While all but one other District 2 cross country program waited another eight days to start the season, Abington Heights jumped right into action on the first legal day of interscholastic competition in Pennsylvania.
The Comets made the most of the early start Aug. 26 in the Lions Invitational at Moravian Academy with a first-place finish, two seconds and a third.
Abington Heights won the girls team title and took second in boys.
Freshman Anna Pucilowski debuted with a second-place individual finish while Tommy Walsh led the boys by taking third.
Pucilowski set a series of cross country and track, course and school records during her junior high career at Abington Heights. She showed she was ready to compete on the varsity level by finishing the 3.1-mile course in 19:23.26 as one of just two runners to break 20 minutes in the 107-runner field.
The Comets placed five runners in the top 22 to post a team score of 44, six better than Notre Dame Green Pond, which was second out of 13 teams.
Reese Morgan was seventh, Emma Horsley 12th, Maia Arcangelo 16th and Hailey Hirtz 22nd to complete the five-runner team score for Abington Heights.
Only Nazareth Academy finished ahead of Abington Heights in the boys race that featured 21 full teams and 139 individuals.
The Abington Heights team score of 43 was only two behind Nazareth Academy was 82 ahead of third-place Holy Ghost Prep.
Walsh finished third in 17:21.75.
Alex Duffy, Nicholas Booth and Sean Rooney finished eighth, ninth and 10th.
Jack Sorensen and Jack Farrell added 18th- and 27th-place finishes for the Comets.
Abington Heights had three runners post top-10 finishes in the junior high races.
Marly Gilboy was second and Grace Bennett seventh in the girls race while Liam Moran took eighth in the boys race.
The Lackawanna League cross country season was scheduled to begin Sept. 6 with the first of seven weekly cluster meets.
Abington Heights again runs with North Pocono and Valley View each week. The Comets are scheduled to host the Sept. 27 meet, which is the one where all teams, including cluster partners, are scored against each other.
