Northwestern’s boys cross country team has been building into one of the elite programs in the area over the last few years. In 2019 the Tigers claimed the District 11 title to prove they are among the top programs.

This season they showed they plan to stay at the top.

The Tigers claimed their second straight district crown last Tuesday at Blue Mountain Ski Resort, winning the Class 2A title and some redemption after a runner-up finish at the Colonial League meet a week before.

“They wanted this,” said Northwestern head coach Chris Stitzel. “From the beginning of the summer, they were talking about going after Southern Lehigh for leagues, and I know they were a little disappointed (to finish second last week). We got the regular season championship, but I know they wanted the overall.

“But (they) came back today and ran a great race.”

The Tigers defeated Blue Mountain 48-80 and secured a place at next week’s state meet.

The district meet took on a new format this season. Races were split into two heats and overall individual and team results were merged at the completion of both.

Northwestern, on the other hand, ran the second race in Class 2A and saw the times and performances that had been put down before hitting the course.

In the end, it didn’t matter.

The Tigers and Wreckers ran strong in their heats to overwhelm their competitors.

Northwestern, which went 17-1 in the league during the regular season, finished with three runners in the top six, led by sophomore Samuel Bower’s (17:55) runner-up finish. Matthew Santana (18:18) was fourth overall, while Cole Chukoskie (18:29) placed sixth.

Colin Phipps placed third and Justice Scheidel eighth for Blue Mountain, but Santana and Nathan Vincent (14th, 19:09) both got in well ahead of the Eagles’ third runner in 21st.

“We knew that’s what our goal was, and we did that pretty well,” said Bower. “We ran the race that we needed to and we were able to come out on top.

“Our team, we just push each other all the time. At practice, we’re always running together, trying to get better and get as good as possible. We just try to push each other and be as good as we can be.”

The rest of Northwestern’ district championship team included Randal Zack (23rd) and Joe Chukoskie (28th). Zack was the only senior in Northwestern’s district line up.

The team title qualifies the Tigers for the state team championships in Hershey this weekend.

In Wednesday’s District 11 girls championships, the Tigers’ Angelina Klein earned qualified for states individually, placing sixth in Class 2A.

While Klein advanced, the Northwestern team fell a little short of moving on with a third-place team finish.

Stitzel said he knew Blue Mountain was a tough team.

“We faced them twice during the regular season, and they won both times,” Stitzel said. “Our hats go off to them … we’re young we have a lot of junior high kids that will come into the program next year. This is a learning experience for our team.”

In addition to Klein, who had a time of 21:42, teammates Maci Fisher (16th), Kaitlyn Jones (19th), Emily Fagan (24th), Molly McGorry (38th) and Faith Yost (39th) were also part of the Tiger district team.

The state meet will be held on the Parkview Cross Country Course in Hershey this Saturday with some schedule changes. Each gender classification will run in four waves, starting with the Class 1A girls at 9 a.m., 9:15, 9:30 and 9:45, followed by the 1A boys (10 a.m., 10:15, 10:30, 10:45); 2A girls (11 a.m., 11:15, 11:30, 11:45); 2A boys (noon, 12:15, 12:30, 12:45); 3A girls (1 p.m., 1:15, 1:30, 1:45); and 3A boys (2 p.m., 2:15, 2:30, 2:45).

Awards will be presented at the font of the GIANT Center after each classification is completed and all scores are tabulated. The championship and the runner-up teams in each class, both girls and boys, will receive trophies. Members of the champion and runner up teams will receive medals (10 per team).

The top twenty 25 individual finishers in each class, both girls and boys, will receive medals.

New this year, PCN will stream live looks at checkpoints throughout the races during the PIAA Cross Country Championships, Nov. 7 at 9 a.m. In addition, the stream will be free. This will not be a livestream of the entire event, but stationary points along the course.

The Championships will air on cable Nov. 25 starting at 6 p.m. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, a limited number of spectators will be permitted to walk the course in support of qualifiers throughout the day of competition during their entries competition times.

Each qualifying runner will receive four wristbands for use by supporting spectators. The wristbands will be distributed as part of the registration packet for coaches. Dogs are also prohibited from entering the course during competition.

DISTRICT 11

CROSS COUNTRY

AT BLUE MOUNTAIN RESORT

Class 1A Girls

Team scores and legend

1. Notre Dame GP (NDGP) 51, 2. Tri-Valley (TV) 85, 3. Moravian Academy (MAC) 101, 4. Marian Catholic (MC) 101, 5. Minersville (M) 106, 6. Mahanoy Area (MA) 124, 7. Weatherly (W) 142, 8. Palmerton (P) 146. Panther Valley (PV)

Individual results

Top 5

*1. Samantha Masser (TV) 22:23, *2. Natalie Mosier (P) 22:37, *3. Lily Eyvazzadeh (MAC) 22:52, *4. Krysta Nichols (MAC) 23:56, *5. Grace Model (NDGP) 24:11.

(*-denotes state qualifier)

Class 2A Girls

Team scores and legend

1. Blue Mountain (BM) 75, 2 North Schuylkill (NS) 87, 3. NW Lehigh (NWL) 99, 4. Saucon Valley (SV) 138, 5. Allentown Central Catholic (ACC) 154, 6. Jim Thorpe (JT) 159, 7. Palisades (PA) 162, 8. Wilson Area (WA) 176, 9. Tamaqua (T) 207, 10. Pottsville (P) 209, 11. Catasauqua (C) 223, 12. Bethlehem (Becahi) 255, 13. Lehighton (L) 289.

