October 30, 2018
What a great year of LL League cross-country! The athlete’s battled tough conditions all season long, from extreme heat in week one to rain, some more rain, and then…yep, more rain! To be honest, I’m not sure anyone really had a great opportunity to run a fast time this year. The traditionally fast Carlisle Invitational saw its course become flooded – a river literally flowed through it – 3xs!!! The league meet was held on a day that was 50 degrees cooler than week one of the regular season and the course was soft after absorbing rain throughout the week.
At the end of the season, Warwick/Cedar Crest/Manheim Township boys had tight battles at leagues with Warwick winning the league title. A week and a half later, Cedar Crest and Warwick would battle to a 1-2 finish at the District III Championships with the Falcons earning the victory and District Championship. On the girl’s side, Manheim Township won their 4th team title in a row, edging out Elizabethtown and Warwick. This was the year to catch Township as only 2 of their top 7 from last year’s state runner-up team returned. Next year they return their top 5 and 7 of their top 8. Donegal won the section 2 title and also earned a berth to the PIAA AA State Championships. Donegal also returns their top 5 and 7 of their top 8 from this year’s squad.
Team’s of the Year: Cedar Crest (boys) and Manheim Township (girls)
Looking at individual results for boys, upperclassman paved the way with 14 seniors placing in the top 20 at the league meet. The only underclassmen in the top 20 were sophomores Graham Thomas (Penn Manor) and Tommy Bildheiser (Cedar Crest) and freshman Luke Hinegardner (Cedar Crest). Nate Grucelski (Conestoga Valley) won the individual title at leagues, followed by Manheim Township’s Evan Dorenkamp. Dorenkamp followed up his league runner-up performance with a district title at Big Spring 11 days later. For the girls, the Elizabethtown trio of Katie Locker (jr), Cat Shontz (sr), and Madeline Quinn (soph), and Cedar Crest sophomore Gwyneth Young paced everyone all season. Locker would win her first XC league title. Young would have the best day at District’s, finishing runner-up to Dallastown’s Emily Schuler.
For season end individual honors, we calculated regular season average 5k times and then factored in performance at leagues and districts.
Season end honors
Runner of the year (boys) – Evan Dorenkamp, sr Manheim Township
Runner of the year (girls) – Gwyneth Young, soph Cedar Crest
Rookie of the year (boys) – Luke Hinegardner, fr Cedar Crest
Rookie of the year (girls) – Olivia Sunderland, fr Manheim Central
Coach of the year (boys) – Brandon Risser, Cedar Crest
Runner-up – Matt Bomberger, Warwick – Very close call between Risser and Warwick’s Bomberger. Bomberger’s squad won the Section 1 and League Championship titles. Risser gets the nod based on where Cedar Crest started the year and where they ended it. The development of Crest’s freshmen and sophomores also tipped the balance to Risser.
Coach of the year (girls) – Kevin Stover, Manheim Township
Runner-up – Matthew Werner, Donegal
Boys 1st Team All-League
Evan Dorenkamp, sr Manheim Township
Ian Miller, sr Manheim Townhsip
Noah Martin, sr Warwick
Andrew Foster, sr Ephrata
Logan Horst, sr Lancaster Mennonite
Connor Shields, sr Warwick
Nathan Grucelski, sr Conestoga Valley
Boys 2nd Team All-League
Gage Krall, jr Northern Lebanon
Evan Kreider, sr Cocalico
Tommy Bildheiser, soph Cedar Crest
Luke Hinegardner, fr Cedar Crest
Graham Thomas, soph Penn Manor
Mitchell Gray, jr ELCO
Justin Rittenhouse, sr Hempfield
Boys All Freshman Team
Luke Hinegardner, Cedar Crest
Ben McElroy, Cedar Crest
Emmanuel Gitonga, Conestoga Valley
Tyler Stevens, Manheim Township
Nathan Johnson, Elizabethtown
Dale Winand, Hempfield
Caleb Hershey, Lebanon
Girls 1st Team All-League
Gwyneth Young, soph Cedar Crest
Katie Locker, jr Elizabethtown
Cat Shontz, sr Elizabethtown
Madeline Quinn, soph Elizabethtown
Mary Campbell, jr Ephrata
Alyssa Fedorshak, soph Ephrata
Arielle Breuninger, soph J.P. McCaskey
Girls 2nd Team All-League
Chloe Kline, soph Manheim Township
Anabelle Lapp, jr Manheim Township
Anna Martin, soph Warwick
Lily Brubaker, sr ELCO
Rachel Fernald, soph Donegal
Alexandra Slingluff, sr Conestoga Valley
Olivia Sunderland, fr Manheim Central
Girls All Freshman Team
Olivia Sunderland, Manheim Central
Braeten Peters, Annville-Cleona
Hadley Shoaf, Donegal
Delaney Minder, Hempfield
Paige Harrington, Hempfield
Kylynn Frankford, Conestoga Valley
Paige Laurence, Manheim Township
(Coming soon: Season end summaries and a look ahead to 2019 for all Lancaster/Lebanon League teams)