The Road to Hershey opened for traffic last Friday (Aug. 22) with the first official day of cross country competition. No one knows for sure in late August how the season will play out over the next 9 weeks, but there are several athletes and teams who likely will be in the conversation when action moves to Hershey on Nov. 1.
Smith Looks the Part in AAA Boys
Arguably, the most clear-cut favorite going into the 2025 XC season was Mifflin County senior Carter Smith. In his debut season in the sport, Smith endured just one big meet loss - a close runner-up finish at Mid-Penn Championships - before claiming the PIAA Class AAA title with a solid 15:41 clocking, the fastest of the day at Hershey.
Smith's standing in PA and nationally continued to climb during the 2025 indoor season as he turned in a 1:50.31/4:10.52 double in the 800 and 1,600 meters at Youngstown State before running a PR 1:48.66 in a hot NBNI 800 final. Outdoors in 2025, he spent more time miling and won the New Balance title in 4:01.20 after claiming the PIAA 1,600 in 4:01.54.
Lower Merion's Nicholas Mazzeo was a close second to Smith last fall before running a 15:02.34 5,000 indoors and a 9:08.78 2 mile outdoors in a solid track season. Others to watch this fall include State College's Theo Oppermann, Council Rock North's Matt Goslin, North Penn's Justin Landis and Penncrest's Rowan Carr, all top 10 finishers in 2024.
A year ago in Class AAA, State College utilized a sophomore-senior lineup to dominate the standings, finishing with just 53 points and a 65-point cushion on the rest of the field. Two of the team's four medalists in 2024 - Oppermann and Luke Bradbury - will only be juniors this fall as the Little Lions have a base on which to build for this year and next.
Or, will 2025 be the year that LaSalle College breaks through and walks off the awards platform with the championship trophy in AAA? The mark of consistency over the past decade, the Explorers have finished second in seven consecutive PIAA finals after topping the results in November 2017 via a tiebreaker and should challenge again out of District 12.
Meanwhile, Council Rock North led a parade of District 1 teams in the 2024 standings thanks to a lineup that included just one member of the Class of 2025. North Penn also has five expected returnees back from their top seven in the 2024 PIAA final.
Kraus, District 10 powerhouse lead AA Returnees
With just 10 senior girls honored as medalists last November, plenty of talented runners are scheduled to return in Class AA. Leading that group is Saucon Valley senior Virginia Kraus.
Moving up to AA and switching to Panther colors in 2024, Kraus claimed her third consecutive PIAA XC title by a wide margin after twice dominating in Class A for Moravian Academy. Kraus then won the Foot Locker Northeast Regional last fall before finishing 8th in the national final in San Diego to garner All-American honors.
Kraus also excelled on the track in 2025, winning the PIAA AAA 3,200, finishing third in the 3,000 at the Penn Relays and going sub-17:00 in the New Balance 5,000 to end her season. Those accolades add up to Kraus being a big favorite in AA.
The school that was known as Villa Maria through 2021 has now won two of the past three Class AA titles as Cathedral Prep, raising the total state championships claimed under the direction of coach Therese Brown to five. The Ramblers are expected to return their top four finishers from Hershey and six of the seven who toed the line for the PIAA finale, with now seniors Anne-Catherine Brown and Fina Bannister medalists a year ago to lead the AA state team champs.
Lewisburg is expected to return six from its PIAA lineup, including standout Baylee Espinosa. The senior won the 2023 XC title in AA and also has a pair of ninths at Hershey on her resume, along with a golden 4:48/10:18 double at Shippensburg last spring.
Others to watch in AA likely will include Somerset Area's Emily Fisher, Wellsboro's Lauren Kosek and Annie Moniz of Lower Moreland.
Can the Eagles fly high again in '25?
Since COVID, no team has been able to match what Grove City's boys have done. The Class AA Eagles are one of only two teams to walk off with a PIAA team trophy each year since 2021 and the only one to have champions hardware in that mix, winning by 60-plus points in 2022 and by more than 40 last year. A younger lineup than a year ago is expected from the established District 10 powerhouse, which likely will improve throughout the season.
