BETHLEHEM - Tina Capparell always wanted to be a district champion.

She did that as a freshman.

What could she do for an encore?

Win three more.

The Marian senior won her fourth straight District 11 title on Wednesday, blowing away her competition in the Class A field with a time of 19:42.88, more than a minute ahead of Pine Grove’s Christina DiFalco (20:49.29).

“I had no idea what districts was as a freshman,” Capparell said after her most recent victory. “The second I knew what it was, I knew I wanted it.”

There was no question about what kind of form Capparell’s would be on after leaving the Schuylkill League championships with a gold medal last week.

“It definitely was a confidence booster,” Capparell said of her performance at leagues. “Knowing that I could take those hills and everything, I knew it was going to drive me to districts.”

Though she ran much of the race unchallenged, Capparell still exerted herself – something that was evident in the second half of the race.

“In the second mile, I got a little dizzy, a little disoriented,” she said. “Like I did last year a little bit.

“I’m not sure what it was ... but I just kept trying to push it out.”

The final chapter in Capparell’s remarkable career will come next week at the PIAA Cross Country Championships, where she will be going for her fourth straight medal.

After a fifth place finish last year, Capparell is hoping to leave Hershey for the final time with an even better result next Saturday.

“I definitely want to place higher,” Capparell said of her goals.

Tina won’t be the only Capparell at the state meet, though. Sister Nicole qualified with a third place (21:22.66) finish in the Class A race.

Knowing her sister and DiFalco likely had the top two spots locked down, Nicole was pleased with her performance.

“I was really hoping for third,” the junior said. “Because I knew with my sister, obviously, I knew she would get first. And then Christina, she’s also really good. So third, I was really happy with that.”

The Fillies narrowly missed qualifying for states as a team for the second year in a row, finishing second with 49 points. Mahanoy Area won the team title with 41 points.

“We were so close,” said Nicole. “I was really hoping we would make it again. We’re still happy with second, but it was just so close.”

Regardless of the team scores, Tina was happy to share the course with all of her Marian teammates one last time.

“It was so great to have them all here,” she said. “We got really close this year, and it’s the closest we’ve ever been. We all wanted it. Just that close-knit family thing before we start running. It helps.”

The Northwestern girls finished second in the Class 2A standings with 70 points to make it back to states as a team. Allentown Central Catholic won the team title with 49 points.

“That was our goal, to get in the top two teams,” said Tigers head coach Chris Stitzel. “But I know the girls wanted it this year. For how much they dominated leagues this year, and especially the way they ran last week and how happy they were, I just know we didn’t have our best day.

“But that was our goal, though, was to still get the team to states, and we did that.”

Northwestern was the class of the Colonial League this year with a 24-0 record during the regular season. The Tigers were untouchable at last week’s league meet, with five in the top 10 and six in the top 12 to easily claim the team title.

But 1-2 finishes from Allentown Central Catholic’s Emily Deschler and Alyssa Deschler was too much to overcome Wednesday.

“We did want that first, we were gunning for that,” said Northwestern senior Molly Tarvin, who was 13th. “But second is better than fourth, which is what we were last year.”

Northern Lehigh sophomore Reagan Pender had a phenomenal race, finishing third to advance to states.

The result was better than Pender was hoping for.

“I thought 10th,” she said. “I was placed 10th; 10th or 11th. So third was really surprising.”

But Pender ran a smart race, and picked off several positions in the closing stages.

“Probably coming up the last hill, and when we started to come around on the crossovers, and then it was like, ‘Wow, a lot of these girls are fading. I can move up,’” Pender said.

Tamaqua freshman Frances Kabana (12th) and junior Sarah Maue (16th) also qualified for states with their results in the Class 2A race.

Kabana tried to simply focus on the race, not what her odds of qualifying for states might be.

“I just think about getting a good start, keeping a good pace, working the hills, and the downhills and the straights,” she said.

The Tamaqua girls finished third in the team standings with 104 points, just outside of earning a state qualifying berth.

“It’s amazing. I’m so proud of all of us,” said Maue. “We all really worked hard to get here, and we really put it all out there. And it paid off, I think.”

REPEAT ... Emily Deschler’s win in the Class 2A race gave her back-to-back district championships.

