DISTRICTS: D7 Upset | Milers Zoom+Repeats in D1 | Shearn-Stoner in D11 | Sweeps in D2 | Angel in D6

Game, set and match.

Not words you will hear often at a cross country meet. That is unless Maria Snyder is toeing the line.

The Northern Bedford junior secured her second berth in a PIAA championship this fall with a wire-to-wire victory in the District 5 AA meet. Earlier this month, Snyder won the district’s Class AA singles tennis title, upsetting the top seed in the final.

“I definitely wanted to (win),” Snyder said of her victory in 20:36. “That was my goal (after finishing second last year). I was very excited to win.”
As she does in tennis, Snyder plays “singles” in cross country, being the only girl runner representing Northern Bedford. She said running as an independent has its challenges.

“We don’t have a (full) guys team either, we only have three,” Snyder said of her occasional training partners. “Two of them play soccer so they only come to meets on Saturday. I ran with both of them this summer, and once they started soccer, there was another boy who came out. So I ran with him some.”

The winner said the course at Bedford County Technical Center compares favorably to the one she will run for the second consecutive year on Nov. 5.
“It’s a very tough hill,” she said of the climb the field took in the final mile of Wednesday’s race. “It’s very uneven, and it’s pretty hilly. This is the toughest course besides states for me.”

Snyder heads to Hershey with a solid record from a schedule chock full of quality invitationals. She was ninth at the Carlisle Puma Challenge, second to St. Marys Area’s Adair Gennocro at the Forest Hills Invitational and first in the Bear Mountain River Run at Lock Haven.

“We came up with our own schedule because I needed to run bigger invitationals against the better girls,” she said.

Last fall, Snyder finished 17th overall in the AA race at Hershey. In the spring, she was the runner-up in the AA 3,200-meter run in 10:56.86. She also made the final in the 1,600.

Her state championships weekend will be busier this year as she is scheduled for a first-round tennis match Friday morning (Nov. 4) at the Hershey Racquet Club. If she wins, Snyder is back on the court at 3 p.m. for the quarterfinals. The tennis semifinals and finals and the state cross country meet at the Parkview Course are Saturday, with the two tournament destinations only 6 minutes apart by car.

“I’m better at cross country,” she stated when asked to compare the two sports.

Carrie Baker of Bedford was second in 20:53, while Southern Fulton’s Macey Hollenshead (21:10), Hope for Hyndman’s Jalissa Snyder (21:29) and Southern Fulton’s Jenna Hollenshead (21:43) rounded out the top five. Samantha Coffman of Tussey Mountain grabbed the final state berth in sixth at 21:51.

Bedford claimed the lone team berth with 31 points, outdistancing Southern Fulton’s 47. The top two teams switched places from a year ago.
“We tried to pair them up and give them their target,” Bedford coach Michele Fisher said of her team’s race strategy in reversing last year’s team standings. “The last two meets here we’ve run really well, we have brought our times down on our course and we know this is the course where it has to happen.”

While the pack thinned early in the girls race, the lead group in the boys race stayed together through two miles. Collin Day of Meyersdale didn’t assume the No. 1 spot until the final half-mile of the 5,000-meter layout after he and Bedford’s Tanner Williams battled for the lead up the lengthy hill from the lower part of the course.

“I knew I had to push it,” Day said. “We worked on those hills a couple days ago, and I knew I had to push it there to get ahead.”

Surrendering the lead briefly to Jimmy Farnan of Chestnut Ridge, Day closed the fastest for the win in 17:46 and a six-second gap on Farnan. Williams was third in 17:54, while Jordan Wilt of Shanksville-Stonycreek (17:59) and Northern Bedford’s Seth Lingenfelter (17:59) and Michael Heck (18:02) rounded out the top six and the individual state qualifiers.

“It was a pretty quick start, but I felt good today,” said Day, who is shooting for the low 17:00s to be competitive on Nov. 5. “I made it (to Hershey) last year. It just feels good to get first this year.”

Somerset backed up last year’s district title with another. Led by Nick Bastian in seventh overall, the Golden Eagles put up 34 points to Meyersdale’s 76 and featured a 1-5 spread of just 39 seconds.

“As we’ve done all year, we have won more with pack running than having a lead guy out front,” coach Tom Minnick said. “We were 13-1 this year, and that was just how we’ve done it.”

- Quaker Valley dominated the AA fields by placing its scoring runners in the top 11 of each race. The Quakers won two championship trophies by a combined 267 points.

- Margo and Shannon Malone of North Hills dueled to the line in a 1-2 finish once again. With younger sister Mary just two spots back, the Indians put 46 points on the board in capturing their second consecutive AAA girls crown in District 7.

Then came the excitement from coach John Neff and PA#3 North Allegheny.

