Expand<\/a><\/p>\nAbington Heights coach Frank Passetti gave Anna Pucilowski a picture from last year\u2019s PIAA Cross Country Championships.<\/p>\n
It is of the photo finish between Pucilowski and North Allegheny\u2019s Robin Kucler for 25th place. Initially, Pucilowski was credited with the spot, which would have given her a state medal. But upon further review, the photo showed Kucler edged her out. Pucilowski had to settle for 26th and miss out on a medal.<\/p>\n
She admits she has the picture, but doesn\u2019t use it as motivation.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I try to keep things like that behind me,\u201d she said. \u201cNot to focus too much on them, just better myself for the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year, I just won\u2019t make it a close call. I want a medal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pucilowski and the rest of qualifiers from District 2 will chase that goal Saturday at the Hershey Parkview Course. First of six races is at 9:30 a.m. Saturday\u2019s weather forecast calls for intervals of clouds and sunshine with a high of 58 degrees and wind out of the west at 13 mph.<\/p>\n
Not only will Pucilowski try to earn her first state medal, but she will lead the Lackawanna League and District 2 champion Lady Comets in the ultra-competitive Class 3A girls field. Two years ago, Abington Heights finished second in the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited. I think we can do great things at the state championships,\u201d Pucilowski said. \u201cObviously anything can happen, but I have a lot of confidence in our team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three other girls besides Pucilowski are making their fourth trip to states: Corinne Flynn of Mountain View, Riley Mackrell from Valley View and Crestwood\u2019s Katie Kozich.<\/p>\n
Shooting for the top<\/p>\n
Kendel Jones earned bragging rights at the family dinner table when he captured his fourth District 2 Class 1A title last week. His brother Luke (2010-12) and his sister Krista (2018-19, 2021) each won three.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy that my whole family is a legacy of runners and that my siblings Luke and Krista set the mark with three district titles,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI\u2019m happy to one-up them. It means a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, Jones will try to earn his fourth state medal. He finished 12th as a freshman and fifth as a sophomore and a junior.<\/p>\n
This year, the medal could be gold. Jones is considered one of the favorites in the Class 1A boys race along with teammate Cody Adams and District 4 champion Michael Fritz of Northwest, which runs in the Wyoming Valley Conference during the regular season. Adams is a four-time state qualifier who placed eighth as a sophomore and fourth as a junior.<\/p>\n
Also, the Warriors, who finished third in the state last year, are considered one of the top contenders for the Class 1A team title with the top three of Jones, Adams and Parker Upright leading the way. Upright was 15th at states last year.<\/p>\n
It will come down to how their Nos. 4 and 5 runners, Trevor Upright and Whalen Kinney, fare. Jones has confidence in his teammates.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the beginning of the season, we weren\u2019t as close. But they\u2019ve really tightened up the gap of time,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThey\u2019ve really been working hard all season and don\u2019t receive as much credit. They deserve all the credit. They\u2019re the reason we\u2019re district champions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Riverside is another team that could be in the mix in Class 1A boys. The District 2 runner-up is led by Mikey Schimelfenig, who finished 20th last year to earn a state medal.<\/p>\n
Back for more<\/p>\n
Besides Jones and Adams, two other District 2 boys runners are four-time state qualifiers: Aiden Janowicz of Wallenpaupack and two-time District 2 Class 2A champion Mason Staude from Crestwood.<\/p>\n
However, Staude did not run as a sophomore because of an injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to get a top-10 finish,\u201d Staude said. \u201cI\u2019ve never medaled there, but I definitely think I have the fitness to go out there and finish strong one last year on the grass.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two other runners from the district are also returning state medalists. District 2 Class 1A girls champ Kendyl Weisgold of Elk Lake was 11th last year, while Lakeland\u2019s Henry Decker placed 24th in Class 1A boys.<\/p>\n
Decker is one of five District 2 boys who are three-time state qualifiers. The others are Elk Lake\u2019s Kinney, Matthew Repecki of Mid Valley, Vincent O\u2019Malley from Scranton Prep and Wallenpaupack\u2019s Chase Predmore.<\/p>\n
Girls from District 2 who are three-time state qualifiers are Sadie Loftus of Valley View, the District 2 Class 2A champ; Wallenpaupack\u2019s June Brown and Kelcie Fillebrown; Marley Gilboy and Morgan Kresge from Abington Heights; Lake-Lehman\u2019s OIivia Corcoran; Sarah O\u2019Donnell from North Pocono and Isabella Dessoye of Pittston Area.<\/p>\n
Learning experience<\/p>\n
West Scranton\u2019s Seamus Wallace finished 154th last year in the Class 3A boys race in 17:44. He said he learned a lot his first time that he hopes to apply going back Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI learned the course is like nothing else,\u201d said Wallace, the District 2 Class 3A champion. \u201cYou have to get out as hard as possible or you get stuck and can\u2019t move. That\u2019s the mistake I made last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ultimate goal is to get a medal, but that\u2019s going to be really hard. I just want to kind of be top 50ish this year. Last year, I came in over 100th, so I just want to move up and have a better time than I did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mid Valley\u2019s Jacob Borrelli also learned about the Parkview Course the hard way in his first trip to states. He was 199th in Class 2A boys in 19:19.<\/p>\n
\u201cI panicked last year, honestly. Just the sheer amount of kids and all that. Everybody was passing me and I got it in me mentally and it got to me,\u201d Borrelli said. \u201cI\u2019m hoping to come back this year a lot stronger. Going for a top 10, but I\u2019ll be happy with a medal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among the first-time qualifiers is Grace Holderith from Delaware Valley. She made it by finishing second at the District 2 Championships in Class 3A girls. That effort enabled her to erase the memory of the year before when she was in position to make it to states, but had to drop out of the race at Mile 2.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a big disappointment,\u201d Holderith said. \u201cI ended up training super hard over the summer, doing about 500 miles. (At districts), I just went out there and didn\u2019t let nerves get the best of me. I knew (Crestwood\u2019s) Katie (Kozich) was going to be right with me the whole time. It was a very strong race and I\u2019m very proud of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holderith simply plans to run her best time while learning what states is about.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that Triple-A is pretty competitive,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m just going to go out there, see what I can do, maybe hope for a high-19 or somewhere in the mid-20s if I can.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elk Lake\u2019s Kendel Jones runs during the PIAA D2 cross county championships at the Wyoming County Fairgrounds on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":{"0":"post-21049","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-high-school-sports","9":"tag-scranton","10":"tag-scranton-headlines","11":"tag-scranton-news","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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