Wildcats Do Well At PIAA Foundation Cross Country Meet At Hershey Park

on 23 September, 2024 at 14:18

Photos by Christie Datko – (Above) Wildcat Crew that traveled to the meet (L-R) Josh Turner, Jonas Wilshire, Caleb Turner, Hayden Weber, Julianna Schwabenbauer, Eliza Datko, Adisen Jackson, AJ Mecusker

The Central Clarion Wildcats competed at the 18th PIAA Foundation Cross Country Meet at Hershey Park, on Saturday, September 21st and had some fine results. The course is basically one used for the PIAA State meet, coming up later this fall.

Adisen Jackson finished seventh, to medal in the Girls Class A race. But with only two runners, the Wildcat girls were not eligible for the team standings. The Central Clarion Boys, led by Jonas Wilshire’s medal winning twentieth place, finished in fifth place out of twenty-four teams.

**Adisen Jackson, proudly displays her seventh place medal.**

Winchester Thurston won both the Boys and Girls Class A Team championships. The Boys race had twenty-four teams, while the Girls race had fourteen teams.

Carlynton’s Bridget McNamara won the Girls race with a time of 20:18. The Boys race was won by Winchester Thurston’s Eli DeSimone, who crossed the finish line at 16:42. Their were 168 finishers in the Boys race and 125 finishers in the Girls race.

Several area teams finished in the Class A Girls Top 10, with Cranberry finishing second, Rocky Grove seventh and Karns City tenth. Joining Central Clarion in the Class A Boys Top 10 was Rocky Grove, which took third.

Central Clarion head coach Nicole Oakes shared this about her two girls that competed. “Saturday was another successful day for the few Wildcat runners we were able to take with us.

The girls race went off at 9. Eliza Datko and Adisen Jackson were our only two runners in this race. Both girls did great at getting out to front at the start. They both had a strong race, Adi (21:04) placed, yet again on the state course, and she looked great.

“We were also so pleased with Eliza’s (23:04) finish, she had never been on the course at Hershey before and it’s certainly different from what we have seen so far this season, finishing within sight of a medal at 29th was a great step in practicing for the real show WHEN we get to states in a little over a month.”

The Wildcats Boys team was put together piecemeal, with those available to run, but had great results, nonetheless.

“The boys race started at 11:15 and we had a full 5 and thus enough to qualify as a team, although these may not be our starting 5 at districts (or states), the group that came still finished 5th out of 24 teams in the single A division; keeping in mind that these are schools from across the state was something to really be proud of.”

The runners followed the gameplan and reaped good results. “We gave the boys the same directions as the girls, to get out in front at the start to avoid getting boxed in and they did just that. It was certainly a moment of pride to see our wildcat runners at the peak of the pack 100 yards in.

“As they peaked the last hill, before the finishing switchback, Jonas and Hayden were 19 and 21 and that is the point when everyone kicks it in, it was a mad dash to the finish. At the finishing line, Jonas (18:07) finished 20th and Hayden only a few seconds behind (18:11) at 22nd.

**Some of the Boys medalists – back row on the right is Jonas Wilshire with his 20th place medal.**

“Josh Turner (19:26) finished 51st overall, he is a reliable strong runner for us, dealing with a few aches and pains that we hope can heal up in the coming weeks. Splitting the Turner twins, AJ Mecusker (19:59) finished in 64th place, as the youngest that we brought with us on Saturday, we were impressed with his time and he seemed to show the strongest finishing kick of our entire group. Caleb Turner rounded out our scoring five, finishing with a time of 20:57.”

The course had some modifications from the past.

Coach Oakes commented, “The course had a few changes this year, and across the board times were showing a little slower, with murmurs of a slightly longer than 3.1 distance, really the best we can do is use this as a starting point for ourselves to work to show improvements in November and as a preliminary way to see how we might match up. As it stands right now, we are pretty pleased with how those potential matchups appear.”

(Congratulations on the fine showing, Wildcats!!!! Thanks to Christie Datko for her photos!!)