District 11 Cross Country

Championships

GIRLS

Class 3A

Team scores and legend

1. Easton (E) 56*, 2. Parkland (P) 79*, 3. Stroudsburg (S) 91, 4. Emmaus (E) 99, 5. Liberty (L) 112, 6. Northampton (No) 161, 7. Freedom (F) 174, 8. Whitehall (W) 208, 9. Southern Lehigh (SL) 270, 10. Nazareth (N) 273, 11. East Stroudsburg South (ESS) 285, 12. Pottsville (P) 356, 13. Pleasant Valley (PV) 370, 14. Pocono Mountain East (PME) 373

Individual results

(Top-5 plus other locals)

1. Lauren Maddison (E) 19:30.88*, 2. Belle Weikert (L) 19:39.58*, 3. Lauren Charbone (F) 19:51.63*, 4. Amy Conboy (S) 19:58.54*, 5. Alysse Danyi (N) 20:00.66*, 52. Lily Mingora (PV) 22:32.18, 71. Sarah Larkin (PV) 24:07.53, 79. Sam Segada (PV) 24:52.96, 88. Alyssa Grieco (PV) 25:37.09, 91. Kelly Lesnik (PV) 26:32.17, 97. Alyssa Lopez (PV) 28:12.65.

Class 2A

Team scores and legend

1. Allentown Central Catholic (ACC) 49*, 2. Northwestern (NW) 70*, 3. Tamaqua (T) 104, 4. Palisades (Pal) 148, 5, Notre Dame GP (NDGP) 149, 6. Bethlehem Catholic (BC) 162, 7. Wilson (W) 182, 8. North Schuylkill (NS) 219, 9. Northern Lehigh (NL) 222, 10. Saucon Valley (SV) 246, 11. Bangor (B) 261, 12. Lehighton (L) 264, 13. Blue Mountain (BM) 334.

Individual results

(Top-5 plus other locals in top 50)

1. Emily Deschler (ACC) 19:20.94*, 2. Alyssa Deschler (ACC) 19:50.94*, 3. Reagan Pender (NL) 20:02.52*, 4. Cori McCormick (NS) 20:02.98*, 5. Grace Medei (NDGP) 20:07.74*, 11. Kailyn Jones (NW) 20:33.56*, 12. Frances Kabana (T) 20:37.17*, 13. Molly Tarvin (NW) 20:43.82*, 14. Madeline Consuelos (NW) 20:49.05*, 15. Alyssa Zack (NW) 20:51.85*, 16. Sarah Maue (T) 21:00.01*, 17. Sarah Supplee (NW) 21:01.86*, 22. Hannah Herzon (NW) 21:36.97*, 23. Kailee Carroll (T) 21:34.44, 25. Brianna Dumond (T) 21:56.14, 27. Katie Guelcher (NL) 21:58.89, 28. Lottie Mateyak (T) 22:00.43, 34. Kelsey Gaston (L) 22:37.64, 40. Alison Lorah (NL) 22:54.26, 43. Kristen Brown (NW) 22:58.92*, 45. Tinaya Klotz (L) 23:04.27, 48. Madelyn Jones (T) 23:07.63

Class 1A

Team scores and legend

1. Mahanoy Area (M) 41*, 2. Marian Catholic (MC) 49, 3. Catasauqua (C) 90, 4. Notre Dame East Stroudsburg (NDES) 112, 5. Moravian Academy (MA) 117, 6. Weatherly (W) 138, 7. Schuylkill Haven (SH) 139, 8. Nativity (N) 188, 9. Shenandoah Valley (SV) 222.

Individual results

(Top-5 plus other locals in top 50)

1. Tina Capparell (MC) 19:42.88*, 2. Christina DiFalco (PG) 20:49.29*, 3. Nicole Capparell (MC) 21:22.66*, 4. Kaylene Raczka (Minersville) 21:36.01*, 5. Lexi Rushatz (C) 22:01.48*, 9. Hanna Nesfeder (Palmerton) 22:42.96, 13. Carolyn Mehallo (MC) 23:30.86, 19. Julia Kreisl (MC) 24:38.55, 23. Brianna Brennan (Palmerton) 25:03.04, 27. Makenna Bankes (W) 25:20.64, 30. Abby Hernandez (W) 25:35.94, 32. Ashley James (W) 25:58.03, 33. Caitlyn Pazdon (MC) 26:10.81, 37. Cailey Sagastume (Palmerton) 26:38.77, 44, Elizabeth Marshman (W) 27:26.56,