“This has been a goal for a long time so to be able to break the tape is so exciting,” Kosek said.

Joining her at Hershey will be two members from the boys’ team - Henry Whitney and Max Macias.

Breaking the tape has become common for the Hornet. She broke the tape for the first time at the Cliff Robbins Invitational back in August, then did so for her first district title this October.

“The idea was just to stay as close as I could to Baylee, and then basically see happened,” explained Kosek. “I kind of went with the mentality of 100 meters at a time - if I can stay with her for the next 100 meters then stay with her for the next 100 meters, and it went out exactly kind of how I planned. We came through the mile right about what I’m comfortable at for a hard time here.”

Once they got back to the athletic fields is when Kosek made her move.

“That’s completely flat, so if I can keep strong, keep good form around here, this is probably an important part,” she said. “I was a little surprised when I started closing the gap, and then it kind of happened quickly. I went around her, and was just like, now I’ve just got to hold on.”

There was a stiff breeze the final 600 meters before the turn to the finish, one last obstacle for Kosek between her and gold.

“It was hard,” she said. “I was having a hard time keeping the mentality because at that point I knew I had quite a gap, and I probably had the win, so to be able to try to keep pushing through the wind when you’re at the end of the race, it was really hard.”

Being able to break the tape at districts has been a dream of hers.

“It’s so much of a bigger accomplishment,” remarked Kosek. “Freshman and sophomore years you see the tape, and just to have that feeling is so exciting.”

Wellsboro (240) was 10th overall as Kaci Kosek (23:57.1) took 52nd, and Sohie Yoder (24:03.7) came in 55th.

Molly Tice (25:03.8) was 67th, and Luisa Crocco (26:54.9) took 89th.

Whitney (16:44.3) was seventh overall while Macias (17:06.2) came in 13th.

“I’m really happy because the other years I wasn’t even close, and then this year I was really worried, because it’s my last year so I really wanted to be able to make it to states,” said Whitney.

He went out fast, and was as high as third at the 2000 meter mark.

“I was getting up in my nerves so I went out way too fast,” he said.

The second half of the race was a slog for Whitney, but he had a good way to deal with it.

“I had a song in my head,” he remarked.

Macias had the opposite strategy, he was 18th 1,000 meters in but slowly worked his way up throughout the race.

The Hornets were ninth as a team with Taitt Webster (19:45.5) in 80th, Ethan Geneski (20:28.3) taking 86th, and Henry Nowak (21:13.7) finishing 95th.

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