By Alex Frazier
Opening day of cross country season was filled with surprises for some local athletes and teams.
Pennsbury freshman Sara Sargent, running in her first big race for the Falcons, set a new course record at the Fifth Annual John Sharp Viking Invitational. Teammate Ann Herman finished second to help Pennsbury to the team championship.
The Falcons finished with 45 points, followed by Central Bucks West (49), Hatboro-Horsham (96) and Council Rock North in fifth place (141). Neshaminy, Pennridge and Wissahickon finished, sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively.
On the boys’ side, Central Bucks West’s Nick Scarpello won his first invitational, and Hatboro-Horsham runners surprised coach Bob Ayton by taking the team title.
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Sargent is no stranger to big meets. She has been running cross country since fifth grade for St. Ignatius CYO under the tutelage of her father Greg.
Sargent has competed in the AAU National Junior Olympics last summer, placing fifth in the 800, and second in the 1,500 and 3,000.
“Coming in we knew she was very, very talented,” said Pennsbury coach Don Little. “I knew when she got here she would be very good.”
Whether it’s a national event or a local invitational, Sargent always feels the butterflies.
“I try to work my nervousness to an advantage,” she said. “I use it to get excited for the race rather than to get me sick.”
The goals coming into the invitational were to win the team title and for Sargent to win the race.
Little did Little know that she would set a course record of 18:37 in the process.
“It was a lot of fun,” said Sargent. “Actually when I finished, I didn’t know my time until five minutes later when someone said, ‘That could be a course record,’ and I said, ‘Oh really? I didn’t even expect it.’ I was excited for myself and the team.”
Ironically, she and Herman, who was the Falcons’ top runner last year as a freshman, are best of friends.
“She ran CYO with me one year,” said Sargent. “We’re really happy this year because we actually got put with the same lunch, so we sit together at lunch time. We’re really good friends. There’s no conflict at all between us.”
With a one-two punch like Sargent and Herman, the Falcons hope to unseat Council Rock North this year as conference champs, especially since the Indians will be without Bethanie Kruman, who didn’t go out for the team this year. Their second goal is to qualify for states as a team.
“Time will tell,” said Little, who is still working on getting his runners in a pack. “We would like to be a better pack-running team, three through seven, but we’re not there yet.”
This weekend the Falcons will get a tougher test in a much bigger invitational, the Penn Track XC at Franklin and Marshall College, that will include teams from all over the state.
“It will make for a very good meet,” said Little. “It will be a different test for us. We’re working at it.”
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After starting cross country a year ago, Scarpello can be very proud of winning his first invitational. In the spring of his sophomore year, his track coach convinced him to run cross country. He also had encouragement from his mother who is a competitive runner.
“I thought I was just going to be a track guy,” he said. “I didn’t want anything to do with cross country, but my coach talked me into it once he had me on the spring track team. Now I like it.”
He worked hard over the summer and had a very successful first season as a junior, finishing 26th at the district meet to qualify for states.
Last year, he won only one race, a tri-meet against Quakertown and C.B. East.
When Scarpello realized that North Penn and Central Bucks South were not at the meet, he knew he had a good chance to win it. The one runner he had to watch out for was Pennridge’s Ryan Knouse.
Scarpello and teammate Matt Bee (sixth) started fast but were still in fourth place at the two-mile mark.
“I had to play a little catch up and close the gap back in the woods, he said.
He passed Father Judge’s Tom Kent and then Knouse after climbing the last hill.
“It wasn’t a terribly strenuous win,” he said. “It was smooth sailing until the end.”
Scarpello wasn’t really aware that Kent had caught up with him.
“I expected the Pennridge kid to be in second place,” he said. “The Father Judge kid must have been right on my tail and I didn’t even realize it.”
Scarpello’s final kick was enough to put him a scant three seconds ahead of Kent.
“I’ve been passed on those final stretches before,” he said. “I’ve experienced a lot of those situations last year, so even though I thought I was all by myself, I was kicking as hard as I could.”
Scarpello’s time of 15:58 eclipsed his PR on the course from last year by 47 seconds.
“It was a great sign for the team, not just for me but for my buddy Bee,” he said. “He showed our team a lot. I think he and I are going to be bringing up the front of a lot of races this year.”
A senior, Scarpello is anticipating going to Penn State next year. He’s already talked to the coach about running and thinks he has a good shot of making the team.
Of course Penn State was an obvious choice considering his grandparents and parents went there, his cousins went there, his aunts and uncles attended there and his brother is a student there now.
“I might not be anything spectacular, but if I just get to run for Penn State that would be a dream come true,” he said. “Penn State is a big tradition in my family. They say I have a choice where I want to go to school. ‘You can go anywhere you want, but we’re paying for Penn State.’”
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After losing a big chunk of the team to graduation, Ayton didn’t expect his Hatters to be doing so well so soon.
“I was very excited,” he said. “With hard work these kids came through and won the thing.”
Ayton was expecting Wissahickon or Holy Ghost Prep to finish ahead of his team.
“They’re good teams,” he said. “I was just hoping to be in the top three.”
The Hatters finished 21 points ahead of the second place Trojans and 35 ahead of Ghost (62-83-97).
Sophomore Sam Hibbs led the pack with a fourth place finish in a time of 16:08.
“That was a big surprise,” said Ayton. “We had him scheduled for fourth man, but he ran a pretty good race.”
The Hatters placed six runners in the top 22. Ayton was particularly pleased because all six ran a 5:07 first mile or better.
“It meant that everybody was going after the team title,” he said. “They took it out hard. When you run right around five minutes, you’re going pretty fast.”
Ayton is hoping that the early success might translate into a conference title or at least a good run at defending state, district and conference champion North Penn.
“They have two of the best runners in the state (Brad Miles-3rd and Sam Bernitt-5th),” said Ayton. “They’re going to be awfully hard to beat. I hope we can be in the mix with them. This gives us some hope. Hopefully we can improve from here and challenge North Penn.”
NOTE: In the girls’ race Council Rock North’s Lindsay Rheiner finished third in 18:56, followed by Martina Drew of Neshaminy in fourth (19:03), Victoria Gerlach of Pennridge, sixth (19:10).
For the boys, Knouse finished third (16:02), Dillon Farrell of Wissahickon was fifth (16:25), Alex Cicchitti of William Tennent was eighth (16:40) and Neshaminy’s Tim Haines was ninth (16:42).
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