PA Independent School Championships
Three time x-c independent schools state champ Julia Pudlin was forced to watch from the sidelines today while recovering from an injury. That opened the door for senior Maureen Glah from the host school Mercersburg, and she responded with a course record run of 19:53 even in the windy conditions. Glah was battling with Westtown's Katie McKinstry for much of the race but pulled away definitively in the last 1/2 mile. Germantown Academy won the team title. The boys race saw the closest finish in the history of the meet when Lex Mercado from Penn Charter out leaned St. Joseph's Tim O'Neill at the line (both timed in 16:34). LaSalle's Joe Fedorowicz had also been battling the Mercado and O'Neill in the last 1/2 mile, and with 400m to go it was still anyone's race to win. O'Neill surged ahead and was leading in the straightaway heading towards the finish, but Mercado made a late surge that caught O'Neill and nipped him with the lean. The boys run in one race, but teams awards are broken out by size of school. LaSalle took the large school division, Penn Charter the medium school division, and Germantown Friends the small school division.