Sports

D2 CROSS COUNTRY NOTEBOOK

By Tom Robinson
Go Lackawanna sports correspondent

MOUNT COBB – Reece Ayers was not worried about the time he posted running through the mud at Scranton Municipal Golf Course Friday.

“After I saw the conditions, I didn’t care about that,” the Tunkhannock junior said following his wire-to-wire win that carried the Tigers to the District 2 Class 3A boys championship.

Ayers conserved energy while running just ahead of eventual runner-up Victor Costello of North Pocono early in the 3.1-mile race, then pulled away for a comfortable 24-second win in 16:44.

“It was really slow because of how muddy it was,” said Ayers, who ran 25 seconds faster a year ago while placing third. “I wanted to go faster on the second lap and pull away then.”

The race went according to plan for Ayers and his teammates.

With David Novak back in the lineup after resting a hip injury during a loss to defending district champion Dallas in the Wyoming Valley Conference meet, the Tigers beat the Mountaineers, 56-70.

“I thought we had a pretty good shot at it,” said Novak, who finished fifth.

Ben Robinson and Jeremy Stonier were next in 11th and 17th places.

Jake Siegel clinched the win when he outsprinted runners from Dallas, third-place Scranton Prep and Abington Heights at the finish line to take 22nd, but it turned out that the Tigers had room to work at that point.

“We were watching Dallas runners right from the beginning,” Siegel said. “Our coach told us to look for and try to beat as many of them as we could.”

The team champion and top-five individuals from other teams qualify for the Nov. 7 state championships in Hershey.

Crestwood’s Robert Moulton was third, Wyoming Area’s Josh Krall was sixth and Hazleton Area’s Chris Tombasco was seventh to join the Tigers at the state meet.

Holy Redeemer’s team champions will be joined by Hazleton Area’s Bria Edwards (fourth place) in Class 3A girls.

The top two teams and top 10 other individuals advance from each Class 2A race.

Holy Redeemer repeated as boys champion, but Elk Lake had the second-place team and the Lackawanna League accounted for nine of the 10 individuals.

Lake-Lehman’s Kieran Sutton was the exception with his 21st-place finish.

Elk Lake beat Holy Cross in 2A girls where three Wyoming Valley Conference runners qualified for the state meet.

Wyoming Seminary’s Pooja Patel was sixth, Hanover Area’s Paige Antall was 12th and Lake-Lehman’s Allie Jayne was 13th.

Blue Ridge’s Allison Hall repeated as 2A girls champion.

DISTRICT 2 CROSS COUNTRY

(at Scranton Municipal, 3.1 miles)

CLASS 3A BOYS

Team Scores

1, Tunkhannock (T) 56, 2, Dallas (D) 70, 3, Scranton Prep (SP) 94, 4, North Pocono (NP) 112, 5, Hazleton Area (HA) 142, 6, Abington Heights (AH) 204, 7, Wyoming Area (WyoA) 237, 8, Crestwood (Cr) 250, 9, Wallenpaupack 253, 10, Pittston Area 257.

11, Honesdale 269, 12, Delaware Valley 292, 13, Berwick (B) 339, 14, Coughlin 408, 15, Wyoming Valley West 417, 16, West Scranton 443, 17, Scranton 444.

Top Individuals

1, Reece Ayers (T) 16:44; 2, Victor Costello (NP) 17:08; 3, Robert Moulton (Cr) 17:16; 4, Sam Kuchwara (SP) 17:26; 5, David Novak (T) 17:36; 6, Josh Krall (WyoA) 17:45; 7, Chris Tombasco (HazA) 17:49; 8, Tyler Arias (Cr) 17:54; 9, Mitch Cohen (D) 17:56; 10, Chris Daley (D) 18:02.

11, Ben Robinson (T) 18:07, 12, Leo Walsh (SP) 18:09; 13, Adam Brobst (B) 18:11; 14, Chris Hromek (WyoA) 18:12; 15, Frank Ferlanda (D) 18:14; 16, Griffin Adams (D) 18:16; 17, Jeremy Stonier (T) 18:18; 18, Mike Nardella (NP) 18:20; 19, Corey Loman (SP) 18:21; 20, Mike Calkins (D) 18:27.

21, Robert Holmes (NP) 18:27; 22, Jake Siegel (T) 18:31; 23, Chris Vito (AH) 18:31; 24, Kevin Gilbert (D) 18:32; 25, Michael Frein (SP) 16:33.

State Qualifiers

Tunkhannock team, Costello (NP), Moulton (Cr), Kuchwara (SP), Krall (WyoA), Tombasco (HazA).

CLASS 2A BOYS

Team Scores

1, Holy Redeemer (HR) 45; 2, Elk Lake (EL) 49; 3, Valley View (VV) 65; 4, Holy Cross (HC) 101, 5, Dunmore 194; 6, Mid Valley (MV) 206; 7, Northwest (NW) 230; 8, Lackawanna Trail (LT) 240; 9, Lake-Lehman (LL) 259; 10, Blue Ridge (BR) 256.

11, Lakeland 313; 12, Montrose 342; 13, Hanover Area 347; 14, Wyoming Seminary 388; 15, Riverside 399; 16, Mountain View 438; 17, Western Wayne 452; 18, MMI 456; 19, Nanticoke 524.

Top Individuals

1, Aaron Wilkinson (VV) 17:16; 2, Jordan Siddons (VV) 17:35; 3, Jake Kanavy (VV) 17:44; 4, Dave Levandoski (HR) 17:59; 5, Tyler Williams (EL) 18:00; 6, Mitch Ford (HR) 18:01; 7, Will Bennett (EL) 18:02; 8, Timmy Lambert (HR) 18:09; 9, Teddy Evans (MV) 18:12; 10, Cody Butler (EL) 18:19.

