Wildcat Boys Claim 2024 District Nine Cross Country Class-1A Title, Girls Finish Third; Big Sendoff To States Planned For Friday
Above photo – 2024 District Nine Class 1A Boys Champions: (front from left) Assistant coach Kelsey Makin, Logan Powell, Hayden Weber, Drake Edmonds, Jonas Wilshire, Camden Coleman, Kaleb Walker, Head coach Nicole Oakes. (back) Caleb Turner, AJ Mecusker, Paul Craig, Logan Lutz, Ryan Rinker, Riley Rinker, Logan Meier, Caleb Turner.
In another first for the Central Clarion Wildcats Cross Country program, the Boys Varsity won the District Nine Class-1A Championship, last Saturday (October 26th), at Ridgway. With the win the Wildcats earned a trip to this Saturday’s (November 2nd) Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) State Meet at Hershey. The Wildcats finished with 43 points, fifty-five points ahead of second place winner Cranberry’s 106 points. With the top two teams going to states, Cranberry also advances.
The top Wildcat boys finishers were: Logan Powell, Hayden Weber and Drake Edmonds.
The Wildcat Girls just finished out of the running for a trip to States, finishing third with 82 points. But Eliza Datko and Adisen Jackson still earned a trip to states, with Eliza finishing eighth at 21:10 and Adisen finishing just one place behind Eliza in ninth with a time of 21:13.
(Special note: Clarion-Limestone is having a big sendoff to states on Friday (November 3rd). The festivities will begin in the hallways of the elementary school at 8:15 a.m. and then will move to the hallways of the high school at 8:30. Assistant Principal Davey Eggleton, sends this special invitation to all Wildcat fans, “Please plan to line the hallways and cheer on our team.”)
Wildcats head coach Nicole Oakes shares this summary of the great meet:
While there was a chill in the air, the sun was shining brighter than ever in Ridgway on Saturday for the District IX Cross Country Championships.
The Varsity girls were our first run of the day, going in we had high hopes for the day but certainly some questions. In our minds, Cranberry girls were going to take it all and we were going to battle it out with Brockway over the runner up position.
There were a lot of ifs, we were excited to have Julianna Schwabenbaurer back this week after several weeks off, she was just cleared a few days ago to be able to run again, of course with all of that time off, our hope for her was to finish feeling strong without a time expectation. Senior Olivia Radaker has been fighting with some physical things as well. Midway through the race as athletes came past our tent area is was pretty clear that Brockway came out in full force. In the end, we were delighted that KSAC runner from North Clarion, Abby Hastings took the first place overall finish. Our friends that we faced five times this season, the Brockway rovers, had a phenomenal race and took the championship title, with the runners up being the expected KSAC friends, the Cranberry girls.
I can’t say that we are disappointed today, We knew we would not beat Cranberry and Brockway completely deserved their win, of course we would have loved to take a full team to Hershey this coming weekend, but I think we can hold our heads high on this weekend’s performance. Besides, we do have two individual runners that did qualify to race in Hershey. Eliza Datko will be making her debut states run, and Adisen Jackson will be making her third trip to the state meet, last year Adisen was a top finisher medal winner in the A race. I anticipate our girls to have a phenomenal week. Both girls have put in the work and persevered and deserve the experience and excitement that next weekend is sure to bring.
The Varsity boys race was next, the whispers were that we were predicted a win, but just as the girls race proved, nothing is for certain and someone can have a great race/run while others may have an off day. In the end that is it, we get a one time glimpse at these kids. The start was not as strong for our boys as I had hoped, we pride ourselves in getting out in front and from the position I was in that first 100 yards as kids charge into the woods, I was concerned, but it seemed as the boys made it to circle back around and come down the hill things were falling into place, as much as they ever are for our front running boys. We have so many strong runners that they don’t have a set 1-5 position, today was the same, while we saw Hayden coming down the hill first, we have not been seeing Logan Powell in our number two spot. As a senior this year, and the only senior in our Varsity line up, he knew the performance on this race decided if this was his last as a Wildcat or if he would have one more performance next week at state.
On the next loop around, Logan (Pogan as we call him as we have 3 senior “Logan’s”) took our number one spot, with Hayden at two. In the final segment of the race, our wildcats were passed by Senior from Oswayo Valley, Andrew Coriaty, and Deacon Hendrickson from Elk County Catholic. Taking three of the top ten finisher spots, Logan Powell (17:15) finished third, Hayden Weber (17:19) fourth and Drake Edmonds (17:28) seventh.
The boys had a great run, in this race Logan Powell set a new PR by 17 seconds, AJ Mecusker (18:35) by 12 seconds, and Paul Craig (19:10) by 42 seconds. Ridgway is traditionally not a PR course, it is difficult, these boys did phenomenal. I would be remiss to not mention the performance by Josh Turner (18:11), he has really battled an injury this season, and it wasn’t feeling great, but he was determined to run today, and despite that, he was a scorer for us. I can’t be more proud of their win, making history in our inaugural Wildcat season by capturing the title win a whopping 63 points ahead of the runner up team, which by the way was also very exciting as joining us next week in Hershey is fellow KSAC team, Cranberry.
With a team as large as our wildcat squad this year, we also were able to field an entire team for the extras race. During that run, Logan Lutz, Camden Coleman, Logan Meier and Kaleb Walker all ran new season personal bests, again at a very difficult course. A bitter sweet race for sure, so many great finishing times, but a final goodbye run for senior runners Logan Lutz, Logan Meier and Riley Rinker. All three boys need so much praise for their support of their team this year, they could be seen during the Varsity races counting runners and running from one side of the course to the other encouraging their teammates. Their presence will be missed next year.
(Congratulations, Wildcats!!!! Have a great State Meet, along all the other District Nine Athletes moving on to States!!!! Thanks to Diane Lutz and Kelsey Makin for their photos!!)
Link to all the D9 Meet Results
https://runhigh.com/2024RESULTS/R102624DA.html