MESHOPPEN – Jack Shoemaker, who led Abington Heights to second place in Class 3A, and Lackawanna Trail’s Tyler Ronchi each placed fifth in the District 2 Cross Country Championships Oct. 22 at the Wyoming County Fairgrounds.
Shoemaker completed the 3.1-mile course in 17:22.3.
Wallenpaupack won the team title with 40 points. Abington Heights was second of 10 teams with 65, 14 in front of third-place Hazleton Area.
While Shoemaker was the only state qualifier from Abington Heights, the Comets did have three other medalists for top 15 finishes.
Timothy Fogley, Nick Sutton and Aashirth Goli were 13th, 14th and 15th.
Mario Marsala was 18th of 68 to complete the Abington Heights team score.
Class A
Ronchi and Chase Litwin each earned medals and state berths in the Class A race to begin the day.
Ronchi posted a time of 16:43.1. Litwin qualified for the state meet by finishing 11th of 93 in 17:21.8.
Elk Lake beat out Riverside for the title 38-61.
Lackawanna Trail was eighth of 14 teams with 175.
Class 2A
Scranton Prep missed a team state berth by one spot and 23 points, but the Cavaliers did qualify three individuals, each of which were medalists.
Mid Valley won with 42 points and Lake-Lehman took the second state spot with 47. Scranton Prep had 70 points, 16 better than fourth-place Crestwood in the 10-team race.
Vincent O’Malley, Gavin Gallagher and Nicholas Michel medaled in ninth, 11th and 13rd.
Matthew Cohen was 20th, then Aidan McDonnell, David Perks and Peter Durkin came in 24th through 26th for the Cavaliers.
A total of 79 runners began the race and all but one finished.