This was a cross country course like no other.

Then again, it’s also been a cross country season like no other.

COVID-19 impacted all sports during the fall season, and cross country was no exception. So when District 11 was planning its cross country championships, it needed to find a venue and a format that allowed runners to compete in safe conditions.

The Blue Mountain Ski Resort and Convention Center was selected as this year’s site, boys and girls races were held on separate days, the three classes held their competitions hours apart, and heats were added.

Om Wednesday, the girls got their chance.

Despite a drab, gray day and sloppy running conditions, the euphoria of competing and enjoying success against the best-of-the-best in the district was not going to be denied for Times News area runners Natalie Mosier of Palmerton, Kelsey Gaston of Lehighton and Northwestern’s Angelina Klein.

The trio earned the right to compete in one more race during their successful seasons as they punched tickets to the PIAA State Championship Meet in Hershey next week.

Mosier, a sophomore, who also qualified for states a year ago, finished second to Tri-Valley’s Samantha Masser in Class 1A.

“I really wanted to run against her,” Mosier said about the Tri-Valley star, after learning her fate when times were compared from the two heats to determine the final finishing order.

“I really wanted to be in the same heat as Masser,” Mosier said. “When you are running against the best, you can gage yourself and get a better feel of where you should be. By not running in the same heat, I really had no idea where I was until after I finished.”

“It’s hard running by yourself,” Mosier’s coach Bill Zeky said, confirming what his top runner had expressed about not running in the same field as Masser. “It would have been nice if they all ran together, but this is a different season and this is the way the race had to be run.”

While Mosier had been to states before, Gaston had not.

Gaston, a senior, said she “flipped things around” from the previous year, and it showed as she finished third overall in the Class 2A run.

The nerves were haunting her nearly a week before the district event, but Gaston was finally achieving her goal.

“Oh, I had trouble sleeping for almost a week thinking about this,” Gaston said, brimming with joy after turning in a time of 21:12. The winner in 2A was North Schuylkill standout Cori McCormick, who raced home in a solid 19:41. Blue Mountain’s Oliva Haas, who finished in a time of 19:51 to help lead the Eagles to the team championship, finished second.

“I was running low on sleep,” Gaston said with a bit of laughter, but certainly enjoying and relishing in the moment. “This was a difficult course, and I was able to run the hills better than I did on the course we ran on last year.”

Her coach, Erika Pagotto, was just as elated.

“Oh my, this is so wonderful for Kelsey; she has worked so hard from freshman year on,” Pagotto said. “She trained very hard for this season, and now it’s paying off and she’s going to get the opportunity to medal at states.”

Klein, a top runner for the Tigers all season, earned the final individual slot in Class 2A with a sixth-place finish.

While Klein advanced, the Northwestern team fell a little short of moving on.

Tiger head coach Chris Stitzel said he knew Blue Mountain was a tough team.

“We faced them twice during the regular season, and they won both times,” Stitzel said after his team finished third. “Our hats go off to them … we’re young we have a lot of junior high kids that will come into the program next year. This is a learning experience for our team.”

In addition to Klein, who had a time of 21:42, teammate Kaitlyn Jones was 19th, while Emily Fagan finished in 24th.

Tamaqua junior Grace Stegemerten just missed a shot at the state event when she hit the finish line in seventh place with a time of 21:59. Jim Thorpe’s Katelynn Bos was right behind Stegemerten with a time of 22:12.

TOUGH COURSE ... The times were slower than normal, and that was dictated by two reasons - the wetness of the terrain, and the length of the course which covered 3.25 miles instead of the normal 3.1-mile distance.

TEAM CHAMPS . In addition to Blue Mountain winning the Class 2A team title, Notre Dame of Green Pond was the 1A champ, and Emmaus the 3A champ.

ADMIRING MOMENT … Tamaqua coach Tom Kanger complimented Gaston and said: “You can see all the hard work she put in over the summer, and it paid off. That is pure determination.”

GOOD DNA … Haas comes from a good running stock. Her father, Randy Haas, was a state champion at Blue Mountain.

CHEERING THEM ON … Longtime official, high school administrator and college professor Frank DeAngelo was one of the district officials for the meet, and could be seen encouraging all runners first to last.

