The Rocky Grove boys cross country team has pushed each other all season with one thought in mind – making it back to states.
 
“Our goal from day one was to win the district… and have the district champion,” said coach Josh Beightol.
 
On Saturday, they accomplished that and in a dominating fashion. The Orioles recorded 54 team points, nearly half the score of second place Lakeview. And senior Ethan Knapp took first place with a time of 16:43, by three seconds over Mercyhurst Prep’s Kamden Skelton.
 
“He’s found his groove… he fell into some confidence, and he’s ran with it,” Beightol said of Knapp’s performance on the soggy Titusville course.
 
Key to Knapp’s victory was learning from last year’s race and pacing himself at the start and before taking over near the 2-mile mark. Knapp came out of the gate into the ninth spot and kept the leaders in sight to make his move.
 
“This year, I had it figured out,” Knapp said about his strategy of holding back a little at the start. “Then I just ran to run,” he said of his finish.
 
At the front of the pack Saturday and keeping Knapp on his toes all season was teammate and fellow senior Easton Adamczyk, who led the first two miles of the race.
 
“They were on each other’s hips,” Beightol said of his top two runners. Adamczyk finished the race in fourth with a time of 16:52.
 
Not too far behind was sophomore Gauge Gierlach, who captured seventh place and put Rocky Grove in good shape for the team title.
 
“Our one, two, three, they ran basically all season together, practices and everything,” Beightol said. “Definitely, a fairly tight group (of runners).”
 
Recording the important fourth and fifth team spots were Schiffer Anderson (17th) and Cael Dailey (25th). Maxx Baker and Nathaniel Bolley also ran for Rocky Grove.
 
It was vindication for Rocky Grove, which missed qualifying for states last year by just a few points.

In the single A competitions, both of Cranberry’s teams earned second places in the girls and the boys District X races at Ridgway Saturday.
 
Kelsey Hanna led the Berry girls with a fourth-place finish. She was followed by fellow top ten finishers Kayla Hanna in seventh and Karleigh Shaffer in ninth. Completing the scoring for Cranberry was Jordan Montgomery in 22nd and Gracee Hess in 24th. Zofia Earp and Taylor Hepler also ran for the Berries.
 
It is a repeat for many of the Berry runners, who were part of the team’s sixth place finish at Hershey last year. The Hanna twins, Shaffer, Hanna, Montgomery and Earp all ran at states for Cranberry last year. It is the third year in the row the school has qualified a team for the competition.
 
It is also a repeat for the boys, who were led by seventh-place finisher Mariner Perry. Not far behind was Dalton Wenner at 12th and Dane Wenner at 14th. Kaleb Heath and Thatcher Matassa rounded out Cranberry’s scoring runners, finished 23rd and 27th respectively. Also running for the Berries were Elias Fox and Sabastien Bemis.
 
The Wenners, Perry, Heath and Matassa were all part of the team that placed 14th in 2022.
 
They will go head to head against Rocky Grove, who won the A competition for District 10 behind a top finish by senior Ethan Knapp. Click here to read a separate story about the team, as well as Rocky Grove’s first female qualifier in some time, Isabel Griffin.

In week six of the season, out of necessity, senior Cole Buckley switched from wide out to going under center at the teams quarterback.

The Knights had not won a game since 2021.

The move proved brilliant as Franklin finished the second half of the season 4-1 including a season finale come from behind win over the playoff bound now 8-2 Lakeview Sailors.

The Knight's scored in the first quarter to avenge a Lakeview score on a long drive. When it looked like the Knights might have to punt, Buckley rolled out to his right to avoid pressure and found Dreyden Payne 38 yards later for a big first down.

A few plays later Bryson Watson scored on an 11-yard run. Coach Matt Turk said Watson also came up big on defense at the end of the game for the Knights.
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A couple of times Adams and star hitter Katie Boal seemed so in sync that nothing could stop them.

One set by Adams, when the score was 8-8 resulted in a thunderous spike that Boal hit almost as soon as it left Adams' hands.

​Everything seemed to be going right for the Knights, but Saegertown did keep counter punching and eventually wore the Knights down.

Finally the momentum shifted as Saegertown went up 18-14 and never really looked back after that. They took the first set 25-19.

All night Saegertown seemed to have people in the right place at the right time and Franklin did not. At times, the Knights seemed out of sorts.
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Saegertown was more consistent and relentless winning the second and third sets in dominating fashion 25-9 and 25-11.
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 The match eliminated the Knights, ending their season.

"We were determined to win the game," Jones said. "We hit some low spots but we didn't stay down." 

The match started off slow for the Knights, who found themselves down 1-4 early before they rallied back to take a 8-4 behind Estella Adams' solid and planned serving.

"They (Fort LeBeouf) have two girls who pass the ball really well," Jones said. It was Franklin's goal to keep the ball from them as much as possible. "We didn't get a lot of aces, but it took them (Bison players) out of their game." 

The Bison did push back to close the gap several times, but the Knights remained in overall control of the scoreboard to capture the 25-22 win.

Franklin stumbled in the second set, struggling to find momentum and committed several playing errors. The Bison took the second set 13-25. 

Jones said he told his team to refocus and let go of the loss so they could get back to the plan. 

Heading into the third set Franklin, region 3's fifth seed, came out with renewed determination. It was a back and forth start until Adams stepped up again with solid serving to help Franklin jump ahead 8-3. The Bison, region four's 4th seed, fought back and even took the lead.

As both teams started to close in on 25 points, Franklin got a jolt of energy from a commanding spike by Katie Boal who had been largely shutdown up to this point.

"You have to credit (LeBoeuf's) middle hitters - they put up good blocks and took (Boal) out of her game," Jones said.  "Katie is usually our bread and butter on offense. She has led the team in kills all season."

The battle for the third set continued past regulation and ended with a net call on LeBoeuf and a 28-26 victory for Franklin.

The fourth, and what turned out to be the final set, started out with an energetic first point taken by the Bison.

​Then Franklin took control, eventually pulling out to a 9-5 lead. It was back and forth volleyball from there. It came down to smart, hard play in the end, as Franklin captured the win 25-23 on an out-of-bounds serve by Fort LeBeouf. 

Jones said about LeBoeuf's shutting down Boal could've  been the deciding factor if it wasn't for others stepping up. "Our total eneregy," Jones said was key. "We hit a couple low spots and we did not stay down and we came back. I feel like we wanted to win more than they did."

This was a big deal for the Franklin program. four years ago this team only won one match. The following year they only won three. They made playoffs last year but were ousted right away by Harborcreek.

"This is pretty exciting for this group of kids," Jones said. "It was a lot of fun tonight."

Rocky Grove has had a struggling year at 3-14, but not like the struggling years of the past where they would be blown out and barely win a single match. They played tough but just ended up short in all but three of their 17 matches thus far.

"The team worked hard all season with a lot of our matches going four and five games," said coach Mike Stevenson.

​They played the entire first half of the season on the road with their gym being renovated.

​"We struggled with passing early on," Stevenson said.