STATE COLLEGE — The State College boys’ cross country team took the silver medal at the PIAA AAA State Cross Country meet held at Hershey Park on Saturday, Nov. 1.
The Little Lions, led by third-place finisher Theo Opperman and fourth-place Luke Bradbury, finished agonizingly close behind first place North Penn from District 1.
Third place in the meet went to LaSalle College High School, fourth place to Council Rock North and fifth place to Perkiomen Valley.
Opperman finished with a time of 15:45, and Bradbury was a second behind at 15:46. Other finishers for SC were Dexter Walker at 16:53, Kyle Fritzsche, 17:11, Owen Viglione, 17:13, Thomas Ruffing, 17:30 and Ben Alexander, 18:05.
North Penn was paced by Justin Landis with a time of 16:22 followed by Joey Sharkey at 16:30 and Musa Herzi at 16:40.
The overall Individual champion was Travis Furmanski, a senior from Cedar Crest in District 3, who ran a 15:34. Lower Merion’s Nicholas Mazzeo was second with a 15:39.
Opperman was tied for third place with Carter Smith from Mifflin County.
In the AAA Girls meet, State College came in with a third place finish behind District 7 Norwin and District 1 Downingtown West.
This was the eighth consecutive year that the State College girls’ team finished in the top five in the state.
The team was paced by sophomore Evie Younkin with a time of 19:17, and she was followed by Carolyn Frank at 20:32, Autumn Swisher, 20:41, Silvia Hutchison, 20:44, Julia Bigger, 20:46, Lacey Sheaffer, 21:84 and Ainsley Barabas, 21:51.
The total team time was 102:00, which was 3:57 off the pace set by Norwin.
The individual race was won by Madelyn McCartney from Emmaus with a time of 18:17, and Berkeley Marcelis finished second with an 18:27. Ana Bondy from Carlisle was third at 18:30. The PIAA Championships featured a total of 21 boys’ teams and 20 girls’ teams. District 1 from suburban Philadelphia finished with three top five boys’ teams and three top five girls’ teams
