LEHIGH UNIVERSITY- The North Penn Girls Cross Country team extended their season a week longer on Friday, October 28^th, running their best at District Championships and qualifying for State Championships next weekend.

Coming off their previous win at the League Championships, they were seeded 2nd as a team going into the District Championships and they needed to place in the top five as a team to qualify for State Championships. Ariana Gardizy, Olivia Dyer, and Mikaela Vlasic, the top three runners for North Penn, all placed in the top 20, which proved to help the team’s score. With Jenna Webb and Maeve Gimbert placing in the top 100, they helped the team earn 4^th place.

At the start of the race, the top five runners for North Penn went out strong together. Soon enough, Gardizy broke away into the lead pack, holding 4^th place by the one-mile mark with a time of 5:41.

Vlasic and Dyer didn’t trail too far behind, as the girls held 8th and 11th by the one-mile mark. Both of them were running together only about 5 seconds behind Gardizy.

“My goal for today was to get top 5 and run under 18 minutes,” said Gardizy.

Gardizy had a great finish and was very pleased about her race. She achieved both of her goals, finishing in 4th place with a time of 17:59.

“Mikaela and I were running together for most of the race. I wanted to work in the later half of the race, because at Leagues I tried to work the first half and really felt it at the end. So I really tried to push it in the later half of the race, but also went out fast, so I didn’t get lost in all the runners,” said Dyer.

Dyer followed her plan accordingly, getting in front of Vlasic just before the 2-mile mark and working against the other runners to finish 14th with a time of 18:37. Vlasic was just behind her, finishing in 17th with a time of 18:45.

All the girls were excited at the end of the race to find out that they had qualified as a team for the State Championships. Even though the 6th and 7th place runners, Ximena Trejo-Mora and Clare Dentner, didn’t contribute to the score, they still put forth their best effort in the race.

“Our top five all [ran] a personal record, so we did everything we could have done to qualify for states. We hadn’t qualified for states as a team in a couple years, so it is really good to be able to qualify. Since our District is really tough, it’s a really big deal to get top five [as a team] at Districts,” said Vlasic