HERSHEY - Mount Carmel Area's boys cross country team will try to improve on its eighth-place finish of last season when it competes Saturday in the PIAA state cross country championships at the Giant Center course in Hershey.
The Red Tornadoes won their second consecutive District 4 Class AA championship last week at Bloomsburg University, and had to win since this year only the championship team qualified for the state championships, although the top four Mount Carmel finishers would have qualified individually.
Also qualifying for the championships are Southern Columbia's Colin Dudanowicz, who is going for the second straight year, and Mount Carmel Area's Chantelle Skavery. They will each compete in Class A races.
Competing for the Red Tornadoes will be Nate Bartos, Tommy Moser, Ciaran Fisher, David Fletcher, Anthony Moser, Brandon Sorge and Brett Katalinas. Moser will be competing for the third straight year after qualifying as a sophomore in 2012. He finished 35th individually last year and 121st as a sophomore. Bartos, the district runnerup behind reigning state champion Griffin Molino of South Williamsport, placed 55th last season, Fisher was 99th and Fletcher 163rd in a rach that had 226 finishers. Molino was Class A champion last year.
Dudanowicz finished 115th in the Class A race in 2014. This will be Skavery's first trip to the state meet.
Besides Molino, the only other defending state individual champion is sophomore Mariane Abdalah of Vincentian Academy.