Abington Heights showed off incredible team balance Nov. 4 on the Hershey Parkview Course while producing an historic result at the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Cross Country Championships.
The Comets placed second, the best ever by a girls team from the school, which has produced a pair of state boys cross country championships. The second-place finish was also the best by any District 2 girls cross country team in Class 3A, the PIAA’s largest enrollment classification for the sport.
While Abington Heights thrived as a team, Lackawanna Trail’s Brayden Clarke earned an individual medal with a ninth-place finish in Class A boys.
The Abington Heights girls had the race’s best grouping of runners, placing the five who combined for the team score within 20 seconds of each other.
North Allegheny won its sixth straight team title, but Abington Heights closed the gap from a mid-season meeting on the same course with the final margin at 80-127.
The top 25 runners in each of six races earned state medals.
Only the top two teams in each race received trophies.
The Abington Heights girls came home with hardware when Emma Horsley placed 56th out of 237 runners and received plenty of support.
Anna Pucilowski matched Horsley’s time of 20:05 for the 3.1-mile course and finished one place back in 57th.
Horsley and Pucilowski were 18th and 19th among the 137 scoring runners from the 20 full teams entered.
Reese Morgan, Morgan Kresge and Hailey Hirtz all finished in the top 32 of the group from the competing teams.
Morgan was 77th overall in 20:24, Kresge 83rd in 20:27 and Hirtz 88th in 20:33.
Marley Gilboy was 124th overall in 20:59 and Kiera Crowell was 142nd in 21:16.
Clarke finished in 16:52 to place ninth out of 272 Class A boys. He was 13th after four of five kilometers, but closed strong to move up.
Scranton Prep placed 16th out of 21 teams in Class 2A boys.
The Cavaliers were led by Vincent O’Malley placing 93rd out of 250 in 17:59.
