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Anna Pucilowski from Abington Heights and Avery Ronchi from Lackawanna Trail each returned from Hershey Saturday with state medals from their performances at the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Cross Country Championships.
The top 25 runners in each race received medals.
Both seniors came close a year ago.
Pucilowski finished one spot out of a medal by finishing 26th in Class 3A girls in 2024, but this time she went out hard early and wound up finishing 18th with a time of 19:20.
Ronchi took 17th in Class A boys where he had been 33rd last year.
Class 3A girls
Pucilowski’s medal-winning effort led Abington Heights to a 12th-place finish out of 20 teams.
She held strong in the top 10 for the first half of the race.
Norwin won the team title 105-147 over Downingtown West. The Lady Comets posted a score of 283.
Marley Gilboy also finished in the top half of the field, taking 110th out of 238 finishers in 20:3.
Other Abington Heights runners were: Morgan Kresge, 128th, 21:01; Calli Gilboy, 160th, 21:32; Julia Healey, 186th, 22:02; Kenadi Lotz, 195th, 22:18; and Layla Caraballo, 215th, 23:24.
Madelyn McCartney from Emmaus won in 18:17.
Class A boys
Ronchi completed the 3.1-mile Parkview Cross Country Course in 17:15 as part of a strong performance by District 2, which had six medalists, a total of 11 runners place in the top 42 out of 257 and the top two teams.
Elk Lake won the state title with 61 points and Riverside finished second, 25 behind the Warriors and 41 ahead of the rest of the field.
Kendel Jones was second to lead three runners in the top six from Elk Lake, which won its third state title.
Lackawanna Trail’s Chase Litwin was 132nd in 19:15.
Class 3A boys
Abington Heights senior Jack Shoemaker finished in 18:19 to place 198th out of 252.
North Penn from Lansdale and Travis Furmanski from Cedar Crest won the titles.
Class 2A boys
Junior Nicholas Michel led Scranton Prep’s three entries in the race, taking 107th among the 242 finishers in 18:17.
Seniors Vincent O’Malley and Gavin Gallagher came in 134th and 233rd with times of 18:34 and 20:40.
Hughesville won the team title while Jonah Montagnese from second-place Quaker Valley was the gold medalist.
