Mason Staude from Crestwood prepares to move past Mid Valley’s Matthew Repecki on his way to a first-place finish in the Class 2A boys race on Wednesday at the District 2 Cross Country Championships.
Tom Robinson | For Times Leader
Click here to subscribe today or Login.
MESHOPPEN — This time, Mason Staude made the first move.
Just six days earlier, Staude ran well and was comfortably the second-best runner at the Ed Narkiewicz/Wyoming Valley Conference Coaches Meet, but he had no answer for an aggressive move by Northwest’s Michael Fritz to break away late in the first mile.
Running on the same Wyoming County Fairgrounds course, Staude waited a little longer, but he was the one to make the first big move and it had the same decisive effect.
Staude controlled the second half of the race, completing the 3.1-mile course in 16:29.2 to win by more than 25 seconds and lead Crestwood to the second of the two PIAA state meet berths for teams in the Class 2A boys race at the District 2 Cross Country Championships.
As Staude reached the top of a big hill in the woods, after they left the sight of most spectators, a shade past the midway point in the race, it was time to separate from eventual runner-up Ethan Williams of Valley View and Matthew Repecki from team champion Mid Valley.
“Right at the top, I said, ‘I’m going to go. I feel good. I think I can take the race from here,’ ” Staude said.
He was right.
“I just kept going,” Staude said.
And the gap kept growing.
“I knew I could do it, but obviously after getting a second place at conferences, I was a little bit shaken up, a little bit of checking my mentality a little to see if I was strong enough to bounce back from that and go get it,” Staude said.
The junior, who missed last year’s postseason because of medical issues, said he was not holding back last week. He simply lost to a strong effort when he was unable to match Fritz’s “real aggressive move” three-quarters of a mile into the race.
Running under bright sunshine and in unseasonably warm conditions that left many runners exhausted and in need of assistance after completing the course, Staude’s winning time was actually 10 seconds slower than what he posted last week in more comfortable running conditions.
Lake-Lehman lost a runner to the heat on the course’s final hill, helping Crestwood lock down second place by a 68-71 margin.
Mid Valley placed two in the top five and won with 50 points.
Lake-Lehman did end up with four of the individual state qualifiers from the 10 spots available to the top finishers outside of the qualifying teams.
The top 20 runners received medalists. Nate Higgins, in seventh, and Jacob Lettieri, in 18th, joined Staude as medalists. Crestwood was the only team to get its entire 30-runner lineup into the top half of the field. The Comets are the only Wyoming Valley Conference boys team to make it to the PIAA Championships Nov. 2 in Hershey.
Spencer Smith led Lake-Lehman, finishing sixth overall and second among WVC runners. Parker Smith, Stephen Martin and Finn Cronin were 12th, 13th and 15th to land medals and state berths.
Aidan Jennings from Dallas also accomplished both, taking 10th place.
CLASS 3A
Hazleton Area placed second in a tight three-way race but did advance two runners on to Hershey while a third Cougar earned a medal by placing in the top 10.
Wallenpaupack edged Hazleton Area 47-50 in a battle between teams that went unbeaten in their respective conference races. Abington Heights was third with 58.
Franklin Ritz was second for Hazleton Area for the second straight year.
Owen Pollock, fifth a year ago, placed fourth. Christian Matos-Mendez was ninth.
Aiden Janowicz from Wallenpaupack won in 16:29.3, beating Fritz by 21.9 seconds.
CLASS A
Lackawanna League runners grabbed the first 15 spots and all the available medals, but Holy Redeemer’s Joshua Cackowski claimed the last of the 10 individual state berths by finishing 16th overall.
Elk Lake used a 1-2-3 finish by Kendel Jones, Cody Adams and Parker Upright to win the team title 57-74 over Lakeland, the district’s second state qualifier.
Holy Redeemer, which was ninth of 13 teams, and Wyoming Seminary were the only entries from the WVC.
DISTRICT 2 CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS
(at Wyoming County Fairgrounds, 3.1 miles)
CLASS 3A BOYS
Team scoring: 1, Wallenpaupack (Wal) 47; 2, Hazleton Area (Haz) 50; 3, Abington Heights (AH) 58; 4, West Scranton (WScr) 116; 5, Delaware Valley (DV) 175; 6, Scranton (Scr) 181; 7, Pittston Area (PA) 18; 8, North Pocono (NP) 184; 9, Wilkes-Barre Area (WBA) 192; 10, Wyoming Valley West (WVW) 325.
