At the completion of last year's cross country season, the Lehighton boys' program began generating excitement, in anticipation for this season. Head coach Erica Pagotto knew that with the wealth of returning talent along with the incoming corps of strong-willed freshmen, things were looking up in the development of the distance runners on the squad.

Following their sweep over visiting Weatherly and Pottsville last night, Coach Pagotto and company look to be right on track."They are very excited and very determined this season," the third-year coach admitted. "Last year, we knew we would come into this season strong because of such a strong finish to the season that we had a year ago. With the incoming freshmen and the seniors and juniors on the squad, they are all competing to be on the varsity team. We never had that situation before. It's great to see and they are working well together."Typically, in a sports program, when the inter-squad competition increases, and the players are all jockeying for starting positions, it translates well when competing against the other schools on the schedule. Pagotto is experiencing this phenomena, all throughout the lineup, even at the top.Junior Michael Blacketter, who qualified for the PIAA meet one year ago and finished the race in first, and senior Trent Frey, second place yesterday, are training alongside each other, pushing each other to become better runners overall."I mainly worry about pulling my own strong races together," Blacketter said. "Then, hopefully, if I do that, I also expect the other guys to run their best and put forth their best effort, as well.""For the first mile, I thought we went out extremely fast today and I hung right behind Michael, about ten to twenty feet behind him," Frey said. "Then in the second mile, I thought everyone seemed to slow down immensely, but I ended with whatever energy I had left."In the sweltering heat that the race was run, Coach Pagotto told her team to not focus too much on their times from the race, but to be glad with their efforts, as the heat forced several runners to drop out. However, the Tribe, spear-headed by Blacketter and Frey, pulled out the wins over their two opponents, to begin the season 2-0."In this heat, it's very tough to run some of your best performances, so I wanted them to run 'smart," Pagotto said. "I wasn't worried about the times, as long as they gave their best effort.With qualifying for the PIAA meet again as one of the team's and individuals' goals for this season, the coach mentioned what needs to be done in order to get there."It's working hard each practice and keeping each other motivated. We have seven weeks until districts, so just keeping them healthy, working strong and focused on those goals."Other than Blacketter's stellar showing on the day (18:38), Frey finished under the 19-minute mark as well to come in right behind him. Weatherly's top finisher, Jard Hinkle, out-legged the Tribe's Luke Fisher to take third, and Anthony Tavella rounded out the top five.For the Lehighton girls, Cera Gaston continued her impressive start to the season, as she bested the field for a first place in 22:40.OFF THE BEATEN PATH ... The Lehighton High School's campus is undergoing several areas of renovation, which is wreaking havoc to the standard cross country course that travels throughout the school grounds. With this being the team's first home meet, a temporary course was used, limiting the Indians' home course advantage. The Tribe didn't seem to falter, as they still prevailed.YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT ... Senior standout Trent Frey has taken it upon himself to be the team's nutritionist, of sorts, as he continuously is on the rest of his teammates to eat healthy throughout the course of the season. He claims, "I try to get everyone to get as good of a workout as they can each day. I want them to stay healthy, but most importantly, they have to eat healthy because that's a huge part of it. They don't listen all the time, though."BOYSLehighton 18, Weatherly 45Weatherly 15, Pottsville 50Lehighton 15, Pottsville 50(top 15 finishers)1. Michael Blacketter (L) 18.38, 2. Trent Frey (L), 3. Jared Hinkle (W), 4. Luke Fisher (L), 5. Anthony Tavella (L), 6. Blade McCabe (L), 7. Pengcheng Zhang (L), 8. Alex Schwab (L), 9. Joel Hinkle (W), 10. Evan Beers (L), 11. Tymothy Nevadomsky (P), 12. Nick Berger (W), 13. Nathan Lucykanish (L), 14. Gavin Scherer (L), 15. Zachary Haslam (P).GIRLSPottsville 28, Lehighton 29Lehighton 18, Weatherly 31Pottsville 15, Weatherly 48(top 15 finishers)1. Cera Gaston (L) 22.40, 2. Brenna Nagle (P), 3. Piper DeMatte (L), 4. Ashley Pogash (P), 5. Carissa Klapes (P), 6. Jonique Pace (L), 7. Alyssa Smith (L), 8. Keelie McMullen (P), 9. Emma Motto (P), 10. Jade Demitro (P), 11. Ericka Shuman (W), 12. Megan Pfeifer (W), 13. Bailey Nagle (P), 14. Abigail Hernandez (W), 15. Cheyenne Jacobs (L).