Sports

STATE CROSS COUNTRY

By Tom Robinson
Go Lackawanna sports correspondent

HERSHEY – Rachel Sowinski became a cross country runner in August.

By late October, Sowinski was a district champion. In November, she’s a state medalist.

Sowinski, less than three months into her “career,” was the only Wyoming Valley Conference girl to earn a medal Saturday in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Championships.

The Holy Redeemer freshman ran the 3.1-mile Parkview Course in 19:34 to finish 18th out of 285 runners in the Class 3A race.

“Originally, I was supposed to play field hockey,” said Sowinski, who was a sprinter in junior high track. “I was training with some girls from the cross country team to get ready for field hockey.”

When running to get in shape turned into running with the best on a team that ultimately went unbeaten in the WVC and won the District 2 Class 3A title, Sowinski had some decisions to make.

“The team was great to me,” said Sowinski, who was not expecting to make an immediate impact in field hockey, “and I was running at the top from the very beginning.”

Sowinski went from finishing third in cluster meets to second, then started winning. She took the District 2 title last week by 13 seconds.

Still learning in her biggest race, Sowinski held up to the challenges of a state championship.

“The start’s insane,” she said. “There’s a giant pack of people.

“You’ve got to rush and everyone’s all around you and you’re getting hit by elbows.”

Sowinski said the early jostling was tiring, especially with hills following, but she managed to stay strong throughout the race. In fact, she held up better than others. After reaching the first mile in 29th place, Sowinski surged to 22nd at the two-mile mark and finished 18th.

“I feel real happy with how I did,” Sowinski said. “I felt like I ran the best race I could on this course.”

Bria Edwards of Hazleton Area, the league’s only 3A girls individual qualifier, was 113th in 20:48.

Holy Redeemer was 19th out of 24 teams with a score of 418.

The runners earned team points based on how they finished among the 168 who were from schools involved in the team race. Sowinski was 10th out of that group, while Mary Frank was 74th, Marissa Durako 75th, Cassandra Gill 111th, Shannon Murray 148th, Aly Popson 152nd and Sara Sabatino 157th.

Honesdale’s Erin Craig and Summer Hill were 65th and 78th overall to lead the individuals from the Lackawanna League.

Pennsbury freshman Sara Sargent won in 18:35

Triplets Christina, Amanda and Brianna Faust led the way, finishing 11th, 12th and 14th, as Emmaus won its third straight team title.

Wyoming Seminary’s Pooja Patel was the top WVC finisher in Class 2A girls. She was 111th out of 292 in 21:41. Lake-Lehman’s Allie Jayne was 169th and Hanover Area’s Paige Antall 181st.

District 2 had a pair of medalists – Elk Lake’s Maria Trowbridge in ninth place and Blue Ridge’s Allison Hall, the district champion, in 11th.

Elk Lake was 11th and Holy Cross 22nd out of 24.

Lindsay Kerr of Northwestern Lehigh was the individual champion and Central Cambria won its third straight team title.

A frosty morning left the course covered by damp leaves early in the morning. Then, one runner from fifth-place St. Basil Academy ran into additional trouble in the 9 a.m. Class 2A girls race when a deer jumped a fence and bumped into her. The runner finished the race and the deer left the course on its own.