11, Andrew Nelson (HC) 18:22; 12, A.J. Limongelli (HR) 18:25; 13, Sean Carney (EL) 18:27; 14, Mike Bedell (EL) 18:29; 15, Rex Sheikh R) 18:31; 16, Shane Holcomb (HC) 18:33; 17, Sean Murray (HR) 18:37; 18, Jeff Horvath (EL) 18:40; 19, Justin Clarke (LT) 18:40; 20, Mike Pastore (HC) 18:42.

21, Kieran Sutton (LL) 18:44; 22, Joe Martonik (HC) 18:45; 23, Tyler Angeli (NW) 18:47; 24, Mike Robbs (BR) 18:49; 25, Tony Rodio (VV) 18:49.

State Qualifiers

Holy Redeemer team, Elk Lake team, Wilkinson (VV), Siddons (VV), Kanavy (VV), Evans (MV), Nelson (HC), Holcomb (HC), Clarke (LT), Pastore (HC), Sutton (LL), Martonik (HC).

CLASS 3A GIRLS

Team Scores

1, Holy Redeemer (HR) 71; 2, Honesdale (H) 71 (Holy Redeemer wins on sixth-place tiebreaker, 40-44); 3, Wallenpaupack (Wall) 87; 4, Dallas (D) 105; 5, Berwick (B) 179; 6, Abington Heights (AH) 182; 7, Tunkhannock (T) 194; 8, Pittston Area (PA) 197; 9, North Pocono (NP) 203; 10, Hazleton Area (HazA) 250.

11, Delaware Valley 274; Wyoming Area (WyoA) 294; Scranton 339.

Top Individuals

1, Rachel Sowinski (HR) 20:03; 2, Marissa Durako (HR) 20:16; 3, Summer Hill (H) 20:26; 4, Bria Edwards (HazA) 20:34; 5, Erin Craig (H) 20:52; 6, Taylor Maxson (Wall) 20:55; 7, Mary Frank (HR) 21:08; 8, Kali Foy (Wall) 21:12; 9, Hannah Coffin (Cr) 21:19; 10, Amanda Thompson (D) 21:23.

11, Catherine Lombardo (PA) 21:23; 12, Alexandra Bull (B) 21:28; 13, Morgan Gilhooley (D) 21:33; 14, Molly Macdonald (WS) 21:36; 15, Alexandra Petsuck (HA) 21:39; 16, Molly Kane (NP) 21:40; 17, Amelia Ayers (T) 21:46; 18, Kristen Propst (H) 21:47; 19, Sara Radzwilka (WyoA) 21:50; 20, Michelle Golden (WyoA) 21:56.

21, Katie Kravitz (D) 21:58; 22, Taylor Ross (AH) 22:04; 23, Erika Maxson (Wall) 22:06; 24, Kaelin Canfield (H) 22:08; 25, Cassandra Gill (HR) 22:09.

State Qualifiers

Holy Redeemer team, Hill (H), Edwards (HazA), Craig (H), Maxson (Wall), Foy (Wall).

CLASS 2A GIRLS

Team Scores

1, Elk Lake (EL) 43; 2, Holy Cross (HC) 97; 3, Scranton Prep (SP) 113; 4, Blue Ridge (BR) 140; 5, Hanover Area (HanA) 148; 6, Western Wayne (WW) 162; 7, Lake-Lehman (LL) 173; 8, Wyoming Seminary (WSem) 243; 9, Valley View 274; 10, Lakeland (L) 298.

11, Mid Valley 311, 12, Dunmore 313; 13, MMI 313 (Dunmore won tiebreaker on sixth runner); 14, Riverside 357; 15, Northwest 358; 16, Montrose 399.

Lackawanna Trail (LT), Mountain View (MtV) among incomplete teams.

Top Individuals

1, Allison Hall (BR) 20:33; 2, Maria Trowbridge (EL) 21:05; 3, Chandler Karoscik (VV) 21:23; 4, Keirnan Dougherty (LT) 21:41; 5, Abby Kearns (HC) 21:50; 6, Pooja Patel (WSem) 21:55; 7, Lainey Bedell (EL) 22:01; 8, Vikki Hartt (BR) 22:09; 9, Shauna McGraw (L) 22:13; 10, Kirsten Hollister (EL) 22:19.

11, Abby Zdancewicz (EL) 22:22; 12, Paige Antall (HanA) 22:25; 13, Allie Jayne (L-L) 22:28; 14, Abigail Carmody (WW) 22:37; 15, Kelly Purdy (MtV) 22:39; 16, Julia Blaskiewicz (SP) 22:46; 17, Holly Earyes (HC) 22:48; 18, Laura Nulton (EL) 22:56; 19, Kellie Grosvenor (EL) 23:01; 20, Hannah Owens (EL) 23:06.

21, Melinda Kearns (HC) 23:09; 22, Breanna Toolan (HC) 23:19; 23, Natasha Pacholec (LT) 23:20; 24, Alyssa Jones (SP) 23:21; 25, Johnna McGovern (HanA) 23:26.

State Qualifiers

Elk Lake team, Holy Cross team, Hall (BR), Karoscik (VV), Dougherty (LT), Kearns (HC), Patel (WSem), Hartt (BR), McGraw (L), Antall (HanA), Jayne (L-L), Carmody (WW).