NTL CROSS-COUNTRY: CANTON'S HALBFOERSTER EARNS TOP 10 FINISH AT STATES (2025-11-02)

BY CHRIS MANNING
Northern Tier Sports Report
HERSHEY — Canton’s Lawrence Halbfoerster came to the PIAA Cross-country Championships with one goal - get on the podium. On Saturday he surprised even himself with his eighth place finish in the Class A boys’ race.

“It’s amazing,” he said. “I did not expect to get that. I accomplished my goal and I can’t hope for anything better.”

He just missed the medals a year ago and the time he ran at the PIAA Foundation Race would have been good enough to earn some hardware in 2024 and 2025.

Halbfoerster, though, improved up on that time by 20 seconds as he ran 16:44.

He was seventh at the mile and toggled between seventh and eighth throughout the race, holding off a late charge to stay in eighth.

“My goal was to get in the amount of places that they medal at track states,” explained Halbfoerster. “I made that happen.”

He went out in a 4:57 mile, not surprising the fast nature of the first 1600 of the course. However, that usually does make for a tough second mile through the big hills.

“I felt weak,” Halbfoerster said. “I tried to power up to the best of my ability, but a lot of people were passing me on those hills so I had to catch up to them on the flats.”

His goal was to start his kick in the final mile, which is largely flat before the long uphill to a hairpin turn that leads to the final 200 meter finish.

“It was tough,” Halbfoerster said about the turn into the strong headwind for the final sprint. “The kick I had down the final stretch it was probably the worst pain I’ve felt all season.”

This gives him confidence going into track this spring that he can go 2-for-2 in medals his senior year.

“It makes me really confident that I can carry the same energy and perseverance,” remarked Halbfoerster. “Even though things hurt and there’s a lot of pain involved, I can push through and accomplish my goals.”

Teammate Landon Lake (19:17) was 135th overall. 

He had quite a wild day, starting out 174th a half mile in before getting as high as 125th at the 2-mile mark. 

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PHOTOS BY CHRIS MANNING

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