PIAA District 11 Championships
It was a windy Indian summer day at the deceivingly tough Lehigh University course in Bethlehem. Paula Giguere ran 18:56.8 to repeat as District 11 AAA girls champ, leading her somewhat short-handed defending state champion Parkland squad back to the state meet by a mere point. Central Catholic used a 1:24 1-5 spread and took the girls title with 53 points, with Parkland 2nd with 65. But Easton and Liberty could only imagine what difference two places with any of their runners could have meant, as they both finished with 66 points. In AA girls, Notre Dame just nipped Nativity BVM by three, 52-55. Saucon Valley tallied 57 points to get the final state berth. Christa Plummer of Palisades, led from the mile and won going away in 19:33.9. The AAA boys race rapidly developed into a two-man battle as Liberty's Dorian McDonald and Emmaus' Joel Thomas quickly broke the field, including pre-race favorite Tim Erickson of Southern Lehigh. McDonald finished as the only runner under 16 in 15:57.1, with Thomas 20 seconds back, and Erickson another 8 seconds behind that. But Thomas will be joined by his team, as they bettered the other automatic qualifier, Stroudsburg, by 30, 56-86. in the AA boys race, Saucon Valley landed six guys in the top 22 to take Notre Dame and Northern Lehigh, the other two team qualifiers, 62-76-120, respectively.