Fluharty, Wissinger, Custer Qualify For PIAA Cross Country Championships

Three local athletes have qualified for the upcoming PIAA State Cross Country Championships.

Riverside junior Lexi Fluharty finished runner-up Thursday afternoon in the WPIAL Class-A Cross Country Championships held at California University of Pennsylvania.

Fluharty finished with a time 19:58.4.

Joining Fluharty in qualifying for next week’s state championships is fellow junior Brooke Wissinger who finished with a 9th place time of 21:38.4. [VIEW FULL GIRLS RESULTS]

For Ellwood City, Bradley Custer has qualified with an individual time of 18:31.8 in the boys WPIAL Class-A Championships.

The two Riverside runners and Ellwood City runner will next complete in Hershey, PA on Saturday, November 5th in the PIAA Cross Country Championships. Class-A Girls are schedule to start at 11:00 a.m. while Class-A Boys are scheduled to start at 1:15 p.m. VIEW COURSE MAP

Joining Fluharty and Wissinger in competing on Thursday for Riverside was Isabella D’Alessandro (28:47.2, 107th place). Notable Panther boys runners included Devin Montileone (19:58.1, 66th place) and Joseph O’Connel (21:04.6, 103rd place).

For Ellwood City, Drew Steffler (19:16.8, 43rd place), Ian Stoneking (19:31.8, 55th place), Kaden Schlichtkrull (20:21.6, 75th place), and Nick Wise (20:49.7, 93rd place) all earned top 100 finishes to propell the Ellwood City team to a 8th place overall finish. [VIEW FULL BOYS RESULTS]

Avalise Custer was the lone female runner for Ellwood City, finished with a time of 31:02.5 good for 124th place.