UNION CITY - Six county runners earned region all-star honors at the Region 4 Cross Country Championships held Saturday at Union City High School.
All three schools were represented in the region all-star teams. The top seven finishers in both the boys and girls events earned first-team status while places eight through 14 were awarded second-team status. The county had two first-teamers and four second-teamers overall.
Leading the way as first-team all-stars were Youngsville's Kellie Lindstrom and Eisenhower's Anthony Amroski. Lindstrom was a county-best sixth in the girls race, finishing in 21 minutes flat.
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Photo by Sally Pondel
Working hard
Youngsville’s Kellie Lindstrom works her way toward the finish of the varsity girls event during the Region 4 Cross Country Championships held Saturday at Union City High School.
"Kellie has become better with every race for the past few weeks," said Youngsville coach Ray Bennett. "She analyzes things, thinks about what she can do better and does it."
Amroski was seventh in 17:06, beating out teammate Devin VanGuilder by a mere second for first-team status. VanGuilder was the second and final male all-star, claiming eighth in 17:07 while being named to the second team.
The remainder of the county all-stars came from the girls race. In addition to Lindstrom, Warren teammates Ellis Beardsley (8th, 21:06) and Anna Falvo (9th, 21:07) were second-team all-stars and Eisenhower's Julia Bauer earned the same status byfinishing 11th in 21:21.
While those six were the only all-stars, the remainder of the field was loaded with county talent. Another 23 male =and 18 female runners from the three schools also competed.
For Eisenhower, Ben Perkins was the best non all-star male finisher in 22nd with a run of 18:28. Ben Morrison was next in 38th with a run of 19:09 and Derek Lasecki was 41st in 19:21. Also running for the Knights were Matt Jewell (47th, 19:32), Jacob McCool (57th, 20:07), Levi Stanko (77th, 21:33) and Jason Morine (78th, 21:51).
Youngsville was led by the 27th-place, 18:39 run of sophomore Aaron Hoover. Freshman Bobby Bower finished 53rd in 19:50 with Gregg Yost close behind with a 55th-place run of 20:01. Rounding out Youngsville's lineup were Zach Ishman (56th, 20:05), Andy Lalwani (60th, 20:19), Chester Ciukaj (64th, 20:34), Ben Stover (65th, 20:37), Colin Lehnen (72nd, 21:09), Collin Alekson (75th, 21:31) and Nathen Carr (79th, 22:00).
For the Warren Dragons, Seth Johnson delivered a strong run of 32nd in 19 minutes flat. Max Pierson was 21 seconds back of him in 32nd and Eriz Zavinski and Mark Reiff finished 51st and 52nd in 19:49 and 19:50 respectively. Daniel Pierson was 67th in 20:41 and the lineup was rounded out by Christian Olson in 69th with a run of 20:44.
North East easily won the team standings with Eisenhower finishing fifth, Warren eighth and Youngsville ninth.
By far the biggest group of runners in the field was the Lady Eagles' pack of 13 runners. Led by Lindstrom, Youngsville also got a 17th-place, 22:26 run from Piper Olsen, a 19th-place 22:30 from Katelyn Maille and a 21st-place, 22:37 from Abbie Swartzbaugh.
"Piper had a blue bird performance today," said Bennett. "She had no cross country experience before this year, so it's not a slam dunk that she would run so well in a really big meet."
Also competing for Youngsville were Hannah Morris (30th, 23:15), Lydia Swartzbaugh (32nd, 23:24), Mallory Eastman (37th, 23:42), Samantha Tome (43rd, 24:21), Kimmie Lindstrom (51st, 25:27), Tori Alekson (56th, 25:44), Denise Devore (59th, 26:12), Suzie Rose (68th, 30:14) and Tiffany Haney (69th, 32:41).
While Beardsley and Falvo were region all-stars for Warren, the Lady Dragons had three additional strong runners in the field. Amanda Castagnino narrowly missed second-team status by finishing 16th in 22:22. D.J. Hahn was 27th in 23:03 and Alyssa Cumberland was right behind in 28th at 23:04.
Like Warren, Eisenhower's girls team also had three additional runners in addition to their all-star. Kate Daugharthy finished 31st in 23:21, Lacey Stanko was 35th in 23:36 and Grace Thompson finished 45th in 24:32.
North East also won the girls race with Union City second, Corry third, Warren fourth and Youngsville fifth. Ike had one runner shy of being able to field a team score.
All runners will return to action Saturday at the District 10 Class A, AA and AAA Championships at Sharon's Buhl Park.