BY SCOTT WALSH
Times-Shamrock Writer

Elk Lake couldn’t have picked a better time to run its best race of the season.
Conversely, Holy Cross has seen better days.

The Lackawanna League rivals squared off one final time this season Saturday in the Class A race at the PIAA Cross Country Championships, both with a shot at winning a state title.

Central Cambria foiled those plans by finishing first in the team standings with 72 points.

But Elk Lake still brought home some hardware, capturing the second-place trophy with 84 points.

“I think it was a great finish and very satisfying for them to be able to finish running as well as you think you possibly can,” Elk Lake head coach Will Squier said. “The girls were able to do that and I think they were all satisfied that they could run their best on that day. I can’t ask for anything more.”
Three Lady Warriors placed in the top 25 to earn individual state medals.

Junior Katie Bennett was 10th in 19 minutes, 42 seconds, senior Kenzie Jones followed in 11th in 19:48 and classmate Justine Johns was 17th in 20:04 to help Elk Lake strike silver for the second straight year.

“Every race we ran this year is a building process toward the state race,” Squier said. “We try to make sure that we’re peak here, that we’re ready to go. The girls answered the bell and were able to deliver. We felt we had them ready and they were.”

Holy Cross had two individual state medalists in junior Mackenzie Greenfield, who was fourth in 19:37, and senior Tess Kearns, who was 13th in 19:56.

Still, it wasn’t enough for the Lady Crusaders to repeat as Class A state champs. They wound up third with 93 points.
“I think that the girls believed that they could beat them after districts,” Squier said. “There was a different preparation with what we did at districts to what we did for states.”

In their first two head-to-head matchups — during the regular season and at the PIAA Foundation race in September — Elk Lake won.

But Holy Cross took the last two meetings, at the Paul Short Run at Lehigh University, then at the District 2 Championships.

Going into Saturday, Jones said her team’s strategy this time around was simple.

“Run fast, do what you know and trust your training,” Jones said. “We did the work. All we had to do was race.”

After the first mile, Bennett found herself in fifth place and Elk Lake was second in the team standings behind Central Cambria with West Middlesex and Holy Cross trailing.

Over the final two miles, the Lady Warriors were able to maintain their position. Johns even edged out Central Cambria’s Samantha Koss at the finish line for 17th place.

Completing the top five for Elk Lake were sophomore Keri Jones in 46th place in 20:56 and senior Jenny VanEtten in 68th place in 21:16.

“We just stuck together and worked together,” Bennett said.

Rounding out the top-seven for Elk Lake were sophomore Andrea Rockefeller, who finished in 156th in 23:14, and sophomore Miranda Decker, who finished in 187th in 24:35.

Vincentian Academy sophomore Marianne Abdalah repeated as the individual Class A champion with a time of 18:35.

Going fourth
The Elk Lake boys’ team placed fourth in the final team standings of Class A on Saturday.
Squier thought the Warriors could be a dark horse contender for the title, and after one mile that looked like it might be the case.

Elk Lake was tied with Winchester Thurston from District 7 with 86 points.

Despite running personal-best times, however, the Warriors fell to fourth with 145 points.

“We believed we had a shot at being one of the top two teams,” Squier said. “ My boys ran as well as the girls did as far as personal improvement. There was only about a three second spread from 1 through 6 and they all had PRs (personal records), so it wasn’t like they all ran slow. It was a huge race for them and they came up shorter that they wished but they did their best and put it all on the line and it was a great race. It would have been awesome to get first or second, but it was a strong field.”

Winchester Thurston won with 65 points. Sewickley Academy from District 7 was second with 111 points and Northeast Bradford from District 4 was third with 137 points.

Sophomore Dan Bell was Elk Lake’s top finisher, finishing in 46th in 17:43.

Freshman Cody Oswald was 51st in 17:48, junior Hunter Bedell was 53rd in 17:49, senior Dalton Sherman was 69th in 17:59 and sophomore Seth Owen was 80th in 18:03.

Rounding out the Warriors’ top seven were junior Hunter Watkins in 84th in 18:06, and sophomore Dylan Benscoter in 179th in 19:27.

South Williamsport’s Griffin Molino was individual Class A champion, finishing in 15:46.

The Warriors managed a major improvement after finishing 13th overall last year, and with an overall young team, should be in contention for another successful season next year.

“I think they’ve already got it in their minds and they’ll be on a mission next year,” Squier said. “It’s a good incentive to be close and not win because they’ll have that determination not to give up and to go after it.”

READY TO GO
As Squier has said all season, his teams are conditioned to hit their peaks at the state meet, and both teams met, and even exceeded, those expectations.

“Every year we go through an evaluation process to determine what a team needs to be able to peak,” Squier said. “I think this year what they needed the most was rest. We worked hard right through the season and through districts and they weren’t really rested. You do enough to keep conditioned and have everything in place so you’re not going backward, but do everything you can to make them feel ready.”

“That’s the mental factor that they have to have. If they don’t believe it aren’t confident that it won’t get done. In the last 10 days, you do whatever it takes to get that confidence level up to where they believe it, and that’s what they did.”

That confidence has been shown all season by both teams, and helped Elk Lake continue its winning ways on the track this year.

“Combined, this was probably one of my best teams in regards to team chemistry,” Squier said. “They had great chemistry, along with the willingness to work hard. Those are the things that distinguished them.”
Wyoming County Press Examiner sports editor John Lund also contributed to the story.