LEHIGH UNIVERSITY- A majority of North Penn’s cross country runners wrapped up their season at districts on Friday afternoon at Lehigh. Even though the top 5 runners did not have a low enough score to qualify for State Championships as a team, the top two runners for North Penn were able to qualify individually based on place. Brendan O’toole and Colin Grace will be representing the North Penn Boys Cross Country team at State Championships.

Grace went out fast at the start and the team followed behind him in the pack of runners. After the first 500 meters, Grace settled in behind Nick Cataldi and O’toole, with Brian Johnson trailing the 3 of them. By the first mile Grace, O’toole, and Cataldi were all in the front pack, running a 5:00 and 5:01 mile split.

The splits at the 2 mile mark made Grace’s strategy clear as Johnson, Cataldi, and O’toole all had faster times than Grace.

“My strategy was to hang on to Nick for the first 4000 [meters] and see how much I can put into the last 1000 [meters],” shared Grace.

Grace did exactly that, trailing behind both O’toole and Cataldi. He ended up passing both of them at the finish; this was unexpected because he was placed behind both of them at the 2 mile mark. Grace, O’toole, and Cataldi finished the race within a four second time range. Grace finished in 35th running a 16:16. He shaved off more than 20 seconds, giving him a new personal best. O’toole finished in 39th, running a 16:17. Cataldi finished in 44th, running a 16:20. Unfortunately, Johnson was significantly passed at the end by other teams, but he was still able to be in the top 100, placing 74^th overall.

“My race didn’t go as good as it could have gone, but I’m happy that I made states and I qualified. I’m excited to run faster next week,” shared an excited O’toole.

This will be both O’toole and Grace’s first time at States. Although they are sad that the whole team won’t be running at State Championships, O’toole and Grace are excited to go together. Sadly, Cataldi was only a few places off of making States, but as only a sophomore he has two more years. He knows what to expect for next year and plans to come back stronger.

“I think the boys performed well, I think we would have liked to place a little bit higher as a team. We placed 11th, and out of 55 schools that’s tremendous, but we were looking to be more towards the top 5 area. With the times that they ran today, and the number of personal records that were set, I can’t complain. I think our top 4 ran really tight today, [which was] a good performance. Even our 5th and 6th runners [ran] a personal record today, so that was really strong. We are very pleased with how the season ended. Colin and Brendan both had great seasons, and there were a few other who were close to getting [into States]. We are looking forward to getting them in next year. We are looking good for next year, our top 4 guys are coming back, so we should be strong,” said coach Mike Werner.