James Wood, a fourth place state meet finisher a year ago, returned a strong three from that squad with Zach Frye, Kyle Russell, and James Printz, but they were questionable after that in their number four and five spots. Well it seems as the Colonials don\'t have to wait all season to answer that question. At the Chancellor Invitational, Frye (3rd, 17:12), Russell (5th, 17:21), and Printz (6th, 17:26) lead the the team with a strong front pack, but it was Joel Hanlon (8th, 17:52), Kevin Pugh (17th, 18:24), Louis Sweet (18th, 18:29), Tom Carpenter (21st, 18:37) all stepping up to key the win for James Wood with 39 points.
Finishing second was Forest Park who took runner-up honors by having one of the tightest packs in the field with a mere 46 second difference between their top finisher, Bryce Iverson (9th, 17:53) and fifth man Brian Cambrel (22nd, 18:39).
Colonial Forge took third place, despite having the top two finishers in the race with Michael Porter (16:57) and Sean Leyh (17:05). The team will need to find a solid next three to support these talented two this season.
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Going into a race with two runners that were rated as one of the state\'s top fifteen best in the cream of crop polls this past week with Kristin Novara of James Wood (#10 ranking) and Beth Fahey of Forest Park (#12 ranking), not much was said of Chancellor\'s Beth Mahalak as she was not even ranked in the top fifteen for Group AA. It was a lopsided victory as predicted, but in Mahalak\'s favor instead. Mahalak took it to Fahey (2nd, 20:46) and Novara (3rd, 21:04) as she distanced herself from the two to win in a great time of 19:59.1 on the challenging Loriella Park 5K course.
Mahalak\'s great day didn\'t stop there, along with her individual title, her team joined her in the successful day as the Chancellor girls took the team title with 70 points. With Mahalak leading the way, Chancellor had three in top fifteen with Mary Beth Litton (4th, 21:07) and Laura Folse (11th, 21:56).
Not far off from Chancellor was the Colonial Forge girls in second (81 points) with Kelsey Gilmour (6th, 21:20) and Tina Porter (9th, 21:27) leading the Lady Eagles. Novara\'s James Wood, finished third with 87 points.