Photo by: Jackson Polin
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Cross-country in PA is in full swing now, with most teams opening their season this past weekend with one of the many big invites. The top story from the weekend has to be Luke Bradbury of State College 06 running 15:01 to win the Big Valley Invite in dominant fashion. Some other noteworthy performances from Big Valley were State College scoring just 30 points to win the meet while missing their #1 runner, Theo Oppermann. On the girls' side of things, Chloe May ran 17:48 for a 30-second win, and the State College girls team scored 50 points for the team win.
At the Northampton Invite, Gabe Simkis won the meet in 15:43, and Perkiomen Valley won the meet overall with 77 points. On the girls' side of things, Faith Castronuovo ran 18:13 for the win, and Dallastown Area won the team title with just 57 points.
At the Abington XC Invite, Silas Ronsenfeld ran 16:34 for the individual win, and Council Rock North scored just 30 points for the team title. Kiera Werner ran 20:29 for the win on the girls' side, with Abington taking home the team title with 49 points.
At the Lock Haven Invite, Parker Upright took home the individual victory in 15:45 and Brookeville Area scored 63 points for the team win. Isabelle Sanders took home the individual title on the girls' side in 17:56, and her twin sister placed second. The Williamsport girls would take home the team title with 29 points total after the 1-2 finish up front.
At PTXC 17, Tyler Tomlinson would take home the individual title in 16:37 and lead his team to victory, with Central Bucks East scoring just 27 points. Julia Leady would dominate the girls' race, running 18:38 for the win while Chambersburg would win the team title with 46 points.
With cross country being so hard to judge because every course is different and time is less relevant than on the track, and place matters much more, it's almost impossible to compare athletes and rank them based on time alone. You would have to also take into account course difficulty and the competition that each athlete raced. With that being said, we are still going to rank them based on who we believe to have the single best performance of the weekend. On the boys' side, I think it undoubtedly has to be Luke Bradbury, who ran a new PR and PA #1 time of 15:01. On the girls' side of things is gets a little more difficult, but I think the top performance of the weekend has to be Isabelle Sanders, who ran 17:56 for the win at Lock Haven. Even though she didn't have the fastest time of the weekend, the Lock Haven course is objectively more difficult than Big Valley. Overall, all of the athletes in PA had a great weekend, and we could not be more excited that cross country is back in PA.