With senior Logan Steiner surviving a three-way battle for the individual title, the Tigers followed up with a 9-10-11 run that catapulted them to WPIAL gold, comfortably ahead of PA#2 Mount Lebanon and Central Catholic.

“It was really something special,” Neff said of his team’s 50-point performance. “That was one of my best days in coaching and I’ve been in coaching a long time. On a day like this, what’s supposed to happen on paper doesn’t always happen.”

PA#2 Mount Lebanon could not match the Tigers’ pack of six in the top 20 and 45-second spread for their top five. Senior Alex Moran’s eighth was best for the Blue Devils, who finished with 115 and only seven ahead of Central Catholic. Kiski Area put Brent Kennedy and Richard Lednak in the top 5 and grabbed the final team berth with 148 points.

As he did a week earlier in winning the Tri-State meet, Steiner went immediately to the front, slipping and sliding his way to an opening mile of 5:24. This time around, the North Allegheny senior had company in Central Catholic’s Mike Runco and Baldwin’s Andrew Kuchta.

“That was one of the most exciting finishes – from whatever school you are part of – that I’ve seen in a long time,” Neff said of the final sprint for the victory. “That was cool. Even if you didn’t have anything to do with Central or NA or Baldwin, you thought that was cool.”

With Steiner and Runco each taking quick glances over their shoulders in the final 400, Steiner had a little more left as his winning time of 17:04 was a second ahead of Runco and another tick ahead of Kuchta.

“We were looking for whoever was going to cave in first, who was going to go for it, who was going to start to sprint before the other,” Steiner said of the last-second looks. “We started our kick at the same time. It was way too early, but we recovered from that and then gave it our all coming in the final chute.”

Runco said the late blast for the finish was what he wanted to see.

“I was hoping to wait as long as possible,” he said of the timing of his final kick. “I knew they were going to try to sit and kick. I just wanted to see where Steiner and Kuchta were.”  

By Phil Grove

The season-long grudge match between Grove City and Cathedral Prep for Class AAA bragging rights in northwest Pennsylvania came down to the last mile of the District 10 championship meet.

The boys team race ebbed and flowed amidst ankle-deep mud before the Eagles locked up the lone berth in Hershey, thanks in large part to one of the state’s best runners and a rapidly improving freshman. Grove City claimed its second consecutive district title over the Ramblers by an 11-point spread, 36-47.

“Prep really goes out hard and fast,” Grove City coach Mike Sample said. “I knew they were going to try and draw us out and make us expend our energy at the beginning. I thought they almost had us there.

“They looked better than we did going into the second mile, but the guys held on. They held on. It’s one of those races you got to get out, but you got to hold on at the same time.”

Junior Daniel Jaskowak had company early on from a pair of Cathedral Prep harriers but began to gain some space at the front. A strong second half from Corry’s Austin Pondel closed the gap to about five seconds with a mile to go, but Jaskowak rebuilt the margin to 11 seconds at the line, 17:33 to Pondel’s 17:44.

“Today was terrible, you couldn’t escape it at all,” Jaskowak said of the thick mud. “You were just slipping the whole way.”

Cathedral Prep and Grove City then alternated finishers before freshman Aaron Benka led a run of three Eagles in 20 seconds that sealed the title. Sample said the newcomer’s effort was critical to the team outcome.

“(Aaron) really made a big jump, that was a huge step in the right direction for us,” Sample said. “I felt very confident after I saw him last week and what he was able to do in our region race. If he could repeat it here, I knew we had a real good shot.”

Prep coach Chet Moffett saw his team execute its pre-race plan but “soon after, it turned around.”

“My hat’s off to Grove City, they’re a well-coached team,” he said. “We’ve been battling each other for several years now. In 2008, they beat us by one point here. And last year, it was a great race.”

Sample said District 10 having just one AAA team in Hershey is unfortunate.

“(Prep) deserves to be at states more than any other team in western PA, except for those schools in the WPIAL,” he said. “In fact, they beat the third and fourth teams that qualified at WPIAL for states. That’s a tremendous program. I really think Prep should be there, but that’s the way the rules are.”

Richards Gets Wake-Up Call, Defends Title

Morgan Richards of Hickory defended her AA girls title, but it wasn’t easy. Getting a wake-up call from Sharpsville’s Dana Cerroni with about a mile to go, Richards turned a shrinking lead of a mere two seconds into a comfortable margin at the finish.

“I knew she was really close behind me,” said Richards, whose 20:50 clocking was nine seconds up on Makenzie O’Connor of General McLane. “I knew I couldn’t lose this race. It meant so much to me because it’s my last District 10 race. I surged a little bit.”

After a turn or two, Richards began to rebuild her lead as the field headed for the finish. The diminutive senior said the worsening conditions caused her to change her gait.

