BROOKVILLE, Pa. — The North Clarion Girls Cross Country team continued forward with their season success on Saturday as they won the District IX Championship race in Brookville.
(Pictured, left to right: North Clarion Girls Cross Country team members Kaylee Castner, Katie Bauer, Jordyn Hendrickson, Rachel Bauer, Kayla Aaron, Nicole Fair, Emma Buckley, and Brynn Siegel.)
The girls have now completed another undefeated KSAC season, being the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference Champions three years in a row and now defending the District IX Title two years in a row.
Rachel Bauer led her team to the victory with a 4th place finish overall in a time of 21:07. The girls ran in their “Wolfpack” style bringing in their top five runners in under 1:48 seconds of one another. Jordyn Hendrickson finished 10th in a time of 21:57, Brynn Siegel (14th) 22:30, Nicole Fair (15th) 22:37, and Kayla Aaron (17th) 22:54. Also finishing for the Wolves was Emma Buckley (20th) 23:26, and Katie Bauer (33) 24:34.
The ladies will plan to travel to Hershey to compete in the PIAA State Championship Race on Saturday, November 6th.
Due to Covid-19, the standards for qualifying for States were changed this year statewide to lower the number of athletes racing at Hershey. Normally District 9, single A allows the top two teams and the next ten individuals not on those teams to move forward. This year, it was changed to only the top team and the next six individuals. Therefore, several athletes are being left behind that “any other year” would have moved forward from District IX (and all the other Districts across the state).
That being said, those athletes should still get recognized:
The Moniteau girls had a remarkable run and finished second as a team and unfortunately cannot move on as a team this year, although their two top girls did qualify individually.
Other Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference runners that would have moved forward individually to the State Meet, if it weren’t for the Covid-19 restrictions, are Bella Scott (Clarion), Ashlyn Shultz (Cranberry), Braden Rankin (Clarion Limestone) and Kaine McFarland (North Clarion).
Congratulations to these runners and ALL the runners as they faced a very unpredictable season with many ups and downs and yet they still persevered. Best of luck to all the runners headed to Hershey next weekend!
Race results can be found for all the other teams’ accomplishments and state qualifiers at https://runhigh.com/2020RESULTS/R103120DA.html.
