Montrose lost out on a potential state title in Class A girls on a tiebreaker Saturday morning in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Cross Country Championships on the Hershey Parkview Course.
The Lady Meteors settled for second as a team, led by state medalists Paige Brewer and Mary Pichette.
Wyoming Area’s Madelyn Keating placed fourth in Class 2A to lead a group of eight District 2 girls who earned state medals by the time racing was completed in the afternoon.
Montrose and Green Pond Notre Dame each had five-runner team scores of 78.
In that case, the tiebreaker is best finish by a team’s sixth runner out of the seven that teams are allowed. Because Montrose only had five runners competing, it automatically lost the tiebreaker.
The Lady Meteors gained ground on the field as the race progressed. At the one-mile mark, their runners were positioned to finish with a team score of 116, 37 behind Notre Dame, the District 11 champion.
By the time the second mile was complete, Montrose had lowered its projected team score to 89, one better than Notre Dame.
Montrose improved its collective placing over the remainder of the race, but Notre Dame also finished strong, forcing the tie.
Brewer finished the 3.1-mile course in 21:03 to finish 15th in a field of 257. Pichette was one second, but three places back in 18th.
Forest City sophomore Katie Korty, the District 2 champion, followed Pichette in, finishing three seconds later for 19th place and of the medals that goes to top-25 finishers in each race.
Three of the five District 2 teams entered finished in the top five in the state in their classes.
Crestwood edged Dallas, 242-244, as the Wyoming Valley Conference rivals finished ninth and 10th out of 20 teams in Class 2A.
It was in Class 2A that District 2 turned in its best individual showing.
Finishing in the same order that they placed as the three fastest girls at the District 2 championships, Keating took fourth, followed by Riverside’s Lacey Danilovitz in fifth and Dallas’ Madison Hedglin in sixth.
Keating won in 19:34.8, almost 10 seconds in front of Danilovitz and more than 18 ahead of Hedglin.
They were the only three District 2 girls to break the 20-minute barrier in any of the day’s three races.
Honesdale’s Brenna Dahlgren was 23rd and Crestwood’s Ella Novelli was 25th.
While Dahlgren and Novelli won their fights to be among the last of the medalists, four other District 2 runners just missed with finishes in the top 30.
Emily Black was 26th, but 15 seconds behind the last medalist, for Lakeland, which was 16th out of 23 teams in Class A.
Freshman Anna Pucilowski, the District 2 champion, was two places and 13.5 seconds out of the last medal as the 27th-place finisher in Class 3A.
Pucilowski led Abington Heights to 11th place out of 20 teams in Class 3A.
North Pocono’s Emily Franklin and Lake-Lehman’s Hannah Sayre were 28th and 30th in Class 2A.
MORE TO COME
Check back for more complete coverage, including results for all the District 2 girls finishers, plus a recap of the boys when their races are complete. Come to Cross Country – NEPA Sports Nation for more.
