HOLLIDAYSBURG — Penns Valley’s Anna Stitzer made a statement in a four-team meet on Tuesday, Sept. 21 when she set a course record at Hollidaysburg and defeated her chief competition for the District 6 Class 1A girls’ title — Portage’s two-time defending champion Lauren Shaffer — in Centre County cross country action last week.
Stitzer clocked in at 19 minutes and 14 seconds, shattering Shaffer’s old course mark of 19:38. Shaffer, who was PIAA runner-up as a freshman in 2018, also broke the previous mark, but her time was 13 seconds behind Stitzer.
Abby Stitzer took fifth place with a time of 21:47 to help the Lady Rams beat Hollidaysburg, 20-35. Portage clipped the Lady Rams, 23-33, in the team scoring.
Penns Valley’s McClain Reamer finished fifth in the boys’ race with a time of 19:14, while Bald Eagle Area’s Aaron Wagner was 10th with a time of 20:21. Hollidaysburg’s Chris Love won the race with a time of 17:07.
PIAA FOUNDATION MEET
HERSHEY — State College, Bellefonte and Penns Valley all competed in the PIAA Foundation Invitational on Sunday, Sept. 26.
The meet was broken down into three varsity races based on classification. The State girls took third place and the State boys fourth in the Gold race for Class 3A teams.
“The competition was top notch and included many of the teams we could face at the state meet so it was a good chance to see where we stack up at this point in the season,” Lady Little Lion coach Rebecca Donaghue said.
The State College girls posted 193 team points, finishing behind only North Allegheny (63) and Mount St. Joseph (153). Marlee Kwasnica paced the Lady Little Lions with a 16th-place finish, crossing the finish in 20:22.00. Mount Lebanon’ Logan St. John Kletter was first, running 18:46.00.
Next up for State College was Natalie Koncoski, whose time of 20:53.00 was good for 33rd, while Amy Devan was 45th and Chloe Poindexter 51st with times of 21:19.00 and 21:30, respectively. Grace Morningstar rounded out the Lady Little Lion scorers by placing 60th.
Trent Dinant nabbed 11th place in the Gold boys’ race, posting a time of 16:58, 30 seconds behind medalist Cole Adams of York Suburban. Charles Endres also garnered a top-20 finish for State College, coming in 19th with a time of 17:04.00.
Rounding out State College’s top-50 finishers were Nick Sloff (36th, 17:23.00) and Tony Tzolov (50th, 17:48.00). Griffin Selber was State’s fifth scorer, coming in 100th.
Chase Ebeling spearheaded the Bellefonte boys to a 13th place team finish in the Blue race, taking 30th place individually with a time of 18:03.00, while the Raiders’ Alex Crist was 47th with a time of 18:36.00.
Aaron Carlini was Bellefonte’s third boys finisher, taking 101st with a time of 19:56.00.
“The boys team did really well. They finished 13 out of 34 schools and three out of seven runners finished under 20 minutes. I’m very happy with what they accomplished,” Bellefonte coach Carla Cipro said.
Eric Bennett was 115th and Caleb Vinnedge 154th to close out Bellefonte’s scoring.
Ashleigh Aukerman was the top Lady Raider, posting a time of 25:41.00 to finish 137th. The Lady Raiders were 24th as a team; Haley Herr, Kate Rarrick, Josie Underwood and Alexis Fravel scored for Bellefonte.
In the girls’ White race, Anna Stitzer led at the midway point with the only sub-10-minute time of 9:58 but was overtaken by Elk Lake’s Krista Jones and Shaffer in the second half and had to settle for third with a time of 20:40. Jones was first at 20:02, while Shaffer crossed the line in 20:12.
Penns Valley only ran three girls, with Ayva Fetterolf placing 104th and Ann-Marie McMurtrie 127th.
Reamer was 52nd on the boys’ side, checking in at 19:58. Vincent Smith was 122nd and Dilon Reilly 150th.
STATE COLLEGE GIRLS
REEDSVILLE — State College girls claimed nine of the top 10 finishes as the Lady Little Lions swept Central Dauphin and host Mifflin County by identical 15-50 scores.Kwasnica won the race with a time of 19:35.
“She led wire to wire and looked in good control,” Donaghue said.
Amy Devan took second and Koncoski third with respective times of 20:52 and 20:53, while Poindexter was fourth in 21:05. Morningstar placed fifth, running 21:07.Abigail Bigger, Maya Ikenberry, Sophie Dixon and Devyani Wadhia rounded out State College’s top-10 placewinners.
The Little Lions also won twice, beating Mifflin County by a 16-43 score and Central Dauphin by a 20-43 count. No other details were reported on the boys’ race.
BELLEFONTE
BELLEFONTE — The Bellefonte boys improved to 3-0 on Sept. 21 with a 17-46 Mountain League victory over visiting Tyrone at Governor’s Park. Ebeling beat Crist for medalist by 34 seconds by clocking in at 18:29.
Carlini was third with a time of 20:11. Bennett, Danny Mussett, Vinnedge, Kaiden Williams and Dillon Sette swept the fifth through ninth spots for the Raiders.
The Lady Raiders scored their first win of the year, 15-50, as Tyrone only had four runners and couldn’t score as a team. Aukerman took second place with a time of 20:01. Tyrone’s Beth Pearson won the race with a time of 19:06.
Katie Gearhart, Fravel, Josie Underwood, Rarrick and Rebecca Burns finished fourth through eighth for Bellefonte.
Running nearly unopposed, the Bellefonte teams swept Bald Eagle Area, 15-50 in both boys and girls on Sept. 28 as the visiting Eagles only had one runner.
Ebeling and Crist still posted sub-20-minute times. Ebeling won at 19:22. Crist crossed the line 8 seconds later. Bellefonte’s Alex Mansfield was third at 20:22, followed by BEA’s Colton Wagner at 20:47.
Carlini, Bennett, Mussett, Vinnedge, Williams and Sette rounded out the top 10.
Aukerman won the girls’ race, posting a time of 25:08. Rarrick was second at 26:20. Fravel, Herr and Underwood rounded out Bellefonte’s scorers.
