Pope John Paul XC Teams Sweep District Championships [VIDEO]

LEHIGH UNIVERSITY, PA — The Pope John Paul II girls cross country team for their first District 1, AA championship in school history Friday morning, while the boys defended their title.

The girls scored 56 points to edge out Villa Joseph Marie in second (60) and Nazareth Academy in third (68).

They were led by a fourth place finish from Kayla Croiger, who covered the storied 5k course at Lehigh's Goodman Campus in 20:04.

Gianna Cagliola (eightth in 20:13), Kathryn Todd (12th in 20:32), Julia Costello (17th in 20:46), and Natalie Florig (23rd in 21:00) rounded out the scoring.

Cross country scoring is based on a simple system: the finishing places of the top five runners on each team are added up, and the lowest score wins. Because of this, the fifth runner is often the most important runner on the squad, because a small variation in performance can significantly change the final score. Had Florig run just ten seconds slower, Villa Marie would have won.

On the boys side, Pope John dominated en route to a defense of their 2017 title. Jack Brosius narrowly missed the individual win, finishing a half second back of the lead in 16:29 for second. Jack Phillips (third in 16:41), Kaden Buchler (fifth in 17:02), Jack Flynn (sixth in 17:16), and John Schiele (ninth in 17:23), gave PJP a final score of just 25. Pottsgrove was second with 52.

Both the boys and girls squad advance now to the AA state meet in Hershey next Friday, Nov. 2.

See full results courtesy of MileSplit here.

Main image via Tim Jensen