DALLAS TWP. — Hard summer work paid off in an easy start to the fall season.
Madison Hedglin of Dallas repeated as girls champion of the Cliff Robbins Sr. Memorial Cross Country Invitational Saturday at Misericordia University’s Letterkenny Fields.
Hedglin cruised through the muddy, 3.1-mile course in 19:07 for a one-minute victory over Crestwood’s Katie Kozich in the opener for the majority of District 2’s cross country teams.
“I was nervous coming into it because I’ve been running a lot of hard miles this summer and I was afraid my legs were going to be tired,” Hedglin said. “Surprisingly, I felt really, really good. So, I was happy.”
Hedglin made it look smooth and easy and recovered quickly to cheer on her teammates as they approached the finish line.
Sarah Williams gave the Mountaineers two of the top three finishers. Erika Doran made it three in the top nine and Dallas also had runners finish 34th, 47th and 65th out of 141.
“It was real exciting,” Hedglin said. “We were really looking forward to this race to see where our team was at.”
Hedglin navigated the sloppy conditions by running alone from very early in the race, giving her room to adjust to the mud.
“Almost every curve, I would step in mud,” Hedglin said. “I have mud all over my spikes. It was kind of hard to keep your balance and go on a curve at the same time.
“But, it was fine. I just built my momentum back up.”
Wyoming Valley Conference runners finished first through fifth and in 10 of the top 13 spots in the girls race.
Lake-Lehman had four of the medals that went to top-25 finishers while Crestwood and Dallas had three each. Hazleton Area and Pittston Area each had two.
Hedglin, Kozich and Williams were followed in the top five by Hazleton Area’s Milana Daiute and Crestwood’s Kaelyn Barker.
Crestwood showed the greatest depth.
Adrienne Shebelock was 11th to join Kozich and Barker as medalists.
The Comets also had five runners come in between 27th and 46th and a total of 10 in the top 62.
Betsy Digiovanni, in 13th, was the top finisher for Lake-Lehman, which had the four medalists and five total runners in the top 41.
CLIFF ROBBINS SR. CROSS COUNTRY INVITATIONAL
Top Girls Finishers
1, Madison Hedglin Dallas, 19:07; 2, Katie Kozich, Crestwood, 20:07; 3, Sarah Williams, Dallas, 20:13; 4, Milana Daiute, Hazleton Area, 20:24; 5, Kaelyn Barker, Crestwood, 20:36; 6, Izzy Larson, Towanda, 20:56; 7, Emily Black, Lakeland, 21:00; 8, Annika Vonahnen, Mid Valley, 21:16; 9, Erika Doran, Dallas, 21:26; 10, Olivia Scalese, Pittston Area, 21:29.
11, Adrienne Shebelock, Crestwood, 21:37; 12, Hannah Stoss, Wyoming Area, 21:49; 13, Betsy Digiovanni, Lake-Lehman, 21:55; 14, Jasmine Patackas, West Scranton, 22:05; 15, Mary-Kate Eberlin, Towanda, 22:07; 16, Kate Korty, Forest City, 22:16; 17, Alana Palmaioli, Lake-Lehman, 22:18; Kinley Purdy, Lake-Lehman, 22:21; 19, Kenzie Brown, Towanda, 22:33; 20, Grace Rushmer, Wyoming Seminary, 22:37.
21, Bella Dessoye, Pittston Area, 22:37; 22, Avery Kerr, Montrose, 22:41; 23, Corinne Flynn, Mountain View, 22:45; 24, Olivia Corcoran, Lake-Lehman, 22:47; 25, Kaylee Cassagrande, Hazleton Area, 22:50.
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