With the WPIAL and States meets complete, Beaver Area’s cross country team can officially air out those shoes.

The WPIAL—or the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League—meet occurred at California University of Pennsylvania October 25 (see the October 29 ECHO for more information). Beaver Area’s team competed better than expected, with the boys team achieving placing 4 out of 30, and the girls finishing 6 out of 29 teams.

Sadly, only the top three WPIAL teams make it to States, so the Bobcat teams just missed the cut! However, the top 20 runners are able to run individually in States, held at Hershey November 3, and four Bobcat runners qualified because of their placing: Rachael Quillin, Emily Brown, Will Lamb, and Andrew Allen.

Those who run at States are able to place, but there are no other meets run by PIAA, making States the end of the trail for cross country season.

Senior Rachael Quillin, who placed 78 out of 214, had conflicting emotions about the season’s end.

“WPIAL was great! It was so fun to compete for the last time as a team, and mostly everyone had a great race. States were bittersweet; being at Hershey is always such a fun and rewarding experience, but it was also sad knowing that it would be my fourth and last time running that meet.”

Although senior Andrew Allen is homeschooled, his hard work with the team earned him a spot in States, and he made use of it by finishing 122 out of 228.

“States in one word? Giant. And muddy. And nerve-racking . . . Emily did really good—getting the exact same time as both the last two years—despite the muddy conditions,” reflected Allen.

“All of us had pretty good runs at States, and [we] were able to end the season on a high note,” senior Emily Brown—who placed 28 out of 214–commented optimistically.

Surprisingly, the highlight of States seemed to be the tragic loss of Will Lamb’s shoe mid-race.

“I lost my shoe in the first quarter [mile], and ran the race with one shoe . . . Someone stepped on my heel, and it came off even though it was quadruple-knotted and taped,” Lamb commented simply.

He was unable to retrieve the shoe during the run for fear of falling behind the pack, which was not an option at the moment. Luckily, the shoe was found and returned to Lamb after the race.

Lamb still was able to place an impressive 77 out of 228 runners—all on one shoe.

Perhaps next season Lamb should add some glue to that quadruple-knot-and-tape arrangement.