By: Bethany Day
On Wednesday, October 23, the Wallenpaupack cross country team went to the Wyoming County Fairgrounds to take part in the most important race of the season, which is the district championship. Both the boys and girls knew about the challenges they were about to face, but did not at all feel threatened and did not let the heat get to them. The boys raced at 9:30 am in the AAA boys’ race, and they had killed it. The boys became AAA champions by beating everyone in the field of forty, with Aiden Janowicz, placing first, JP Yeo, placing seventh, and Chase Predmore, placing eighth, all medaling in the race. The boys’ team will be going to Hersey on November 2 to take part in states!
The girls raced at 12:30 in the afternoon, where the heat was starting to pick up a little bit. They performed amazingly, even with the conditions they were faced with. The girls placed third in the double AA and placed fifth overall out of forty teams. Kelcie Fillerbrown, was fifth, Olivia Lojewski, was ninth, and June Brown was eleventh, all medaling in the race. The three girls will be heading to states with the boys to perform one last time for the season.
However, it is not over yet. This year, all the coaches in the league got together and decided to put on a race of their own. They made this race so that everyone will be able to run and participate in districts. With the remaining runners of the team, they had gotten to race the last race of the day. They performed at 4 pm, when the heat was at its highest point. However, they did not let that tear them down. All the runners performed beautifully, with even more people getting medals. On the boys’ side, Casey McQueen placed first in the race, gaining himself the first medal, with Sal Amitrano, placing tenth, Jacob Gardner, placing 13th, and Owen Leming, placing 14th, all medaling too.
On the ladies’ side, only three of them ran this race. The girls put up a strong fight during the whole race. Shannon Jaycox placed fourth in the girls, and got the first medal for the Lady Buckhorns, with Bethany Day, placing eighth, and Madelyn Carter placing 12th, also getting medals themselves. The whole team had an amazing season this year. The boys finished with a 23-0 record, and the girls were 21-2. We wish the best of luck to the boys and girls heading to states. Good luck Buckhorns!
