State College, Penns Valley seeking repeat titles

From CDT staff reports

It's time to thumb through the archives because the District 6 cross country championships are approaching and last year's team champions could be primed to keep their regional bragging rights.

The trusty archives tell us Central Cambria and State College in Class AA and AAA girls and Penns Valley and Altoona in Class AA and AAA boys enter Saturday’s meet at Indian Valley School as defending champions.

The four teams are led by athletes who assumed major roles in last year’s title runs. In the case of the State College girls and Penns Valley boys, tradition adds to the motivation.

The Lady Little Lions are seeking their eighth straight district title. State College’s biggest competition will likely come from Altoona, a team whose top runner finished sixth behind five Lady Little Lions during last weekend’s State College Invitational.

State College’s district meet veterans include senior Lucia Sofo, junior Chloe Schmidt and sophomore Nora Adams, who swept the top three places in last year’s meet. The team’s top five also includes freshman Tatum Del Bosco and sophomore Anne Balogh. All five runners are capable of breaking 20 minutes in a 3.1-mile race.

“Luckily, we are in a position where it’s not as close of a battle to get to the state meet as it usually is,” State College coach Rebecca Donaghue said. “But the girls know this is an important race and they are ready to get down to business.”

Some mystery exists within the Lady Little Lions. Donaghue said she’s using Saturday as a time trial to determine their seven PIAA meet participants.

Sofo and Schmidt don’t have to sweat out the state-qualifying process. But they will be competing against each other for the individual title. Sofo won last year’s race in 19:51, crossing the finish line eight seconds before Schmidt. The duo has finished together multiple times this season, most recently last week on their own course.

“Lucia of course wants to defend her district title and Chloe will be right there,” Donaghue said. “Anyone can take it. It’s very, very close between them. It will be interesting.”

The front of Penns Valley’s pack features a similar dynamic, as senior Peter Kistler and sophomore Ryan Brown should be serious factors in the Class AA boys’ race. Kistler finished sixth in last year’s meet while Brown, who ran 18:37 and placed 23rd in 2008, completed the same course in 17:35 en route to finishing second at last week’s Mountain League Championships. An ill Kistler ran 17:54 last week, which is just 10 seconds behind the time he clocked in last year’s district meet.

“Peter Kistler and Ryan Brown have proven themselves as top-10 runners in the district,” Penns Valley coach Terry Glunt said.

Penns Valley’s ability to defend its title depends on the performance of Will Lush, Matt Fuller and Michael Decker, the team’s No. 3-5 runners. The trio finished within 13 seconds of each other last week.

Glunt has spent the past week accumulating information about the district’s other teams. He said Central Cambria, Blairsville, United, Laurel Valley, Marion Center and Westmont Hilltop figure to contend with Penns Valley for the district title.

“You can just keep going right down the line,” Glunt said. “It’s going to be one of the most competitive district races I can remember.”

The Class AA girls’ team race includes less drama. Central Cambria, after all, has claimed the past two state titles. The Lady Devils return four of last year’s six top finishers, including state placewinner Kelsey Seymour, and have added swift freshman Alyssa Brandis.

The intriguing race should be for the district’s second spot in next week’s PIAA meet. Philipsburg- Osceola led Class AA teams by finishing second at the Mountain League meet, Somerset finished second behind Central Cambria in the Laurel Highlands meet, Forest Hills features district title contender Leah Anne Wirfel and United and Marion Center were separated by two points in the Heritage Conference.

“Central Cambria is head and shoulders above the rest of Double- A in District 6,” said P-O coach Doug Perry, whose team won its first Nittany Division regular-season title this fall. “I’m not really sure who that second-place team is. It could be a bunch of teams.”

The presence of sophomore Lauren Simcox and junior Mary Komisar could help the Lady Mounties improve upon last year’s sixth-place finish. If P-O doesn’t finish second, Simcox and Komisar are candidates to earn one of the 10 state-meet spots reserved for runners not on PIAA-qualifying teams.

Only one team and five individuals qualify in Class AAA. The State College boys held a near-monopoly on those spots last year as it qualified four runners for the state meet despite finishing a distant second behind Altoona.

Champion Wade Endress, runner- up Chris Fischer and three other top top-six finishers return, so it’s unlikely anybody will catch the Mountain Lions. But State College junior Paul Crowe and senior Peter Lin can become two-state qualifiers with strong runs.

Bellefonte’s Danielle Dombek, who finished third at the Mountain League meet, is a candidate to earn one of the five individuals spots available in the Class AAA girls’ race. Penns Valley’s Sara Benfer will be looking to improve upon her 25th place showing in last year’s Class AA race.