NTL CROSS-COUNTRY: NEB LOOKS TO CONTINUE THEIR SUCCESS INTO 2024 (2024-08-22)

BY CHRIS MANNING
Northern Tier Sports Report
It will be a season of change for Northeast Bradford cross-country as the boys look to continue to dominate the league and district, while the girls will use some new faces to keep their success going.

“Being able to take over a program that has lots of talent is exciting,” said first year coach Dillon Lockwood. “I’m excited for what we can do. I coach the distance crew in track, so some of them are coming off some good seasons, and I’m hoping to carry that over into the cross-country season.”

The boys lose just one of their scoring runners from a year ago, and are led by returning district champion Creed Dewing.

“I’m ready for it to be a good last year,” said the senior. “I’m just really focused on having it be a year for excelling and just finishing out good.”

Dewing comes off a track season that saw him make states in the 1600, so he’s hoping to use that momentum to propel him into the top five at the state meet in Hershey.

“Track season has given me a lot of confidence,” he said. “It feels good just coming off of some of the accomplishments in track. There’s a lot of that I’m really just focused on, obviously a faster time, and there’s so many things that go into that.”

Team wise they return six of their top seven runners that ran at districts, and all finished in the top 30 as they pulled away to win the Class A title at districts.

“Creed, Ryan (Jones), and Brody (Bennett) are coming off some real good track seasons, and we’re hoping to carry that momentum into this season,” Lockwood said. “I think just keeping them excited is one of those things you focus on. As long as they’re excited, and they’re coming out and working hard, it’ll take care of itself.”

On the girls side they’re missing a couple runners from last year’s team with just three of last year’s group coming back - Anaiah Kolesar, Amelia Kapr, and Kara Dughi. However, they do have a few faces coming up from junior high that Lockwood believes can fill those holes.

“We’ve got a pretty strong crew of eighth graders coming up that’ll hopefully take some of those spots,” Lockwood said. 

Kolesar was fourth at districts last year, while Kapr had a good day, taking 12th. 

“It’s really exciting, and a little bit stressful,” Kapr said about defending the league and district titles. “Coming into this year there’s been a lot of changes, especially with different girls, so it’s a little bit stressful, but we’re really just trying to pull it together. Between our work ethic and our team mindset we’d still like to do really well.”

The veteran runner has had fun mixing in the younger girls.

“It’s so fun,” remarked Kapr. “All the other girls are excited, and it’s just really exciting and fun to show them how to run cross-country.”

ROSTER

Boys

Elijah DeLancey

Jesse Dewing

William Kapr

Xavier Lockwood

Russell Martin

Keagan Netherton

Levi Dewing

Anthony Johnson

Jackson Martin

Josiah Russell

Tanner Herb

Ryan Jones

Tanner Judson

Dayton Russell

Brody Bennett

Ayden Finch

Creed Dewing

Asher Kolesar

Landon Thetga

Brayden Miller

Girls

Maggie Chappell

Ireland Coats

Julia Laudermilch

Charlotte Martin

Clara Dewing

Kara Dughi

Eliana Mihalek

Madilyn Callear

Isabelle Kapr

Riley Lamson

Ruth Laudermilch

Sophie Bennett

Amelia Kapr

Anaiah Kolesar

SCHEDULE

Aug. 31 at Cliff Robbins

Sep. 3 at Athens w/Towanda, 4:30 p.m.

Sep. 10 vs Troy, Wellsboro, 4:30 p.m.

Sep. 13 at Owego Invitational

Sep. 17 at Canton, 4:30 p.m.

Sep. 24 vs Sullivan County, CV, 4:30 p.m.

Sep. 28 at McQuaid Invitational

Oct. 1 at Wyalusing vs NPM, Sayre, 4:30 p.m.

Oct. 12 at NTL Championships, 9 .m.

Oct. 24 at District IV Championships, 9 a.m.

Nov. 2 at PIAA Championships, 9 a.m.

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