Berks County Championships
The Wyomissing boys and girls teams took the Berks County Championships, the girls for the third straight year. Defending AA state champs, the girls cruised with just 33 points (1-4-6-8-18), 40 fewer than Governor Mifflin. Amy Huss led the team with her 19:05. Sister Debbie was 4th, 31 seconds back. The Wyomissing boys had it a lot tougher, tallying 115 points, just 14 better than Wilson and Exeter, both with 129. It was their second in a row, and third overall (1996). Conrad Weiser's Chris Muldoon took the championship with his 16:39.
Race Descriptions by Dorothy & Paul DeLong, parents of former Wyomissing runners
SPARTAN BOYS, SPARTAN GIRLS AND AMY HUSS ARE BERKS CHAMPS AGAIN
Boys Race: The boys team race was a war between 9 closely matched teams( Boyertown, Conrad Weiser, Exeter,
Kutztown, Oley Valley, Reading, Twin Valley, Wilson and Wyomissing). The gap in scores between 1st and 9th
was only 64 points, which has to be some kind of record. In addition, Wyo's 5th runner displaced all of the other
rival team's 6th runner except for Kutztown and Oley Valley and the Lynx were the 9th place team. This parity
between teams is the reason why the winning score (115) was so high. The individual race was extremely exciting
as well - mainly due to a mercurial performance from a dark horse runner from Governor Mifflin, who had been
injured most of the season.
The race: Within 100 meters after the starting gun, Gov. Mifflin's Greg Linsky rocketed into the lead. At this
point, he merely looked like an early rabbit. By the gap in the trees at the 300 meter mark, Linsky led by 10 meters.
Race favorite Chris Muldoon of Conrad Weiser had gotten swallowed up by the pack in the initial stampede and was
off to a terrible start. At this point he was in about 25th place, but moving up the side. By the 3/4 mile mark on the
first long hill, Linsky now led by about 20 meters. The chasing pack was led by the Twin Valley trio of Shawn
Moore, Ryan Dunlap, and Nick Patterson and then Darnel Kulaga of Reading. Muldoon was still only in 7th place.
Wyo's Paul Stoltzfus and Josh Vanderveen were running together in 9th and 10th place. The next three Wyo
runners (Zach Snyder, Dan McMunigal and Jason Meader) were spread between 30th and 50th. Linsky continued to
fly down the hill by the Kutztown softball fields. He entered the corn rows/pine tree gauntlet with almost a 40 meter
lead!! Was he committing early suicide? At this point Muldoon had mustered himself up to second and was running
side by side with Kulaga. This duo began their assault on Linsky. By the hill at the end of the gauntlet, Linsky's
lead had been pared to 20 meters. The Twin Valley trio had been broken up and two of the three were fading back -
only Moore remained in 4th. Stoltzfus and Vanderveen were still running together, but had moved up to 5th and 6th
place respectively. Cries from the crowd rang out to Linsky - "Here comes Muldoon!" Surely, Linsky would crack
now. However, he kept his pace steady and it took Muldoon another 1/2 mile to pull even with Linsky right in front
of the Kutztown State classrooms. Kulaga trailed by 15 meters in 3rd. Muldoon continued to apply the pressure, but
Linsky would not crack. He clung onto Muldoon's heels, like used chewing gum stuck to the underside of a
classroom desk, for the next 600 meters. Finally, on the last hill at the end of the second time through the gauntlet,
Muldoon gained a gap. Muldoon continued to steadily pull away all the way to the line. He won by 30 meters - a
smaller winning gap than expected - but a fine victory nevertheless. Linsky, who had the best race of his life as well
as the surprise performance of the day, took 2nd, barely holding off Kulaga, who was 3rd. Moore was 4th.
