NTL CROSS COUNTRY: WELLSBORO'S KOSEK WINS SECOND STRAIGHT DISTRICT IV TITLE (2026-10-29)

By Chris Manning
Northern Tier West Sports Report
BLOOMSBURG — Last year Wellsboro's Lauren Kosek was a surprise district champion, this year she was the favorite, and ran like one, winning the race by over a minute to take the District IV, Class AA Girls Cross-country title Thursday."Last year was kind of a shock to myself and everyone," said the senior. "This year it was kind of the plan to come out and execute."

Kosek ran a season best of 17:33.7 to get the win.

"I felt great," she said. "I've run into the 17:50's twice this year on hillier courses but honestly I was expecting to be in the 17:50's. The supposed course record here was 17:56 back in 2018 and last year I ran 17:59, so that was in my head to get under that course record, but I was not expecting 17:30's, I think that was one second off my fastest time from last year at Owego, and this has a lot more elevation in it, so I'm right where I want to be."

Kosek won the PIAA Foundation race at the new course in Big Spring last month, so she knows what to expect.

"I've thought a lot of about that course," she said. "I know what to expect, I think I can make it work with my strengths. I'm super excited to get on there next weekend, and see what happens."

It's been quite a journey for Kosek, and she's taken some time to reflect how far she's come in the last four years.

"My freshman year I placed 40th at states," she remarked. "One would look at that and be like, not necessarily expecting her be up near first her senior year, and I always have it in the back of my head that, if everything went right, I wanted to be right where I am right now. So if you would have told me freshman year that this is where I would be, I would have hoped to be here, but I wouldn't have expected it."

As a team they took 10th with 277 points. Molly Tice (23:29.8) was 45th, Luisa Crocco (26:37.5) took 79th, Brianna O'Shea-Losinger (26:49.3) was 82nd, and Anja Przbycien (27:01.9) took 85th.

In the Class AA boys race Wellsboro was 12th with 320 points.

William Rudy (18:41.9) was 48th to lead the way, while Taitt Webster (19:13) took 62nd.