Abby Paczewski and Nick Hockenbury led the way Thursday as both Lake-Lehman teams finished third in the varsity team standings at the Ed Narkiewicz Wyoming Valley Conference Cross Country Coaches Championship Meet.
Varsity teams chased conference honors while also preparing for Wednesday’s District 2 Championships at Lakeland High School.
Dallas won the girls team title on the junior high level where teams were wrapping up their seasons.
Paczewski finished second for the second straight season, lowering her time from last year by 30 seconds to 19:54 despite running in wet, windy conditions at the Wyoming County Fairgrounds in Mehoopany.
Holy Redeemer, the unbeaten champion in the WVC regular season, won the team title with 27 points. Hazleton Area beat out Lake-Lehman, 61-92, for third place out of 11 girls teams.
All five scoring runners for the Lady Knights finished in the top half of the 96-runner field.
Madison Brdaric and Lizzy Blaski earned top-25 medals for placing ninth and 24th. Morgan Patla and Elena Walters were 33rd and 44th.
Dallas did not enter a full team, but Kaitlyn Hodakowski medaled by finishing 12th.
Tunkhannock was sixth in the team standings, led by Camryn Rogers in 19th place.
Make-up meets for some teams, including Dallas, were scored from the conference meet results in order to complete the WVC schedule.
Final girls standings: Holy Redeemer 16-0, Hazleton Area 15-1, Crestwood 14-2, Lake-Lehman 12-4, Hanover Area 12-4, MMI Prep 11-5, Tunkhannock 10-6, Dallas 8-8, Pittston Area 8-8, MMI Prep 6-10, Berwick 5-10, Wyoming Area 5-11, Wyoming Seminary 5-11, Northwest 5-11, Wilkes-Barre Area 0-13, Nanticoke 0-14, Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech 0-14.
Lake-Lehman was third, Dallas eighth and Tunkhannock 12th, each with at least one medalist, out of 15 teams in varsity boys.
Hockenbury, the top freshman finisher in the race by 55 seconds, was 11th to lead Lake-Lehman.
The medalists included Lake-Lehman’s Chandler Longstreth in 13th place, Tunkhannock’s Nathan Myers in 15th, Dallas’ Noah Cooper and Ben Bradley in 21st and 22nd and Lake-Lehman’s Casey Weaver in 23rd.
Lake-Lehman placed its top five in the first 32 runners out of 158 finishers. Michael Serafin was 29th and Jacob Stash 32nd.
The final WVC boys standings were: Hazleton Area 15-1, Holy Redeemer 15-1, Lake-Lehman 14-2, Wyoming Area 13-3, Crestwood 13-3, Dallas 11-5, Wyoming Valley West 10-6, Hanover Area 9-7, Wyoming Seminary 6-10, Pittston Area 6-10, Berwick 6-10, Northwest 6-10, Tunkhannock 5-11, Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech 2-13, Wilkes-Barre Area 1-13, MMI Prep 0-14, Nanticoke 0-14.
Dallas made a strong showing on the junior high level.
The girls won the championship, 31-86, over Hazleton Area.
Olivia Thomas, Madison Hedglin and Trinity Basara were third, fourth and fifth to lead the victory.
Bryce Philips from Dallas finished second in the boys race.
The top 35 finishers in each junior high race received medals.
The girls medalists also included: Sydney Sleyo, Lake-Lehman, seventh; Julianna Sobocinski, Dallas, 11th; Sarah Williams, Dallas, 12th; Gina Pugliese, Dallas, 20th; Ariana Cokely, Tunkhannock 22nd; Vanessa Mock, Tunkhannock, 28th; Sarah Gauntlett, Dallas, 29th; Peyton Stauffer, Dallas, 32nd; Aliyah Tuttle, Tunkhannock, 35th.
Tunkhannock was seventh and Lake-Lehman eighth out of 10 in the team standings.
The boys medalists also included: Brendan Yatsko, Tunkhannock, ninth; Will Lupinski, Tunkhannock, 15th; John Morgan, Lake-Lehman 21st;
Tunkhannock was fourth and Dallas ninth out of 12 in the team standings. Lake-Lehman did not enter a full team.
