NEWVILLE — Towanda came away from states with two medals as Maris Cobb improved upon her spot from last year while Emmett Klees nabbed his first during the PIAA Cross-country Championships Saturday.

Cobb (18:48) was ninth overall, moving up from 17th in 2025.

"It feels really good that I was able to improve from last year," said Cobb. 

Cobb consistently held her spot, sitting in eighth at the mile, then falling back to 10th at the 2-mile before moving up one spot.

"I wanted to go out in the top 10," said Cobb. "It was a fight to get there."

That last 1000 she picked up one spot as she tried to make sure she finished in single digits.

"I was just trying to process as many girls as I could and pick them off one by one," said Cobb.

The new course proved to be a little different than at HersheyPark, with a lot of steep, short ups and downs.

"It was really challenging," said Cobb. "But the big kill hill is similar to our course."

Two years in Cobb already has two state medals.

"I feel like I'm pretty accomplished," she said. "I'm happy."

As a team Towanda was 13th with 314 points.

Izzy Larson (20:53) took 84th, with Mary-Kate Eberlin (21:12) finishing in 107th.

Taylor Aquilio (22:10) was 181st, and Lucie Gruson (23:32) rounded out the scorers in 215th.

Kenzie Brown (24:17) was 238th, and Leila Cobb (24:41) took 244th.

In the boys race Klees (16:30) took 20th overall to nab his medal.

"It feels so freaking good," Klees remarked. "I was running that course, and it was really painful, and I got a lot of cramps, but I kept going through. I wouldn't let the pain get to me. I knew that in my heart I could hear everybody screaming my name. I cried right before I went to that finish line, I just gave it everything I had."

Klees was 11th at the mile, and 13th at the 2-mile. He fell back to 18th with 1,000 meters left but held on that last kilometer to stay in the top 25.

"I was planning to get up to the top 20, stay with them, and see how it would go," explained Klees. "Unfortunately, I did get a cramp in mile two, and it hurt me really bad. It kind of shaved my places off, but I still maintained top 20, and I won't let anybody take that from me."

There's a big downhill in the last 800 and Klees said that helped him some.

"It was also really, really trippy because you go straight, and then you turn left, and you think that's the final, then you have to turn left again after that and keep going," he remarked. "But the downhill definitely helped me, it was really good momentum."

Down the final stretch Klees was doing everything he could to hold off the pack behind him.

"I didn't have much left after that race," he said. "I just kept everything I had. I was just reminded about all the people that spoke to me, that told me that it was worth it to keep going, and I just went."

He's hoping this sets him up for a medal in track and field this spring.

"I definitely want to go to states again and try to get a higher place," he said. "You train all winter and do this all again."

His freshman teammate, Brayden Cox (17:33) was 95th, while Boom Thompson (17:48) took 128th.

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