Dominant Performances Highlight Busy Week of Lackawanna League Cross Country Cluster Meets

To start us off on Monday the cluster of Riverside, Old Forge and Dunmore traveled to Lackawanna Train to take on Lakeland and Western Wayne. 

On the boys side, Riverside proved to be the class of the field taking 3 dominating wins and have been on a tear since their opening week battle with Elk Lake. The team put 5 in the top 7 of the race and are looking very strong heading into Pre States this weekend. 

Mikey Schimelfenig took his second win in as many weeks and is emerging as one of the area's top runners. Mikey covered the course in 16:52 taking a 10 second win over Lackawanna Trail's Avery Ronchi. 11 seconds back from Avery was Lakeland's Henry Decker who stopped the clock in 17:13. After Henry flowed the pack of Riverside where they took 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th place. The Connor brothers (Andrew and Michael) rounded out the top 5 taking 4th 17:56 and 5th 18:01. 

For the ladies, Old Forge took 3 wins over the field using a strong pack where they put their top 5 in the top 9 of the race. Western Wanye had an opportunity to upset the Blue Devils however their pack (10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th, along with Kaitly Kloss taking a commanding win over the field) was just off of the pace that Old Forge managed. 

Kaitlyn Kloss got her first win of the season putting up a time of 22:02 over 40 seconds faster than 2nd place finisher Lakeland's Rylin Wech who clocked a time of 22:49. The next 3 runners were all spread out as well. In 3rd place Elena Bialkowski from Old Forge came in at 23:28. Lakeland's 2nd runner Emily Decker finished 4th overall in a time of 24:01 and rounding out the top 5 was Old Forge's 2nd runner Brynn Negvesky dipping under 25 minutes with a time of 24:47. 

On Tuesday there were 2 cluster meets, first up was the cluster of West Scranton, Scranton and Mid Valley, traveling to McDade Park to take on Scranton Prep, Holy Cross and Carbondale. 

On the boys side, Mid Valley's strong pack makes short work of the field taking 3 commanding wins where they put 5 runners

in the top 10 once again. The Spartan's are on a collision course with Riverside in what will be the race where they put their undefeated streak on the line vs a strong Riverside team. 

Seamus Wallace from West Scranton and Jacob Borrelli from Mid Valley out paced the field taking their 3rd one-two finish in as many weeks. Seamus went out with the leaders for the early part of the race and Jacob closed the gap before the two cruzed it into the finish over the second half of the course where Seamus got his first win of the season in 17:11 and Jacob a step behind in 17:12. Following closely behind was one of the best races of the meet. Matthew Repecki from Mid Valley held on for a 3rd place finish in 17:25, one second behind in 4th place was Holy Cross's Thomas Gavin and rounding out the top 5 one second further back was Mid Valley's 3rd runner William Powell. 

On the ladies side of the meet, Scranton Prep managed to secure 3 wins by putting 5 in the top 14. This race had a lot more variety to it with Mid Valley and Holy Cross also managed to put multiple runners in the top 15. Holy Cross' top 4 runners in the top 12 was also enough to secure 3 wins over the cluster of Mid Valley, Scranon, and West Scranton. 

It was a two lady race on Tuesday afternoon, taking the win was Holy Cross's Gemma Bistran who led from wire to wire and breaking 22 minutes with a time of 21:58. Not far behind is 2nd place was Scranton's Bianca Perez-Temozihu with a time of 22:16. These two ladies put over a minute on the next runners, which was the duo Ella Schofield and Eloise Egan from Scranton Prep taking 4th and 5th in identical times of 23:12. Rounding out the top 5 was Olvia Thomas from Mid Valley in a time of 23:31. 

The cluster of Valley View, North Pocono and Abington traveled to the HILL of Suquhanna where they raced the cluster Mountain View, and Forest City. 

The boys of Abington came away with 3 wins in perhaps what would be considered the race of the week, where Susquhanna gave Abington a scare in the scorebook (Abington 25 - Susquhanna 31). 

Maxx Kelly of Susquanna took a commanding win on his home course in a time of 17:34. Maxx started the season off a little slow but looks to be picking up some major steam as the season picks up. 44 seconds back in second place was Abington's Jack Shoemaker in a time of 18:18 and followed a second behind in 3rd was teammate Timmothy Fogley. Only a few seconds back in 4th place in a time of 18:22 was Valley View's Cooper Courtright. In 5th place Sean Larkin from Mountain View managed to run a 18:40 over the challenging terrain. 

For the ladies, for the third time in as many weeks the cluster of Abington, North Pocono and Valley View sweep the field and look to have an epic showdown next week when they take on Elk Lake, Blue Ridge and Montrose as well as the teams in their own cluster. Abington used strong front running with 3 in the top 4 and 5 of the top 9 in the race to secure the win. To truly understand the depth of this cluster just consider that the entire cluster of  Susquhanna, Mountain View and Forest City only managed 2 runners in the top 20 of the meet. 

Abington's Anna Puculowski looks to be poised for another Runner of the Year Title as she takes her 3rd cluster meet win of the season in dominant fashion throwing down a time of 19:16, over 80 seconds ahead of 2nd place runner Sadie Loftus, who stopped the clock in 20:38. In 3 weeks it has been the same story as  Sadie managed to open up a large gap over Abington's 2nd and 3rd runners Calli Gilboy and Morgan Kresge who finished in 4th and 5th with times of 21:05 and 21:22. Kiera Burke of Susquehanna represented the clusters top finisher with a 5th place not to far off Morgan in a time of 21:28

To close out the week of Cluster racing the cluster of Montrose, Blue Ridge, and Elk Lake travel to take on Wallenpaupack, Delaware Valley at Honesdale.

 The boys of Elk lake took 3 wins, putting up a 1,2,3 finish securing an automatic win. They had 4 runners in the top 5 of the race and look poised for a great race at this weekends Foundation invitation on the state course. 

Kendle Jones and Cody Adams of Elk Lake keep their 1-2 streak alive running times of 16:48 and 17:13 while Parker Upright secured the win for Elk Lake taking 3rd place in 17:21. Next across the line was Aiden Janowicz taking 4th place in 18:05 for Wallenpaupack and rounding out the top 5 was Trevor Upright from Elk Lake with an 18:17. Wallenpaupack showed great depth with 9 runners in the top 20 but it wasn't enough to break Elk Lakes Win Streak. 

In one of the best team races of the week the ladies of Elk Lake won every important duel vs wallenpaupack. 

Elk Lake runner took 2nd, Wallenpaupack 3rd 

Elk Lake runner took 5th, Wallenpaupack 6th 

Elk Lake runner took 7th, Wallenpaupack  8th

Elk Lake runner took 11th, Wallenpaupack 13th

Elk Lake runner took 14th, Wallenpaupack 19th

All these little victories lead to a close but convincing win for the Warriors of Elk lake.

The individual race was a good one as well with runners from 4 different schools in the top 4. Grace Holderith from Delaware Valley got another win on the season with a solid time of 20:06. Less than 20 seconds back in 2nd place was Elk Lake's top runner Kendyl Weisgold in a time of 20:24. Running well for Wallenpaupack was June Brown taking 3rd in a time of 20:49 and Avery Kerr from Montrose too 4th a minute behind June in a 21:49. Elk lake's number two runner Kylee Pond was good enough for 5th place in a time of 22:02.