This past weekend, the Mid Penn Championship featured District 3 and District 6 teams on the wet hills of the Big Spring XC Course. Amongst the storylines were individual wins by Vinay Raman (Hershey) and Claire Paci (Greencastle-Antrim), but the talk of the town was the impressive sweep by the State College teams.
State College Boys look Invincible
Above: Watch the Boys Mid-Penn Championship Race
On the boys' side, PA #2 State College looked invincible. Isaac Oppermann, Theo Oppermann, Samuel Endres, Owen Coughlin, and Stephen Fowler all finished inside the Top 10. Further, they notched an 18-second compression with a 16:16 average.
State College outscored PA #7 Hershey and PA #16 Chambersburg 32 to 70 and 71.
Per usual, the quintet ran with each other for the entirety of the race on Saturday. They were inseparable and locked at the hip despite the torrential downpour that scoured the race's second half.
Realistically, that'll be their key to state title contention. They have the best compression in the state and need to run with each other to negate low sticks from opposing teams.
State College Girls Get the Job Done
Above: Watch the Girls Mid Penn Championship Race.
On the girls' side, PA #14 State College took care of business and scored an 85-98 win over Chambersburg.
Devon Jackson and Chloe Poindexter were instrumental in the team victories, finishing in third and fourth. Then Devyani Wadhia, Julia Bigger, and Abigail Bigger closed out the scoring for State College. They all finished inside the Top-38.
The team's compression of 1:59 certainly left more to be desired, but the average of 20:02 was encouraging. The team will look to carry its momentum into next week's District Championship.
Individually, Vinay Raman's and Claire Paci's victories were underscored by their abilities to front-run.
Paci took the lead from the first mile, while Raman overtook Hayden Parks (Greencastle Antrim) around the halfway mark. Paci crossed the line at 18:35.80, while Raman won at 15:54.20.