DVHS Cross Country: Season in review

The season may now be over, but the memories and success earned by the student athletes of the Delaware Valley High School cross country program - both girls and boys teams - will last for a long, long time.

“I think for us, the whole season was leading up to the District Championship Meet on Oct. 22,’’ Delaware Valley head coach Keith Fitzpatrick said. “That is what we were trying to peak for and we knew we would not be strong enough to win the District Championship as a team, so we were looking for all of our district runners to either beat their times from last year or to make a strong debut on the course.

Faster times from last year turned out to be important for the teams, as many runners on the roster noticeably improved their times this year.

“Most of our runners showed great improvement throughout this season but the biggest surprises were Chris Tanzini for the boys and Addison Yadanza for the girls,’’ Fitzpatrick added. “Chris is a sophomore and stepped up to the varsity team this year. He improved from running a 29:00 minute 5K in our first meet of the season to running 22:22 on a much harder District course. His improvement was remarkable.

“Addison Yadanza is a senior and a first-year cross country runner. She made the leap to cross country on the back of a solid track season last spring. In the first meet of the year she ran 25:26 and finished at Districts running 22:17. Once she figured out the 5K distance she showed a real competitive fire.’’

Leadership was a key component in favor of the Warriors this recently ended season.

“We had quite a few seniors on the team this year and we felt that we needed them to step up into leadership roles and set a good example for the younger runners,’’ Fitzpatrick said. “Our captains for the boys team were Johnny Llewellyn, Connor Giblin and Phil Fitzpatrick. For the girls, they were Ava Troup and Kim Smyser. Philip and Kim were awarded the Warrior Award at the end of the season on the back of their work as captains. The Warrior Award is given to the runner who displays the attributes of hard work, perseverance and Bravery. I could have named half a dozen runners on the team that had those attributes, but Kim and Phil’s leadership throughout the season sealed that award for them.’’

The Warriors’ girls team had an overall record of 19-4 and placed fifth out of over 20 teams in the Lackawanna League.

The boy’s team posted a record of 14-9 and finished in ninth place in the Lackawanna League.

“Next season is going to be very different from this year,’’ Fitzpatrick said. “We graduated 12 seniors, almost half of the squad, we will be a very young team. While I don’t expect us to surpass our win-loss records that we had this year we have some real bright spots. I believe many of our younger runners have been inspired to work hard and lead based on the example our senior captains set.

“We have a good crop of freshmen coming through from the junior high team that can do very well on varsity next year. Grace Holderith will be back and with another year of training she should be competing for the Lackawanna League runner of the year next year. Finally, what gives me optimism is the quality of athlete we have in cross country. On the whole, they are a great group of kids.’’

Fitzpatrick added that the girls had two Lackawanna League All-Stars this year. Lily Stoveken was a Second-Team All-Star and Grace Holderith was a First-Team All-Star.

“Gideon Yost was our Most Valuable Runner for the boys team, having a solid season and emerging from the pack of four seniors as our number one runner this season. Grace Holderith was our girls Most Valuable runner this season. She only lost to one runner in the league all season. Lily Red and Evan Jacobs were our Up and Coming Runners this season,” he said. “Holderith qualified for States in Hershey on Nov. 1. She ran an excellent race and got out quickly and went through the one mile mark in 37th place. For the remaining 2.1 miles, she worked her way up steadily, passing three runners in the last quarter mile to finish in 24th place out of 237 of the best runners in the state. That earned her a place on the podium and a State medal. She is Delaware Valley’s first state medalist since 1988 when Gary Dennis placed 15th. Gary was kind enough to come to our end-of-season banquet and present Grace with her state medalist plaque.’’