The Class A champion in 2023, Annville-Cleona finished third as it moved up to AA a year ago. Oliver Funck led the Dutchmen in Hershey last fall, while classmate David Moran was the 800 champ in the spring. Three others are scheduled to return from last year's PIAA lineup for the District 3 team.
Individually, eight of last year's top 10 graduated, leaving only now junior Jonah Montagnese of Quaker Valley and senior Tyce Shaner of Hughesville as the top expected returnees. Montagnese also was on fire in the spring, winning the PIAA 1,600 and finishing sixth in the 800 and fourth in the 3,200, while Shaner was third in the 800 and sixth in the 1,600 at Shippensburg.
Top duo in '24 expected to lead in A girls
In Class A girls, the top two finishers are expected to return. Last November, now senior Claire Dufrene of Warrior Run took the lead in the final kilometer en route to a 19:04 performance on the Parkview course and 13-second cushion over then freshman Bella Ascherl of Forest Hills. Other expected returnees from last year's PIAA top 10 include Abby Rowland of Faith Christian Academy, Natalia Mavridis of Richland and Rudy Keddie of New Hope-Solebury. Thirteen of the Class A medalists in 2024 were non-seniors.
The Cranberry Area Berries used four underclassmen and three seniors to claim the Class A title last fall. Their lone medalist - now junior Beatrice Kolesar - returns to lead the District 9 team.
A pair of District 7 (WPIAL) teams - Our Lady of Sacred Heart (OLSH) and Winchester Thurston - each ran the state final last year with just a pair of seniors in their starting lineups. They were next in the standings and just a handful of points ahead of Regina Luminis, which ran the final with just one 12th-grader on the course.
Those four teams have the potential to be in the hunt for the big team trophy come Nov. 1.
Another strong year from District 7 (WPIAL)?
In Class A boys, District 7 almost always has a say in who claims the team trophy in Hershey. A year ago, Winchester Thurston claimed its fourth boys title since 2014, with district rival Riverview finishing just 16 points behind.
Five years earlier, the order was the same at Parkview as the Bears and Raiders again went 1-2. In between (and not counting the 2020 meet that limited qualifying teams and field size), teams from the WPIAL have occupied more than half of the top 5 spots in the final standings. Graduation losses were heavy for last year's top two squads, while Elk Lake did not have a senior on its final top 7 in 2024 and is scheduled to return three medalists.
With another race winner lost to graduation along with a total of nine in the top 13, the Class A boys race appears to be a wide open affair. Led by now junior Gabe Simkiss of Regina Luminis, the top four expected to return from last year were separated by just 7 seconds at Hershey so a fast race should develop, if Mother Nature does her part.
Slow and steady to win AAA girls titles?
More than half of last year's medalists in Class AAA girls had at least one more year in high school. With the 2024 champ (and other talented distance runners) now in the collegiate ranks, this race has the looks of a wide-open event.
The five expected returnees from last year's top 10 are now seniors and sophomores, with senior Ana Bondy of Carlisle looking to better her runner-up run in 2024. Tenth-graders Leah Navarro of Dallastown and Julia Kelly of Downingtown West also were within seconds of last year's champ and should have a role to play when the gun sounds in Hershey.
AAA runner-up Owen J. Roberts had five non-seniors on the starting line last year, while District 6 power State College, District 7's Norwin and South Fayette and Manheim Township from District 3 each had just one senior in their final top seven of 2024 and finished in the top eight of the team standings.
The Parkview layout has rewarded those individuals and teams who take a more "Slow and steady wins the race" approach. It's not often that a team is first at each of the checkpoints through the 5K course and shouldn't be expected in what should be a tight AAA team battle.
The Road to Hershey opened for traffic last Friday (Aug. 22) with the first official day of cross country competition. No one knows for sure in late August how the season will play out over the next 9 weeks, but there are several athletes and teams who likely will be in the conversation when action moves to Hershey on Nov. 1.
Smith Looks the Part in AAA Boys
Arguably, the most clear-cut favorite going into the 2025 XC season was Mifflin County senior Carter Smith. In his debut season in the sport, Smith endured just one big meet loss - a close runner-up finish at Mid-Penn Championships - before claiming the PIAA Class AAA title with a solid 15:41 clocking, the fastest of the day at Hershey.