again. Misutka was a very strong No. 1 for the Tigers all season long and she took care of business at Hershey and winning her heat for a fifth place finish.
Freshman Eva Kynaston stepped up this fall for the Tigers, taking 23rd overall. Maura Mlecko was 40th, Alexa Sundgren was 42nd, and Rachel Hockenberry was 62nd for the other scorers for the Tigers. NA became the last team since Pennsbury (2010-2012) to win three straight team state titles.
While Misutka graduates, the rest of the top five is back and five of the top seven girls will return as NA goes for four-in-a-row in 2021.
Only nine points separated the next four teams in a very close team battle for the podium.
State College Area (73 points) placed second for the second straight year and the Little Lions made it six years in a row of placing inside the top five of the state meet. Jordan Reed's ninth place finish in 19:42 led the way for SC.
Two points back of SC was West Chester Henderson, which placed third with 75 points -- a strong showing for the District 1 champions. The Warriors had a trio of medalists, led by Mulhern's sixth place finish. Northeastern was fourth with 80 points, paced by Carroll. Emmaus had the slimmest gap in the field of just 1:02, and the Hornets took fifth with 82 points.