DISTRICT 11

CROSS COUNTRY

AT BLUE MOUNTAIN RESORT

Class 1A Girls

Team scores and legend

1. Notre Dame GP (NDGP) 51, 2. Tri-Valley (TV) 85, 3. Moravian Academy (MAC) 101, 4. Marian Catholic (MC) 101, 5. Minersville (M) 106, 6. Mahanoy Area (MA) 124, 7. Weatherly (W) 142, 8. Palmerton (P) 146. Panther Valley (PV)

Individual results

Top 5 and other locals in top 50

*1. Samantha Masser (TV) 22:23, *2. Natalie Mosier (P) 22:37, *3. Lily Eyvazzadeh (MAC) 22:52, *4. Krysta Nichols (MAC) 23:56, *5. Grace Model (NDGP) 24:11, *8. Grace Curnow (MC) 24:33, 11. Maddie Dando (MC) 25:01, 13. Danielle Gordon (W) 25:07, 17. Kendall Gerhart (W) 25:31, 30. Beth Morgan (P) 27:54, 31. Liz Marshman (W) 27:59, 34. Emma Ashfield (MC) 28:17, 39. Janner Alexander (PV) 28:55, 42. Haley Curnow (MC) 29:24, 43. Cecelia Pyfer (P) 2929, 49. Samantha Perloni (P) 30:49, 55. Emily Houser (P) 33:54, 56. Elizabeth Knight (W) 36.46.

(*-denotes state qualifier)

Class 2A Girls

Team scores and legend

1. Blue Mountain (BM) 75, 2 North Schuylkill (NS) 87, 3. NW Lehigh (NWL) 99, 4. Saucon Valley (SV) 138, 5. Allentown Central Catholic (ACC) 154, 6. Jim Thorpe (JT) 159, 7. Palisades (PA) 162, 8. Wilson Area (WA) 176, 9. Tamaqua (T) 207, 10. Pottsville (P) 209, 11. Catasauqua (C) 223, 12. Bethlehem (Bechi) 255, 13. Lehighton (L) 289.

Individual results

Top 5 and other locals in top 50

*1. Cori McCormick (NS) 19:41, *2. Oliva Haas (BM) 1951, *3. Kelsey Gaston (L) 21:12, *4. Katie McCormick (NS) 21:30, *5. Ryley Schwalm (NS) 21:30. *6. Angelina Kelin (NWL) 21:42, 7 Grace Stegemerten (T) 21:59, 8. Katelynn Bos (JT) 21:12, 16. Maci Fisher (NWL) 23:16, 19. Kailyn Jones (NWL) 23:33, 24. Emily Fagan (NWL) 23:33, 29. Frances Kabana (T) 24:03, 30. Nicole Carroll (JT) 24:11, 32. Megan Rosahac (JT) 24:14, 38. Molly McGorry (NLW) 24:45, 39. Faith Yost (NWL) 24:51, 52. Mia Jones (T) 26:05, 61. McKenna Carroll (T) 27:06, 63. Ashley Jones (T) 27:15, 69 Hailey Williams (T) 27:53), 70. Katie Wojton (L) 28:16, 71. Brooke McKeon (JT) 28.51, 72. Liz Troutman (L) 28:37, 75. Gianna Sube (L) 29:46, 77. Jamyson Cotterman (L) 32.27, 78. Matalyn Rehrig (L) 32:40.

(*-denotes state qualifier)

Class 3A Girls

Team scores and legend

1. Emmaus (E) 39, 2. Southern Lehigh (SL) 58, 3. Parkland (P) 72, 4. Liberty (L) 108, 5. Northampton (NO) 119, 6. Easton (E) 158, 7. Freedom (F) 187, 8. Nazareth (NA) 222, 9. Stroudsburg (S) 254, 10. East Stroudsburg South (ESS) 254, 11. Whitehall (W) 268, 12. Bangor (B) 315.

Individual results

Top 5 and other locals in top 50

*1. Emily Jacobs (L) 20:46.9, *2. Ashleigh McNelis (E) 20:50.99, *3. Lauren Meinhold (SL) 21:31.3, *4. Hailey Reinhard (E) 21:34.05, *5. Kera Reinhard (E) 21:40.43, 14. Mikayla DeReinzi (Pleasant Valley) 22:19.9, 38. Lily Mingora (Pleasant Valley) 23:51.5.

(*-denotes state qualifier)