Notes: State College won last year’s district title with only 21 points. The top 3 individuals from last year’s championship return: Marlee Kwasnica, so State College – 1st; Kylee Cubbsion, jr Mifflin County – 2nd, and Jordan Reed, sr State College – 3rd.
District 6 class AAA receives 1 team qualifying spot and 5 additional individual qualifiers for the state meet.
Williamsport XC will compete in District 6 this season while Dubois moves to District 9. Williamsport finished 3rd out of 8 in District 2 last year.
Pre-Season Rankings (District VI class AAA)
1. State College – The other classifications in District 6 will be far more competitive than AAA. State College is once again loaded and will look to start another run at a perfect decade in 2020. This team hasn’t lost a district championship since at least 2006 (as far back as the milesplit database goes). On multiple occasions over the past 15 years they have achieved a perfect score. It’s not that they aren’t deserving either, as they are often finish the year ranked top 10 in the state. The State College program is one of the best around.
For 2020, they return last year’s #1 and #3 ranked runners in the district. Sophomore Marlee Kwasnica took home the district title in 2019, running an impressive 18:50. She then placed 17th at the state meet. She showed impressive range this past indoor season, running 1:02 for 400m and 10:53 for 3k. She could push for a top 10 finish at states this season. Looking to join her on the state medal stand will be Jordan Reed (sr). Reed ran 18:58 to place 3rd in the district before finishing 40th in the state. She set new indoor PRs this winter in the 1600m (5:20), 1 mile (5:22), and 3k (10:40). You can follow along with Jordan Reed in our “Senior Journal” series here.
Read more about the Little Lions in our Mid-Penn conference preview found here.
2. Mifflin County – Kylee Cubbison (jr) is the real deal. She was 2nd in the district last fall before placing 36th in the state. She had an awesome indoor season setting a new mile run PR of 5:11 along the way. She finished the winter with a 12th place finish at the PTFCA Indoor State Championships. She’s a strong state XC medal contender in 2020. For Mifflin County to hold onto the 2nd position in the district they may need to rely on a 2 newcomers for upper-middle roster support. Freshmen Addie Parsons and Ava Harris could push for top 10 district finishes this season. Justice Scheaffer (so) provides quality depth for Mifflin County.
Read more about the Huskies in our Mid-Penn conference preview found here.
3. Williamsport – District 6 newcomer Williamsport comes in at #3, but should expect a close battle with Central Mountain and Altoona for this spot. The Millionaires returning 5 are all juniors. The top 4 returnees all ran within :42s of each other at the 2019 District 2 meet. Ellie Fisher (jr), Katie Brue (jr), Emily Hale (jr), and Kanina Lattie could all push for top 20 finishes at the district meet.
Individuals to watch who are not on one of these top 3 teams (Returning District VI class AAA rank in parentheses):
Mackenzie Kelley, jr – Altoona (#5)
Reese Wilbur, so – Altoona (#7)
Fatima Kaba, so – Central Mountain (#8)
Maddie Jones, so – Central Mountain (#9)