PIAA CROSS COUNTRY: Notre Dame-GP girls take silver at states

Art Corrigan, in his fifth decade as a cross country coach, is still quite competitive. He wants to win.

But, thanks in part to his experience and longevity, Corrigan has the wisdom to keep things in their proper perspective.

And the coaching institution at Notre Dame-Green Pond can certainly appreciate an outstanding performance when he sees one. He saw one in the Crusaders’ second-place finish at Saturday’s PIAA Cross Country Championships in Hershey.

The Colonial League and District 11 champions came up short in their quest to three-peat as the Class 1A girls team champions. Notre Dame settled for second overall to Elk County Catholic of District 9. Elk County Catholic totaled 63 points; Notre Dame 71.

Though the Crusaders claimed back-to-back crowns in 2021 and 2022, Corrigan declared this year’s performance the program’s finest.

“If we’d have run poorly, I’d feel bad,” he said. “But this is the best we’ve ever run at states. We got beat by a super team that enjoyed a super day. I’m extremely proud of our girls.”

Notre Dame-Green Pond poses for pictures after placing second in the Class 1A girls race at Saturday’s PIAA Cross Country Championships. (Michael Blouse/Special to The Morning Call)

The Schweitzer sisters, senior Olivia and sophomore Ella, paced the Notre Dame pack with top-25 efforts.

Ella Schweitzer placed 18th overall in 20:35, while Olivia took 24th in 20:51. Ella Schweitzer earned a 17th-place medal last year as a freshman; Olivia Schweitzer collected her first state medal.

“This is the first year I’ve medaled and that’s what I was going for my senior year,” Olivia Schweitzer said. “I’m proud of myself and I’m also super-proud of our team.”

“I’m proud,” Ella Schweitzer said, “even though we didn’t win. We knew it was going to be a hard race. We all did our best and that’s what counts.”

The Schweitzers agreed they would’ve preferred to run in warmer weather. The temperatures hovered right around 40 degrees for the 9:30 a.m. Class 1A girls race.

Temperatures warmed to the mid-50s for the afternoon races.

“The start, it was brutal,” Olivia Schweitzer said. “I didn’t warm up until the two-mile mark. My sophomore year here, it was so cold I remember crying after the race because my toes hurt so bad. It wasn’t that cold but it was pretty cold.”

“My legs were numb,” Ella Schweitzer said.

Notre Dame placed four runners among the top 30.

Sophomore Brenna Hammerstone was 28th in 21:06 and senior Katherine Koons took 30th in 21:08. Elk County Catholic featured three runners among the top six finishers.

Notre Dame-Green Pond was attempting to become the second team from District 11 to capture three consecutive state titles. Emmaus claimed three straight in the 3A girls classification from 2007-09. Parkland’s girls in 2000 and the Central Catholic girls in 2001 are the other District 11 teams to win PIAA titles.

Other than Notre Dame, no other Colonial League or Eastern Pennsylvania Conference team placed among the top 13 at states on Saturday.

Parkland’s boys, which were a program best eighth overall in Class 3A a season ago, secured a 14th-place finish. Senior Paul Abeln led coach Stephen Ott’s EPC champion Trojans with a 29th-place individual finish.

Easton in 3A was the only District 11 school to qualify both its boys and girls teams. Coach Bobbi Jo Powell’s boys placed 18th and her Red Rover girls finished 15th.

The EPC champ Emmaus girls placed 14th among 20 Class 3A teams. Saucon Valley’s girls in 2A finished 17th out of 21 qualifiers, and the Moravian Academy girls were 19th of 23 teams in 1A.

Central Catholic’s boys took 15th out of 21 teams in the 2A race.

Michael Blouse is a freelance writer.