NTL CROSS COUNTRY: COWANESQUE VALLEY TRIO HEADED TO STATES (2024-10-24)
BY CHRIS MANNINGNorthern Tier Sports Report
BLOOMSBURG — Three Cowanesque Valley runners will be making the trip to Hershey for the PIAA Cross-country Championships, as Natalie Yonker and Torri Stratton earned spots in the Class AA girls’ race while Hunter Simonds was the last qualifier in the Class A boys’ race.
Yonker (19:39.3) was the top freshman in the Class AA field, taking sixth overall and was the fourth individual qualifier.
“I felt amazing,” Yonker said. “My whole body feels good. I’m tired, obviously, but I feel amazing right now.”
Yonker went out quick, and hung with Athens’ Sara Bronson most of the race.
“I knew I wanted to go out fast, I knew who I wanted to follow, and I kind of just followed them,” she explained. “I did go out a little quick, but I also felt so good that I knew I would be able to maintain the pace.”
She ended up just three seconds behind the Athens senior, who had her best district finish of her four years.
“I saw the time, and I had a really competitive girl that I knew I raced against her before,” Yonker said about the end of the race. “She kind of pushed past me, and I knew I should just kick for it.”
She’s especially excited to go with Stratton.
“I love my teammate,” said Yonker. “She’s amazing. I don’t think I’d be where I’m at without her, she pushes me every day.”
The dual sport Stratton (20:09.3) was 13th overall, and, more amazingly, had just finished up a district soccer game 12 hours before the race.
“It was really tough going into the race this morning, my legs weren’t feeling good,” Stratton said. “I was kind of in my head, but about a mile and a half to two miles in, I knew I wanted it, and that’s where you’ve got to dig deep.”
She did a good job putting herself in the position to move on throughout the race.
“I didn’t feel like I was (falling out of the top 10), but I definitely felt the pain in my muscles, and all the lactic acid,” Stratton explained. “I knew I could do it.”
She credits Yonker for helping her get through the season playing two sports.
“It’s a lot of work,” remarked Stratton. “Some days you really want to give up, but having my teammates, like Natalie, and just my soccer team, too, they all helped me push through, and they really make it enjoyable, and worth it.”
After watching his teammates go to states the past two seasons Simonds was able to punch his ticket this year, taking ninth overall in 18:14.5, getting that last spot by six seconds.
“It’s wonderful,” said Simonds. “It’s been my goal since I was a freshman, and I finally got it.”
He was on the bubble coming in, and ran with that mindset.
“Don’t let anyone pass me, and just keep running,” he said. “At that point, it’s all mental, I just told myself I could do it, and I did it.”
He credits a strong second half of the race for seeing him through.
“It definitely was one of my better second halfs,” said Simonds. “Usually I start to crash out after the second mile, but I still felt great after that.”
Down the stretch he could feel that trip to Hershey.
“I started to get extremely excited, like, I might be able to do this,” he said.
CV was sixth overall with 116 places.
Judah Mummer (19:50.5) took 25th, Matthew McKee (20:24.2) and Troy Madison (20:28.3) were 29th and 30th, with Carsyn Kemp (22:19.9) rounding things out in 35th.
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PHOTOS: Chris Manning
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