Stoltzfus finished strong in 5th with Vanderveen 6th. Dunlap was 7th and Tai Fennel of Wilson was 8th to complete
the All-County team. Then came the confusion of who was going to win the boys team race. Twin Valley had 3 in
the top 15, but then what? There were a lot of red jerseys whizzing in by the finish line in packs. Was all that red
Wilson or Reading or Boyertown or Nebraska (oops, that's college football)? Exeter seemed to have a lot of well
placed runners. And so did Conrad Weiser. When it all settled out, the performances of Wyo's #3, #4 and #5
runners of Snyder, McMunigal and Meader proved to be the difference. They all hung tough. They all passed
several runners in the stretch. They finished 31st, 34th and 42nd respectively. Wyo's #6 P.J. Morse and #7 Jon
Tuke and helped by displacing other teams #6 and #7 runners. The Spartans had won the war. They were Berks
County Champions again. A gutty performance by the Wyo boys - all seven deep. Wilson was 2nd. Exeter 3rd,
Twin Valley 4th and Reading 5th.
Girls race: Mifflin's Nicky Stoyer sprinted to the lead in the first 100 meters. By the time the head of the pack had
reached the gap in the trees at the 300 meter mark, the Huss twins had restored order and they led the field thru the
gap and past the water tower. At the 3/4 mile mark as the girls went up the long hill at the far side of the course,
Amy Huss took charge. Sister Debbie trailed by 3 meters and was visibly struggling to match Amy's pace. 10
meters further on was the chase pack consisting of Fleetwood's Nikki Angstadt, Tulpehocken's Desiree Bower,
Hamburg's Adrienne Beltz, Stoyer and Wyo's Ashley Iwanowski among others. When the girls circled into the long
gauntlet between the corn rows and the tall pines for the first time, Amy had established a 30 meter lead and was
running with the familiar Huss stride. Debbie had drifted back to lead a shrinking chase pack of herself, Bower and
Beltz. Usually the Huss twins have mirrored powerful strides, but today Debbie wasn't running the same. At first it
looked like she was slightly injured somehow, but later after the race she said that injury wasn't the problem, rather
that she never felt good and her legs felt heavy. Debbie was just having an off day - the proverbial "bad day in the
Alps". Nevertheless, Debbie led the small group for the next 100 meters, where Bower took over the pace-chasing
duties up the short sharp hill and under the water tower. Here Angstadt had drifted back to fifth and was also
looking more sluggish than her usual self. Iwanowski was running smoothly in sixth by herself and Wyo's Karen
Rogers was in eighth right on Stoyer's heels. The order of this top eight would basically stay the same the rest of the
way. Meanwhile at the front, Amy was steadily pulling away like a powerful locomotive. Bower would put forth
surges to try to close the gap, but she would never gain any ground on Amy - and Beltz and Debbie H. would hang
right with her like tetherballs. Finally, on the second time up the short steep hill at the end of the corn row/pine tree
gauntlet, one of Bower's surges shed Debbie from the chase group. At the front, Amy swept into the finishing
downhill straight in commanding style with a 70 meter lead to snare her second individual Berks County Conference
Championship going away. Bower outsprinted Beltz for 2nd. Beltz - 3rd, Debbie H. - a courageous 4th, Angstadt -
5th. Next in 6th came Iwanowski, who had her best race ever - to date (Districts and States are yet to come). Stoyer
pulled away from Rogers in the final straight for 7th. Rogers took 8th and earned the final Berks All-County spot.
Wyo fans now turned their attention to the Wyo fifth runner. Astrid Chastka had been running in a group of 10
runners all day at around 20th. This large group thundered into the final straight with Chastka at the front. When the
sprint started, two Twin Valley girls surged past her. Then Chastka dug in and by the time they reached the line, she
had won the group sprint for 18th place. As it turned out Chastka as Wyo's 5th and final scorer had beaten Twin
Valley's #1 runner. Twin Valley finished 3rd overall as a team. Governor Mifflin finished 2nd as a team with more
than twice as many points as the Spartans. A truly remarkable dominating performance by Amy Huss and the
Spartan girls team. At least for last year and this, the Wyo girls have become "The New York Yankees of Berks
County Girls Cross Country". Yayee!!