After the Boys’ and Girl’s cross country team placed 2nd and 3rd respectively at Central Leagues last weekend, the Running Rams were hungry to make states. They headed up to the District 1 meet at Lehigh University this past Friday to test themselves against the best of our District. District 1 AAA is historically the toughest race in the state.

“The District 1 AAA race is basically states,” noted a counselor at Briarwood Running Camp a few years back. 5 teams make states from the race, and the first 25 non-team-qualifying individuals advance as well. For some context on how tough District 1 AAA is, especially for the girls, 2/5 girls’ teams that qualified for states last year ended up finishing in the top ten at nationals.

In the Girls Varsity Race, sophomore Tasha Greene came in 23rd overall with a time of 19:05 followed by senior Maura Henderson in 34th overall with a time of 19:22. Both Greene and Henderson qualified for the State Championship in Hershey on November 1st.

Harriton handily beat Central League runner-up Strath Haven, who came in 14th place, by earning an impressive 10th place finish out of 54 competing teams. Maura Henderson commented, “I’m happy that the team has had such a successful season, and I’m lucky to be able to work with talented kids and coaches to help me reach my goals.”

As for what she hopes to accomplish at the state meet, Maura remained carefree and light, not letting the pressure of any performance bother her; “I hope not to hit Tasha’s elbow too many times,” she joked.

Next up was the Boys’ varsity race. Coming in 1st for Harriton and 37th overall was Junior Jonah Gillespie-Sickman with a time of 16:29. Jonah will represent Harriton in the State Meet. As for his debut at the state meet, Gillepsie-Sickman said, “I’m excited.” Boys Varsity came in 21st overall with 577 points.

The day concluded with the Junior Varsity races. These races feature about 800 runners each as every JV runner in the entire District can line up. On Boys’ JV, sophomore Jan Terweisch lead the way with a time of 17:42. In the Girls’ JV race, the top finisher for Harriton was sophomore Fiona Maruca with time of 21:15.

After the race, Coach Klick noted that these were the best finishes for Harriton in school history.  Come support state qualifiers Tasha Greene (sophomore), Maura Henderson (senior), and Jonah Gillepsie-Sickman (junior) on Saturday, November 1st in Hershey. There will be a fan bus!