Dallas standout Madison Hedglin took first place in the girls race on Thursday at the WVC coaches meet.
Tom Robinson | For Times Leader
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MESHOPPEN — Madison Hedglin needed a day like Thursday.
The Dallas senior took control early on the way to winning in the individual girls title by 52 seconds Thursday in the Ed Narkiewicz/Wyoming Valley Conference Coaches Championship Meet at the Wyoming County Fairgrounds, the same course where she will seek her third District 2 title six days later.
“I actually didn’t expect to run as fast as I did, so that was super exciting,” said Hedglin, who finished the 3.1-mile course in 18:23.2, which was 28 seconds faster than her winning time in the same race a year ago. “I felt very good. I was nervous because my past few races have felt a little off.”
Hedglin’s win and Sarah Williams’ third-place finish helped Dallas finish second as a team.
Crestwood, the WVC Division 1 and overall regular-season champion by going 16-0 and handing Dallas its only loss, outscored the Mountaineers 41-61 for the team title.
Katie Kozich led the Comets by finishing second. Fellow seniors Kaelyn Barker and Ella Novelli were fifth and seventh and Crestwood had seven of the top 21 finishers.
Lake-Lehman edged Hazleton Area 105-107 for third.
Hedglin finished the WVC portion of her cross country career with two first-place and two second-place finishes in the championship meet.
“It’s special because it’s my last one,” Hedglin said. “So, definitely, I had the goal just to win it.”
Hedglin has broken away early in many of her races this season.
“I feel like I’ve been having stronger starts,” Hedglin said. “Right from the start, I try to get out and create a gap and then just keep that and try to make it bigger as I go.”
Several regular-season postponed meets were made up by scoring teams against each other as if it was a dual. Lake-Lehman used those results to pin down the Division 2 crown in the WVC’s new format this season that awards three division titles while teams are still running against every opponent in the conference.
Both Lake-Lehman and Dallas went 7-0 while making up nearly half their schedule in one day.
Lake-Lehman beat Holy Redeemer head-to-head 20-37 to bypass the Royals into first place.
Olivia Corcoran, Betsy DiGiovanni and Alaina Palmaioli locked up the win by all finishing ahead of Holy Redeemer’s top runner.
MMI Prep and Wyoming Seminary finished tied for the best record in Division 3.
ED NARKIEWICZ WYOMING VALLEY CONFERENCE COACHES MEET
(at Wyoming County Fairgrounds)
(3.1 miles varsity, 2.0 miles junior high)
Girls Team Scoring
1, Crestwood (Cr) 41; 2, Dallas (D) 61; 3, Lake-Lehman (LL) 108; 4, Hazleton Area (Haz) 107; 5, Pittston Area (PA) 115; 6, Holy Redeemer (HR) 169; 7, MMI Prep (MMI) 179; 8, Nanticoke (N) 181; 9, Tunkhannock (T) 245; 10, Wilkes-Barre Area (WBA) 249.
Incomplete teams: Wyoming Area (WA), Wyoming Seminary (Sem), Northwest (NW), Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech, Hanover Area.
Top Girls Finishers
1, Madison Hedglin (D) 18:23.2; 2, Katie Kozich (Cr) 19:15.2; 3, Sarah Williams (D) 19:18.4; 4, Milana Daiute (Haz) 19:35.3; 5, Kaelyn Barker (Cr) 19:42.0; 6, Isabella Dessoye (PA) 19:50.7; 7, Ella Novelli (Cr) 20:11.7; 8, Olivea Scalese (PA) 20:24.6; 9, Hannah Stoss (WS) 20:25.5; 10, Erika Doran (D) 20:33.8; 11, Mary Kate Kupsky (MMI) 20:39.0; 12, Adrienne Shebelock (Cr) 20:50.6; 13, Madelyn Graves (T) 20:52.2; 14, Olivia Corcoran (LL) 20:52.5; 15, Betsy DiGiovanni (LL) 20:58.5; 16, Grace Rushmer (Sem) 20:59.0; 17, Ava Hinkle (Haz) 20:59.5; 18, Mollie Kozich (Cr) 21:00.0; 19, Alaina Palmaioli (LL) 21:05.0; 20, Alyssa 2Leicht (Cr) 21:29.4; 21, Riley Ruch (Cr) 21:43.3; 22, Savannah Cronauer (NW) 21:57.8; 23, Kaylee Casagrande, Haz, 22:09.5; 24, Matilda Serrano (N) 22:18.9; 25, Anna Zaroda (MMI) 22:37.8.
Girls Dual Meets (Make-ups scored from championship results)
Lake-Lehman 20, Holy Redeemer 37 … Lake-Lehman 17, Nanticoke 40 … Lake-Lehman 16, Berwick 45 … Lake-Lehman 18, Wyoming Seminary 43 … Lake-Lehman 15, Hanover Area 50 … Lake-Lehman 18, Northwest 43 … Lake-Lehman 15, Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech 49 … Dallas 16, Holy Redeemer 41 … Dallas 17, Nanticoke 42 … Dallas 15, Berwick 47 … Dallas 20, Wyoming Seminary 36 … Dallas 15, Hanover Area 49 … Dallas 17, Northwest 44 … Dallas 15, Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech 49 … Holy Redeemer 20, Tunkhannock 39 … Nanticoke 20, Tunkhannock 38 … Tunkhannock 23, Berwick 35 … Wyoming Seminary 25, Tunkhannock 31 … Tunkhannock 19, Hanover Area 38 … Tunkhannock 23, Northwest 35 … Tunkhannock 20, Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech 38.
Final Girls Season Standings
Division 1: Crestwood 16-0, Dallas 15-1, Pittston Area 14-2, Hazleton Area 12-4, Wilkes-Barre Area 4-12, Wyoming Valley West 1-15.
Division 2: Lake-Lehman 13-3, Holy Redeemer 11-5, Nanticoke 8-8, Wyoming Area 7-9, Tunkhannock 7-9, Berwick 1-15.
Division 3: MMI Prep 9-7, Wyoming Seminary 9-7, Hanover Area 4-12, Northwest 3-13, Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech 2-14.
Junior High Girls Team Scoring
1, Crestwood (Cr) 35; 2, Hazleton Area (Haz) 53; 3, Pittston Area 60; 4, Wyoming Seminary 80.
Top Junior High Girls Finishers
1, Alexa Prushinski (WBA) 12:48.4; 2, Mollie Boyne (D) 13:05.6; 3, Leah Smith (HR) 13:07.5; 4, Ayla Schapper (Han) 13:13.9; 5, Lila Ruch (Cr) 13:30.6.