After teammate Jordan Reed denied her back-to-back District 6 Class 3A individual girls’ cross country championships last year, State College Area High School junior Marlee Kwasnica was eager to regain her crown.
“I just wanted to go out there and run fast from the start and I wanted to make sure I had a good lead going into the last mile,” Kwasnica said.
Kwasnica returned to the pinnacle of her classification, running almost a half-minute faster than anyone else in her race as one of the highlights of a great District 6 championship meet on Saturday, Oct. 23 at a wet and muddy Mifflin County Elementary Complex course.
Kwasnica’s victory spearheaded the State College girls to a dominating win in the Class 3A girls’ team competition, while the State College boys won their 10th team championship in a row behind Charles Endres’ individual win.
In Class 1A girls, Penns Valley’s Anna Stitzer unseated a two-time defending D6 champion, while St. Joseph’s advanced to the state meet by virtue of a runner-up team showing. Penns Valley and Philipsburg-Osceola’s Chad Muckey were runners-up in Class 1A boys, and three Bellefonte runners finished in the top seven in Class 2A boys.
The state championships are on Saturday in Hershey.
“I think this was a good confidence booster for the team before states,” Kwasnica said. “We had possibly our strongest team performance of the year and we showed that we are once again a team to watch out for. Based on how I felt, I know that I am ready to run fast and I am feeling very motivated to have a great race at states.”
Kwasnica already held a 15-second lead by the 2.5-kilometer mark of her race before crossing the finish line in 19 minutes, 11.1 seconds. Teammate Amy Devan was second, running 18:38.2.
“Marlee has been running with great confidence and strength all season long,” State College coach Rebecca Donaghue said. She certainly utilized both today as she ran solo from gun to finish and paved the way for her teammates and the entire field. With these tools, Marlee is heading into Saturday primed and ready for big things on the big stage.”
“It feels great to get another individual district win after coming in second last year,” Kwasnica said.
State College girls came away with the top three spots, four of the top five and five of the top seven to finish with 18 team points compared to runner-up Altoona’s 65. Grace Morningstar posted a 19:44.5, Chloe Poindexter ran 19:51.1 and Abigail Bigger checked in at 20:29.7.
Non-scorers Alex Antoniono and Natalie Koncoski ran well, too, placing ninth and 12th, respectively.
“The team really took care of business,” Donoghue said. “Everyone stepped it up, pulling and pushing each other to turn in one of our strongest ever District performances.”
The results in the boys’ race weren’t much different as far as State College was concerned. Endres triumphed with a time of 16:47.1, followed by teammates Trent Dinant and Tony Tzolov at 16:59.2 and 17:02.5, respectively.
“(This) race shows me that I’m fit and our team is ready to race (at states),” Endres said. “I’ve been training hard and I know this court very well — I’ve been racing here since seventh grade.
“The individual win is nice, but cross country is really all about the team and us working together. I’ve very proud of the guys and grateful to the coaches.”
State College continued its decade of dominance with 29 team points. Altoona was second with 71.
All seven Little Lions placed in the top 18. Griffin Selber ran 17:31.0 to place 10th, while Sam Viglione was 13th at 17:48.4 to round out State’s scoring. Samuel Endres, meanwhile, was 17th, one spot ahead of teammate Ethan Morningstar.
“The coaching staff is very proud of the team’s effort and their positive attitude in general. There were several runners who ran their personal best times, even under rainy and muddy conditions. This team has risen to challenges throughout the season and today was a peak performance regarding a total team effort,” State College coach Dave Felice said. “The talent level at the PIAA State meet is truly outstanding. We truly believe that a top-five finish is realistic and having individual runners on the medal stand is very possible.”
Stitzer pulled away from two-time defending champion and Bucknell recruit Lauren Shaffer of Portage over the second half of the Class 1A girls’ race to win gold with a time of 19:07.0. Shaffer was second at 19:45.2; no other runners cracked 20 minutes.
“It feels truly amazing to win districts, especially against some very strong competition,” Stitzer said. “The first half of the race I really conserved my energy and focused on staying steady. At halfway, I felt really good so I decided to speed up and push the last mile. The conditions of the course made that pretty tough, but I am happy with how the race turned out. I knew that I had to trust my training and all the hard work that I have put in over this past season. I had to believe in myself and stay mentally strong.”
Stitzer was joined in the top 10 by teammates Alexis Durn (fourth, 20:51.1) and Abby Stitzer (seventh, 21:12.9). However, it was St. Joseph’s, with four runners placing in the top 16 led by Amber Fisher’s fifth-place, 20:51.1 finish, that picked up the district’s second berth to states behind team champion Marion Center.
The WolfPack’s Kita Chappell was 13th at 22:24.4, while Evelyn Reynolds was 15th at 22:45.7 and Brandi Carmack 16th at 22:47.6. Abby Ridenour was 25th to round out St. Joseph’s with 74 team points, 13 ahead of Portage for second.
The Penns Valley boys finished 26 points behind Marion Center to land District 6’s second qualifier at states. The Rams had two top 10 finishers, with McClain Reamer crossing the line in 18:20.3 to place sixth, while Simon Smith’s 18:39.9 was good for eighth.
Dilon Reilly took 20th, Vince Smith 25st and Matthew Wheland 37th to round out the Rams’ scoring; all three improved their position from the midpoint of the race.
Muckey had a slim lead over Marion Center’s Dillon Green at the 2.5-kilometer mark but Green managed to catch the P-O runner and win by about 6 seconds, 17:26.0-17:32.1. Philipsburg-Osceola’s Scott Frantz also qualified for states individually with a ninth-place showing in a time of 18:42.7, as did St. Joseph’s Colin Simander and Josh Hyman by taking fifth and 13th with times of 18:19.8 and 19:28.9, respectively.
Bellefonte made a strong run at the Class 2A boys’ team title before a trio of Central Cambria runners crossed the line close together to complete their team’s scoring and allow them to defend their district team title. Chase Ebeling, Alex Crist and Alex Mansfield still will go to states by finishing among the top five non-Central Cambria runners.
Ebeling finished fifth at 17:24.6, Crist was sixth at 17:30.2 and Mansfield was seventh at 17:40.5.
The Raiders finished with 46 team points, 13 behind Central Cambria.
In 2A girls, Philipsburg-Osceola’s Jaylee Cook and Bellefonte’s Ashleigh Aukerman were the highest Centre County finishers, just missing qualifying for states. Cook ran 22:58.2 for 13th. Aukerman timed 23:15.1 for 14th. P-O’s Manna Potter and Bellefonte’s Kate Rarrick were 17th and 18th, respectively.
This story appears in the Nov. 4-10 edition of the Centre County Gazette.