Individual results

Top 5 and all Northwestern finishers

*1. Cori McCormick (NS) 19:41, *2. Oliva Haas (BM) 1951, *3. Kelsey Gaston (L) 21:12, *4. Katie McCormick (NS) 21:30, *5. Ryley Schwalm (NS) 21:30. *6. Angelina Klein (NWL) 21:42, 16. Maci Fisher (NWL) 23:16, 19. Kailyn Jones (NWL) 23:33, 24. Emily Fagan (NWL) 23:33, 38. Molly McGorry (NLW) 24:45, 39. Faith Yost (NWL) 24:51.

(*-denotes state qualifier)

Class 3A Girls

Team scores and legend

1. Emmaus (E) 39, 2. Southern Lehigh (SL) 58, 3. Parkland (P) 72, 4. Liberty (L) 108, 5. Northampton (NO) 119, 6. Easton (E) 158, 7. Freedom (F) 187, 8. Nazareth (NA) 222, 9. Stroudsburg (S) 254, 10. East Stroudsburg South (ESS) 254, 11. Whitehall (W) 268, 12. Bangor (B) 315.

Individual results

Top 5

*1. Emily Jacobs (L) 20:46.9, *2. Ashleigh McNelis (E) 20:50.99, *3. Lauren Meinhold (SL) 21:31.3, *4. Hailey Reinhard (E) 21:34.05, *5. Kera Reinhard (E) 21:40.43.

(*-denotes state qualifier)

Class 1A Boys

Team scores and legend

1. *Weatherly (W) 39, 2. Moravian Academy (MA) 70, 3. Palisades (Pali) 84, 4. Shenandoah Valley (SV) 86, 5. Minersville (Min) 101, 6. Marian Catholic (MC) 147, 7. Nativity (Nat) 178, 8. Schuylkill Haven (SH) 221, 9. Tri-Valley (TV) 235, 10. Mahanoy Area (M) 244, 11. Notre Dame East Stroudsburg (NDES) 256.

Individual results

Top 10, state qualifiers

1. *Thomas Smigo (Pali) 18:12, 2. *Mitchell Campbell (Pali) 18:54, 3. *Scotty Zoscin (W) 19:05, 4. *Joshua Deremer (Pen Argyl) 19:25, 5. *Michael Berger (W) 19:29, 6. *Sam Carter (MA) 19:30, 7. *Landon Boyle (Min) 19:32, 8. Astin Daniels (SH) 19:34, 9. *Frankie Willis (W) 19:35, 10. Joelvi Nunez (SV) 19:40, 11. *Jacob Parker (W) 19:41, 15. *Ricky Ray (W) 20:13.

Class 2A Boys

Team scored and legend

1. *Northwestern (NWL) 48, 2. Blue Mountain (BM) 80, 3. Notre Dame Green Pond (NDGP) 116, 4. Bangor (B) 128, 5. Allentown Central Catholic (ACC) 152, 6. Palmerton (Palm) 172, 7. East Stroudsburg North (ESN) 218, 8. Wilson (W) 219, 9. Saucon Valley (SV) 227, 10. North Schuylkill (NS) 233, 11. Jim Thorpe (JT) 259, 12. Pottsville (P) 303, 13. Bethlehem Catholic (BC) 312, 14. Tamaqua (T) 333, 15. Lehighton (L) 341, 16. Catasauqua (C) 390, 17. Salisbury (S) 414.

Individual results

Top 10, state qualifiers

and all Northwestern finishers

1. *Matthew Chaikowsky (SV) 17:48, 2. *Samuel Bower (NWL) 17:55, 3. *Colin Phipps (BM) 18:17, 4. *Matthew Santana (NWL) 18:18, 5. *Justin Williams (NS) 18:26, 6. *Cole Chukoskie (NWL) 18:29, 7. *Cody Smith (NDGP) 18:31, 8. *Justice Scheidel (BM) 18:45, 14. *Nathan Vincent (NWL) 19:09, 23. *Randal Zack (NWL) 19:48, 28. *Joe Chukoskie (NWL) 20:02.

Class 3A Boys

Team scores and legend

1, *Parkland (Park) 84, 2. Southern Lehigh (SL) 85, 3. Nazareth (Naz) 87, 4. Freedom (F) 87, 5. Northampton (Nor) 94, 6. Emmaus (Emm) 141, 7. Liberty (Lib) 165, 8. Easton (Eas) 186, 9. Stroudsburg (Str) 203, 10. Pleasant Valley (PV) 278, 11. Pocono Mountain East (PME) 288, 12. Whitehall (W) 291, East Stroudsburg South (ESS) 358.

Individual results

Top 10, state qualifiers

1. *Cole Frank (Lib) 17:31, 2. *Zeke Colyer (Nor) 17:39, 3. *Alex Heidemann (F) 17:40, 4. *Alexander Kane (SL) 17:40, 5. *Dominik Lisicky (SL) 17:51, 6. Owen Nahf (Nor) 18:09, 7. Anthony Kositz (Naz) 18:35, 8. *Ben Esquieres (Park) 18:39, 9. Jack Hollar (PME) 18:42, 10. Alex Hume (F) 18:45, 11. *Paul Abeln (Park) 18:48, 12. *Josh Beltrame (Park) 18:56, 26. *Brady Hoffman (Park) 19:17, 27. *Cameron Price (Park) 19:18, 29. *Brian Warren (Park) 19:24.