NTL CROSS-COUNTRY: DISTRICT IV XC CHAMPIONSHIPS ALL SET TO GO THURSDAY (2020-10-28)

Northern Tier Sports Report
It may be a little different but the District IV Cross-country Championships will happen Thursday.

The races will be held at the Warrior Run High School behind the building.

There will be four races still but they will be an hour and a half apart in order to keep crowds as low as possible. The first race, Class A girls, begins at 9 a.m., followed by Class A boys at 10:30 a.m., Class AA girls at noon and Class AA boys at 1:30 p.m.

And, due to the changes to the PIAA Championships, only one team and five individuals from each class are going to Hershey, except for the Class AA girls’ race, which will have six individuals.

The five Northern Tier Sports Report teams will all be in the Class A races.

In the girls’ race Wyalusing will be looking to repeat as district champions as they edged Troy last year. The Trojans look to be their toughest competition this season for the title. 

The Rams feature Catherine Brown, Kayla Beebe and Sierra Allen in their top three, as Madison Patton and Carina Beebe round out their top five.

Troy’s been led by freshman Lilly DePew with Sydney Taylor, Julia Colton, Rachel Kingsley and senior McKenzi Bellinger filling out their top five.

Individuals to watch are the Canton duo of Sara Saar and Camille McRoberts and Towanda’s Eliza Fowler.

Also from the NTL Sayre’s Carrie Claypool could sneak into one of those five individual spots.

Outside the NTL Southern Columbia freshman Kate Moncavage will be a threat to win it all. 

Also from the PHAC look for are fellow Tiger Heather Cecco, Mt. Carmel’s Caroline Fletcher and Montgomery’s Kennedy Marsh.

On the boys’ side Wyalusing comes in as the defending champions but will be the underdogs to hold their title to South Williamsport or Hughesville.

The Rams are led by Zion Laudermilch, one of the favorites to win the individual title, and Justin Hiduk. 

Others who could be in their scoring five are Eleazar Laudermilch, Clayton Petlock, Josh Stoddard and Travis Bahl.

Hughesville recently ran a dual meet with Lewisburg and lost 17-45, but the Green Dragons are the defending state champions. 

The Spartans were able to get three runners under 18 minutes, though there was a substantial gap between their fourth and fifth.

South Williamsport has ran a few dual meets at Wellsboro this year and has a tough top three but also have gaps around their fourth and fifth runners.

Individually Troy’s Owen Williams, Towanda’s Jaden Wise, and Canton’s Michael Skipper are ones to watch.

From out of the area South’s top two are Port Halabar and Evan Laudenslager while Hughesville’s top three are Hunter Foust, Morgan Gavitt and Kenneth Draper. Bloomsburg’s Josh Woodley is another runner to watch.

In Class AA girls Warrior Run, Lewisburg, Danville and Selinsgrove will duke it out for the team title.

Individually, Warrior Run’s Lauren Trapani, Danville’s Coyla Bartholomew and Selinsgrove’s Shaela Kruskie are the ones who will be leading the pack.

From the NTL Athens’ Emma Bronson is a runner to watch.

In Class AA boys, defending state champion Lewisburg are the heavy favorites to win the team title with Lewisburg’s Jacob Hess most likely to win the individually team title.

Athens will be the NTL team to watch with Connor Dahl, Matt Gorsline and Kyle Anthony. Also from the NTL, ones to watch will be CV’s Seth Neal and freshman Owen Cummings.