Wildcat Varsity Boys Finish Undefeated In KSAC Cross Country Regular Season Meets, At Cranberry

Above photo courtesy of Diane Lutz – Hayden Weber (572) Top boys finisher, with several other Wildcats at Cranberry meet

The Central Clarion Wildcats Cross Country Team finished their Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference regular season, on Wednesday, October 9th at Cranberry. Another bit of history was made for the first year Wildcat co-op program between Clarion-Limestone and Clarion was made as the Varsity Boys finished the regular season undefeated.

Central Clarion head coach Nicole Oakes shared this meet summary:

Once we finally arrived at Cranberry for the meet, after sitting in 322 traffic for some time, we were happy to find that our dual meet was actually going to be a tri meet with friends and also great competitors the Brockway Rovers. The weather was pretty perfect minus a strong wind that brought a chill, but it was sunny, dry and not too warm. Smiley miles timed the race, and full results can be found on that page.

https://www.smileymiles.com/Race%20Results%20index.html

The Junior High race was first with a total of 47 competitors, Finishing first out of the entire field of athletes was our Jackson Baker, the first girl finisher of the race was our Hannah Love. Those two top finishes really set the tone for the evening.

While all three teams were running, as it was out of conference for the Rovers, Central Clarion only tabulated scores against Cranberry.

For the Junior High girls the Wildcats came out on top with a score of 20 to Cranberry 37. Our one, two and three girls… Hannah Love (first place – 13:24), Tenley Kiskadden (second place – 13:41) and Bryn Anderson (third place – 13:45) all finished pretty close together. For Tenley especially, this was a great run staying right with Hannah and Bryn throughout.

In the Junior High boys portion, Cranberry narrowly bested the Wildcats 27 to 29. Top finishers for the Wildcats were Jackson Baker (1st – 11:45), Blaise Fleisher (3rd – 13:41) and Noah Fredrick (5th – 13:29).

In the Varsity Girls race, Cranberry won over the Wildcats with a score of 18 to 41. We sort of expected this going into the meet, Cranberry always has an amazing team that seems to be even stronger this year. As this is the only regular season loss that the Wildcats Varsity girls have this year, I think we can really hold our heads high. Of course we want our athletes to come out and really “fight” to finish strong and compete and next week at the KSAC championship meet on Tuesday. Cranberry will be one of the toughest teams we face; however, as we have said ALL SEASON we have a sights on the long game.

KSACs is important, but Districts and States are the goal. ***** Eliza Datko finished 3rd overall with a time of 21:23, Adisen Jackson finished 7th with a time of 22:16 Reise Jackson finished 10th with a time of 23:04 beating teammate Livia McGinley by only 1 second!

We consistently try to remind the kids that our KSAC conference has some of the strongest runners in all of district 9, that weekly strong competition helps us really push each other. While next week we are opponents, on October 26th we are hoping to really see all KSAC runners stand out! These kids are great encouragers of each other, regardless of the colors they are wearing on their uniforms and more than anything that is something to be proud of.

The Varsity Boys had the best overall place finishes we have seen this season, with the Wildcats taking the First – Fifth place spots. Hayden Weber finished first with a time of 17:47, Drake Edmonds was second at 17:55, Jonas Wilshire was third at 17:56, Logan Powell was fourth at 18:15, and AJ Mecusker was fifth at 19:07.
This win over Cranberry, with a score of 15 to 40 means that the Wildcat Boys have went undefeated this season for conference meets!

Here again, we have the long game in our minds, but really… the season is winding down and isn’t so far away.

All around, next week at Keystone for the KSAC race, it may be a little chilly, but we are ready for a great day of races!

(Fine Meet Wildcats!!!! Thanks to coach Oakes for this summary and to Diane Lutz for her photos!!)