HERSHEY - To give you an idea of what the start of any of the races at the PIAA cross country championships is like, imagine you're one of 230 or so runners spread out across an area the width of maybe a third of a football field.
Remember, these aren't just any runners. These are the best teams and individual runners from around the state.
The gun goes off and what you have is an all-out sprint by those 230 or so runners toward a spot on the horizon a few hundred yards away. If you're near the lead when you reach that point, you're likely to place high. If you're not, you likely won't.
Mount Carmel Area runners Justin Skavery and Tommy Moser found that out Saturday at Hershey's Parkview course and although they didn't finish as well as they wanted to, both were more than pleased with their races.
Skavery, a first-time qualifier as a senior, finished 85th with a time of 17 minutes, 45 seconds for the 3.1-mile course, and Moser, a sophomore and also a first-timer, was 121st with a time of 18:01.
Big Spring senior Vinny Todaro topped North Schuylkill's Brendan Shearn, the defending champion, by four seconds to win the race in 16 minutes even.
"Oh yeah, we got caught up in it (the start)," Moser said as he and Skavery put on their warmups after the race. "We got out of it (the pack) eventually but it took time."
"It was a little challenging," Skavery said. "With that and the cold, it was tough."
But both runners eventually got under control and ran solid races, according to Mount Carmel coach Ben McConnell.
"The start was crazy," McConnell said. "They both went through the first mile in about five minutes and neither were in the top 100. It shows what you have to do to get back into the race at this level.
"Justin's a senior, so just getting here was a big thing for him, and Tommy has a couple of years to go and hopefully can come back, but I'm real happy with how they both ran."
As were they.
"I'm very pleased," Skavery said. "Like I said, it was a little cold but once you got going, it wasn't too bad."
"It was a great experience," Moser said. "I was happy just getting here and we ran good races."
Lewisburg and Towanda finished eighth and ninth, respectively, in the 19-team AA boys field. Towanda's Aaron Valoroso was fourth individually (16:29) and Lewisburg's Sean Walker ninth (16:39).
Other District 4 results of note:
- Northeast Bradford won the boys A team championship, with Sam Williams and Curt Jewett third and fourth, individually. South Williamsport's Griffin Molino was eighth and Sullivan County's Kelby Mullen 15th.
- Danville finished sixth in the girls AA team race, with Selinsgrove 19th. District champ Treicy Cedeno of Shikellamy was 14th and Danville's Mackenzie Jones 17th to earn medals.
- Troy's Casey Norton was second in the A girls race with a time of 19:43.