Medalists: 1, Aiden Janowicz (Wal) 16:29.3; 2, Franklin Ritz (Haz) 16:51.2; 3, Seamus Wallace (WScr) 16:58.3; 4, Owen Pollock (Haz) 17:05.2; 5, Timothy Fogley (AH) 17:08.6; 6, Michael Donlon (DV) 17:12.0; 7, J.P. Yeo (Wal) 17:12.8; 8, Chase Predmore (Wal) 17:19.9; Christian Mendoz-Matos (Haz) 17:33.3; 10, Hamza Mirza (AH) 17:36.5.
State qualifiers: Wallenpaupack team, Ritz, Wallace, Pollock, Fogley, Donlon.
Other top WVC finishers: 12, Gavin Adams (Haz) 17:38.4; 17, Jakob Mead (PA) 18:06.7; 21, Ben Delgado (WBA) 18:24.2
Total finishers: 68.
CLASS 2A BOYS
Team scoring: 1, Mid Valley (MV) 50; 2, Crestwood (Cr) 68; 3, Lake-Lehman (LL) 71; 4, Scranton Prep (SP) 93; 5, Valley View (VV) 96; 6, Dallas (Dal) 123; 7, Wyoming Area (WA) 196; 8, Hanover Area 200. Incomplete teams: Dunmore, Western Wayne, Berwick, Tunkhannock, Honesdale, Nanticoke.
Medalists: 1, Mason Staude (Cr) 16:29.24; 2, Ethan Williams (VV) 16:54.8; 3, Matthew Repecki (MV) 17:10.5; 4, Vinc4ent O’Malley (SP) 17:23.1; 5, Jacob Borrelli (MV) 17:33.4; 6, Spencer Smith (LL) 17:41.6; 7, Nate Higgins (Cr) 17:47.0; 8, Colby Shiffer (VV) 17:50.6; 9, Nicholas Michel (SP) 17:51.8; 10, Aidan Jennings (Dal) 17:54.3; 11, Josh Burns (MV) 17:57.5; 12, Parker Smith (LL) 18:02.9; 13, Stephen Martin (LL) 18:06.5; 14, Tommy Clark (Dun) 18:09.5; 15, Finn Cronin (LL) 18:10.3; 16, William Powell (MV) 18:10.5; 17, Reeve Owen (MV) 18:12.2; 18, Jacob Lettieri (Cr) 18:18.8; 19, Colby Walsh (WA) 18:25.6; 20, Judah Strocchia (WW) 18:43.2.
State qualifiers: Mid Valley team, Crestwood team, Williams, O’Malley, SSmith, Shiffer, Michel, Jennings, PSmith, Martin, Clark, Cronin, Lettieri.
Other top WVC finishers: 21, Vincent Fazio (Dal) 18:49.3; 23, Rowan Dietrich (Cr) 18:52.4.
Total finishers: 69.
CLASS A BOYS
Team scoring: 1, Elk Lake (EL) 57; 2, Lakeland (Lake) 72; 3, Riverside (Riv) 82; 4, Montrose (M) 141; 5, Susquehanna (Sus); 6, Holy Cross (HC) 160; 7, Mountain View (MtV) 179; 8, Blue Ridge (BR) 197; 9, Holy Redeemer (HR) 207; 10, Forest City (FC) 209; 11, Lackawanna Trail (LT) 227; 12, Wyoming Seminary (Sem) 362; 13, Old Forge (OF) 382. Incomplete team: MMI Prep.
Medalists: 1, Kendel Jones (EL) 16:16.9; 2, Cody Adams (EL) 16:40.2; 3, Parker Upright (EL) 16:53.5; 4, Lorenzo Christian (M) 16:56.9; 5, Dylan Kopa (Lake) 17:01.1; 6, Henry Decker (L) 17:04.3; 7, Avery Ronchi (LT) 17:07.0; 8, Jack Davies (Riv) 17:14.5; 9, James Telep (Lake) 17:15.6; 10, Mikey Schimelfenig (Riv) 17:24.8; 11, Jonathan Conlogue (FC) 17:30.6; 12, Michael Beach (MtV) 17:35.6; 13, Thomas Gavin (HC) 17:42.6; 14, Sean Larkin (MtV) 17:46.0; 15, Max Ksenich (BR) 17:58.9.
State qualifiers: Elk Lake team, Lakeland team, Christian, Ronchi, Davies , Schimelfenig, Conlogue, Beach, Gavin, Larkin, Ksenich, Joshua Cackowski (HR).
Top WVC finishers: 16, Cackowski (HR) 18:02.6; 23, Patrick Smith (HR) 18:38.0.
Total finishers: 90.