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All three girls champions, including Crestwood’s Molly DeMarzo, are back to try to defend their titles when the District 2 Cross Country Championships are held Wednesday, beginning at 11:20 a.m. at Lakeland High School.
DeMarzo, who is coming off a successful title defense in the Ed Narkiewicz Wyoming Valley Conference Coaches Championship Meet last week, won a district title and earned a state medal last year as a freshman. Her title came in Class 2A where District 2 has its largest fields.
Holy Redeemer leads the Wyoming Valley Conference team hopes. The Royals are defending champions in Class 2A boys and recently completed an unbeaten, conference championship girls season.
Hazleton Area, a Class 3A team, matched Holy Redeemer for the best record in the WVC boys standings and beat the Royals head-to-head.
In a reversal from recent schedules, the big schools will run first.
Both Class 3A races are District 2-4 Subregionals because they include Williamsport, District 4’s only Class 3A team.
Abington Heights ran away with the subregional team title last season when its top runner, Abby Marion was second overall, but the top District 2 finisher.
Hazleton Area edged Williamsport for second place last season. The Cougars, who were second in the WVC standings and conference meet, return district medalist and state qualifier Katie Balay.
Abington Heights graduated four of its seven runners from the subregional champions, but went unbeaten in the Lackawanna League with big contributions from newcomers Gianna Sabatini and Maia Arcangelo, a freshman.
The team champion and top five other individuals in each Class 3A race advance to the state meet Nov. 2 in Hershey. The top 10 runners from the district earn medals.
Class 3A boys run at noon.
Wallenpaupack beat out Hazleton Area for the Class 3A Subregional boys title last season.
Zack Keiner qualified for the state meet for the Cougars.
Keiner, Nicholas Hebel and Gabe McKittrick each finished in the top 12 in the subregional last year and the top six in the conference meet last week.
The Class 2A races are scheduled to begin at 12:40 p.m. for girls and 1:20 p.m. for boys. The top two teams and the best 10 other individuals advance to Hershey. The top 20 finishers receive medals.
Valley View and Honesdale earned the two state girls team spots last season when Lackawanna League teams took four of the top five places.
Holy Redeemer will try to change that with Cameron Marcinkowski and Madison Dewees back after earning medals during last season’s third-place team finish.
The Royals had five of the top 11 finishers in the conference meet, led by the Marcinkowski sisters, Cameron and freshman Lexie, placing third and fourth.
Lake-Lehman was third at the conference meet and Crestwood was third in the conference regular-season standings.
Abby Paczewski from Lake-Lehman was fifth in the district last season and second in the conference meet two years in a row.
Madison Brdaric from Lake-Lehman and the Dallas combination of Kaitlyn Hodakowski and Megan Borton all medaled last year.
The top five finishers and nine of the top 13 from the 2018 Class 2A boys meet graduated, opening up the team title chase. Holy Redeemer and Abington Heights, which had an off season by its standards, were the state-qualifying teams last season.
Chris Hine from Holy Redeemer is the top returnee after placing sixth in the district. He prepared for the meet by winning the WVC title last week.
Holy Redeemer and Lake-Lehman finished 2-3 in the conference in both the regular season and conference meet.
Nick Pikul from Holy Redeemer, Chandler Longstreth from Lake-Lehman, Joey Rowley from Hanover Area and Thomas Haydt from Crestwood are all returning medalists.
Freshman Nick Hockenbury was Lake-Lehman’s top finisher in the conference meet in 11th.
Wyoming Area’s Michael Branley, who was fourth in the conference meet, is one of the WVC’s most improved runners.
The Class A girls run at 2 p.m., followed by the Class A boys at 2:40 p.m.
Only the team winner and five individuals advance. The top 15 runners receive medals.
The Lackawanna League accounted for the top seven teams in boys and girls and the first 18 boys and first 17 girls finishers last year.
Elk Lake sophomore Krista Jones and the Holy Cross team are the defending Class A girls champs.
Northwest’s Abigail Zielecki led the WVC contingent last season as a freshman.
Andrew Healey from Holy Cross, a state contender, is the only defending district boys champion.
Montrose is the defending boys team champ.
Angelo Lombardo from Wyoming Seminary is back after being the top WVC finisher last year.