In a season filled with so many highlights and so many accomplishments for both the Emmaus boys and girls cross country teams, perhaps no one described it better than their head coach.
“So amazing,” said Kami Reinhard, Emmaus’ sixth year coach.
Indeed, it was.
And that incredible season for both squads, which will go down as arguably one of the best in school history, came to a bittersweet ending this past weekend at the PIAA Class 3A State Championships held at Big Spring High School near Shippensburg University.
For the boys, it was a historical day — in many ways.
Led by junior standout David Hearn who had a career-best fifth place finish, the boys had their best showing ever at the state meet by finishing sixth among the 20 teams competing.
“From start to finish we saw the unity among their team, stepping up for each other and earning that sixth place, the highest finish ever for our boys team,” said Reinhard. “I remember one of the boys telling me that Emmaus was ranked 19th going into states and for them to break into the top 10, let alone finish sixth, exceeds any and all expectations.”
But it didn’t come easy.
“They had plenty of obstacles to overcome and it was impressive to watch them work through hard stuff to place sixth overall,” she added. “At around 0.25 miles into the race, two of our athletes fell while running around the crowded first turn along with many other runners. They got back up and kept pushing despite spike wounds on their legs from being trampled on. At the one-mile mark, we were in14th place and finished sixth. It’s absolutely incredible.”
Hearn, who has already earned two gold medals by winning both the EPC and District XI meets, picked up his third medal of the season for the boys whose previous best finish at states was ninth back in 1999.
“David continues to shine since making the decision to take the lead a few weeks ago in our final dual meet.” said Reinhard. “Most may not understand how unbelievably difficult it is to run 15:36 on this challenging hilly course, but David ran his lifetime best time and got the school record at the state meet at the new Big Spring course.”
Hearn, who beat former Hornet Sam Luff’s mark back in 2003, was making his third appearance at the state meet. In his freshman season he finished 127th and as a sophomore, 82nd.
Quite an improvement.
“He is incredibly driven, holds humor, loves to run and deserves credit for all of the hard work that he put in this past summer,” said Reinhard. “That hard work has paid off with incredible progress noted throughout the season and it is rewarding for the coaching staff to see his goals come to fruition, individually and for the team.”
Junior Roen Woolf 24th (16:12) and classmate Michael Carwell 41st (16:37) also had strong races finishing in the Top 50 in a field comprised of 238 runners. The other Emmaus boys competing included: sophomore Mason Hipp 87th (17:18), senior Calvin Schucker 88th (17:18) and sophomores Luke Harris 97th (17:25) and Kyle Gamler 112th (17:43)
“Roen and Calvin, who are both captains, have done an outstanding job keeping the team focused yet enjoying this state experience,” said Reinhard. “We are very proud of our boys team.”
Nationally ranked State College won the team race with two of its runners – seniors Luke Bradbury and Theo Oppermann – finishing first and second overall. Norwin finished second, followed by LaSalle College, North Allegheny and North Penn.
In the girls’ race, Senior Grace Nosal closed out her high school career finishing 75th overall in a time of 19:52. Juniors Samantha Reidnauer –137th overall (20:35) and Aubrey Kazmierczak 148th overall (20:49) — also qualified for the state meet.
“They did very well to end their season,” said Reinhard of her girls’ squad which entered in a rebuilding season.’ “Grace dropped 19 seconds from her district time and Sam and Aubrey worked together all season helping each other throughout each and every race. The girls collectively enjoyed running at the new course and commented that they wouldn’t change a thing from their state experience.”
The girls finished the season with a 15-2 overall record, which included winning their first EPC championship in three years. They also finished third at the District XI meet.
The Norwin girls repeated as state champions followed by Dallastown (second), Fox Chapel (third), Upper Dublin (fourth) and Downingtown West (fifth). Southern Lehigh finished 17th overall.
Reinhard also gave special recognition to her coaching staff: Casey Frank, Jeff Karwacki, Rob Gallagher, Ashleigh McNellis, Kera Reinhard, Kristin Susens, Page Woodbury and Melissa Yergey.
“None of this would happen without the support of our entire coaching staff, whom each has a very distinct role in bringing out the very best in each other and out athletes,” she said. “A huge thank you goes out to them with extreme gratitude, whom I love and cherish dearly.”
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Grace Nosal (center) and teammates Samantha Reidnauer and Aubrey Kazmierczak