NTL CROSS-COUNTRY: SULLIVAN'S REESE PUNCHES TICKET TO STATES (2024-10-24)
BY CHRIS MANNINGNorthern Tier Sports ReportBLOOMSBURG — Sullivan County’s Zoey Reese kept a familiar tradition going, taking sixth in the Class A girls’ District IV Cross-country Championship race to punch her ticket to states Thursday.
“It feels really good, I worked really hard to get to this,” the freshman said.
She ran 21:35.1, and was the fourth out of five individual state qualifiers. The fact that Warrior Run edged NEB by one point to win the team title helped, considering, if the Panthers had won, Reese would be staying home next weekend.
“I wasn’t sure 100-percent if I was going to get it, but my confidence level helped,” said Reese. “I wanted to go out quick, then stay there.”
Down the stretch she did her best to hold off the runners behind her.
“They weren’t that far, so I had to push as hard as I could, knowing I could most likely get to states,” Reese said.
Her father, Eric Reese, was a state medalist for the Griffins, and he was her biggest motivating factor in the final straightaway.
“I was trying to make my dad proud, because he really pushed me,” she said. “He’s coached me, he’s motivated me, he tells me to run. He wakes me up and says, ‘go run.’ And he pushed me through everything, he’s the only reason I was able to make it here.”
The Griffins didn’t have a full team, with fellow freshmen Paige Jordan (22:20.8) taking 11th and Adilynn Thibodeault (22:28.7) finishing 14th. Emily Guare (26:29.7) was 30th.
In the boys’ Class A race Sullivan (109) was fifth, led by the freshmen duo of Chase Preston (18:20.5) in 10th and Carter Blasi (19:12.8) in 17th. Preston was the first runner out of the individual state qualifying spots.
Andrew Kapec (19:33.2) took 22nd, Isaiah Botsford (20:33.2) was 31st, and Logen Knight (24:17.1) finished 39th.
— —
PHOTOS BY CHRIS MANNING
Print Friendly Version
