After the torrential rains of Ida, sunny calm weather was the perfect antidote for the 2021 Diocesan Cross Country Invitational run at John Rudy Park, just outside Emigsville in York County. Every year, the meet is hosted by York Catholic, which invites more than 150 boys and girls from six Catholic schools: Bishop McDevitt, Delone Catholic, Lancaster Catholic, Trinity, York Catholic and Berks Catholic from the Diocese of Allentown.
The Rudy Park course is a demanding course, which features hilly terrain and sharp turns meant to define a runner who is adept at using versatile strides to handle the 3.1 miles. If you cannot handle long climbs and multiple quick turns, this course will punish you as a long distance runner.
In the girls’ race, Bishop McDevitt’s Katelyn Deitrick, senior, sprinted the first 300 meters to grab the lead, which she never gave up. Her time of 20:29 beat Trinity’s Lila Shore, freshman, by nearly a half minute to win the invitational. Berks Catholic captured the team competition with a score of 43, nipping Trinity who also placed three runners in the top-ten. The York Catholic Fighting Irish finished third.
The boys’ race followed and with little wind and a course that was surprisingly dry given the more than eight-plus inches of tropical rain that doused York County only two days prior, Trinity’s senior, Jasper Burd, won the race with an impressive 17:33 time, which topped York Catholic’s Moseley Driscoll, senior, by some 200 yards to win the meet. Those two runners were the only sub-18 minute finishers, showing how demanding the course is to run with continuous pace. Trinity’s Connor Pushart came in third. Trinity placed three runners in the top-five spots, which easily propelled them to the team title over York Catholic and Berks Catholic.
By Chris Heisey, The Catholic Witness
