Boys
D3 Top Medal Contenders
District III should be well represented on the awards stand in the AA boy’s competition. Ben Kuhn (sr, Wyomissing), Weber Long (so, Greencastle-Antrim), Cole Adams (so, York Suburban), and Gage Krall (sr, Northern Lebanon) all figure to be in the lead pack of this race. Kuhn joins Juniata’s Garrett Baublitz (sr) and General McLane’s Dylan Throop (jr) as favorites to take home the state title this season. Kuhn has run sub 16-minutes 3 times already this year. Long and Adams joined Kuhn in running sub-16 minutes on the Big Spring course last week. Krall ran sub-16 at the LVC invite early in the season. All 4 seem ready to tackle the challenging course at Hershey and all are potential top 5-10 place finishers.
While the 4 mentioned above are looking for very high finishes at states, they aren’t the only athletes from District III with eyes towards earning state medals. Also in the medal hunt will be Wyomissing’s Thomas Foster (sr), York Suburban’s Grant Kern (so) and Jordan Ohl (sr), Kennard-Dale juniors Collin Wolf and Dan Gibney, Schuylkill Valley’s Luke Seymour (so), ELCO’s Mitchell Gray (sr), and Conrad Weiser’s Alfonso Knoll (sr).
Teams
York Suburban will be looking for a top 3 team finish and could challenge for the state title. Lewisburg appears to be the favorite heading into the championships. Grove City Area also figures to be in the title hunt. Kennard-Dale could battle for a top 5 finish. Susquehannock is the third team qualifier from District III. Look for them to challenge for a top 10 team finish.
Girls
D3 Top Medal Contenders
Marlee Starliper (Northern) and Taryn Parks (Greencastle-Antrim) look to end their HS XC careers (at least in the state of PA) with a 1-2 finish at Saturday’s AA State Championship meet. They will meet again in 4 weeks at Footlocker Northeast Regionals and then likely again at Footlocker Nationals. Starliper won the District III AA title by 19 seconds over Parks, running 17:21 and leading from the gun. That said, Parks ran a new XC 5k PR of 17:40 in that runner-up finish. Look for both to have outstanding performances at Hershey.
While this will be the last state XC meet for Starliper and Parks, it will be the first for Boiling Springs freshman Peyton Ellis. Ellis seems ready to assume the top spot in District III moving forward. She has had a phenomenal rookie season and will likely challenge for a top 10 finish at states.
Others with a good chance of medaling on Saturday include Wyomissing’s Grace Kuhn (jr) and Northern’s Katie Anthony (sr). Northern’s Allie Engle (so) and Conrad Weiser’s Sydney Werner (fr) could also factor into the medal race.
Teams
Northern is District III best bet to bring home a team title this weekend. South Fayette, Warrior Run, and Central Cambria should give Northern the biggest fight. Boiling Springs and Donegal both have decent chances of finishing amongst the top 10 in the state.