By Tom Robinson, NEPASportsNation.com
MESHOPPEN – Lake-Lehman’s Nick Hockenbury and the Honesdale team won the Class 2A boys titles Wednesday morning at the District 2 Cross Country Championships by slim margins over Riverside’s Daniel Danilovitz and Crestwood.
Hockenbury repeated by covering the 3.1-mile Wyoming County Fairgrounds Course in 16:31.3, 2.8 seconds faster than Danilovitz.
Honesdale edged Crestwood, 73-75, in what turned into a two-team title battle, landing both in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Championships Nov. 5 at the Hershey Parkview Cross Country Course.
The race started in a light mist and it ended with 11 teams putting runners in the top 12.
Crestwood was the only team represented twice in that group, but Honesdale locked down 13th and 14th place with Lucas Murray and Peter Pham joining fifth-place finisher Aidan LaTourette.
The Hornets and Comets each had five runners in the top 28 while no other team in the balanced field was able to get a fourth runner into the top 38 out of 102 finishers.
Weston Medvetz and Mason Staude, in seventh and ninth, led Crestwood to its state qualification.
Scranton Prep was third with 144 points, followed in the top half of the 14-team field by Lake-Lehman with 157, Valley View with 166, North Pocono with 178 and Berwick with 183.
District 2 also has 10 individual state berths to go with the two team representatives.
North Pocono landed two of those spots with Aiden Horne placing sixth and Noah Haines claiming the last berth with a 15th-place finish.
The other eight berths all went to different teams.
Valley View’s Ethan Williams was third in 16:46.8, followed by Dunmore’s Tommy Clark. They were also joined among the individual qualifier by Mid Valley’s Gabriel Pacyna, Wallenpaupack’s Aiden Janowicz, Lakeland’s Dylan Kopa and Dallas’ Bryce Phillips.
Hockenbury and Danilovitz were even when they hit the bottom of the hill about a quarter-mile from the finish line, but Hockenbury had enough to close out a repeat district title.
“I think the hill work we did really got Nick through,” Lake-Lehman coach John Sobocinski said. “ … They were together and luckily (Hockenbury) found it.”
Finding if left Hockenbury spent, needing medical attention at the finish line after the race, which he managed to finish five seconds faster than last week’s victory in the Ed Narkiewicz Wyoming Valley Conference Coaches Championship Meet, despite difficult conditions.
“You’re carrying a little bit of mud on your cleats,” Sobocinski said. “I just told my guys run for place today. You might be disappointed in time.”
