The pack gets underway for the boys race at Thursday’s WVC coaches meet at the Wyoming County Fairgrounds.
Tom Robinson | For Times Leader
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MESHOPPEN — Northwest’s Michael Fritz was one of the Wyoming Valley Conference’s most improved runners throughout the 2024 season.
Thursday, he was simply the WVC’s best.
Fritz was the individual varsity boys winner in the Ed Narkiewicz/WVC Coaches Championship Meet at the Wyoming County Fairgrounds.
The winning time of 16:10.5 was more than 53 seconds faster than what Fritz ran last season while placing fifth.
“I think it was just the consistency of continuing to run hard,” Fritz said. “Good workouts, a lot of miles for another whole year just does wonders.”
The race represented both the completion of the WVC season and a step toward the District 2 Championship Meet on the same course Wednesday. The exceptions are Northwest and Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech, which compete in the WVC but are part of District 4.
Hazleton Area followed up its 16-0 dual record as Division 1 champion by winning the championship meet team title 47-66 over Lake-Lehman, which edged third-place Crestwood by four points.
Franklin Ritz, last season’s individual winner, placed third to lead the Cougars to the team title. Hazleton Area placed three runners in the top eight.
It was still a big day for Lake-Lehman, which beat all seven opponents it went against in separate dual-meet scoring as regular-season postponements were made up by using Thursday’s results to score teams.
Lake-Lehman, Dallas and Tunkhannock each had two cluster meets, representing seven dual competitions, to make up. Seven other schools had three competitions scored off the meet results.
The Black Knights used their 7-0 day, the result of a balanced lineup, to claim the Division 2 title.
Runner-up Mason Staude led Crestwood to second.
Pittston Area was fourth and Division 3 champion Northwest took fifth.
Fritz led throughout while Staude was comfortably placed in second.
“I didn’t really have a solid plan,” Fritz said. “I just knew I was going to come out here and give it everything I had. I was not expecting to lead the whole race.
“I was expecting to kind of sit on Mason’s shoulder and try to kick it in the last half-mile, but I just kind of took it out from the gun. … It worked out pretty well.”
ED NARKIEWICZ WYOMING VALLEY CONFERENCE COACHES MEET
(at Wyoming County Fairgrounds)
(3.1 miles varsity, 2.0 miles junior high)
Boys Team Scoring
1, Hazleton Area (Haz) 47; 2, Lake-Lehman (LL) 66, 3 Crestwood (Cr) 70; 4, Pittston Area (PA) 136; 5, Northwest (NW) 143; 6, Holy Redeemer (HR) 149; 7, Wilkes-Barre Area (WBA) 157; 8, Tunkhannock (T) 216; 9, Wyoming Area (WA) 260; 10, Wyoming Seminary (Sem) 288; 11, Hanover Area (Han) 295; 12, Wyoming Valley West (WVW) 313.
Incomplete team: Dallas (D), Berwick (B), Nanticoke, Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech, MMI Prep.
Top Boys Finishers
1, Michael Fritz (NW) 16:10.5; 2, Mason Staude (Cr) 16:19.0; 3, Franklin Ritz (Haz) 16:43.3; 4, Oliver Heintzelman (NW) 16:53.0; 5, Owen Pollock (Haz) 17:10.9; 6, Aidan Jennings (D) 17:19.1; 7, Spencer Smith (LL) 17:23.8; 8, Christian Matos-Mendez (Haz) 17:25.8; 9, Nate Higgins (Cr) 17:29.8; 10, Joshua Cackowski (HR) 17:35.3; 11, Jakob Mead (PA) 17:39.5; 12, Parker Smith (LL) 17:43.5; 13, Gavin Adams (Haz) 17:45.9; 14, Tyler Lukavitch (LL) 17:52.8; 15, Jacob Lettieri (Cr) 18:01.2; 16, Ben Delgado (WBA) 18:02.6; 17, Patrick Smith (HR) 18:03.1; 18, Finn Cronin (LL) 18:06.1; 19, Colby Walsh (WA) 18:06.5; 20, Stephen Martin (LL) 18:08.5; 21, Vincent Fazzino (D) 18:20.8; 22, Damian Vargas (Haz) 18:28.0; 23, Ethan Kintzel (Haz) 18:28.3; 24, Rowan Dietrich (Cr) 18:31.6; 25, Brennan Spaide (B) 18:34.3.
Boys Dual Meets (scores of make-ups scored from championship results)
Lake-Lehman 21, Holy Redeemer 34 … Lake-Lehman 15, Nanticoke 48 … Lake-Lehman 15, Wyoming Seminary 48 … Lake-Lehman 15, Hanover Area 47 … Lake-Lehman 15, Berwick 42 … Lake-Lehman 25, Northwest 34 … Holy Redeemer 28, Dallas 29 … Dallas 10, Nanticoke 26 … Dallas 22, Wyoming Seminary 35 … Dallas 22, Hanover Area 34 … Dallas 12, Berwick 24 … Northwest 26, Dallas 31 … Dallas 10, Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech 26 … Holy Redeemer 21, Tunkhannock 36 … Tunkhannock 16, Nanticoke 39 … Tunkhannock 19, Wyoming Seminary 36 … Tunkhannock 19, Hanover Area 36 … Tunkhannock 26, Berwick 29 … Northwest 24, Tunkhannock 32 … Tunkhannock 16, Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech 39.
Final Boys Season Standings
Division 1: Hazleton Area 16-0, Crestwood 14-2, Pittston Area 13-3, Dallas 10-6, Wilkes-Barre Area 9-7, Wyoming Valley West 3-13.
Division 2: Lake-Lehman 15-1, Holy Redeemer 11-5, Tunkhannock 8-8, Berwick 7-9, Wyoming Area 5-11, Nanticoke 1-14-1.
Division 3: Northwest 12-4, Hanover Area 5-11, Wyoming Seminary 5-11, Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech 1-15, MMI Prep 0-15-1.
Junior High Boys Team Scores
1, Lake-Lehman (LL) 55; 2, Crestwood (Cr) 62; 3, Wyoming Seminary (Sem) 68; 4, Tunkhannock 101; 5, Hanover Area (Han) 104; 6, Hazleton Area 136, Pittston Area 178.
Junior High Boys Top Finishers
1, Myles DiPippa (B) 11:18.6; 2, Frank Pacelli (HR) 11:44.1; 3, Jackson Scott (LL) 11:44.2; 4, David Gundling (T) 11:49.1; 5, Joseph Bly (Han) 11:55.6.