Sports

By Tom Robinson
Go Lackawanna sports correspondent

MOUNT COBB – The District 2 Class AA boys’ cross country championships developed into two amazing races.

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David Wilkinson, father of District 2 Class AA boys’ cross country winner Aaron Wilkinson, photographs a group of Valley View runners at last Friday’s championships. Wilkinson, Jordan Siddons and Jake Kanavy finished first, second and third, respectively.

Adam Roberts / The Times Leader

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Reese Ayers of Tunkhannock Area is followed by North Pocono’s Victor Costello and a pack of runners during the District 2 Class AAA boys’ race at Scranton Municipal.

Adam Roberts / The Times Leader

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Valley View underclassmen Aaron Wilkinson, Jordan Siddons and Jake Kanavy took over at the front of a pack of 199 runners, separating from the rest of the field.

Behind them, two of the state’s top teams were fighting for virtually every other spot in the top 20 trying to decide the team championship.

Wilkinson, Siddons and Kanavy completed their 1-2-3 finish 15 seconds ahead of everyone else in the field. In a dual meet, the top three is a guarantee of a victory, but in multiple-team scoring getting all five runners in takes on greater importance.

When Holy Redeemer and Elk Lake each put six runners in the top 18, taking all but three of the next 15 spots after Valley View’s combination, they were too much for the Cougars.

“It’s amazing; it really was,” Valley View coach Jacki Porosky said of her top three. “The depth of Holy Redeemer and Elk Lake is what got us.

“Cross country at Valley View has come a long way.”

The Cougars were 24th of 26 teams with just five runners competing in the District 2 Class AA race in 2006.

Siddons arrived as a freshman team leader in 2007 and Valley View moved up to 13th out of 22 teams.

Porosky took over as coach last year at the same time Wilkinson and Kanavy arrived to follow Siddons’ lead and qualify for the state meet by finishing in the top 13 in the district as individuals. Valley View took third of 20 teams, but its score of 141 was way behind district champion Holy Redeemer’s 43 and eventual state champion Elk Lake’s 53.

The gap closed in the October 30 meet at Scranton Municipal Golf Course.

With Wilkinson, a sophomore, leading the way, Valley View cut its team score to 65 points.

Holy Redeemer again edged Elk Lake, 45-49, in a meeting of two of the state’s top teams. While Elk Lake was winning its state title last year, Holy Redeemer was finishing fourth.

“The 1-2-3 doesn’t really surprise me,” Porosky said. “I knew they were capable of it.

“These kids work very hard all year long. I’m very proud of them.”

Wilkinson, who finished the 3.1-mile course in 17:16, qualified for the state meet along with Siddons (17:35) and Kanavy (17:44).

The top two teams and top 10 other individuals in Class AA and the winning team and five other individuals in each Class AAA race qualified for the state meet that was scheduled for Saturday morning, November 7 at Parkview Cross Country Course in Hershey.

The Lackawanna League and Wyoming Valley Conference each have three teams in state competition, but the Lackawanna League took 22 of the 30 individual spots.

The Holy Cross girls advanced after finishing second behind Elk Lake in Class AA girls, 43-97.

Senior Abby Kearns, an individual qualifier a year ago, led the way by finishing fourth for Holy Cross. Sophomores Holly Earyes and Melissa Kearns finished 17th and 21st while Breanna Toolan was 22nd. When Bridget Flannery came across in 44th place, she clinched the state spot for the Crusaders over defending champion Scranton Prep, which had 113 points.

The Holy Redeemer girls and Tunkhannock boys won Class AAA titles.

North Pocono’s Victor Costello was second in Class AAA for the second straight year.

Costello finished behind Reece Ayers of Tunkhannock.

The other individual titles went to freshman Rachel Sowinski of Holy Redeemer in Class AAA and Allison Hall of Blue Ridge, who repeated in Class AA.

“I was probably a little more careful going around corners,” Hall said. “Because of all the other races that had already been run, it was squishy and muddy.”

In addition to the Holy Cross girls, the three runners from Valley View and Costello, the other state qualifiers from Lackawanna County were: Sam Kuchwara of Scranton Prep in Class AAA boys; Teddy Evans of Mid Valley, Andrew Nelson, Shane Holcomb, Mike Pastore and Joe Martonik of Holy Cross and Justin Clarke of Lackawanna Trail in Class AA boys; Chandler Karoscik of Valley View, Keirnan Dougherty of Lackawanna Trail and Shauna McGraw of Lakeland in Class AA girls.

On the web:

For updates from Saturday’s state championships, visit scrantonedition.com/sports.