“I try to take shorter, choppier steps when it’s really, really muddy, and obviously on the turns I couldn’t run on the inside because it was so bad,” the winner noted.

With a fourth trip to the state meet assured, Richards is hoping to return to the form that placed her sixth as a freshman. She followed up with runs for 27^th and 24^th the next two years on the Parkview Course.

“I’ve enjoyed every trip to Hershey, but my last two years I haven’t performed as well as I wanted to,” she said. “I had a really great race freshman year, so I know what to expect. I hope to do better on the hills this year.”

Cerroni faded slightly down the stretch and finished third in 21:02, a great accomplishment in a season that had the senior wearing a cast on her right arm after being hit by a car in late August and breaking her wrist.

“The first thing I thought was I did all this summer training and I have a cast on,” the two-time state qualifier said of her immediate reaction after being clipped by a car while bicycling the short distance to cross country practice. “Everybody from my team and people that I work with all told me no matter what you are a strong runner. Just because you have a cast on is not going to hold you back.

“I had to keep training like I always did for when the cast came off. I was very determined to get that cast off in six weeks.”

Also returning to Hershey will be Dave Stolar’s Mercyhurst Prep squad. The Lakers claimed the title with 92 points, followed in the other two state spots by Villa Maria (120) and West Middlesex (152).

“I tell the kids anytime just be fearless, and when a course is this tough, you’ve got to be aggressive in that first mile because everybody will have a hard time moving later in the race,” he said of their strategy. “You better get out there, be fearless early, don’t worry what’s going to happen and then just hang on.

Senior Carly Vicary was first home for Mercyhurst Prep in fifth at 21:19. The state trip is the Lakers’ second consecutive as District 10 champions.

“After getting there last year, all the kids said, ‘Coach, I wish we would have been on that course before we got to states,” Stolar said. “So I promised them I’d take them back this year (for the PIAA Foundation meet) so hopefully we’ll have a better outcome. They were sixth last year, so we’re hoping for a top 5 finish this year.”

State Powers Battle to Tight Finish

With District 10 traditionally producing two if not three top-10 teams at the state meet, it was no surprise that a pair of the state’s top ranked AA schools were separated by just three points in Sharon.

PA#2 North East used a pair of runners – junior Ryan Smathers and senior Ben McAuley – in the top five to survive a three-second spread from West Middlesex’s 3-6 runners. The Grapepickers advanced to Hershey as the district champions with 88 points, with West Middlesex at 91 and Mercyhurst Prep at 146 also moving on.

“No, not at all,” North East coach Ted Miller said when asked if he expected as close of a race for the district title. “I didn’t think my fourth and fifth men ran very well today. We’ll deal with that Monday.

“I’ve been coaching 50 years, that’s the worst conditions I’ve ever seen for a meet. It was a cow pasture out there. I told them to try to hit the sides and not the middle part (of the course) where the ribbons are.”

While North East returned to the top spot after a year’s absence, Saegertown’s Nate Tallada closed out a three-year run as the AA’s best with an 18:01 victory. Sophomore Jeremy Parsons of Maplewood was eight seconds back after leading for much of the race.

“I really wanted to get three – my third District 10 title – so I’m glad I ran the way I did,” Tallada said. “Coming down the hill, I realized (Parsons) was better in the mud than me. My plan was (to pass him) on really good footing on a little uphill over there, and I buried him there just like I was planning on doing.

Tallada has high expectations for his fourth state meet appearance. “I want to get in the top 5,” said the senior, who has finished 12^th, 10^th and 19^th.

Simple Game Plan Leads Erie McDowell

Erie McDowell coach Becky Glus tried to keep everything business as usual prior to the AAA girls race. With one notable exception, that is – telling her team what to do if one of them fell on the slippery and muddy course.

“All that my assistant coach said to them this week – and he repeated it again today before they ran – if you fall down, get up as fast as you can. Don’t lie there,” she said.

Apparently, the Trojan runners didn’t need additional instruction as they put together two three-runner packs in the top 10 to run away with the team title and state berth. With freshman Kelsey Swantek first in 21:57 and a 59-second spread for its 1-6 runners, McDowell finished with 23 points to Meadville’s 67.

“Before she’d even run her first race, (Kelsey) said she wanted to go to the state meet,” Glus said of the race winner. “She won our alumni race, and she’s been first on our team the entire season. It helped push the upperclassmen to have this freshman out in front of them. It’s been such an amazing team effort, just outstanding.”

Despite her relative inexperience, Swantek has proven to be effective in achieving season goals.

“I had two goals – go to state as a team or individual and get under 20 minutes,” she said. “I got (20 earlier this year), and we made it to states as a team so I’m happy that I reached my goal.