NEWVILLE — The Mid Penn Conference brought together its top runners on Saturday for the league championship meet on the course at Big Spring H.S.
Lillian Spohn
Chambersburg’s girls placed 3rd in Class 3A and James Buchanan took 3rd in 2A. For the boys, the Trojans were 6th in 3A and JB was 6th in 2A.
In the girls 3A competition, Natalie Quinn of Chambersburg ran a time of 19:02.0 to earn 4th place. Teammate Brook Boone was 9th in 19:39.2 and Lillian Spohn was 15th in 19:58.1. There was a big gap until the fourth placer, Kaylie Savage (43rd in 21:25.2) and the fifth, Arrabelle Rife (45th in 21:33.2) crossed the line.
“We were projected to finish fourth, so we’re happy with the result,” Trojan coach Chris Monheim said. “Our top three were outstanding — they are one of the better top three groups we have ever had. Our four, five, six and seven girls did not get out very well and it was tough for them to make up ground.
“I like where we are positioned heading into the District 3 meet (in 2 weeks). Quinn was our No. 5 runner last year at this race and today she was fourth overall in the entire conference.”
Other area girls in 3A who finished in the top 60 included Morgan Jones of Waynesboro (24th, 20:38.6), Avery Russell of Greencastle-Antrim (28th, 20:43.7), River Burrow of Shippensburg (55th, 21:51.5) and Ella Swart of Waynesboro (22:00.1).
For the Rockets in 2A, the top four runners were Kaitlyn Dean (13th among 2A, 22:36.1), Sarah Oakman (17th, 23:08), Graceyn Diehl (23rd, 23:37.6) and Kimber Yeager (25th, 23:51.4).
The Chambersburg boys did qualify as a team for the District 3 meet, but expected to be higher than sixth. No. 1 Julian Clark placed 10th in 16:11.0, but the next Trojan finisher was Aiden Alleman in 38th (17:08.8).
Aiden Alleman
“It wasn’t as high as we hoped,” Chambersburg coach Jim Boyer said, “but the boys will be anxious to return to that course in two weeks. Clark had another strong run, racing in the ‘turkey neck’ of the front pack to earn a medal.
“Now if our 2nd, 3rd and 4th can run sub-17:00, our 5th is sub-17:30 and our 6th and 7th are sub-18:00 at districts the team should have a decent shot at qualifying for states.”
Also for the Trojans, Cole Lehman was 40th in 17:09.7, Boston Vincenti was 43rd in 17:16.8 and Tobias Willson was 62nd in 17:48.2.
Other top area runners in 3A included Shippensburg’s Rylan Asper (13th, 16:19.2), Greencastle’s Logan Bohrer (46th, 17:20.1) and Noah Parks (60th, 17:44.1) and Waynesboro’s Devin Barger (46th, 17:26.2).
For James Buchanan, the top three runners were Isaac Diehl in 8th among 2A runners (17:37.8), Max Embree in 12th (18:12.2) and Johnnie Martin in 26th (18:41.5).