Last fall Dionis Lora was a newcomer to cross country running. He didn't know the Bethlehem Municipal course very well and was part of a very talented Class AA field.

This season, with two full seasons of experience and a knowledge of the course, Lora, a Catasauqua High School senior, was part of the Class A field.

At last Thursday's District 11 championship meet, Lora ran a 18:51 for 10th place. It was nearly 20 seconds better than the time that earned him 64th place just a year earlier.

"Saturday we came up here and practiced and ran the course," said Lora. "I knew where the hills were and where I could speed up. I was prepared for this. I got a good night's sleep."

He paced himself early in the race and picked off runners on the hilly sections in the middle and toward the end of the course.

"I felt great," he said. "I started pretty well. Midway through, before the first mile, I started speeding up and started passing kids."

Lora will be the district's first alternate for state's. The top five Class A district finishers who are not part of the team champion earn state qualification. Lora was the sixth finisher when the four runners from team champion Notre Dame (East Stroudsburg) are taken out.

Lora was the Rough Riders' top runner all season. He led the team to a fifth-place finish at districts. The rest of the boys team included Spencer Phillips (21st, 19:46), Andrew Rice (31st, 20:17), Cam Ritter (39th, 20:39), Alec Hartranft (32rd, 20:46), Chris Sobrinksi )55th, 22:45) and Jeremy Torres (56th, 22:57).

The Catasauqua girls team, with only six runners instead of the seven allowed per team, finished ninth out of 10 teams. Madison Zangl (44th, 26:43) led the Lady Rough Riders, followed by Lynzi Garvey (47th, 27:06), Bree Sheldon (49th, 27:07), Kaleigh Miller (50th, 27:07), Tylar Treiber (53rd, 28:05) and Dani Pluchinsky (58th, 30:16).

Marian Catholic's Tina Capparell won the Class A girls race in 19:57. Moravian Acadmey's Sam Li won the A race in 17:42. Notre Dame (ES) 17:42nd Class A team titles.

In Class AA, Salisbury's Kyle Gonoude (16:32) won the boys race while Central Catholic took the team title. Central's Colleen Daday (19:17) won the girls race as Vikettes finished in the first three places. However, Northwestern's girls took the Class AA team title with its top five runners all placing between 11th and 19th.

Easton swept the Class AAA team titles with three-time champ Colin Abert (15:43) won the boys race and Liberty's Raisa Kochmaruk (19:11) finished first in the girls run.

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