STATE CHAMPS!!!! STATE CHAMPS!!!! STATE CHAMPS!!!

PIAA State Championships
Location: Lehigh University (Hellertown, PA Campus)
Date: November 6, 1999
Weather: Sunny, 60-65 Degrees, Wind 10mph, Perfect Autumn Day
Course: Relatively flat and extremely fast


Prologue: On Thursday night at the Pre-race dinner, Coach Hetrich revealed 
his team prediction. He had slotted predicted places for all of his girls 
team. It was a dream team with a mixture of solid veteran talent and freshman 
wunderkids that he had molded over the past 3 years. He hoped and believed 
that this team would be his first Pennsylvania State Championship team. Three 
years ago, he had brought a District III and Berks County Champion boys team 
to states with hopes of winning, only to have them finish fifth. This time he 
believed would be different. This girls team had more talent and was deeper. 
He stated that his 1996 boys team would have had to run better than they ever 
had before to win. The 1999 girls team would only have to run within their 
abilities and repeat last week's performance in order to win. And so it came 
to pass.


Girls race: State champs! State champs! State champs! Should I repeat it one 
more time? Why not? State champs! Wonderful! Wonderbar! Merveilleux! Summa 
Cum Laude! Teamus Maximus! All the superlatives in the world could not 
describe the emotions of the Wyo girls team and fans when the 1999 AA 
Pennsylvania girls champion was announced after one hour of suspense waiting 
for the results.  The girls screamed and danced together across the broad 
tarmac of Lehigh University and tears of joy welled up in the eyes of fans. 
The Spartans had done it.


The race: The girls had drawn an outside box for the start - a good omen. 
When the gun went off, they were able to avoid most of the jostling and 
swarming that occurs with a middle of the starting line placement. Junior 
Janna Sallade led the Spartan charge off the line. At the half mile mark, it 
was West Allegheny's Lauren Shaffer leading a huge pack by about 10 meters. 
Chasing in a tight group were Jesi Christiansen of Greenville, Alison McCue 
of Springfield Township, Nancee Bernecky of North Clarion, Christine Taranto 
also of West Allegheny, and former state champion Kate Steklachich of 
Hickory. Next a blue wall of Spartans, led by a laboring Sallade and 
consisting of Amy Huss, then Jess Geissler and finally Debbie Huss, was 
stretched across the outside occupying approximately 15th-20th place.  
Approximately another 90 runners thundered  by before Senior Erin Flannery 
appeared - moving up on the inside. The girls were away in great shape, Coach 
Hetrich's plan was coming to fruition and the Wyo fans had an early swoon for 
the second week in a row. By the one mile marker, the field was stretching 
out. Shaffer was a pure picture of power and grace pulling away at the front. 
The Huss twins were striding shoulder to shoulder in 11th & 12th places right 
on the back of the front chase pack. Sallade, who was feeling the effects of 
no sleep the night before, had settled back into a more comfortable pace in 
approximately 20th place, Geissler was 45th and looking strong, Flannery was 
a solid 95th and Sophomore Erin Crider was providing welcome insurance at 
115th.  The race circled up and around the Lehigh football stadium and turned 
back into a 10 mph west wind. For the next mile there was little change for 
the blue. Flannery moved up a few places, Sallade, Geissler and Crider moved 
back a few. At the two mile marker, the front of the race had blown apart. 
Shaffer was headed for a dominating victory. Christiansen and McCue were 
battling for second and the others in the top 10 were cranking along in 1's 
and 2's. The dynamic Huss duo was still together in 11th and 12th in a 
mini-pack of 5 that was led by District III champion Lisa Nagorny. Onto the 
last big rectangular loop into the wind and up a gradually taxing grade, 
Debbie Huss inched away from her sister and then by Nagorny and 2 more. Amy 
held her 11th place like a rock. The top 20 were now all completely 
separated. The finishing half mile was a 2% downhill grade with a tailwind, 
which made speed a premium.  Debbie glided down the hill eventually holding 
off Nagorny for a tremendous 8th place. Amy was a fabulous 12th, only getting 
passed at the line by Tulpehocken's Desiree Bower.  The concern of  Wyo fans 
turned to Sallade who had run a courageous race despite feeling sluggish most 
of the way. Janna was 27th with 400 meters to go, but looked toasted. She 
faded to 37th, but she had been the early beacon guiding her teammates to the 
front at the start; she was the first of any team's #3 runner across the 
line. Jess Geissler used her track speed to hold off a huge swarm of places 
behind her in the final 400 meters. She finished 55th and just missed (by one 
runner from Wyalusing) being the first of any team's #4 runner. Finally it 
was Flannery, who was 90th with a quarter mile to go. Erin kept her steady 
strong pace all the way to the line, but eight girls with more speed went by 
her before the finish and one obnoxious girl with sharper elbows cheated by 
her after the race in the chute, so she was ranked 99th. Still, she was the 
first of any team's #5 runner to finish. Erin Crider came in a solid 132nd 
and Lauren Shaub was 219th. In raw score terms, Wyo was more than 100 total 
places better than runner up Wyalusing. But the reranked placings 
(eliminating the individual runners from the score) had Wyo winning by 39 
over Wyalusing.  Scranton Prep was 3rd, West Allegheny 4th, York Suburban 5th 
and Twin Valley 6th. A great team victory. Great performances from everyone 
on the team. Team domination at the state level. Wow! and Impressive! And 
yes, one last time: State Champs! 


Boys race: Junior Joel Moceri galloped to his second straight 5th place medal 
at States in an extremely fast race. Joel got off to a fast start and was in 
a tightly packed chase group of 10-12 at the 1/2 mile mark. Of the other 
Spartans, only Sophomore Josh VanderVeen got a good start and at this point 
he was about 100th. The rest of the Spartans were all placed over 200 back. 5 
meters ahead of the field was Tim Carroll of Springfield Township. He was 
prancing along with a swaggering gait that seemed to be signaling to his 
rivals that he was "Da Man" and anyone bold enough to challenge would be shot 
down. By the 1 mile post, it was the now familiar tall carcass of Andrew 
Diffenderfer of Greencastle-Antrim at Carroll's side matching pace. They were 
both 10 meters ahead. Diffenderfer (the man must like whippings - "Thank you 
sir, may I have another") stayed with Carroll for the next 1/3 mile around 
the Lehigh Univ. football stadium until he was peeled off at the next slight 
rise. Diffenderfer would eventually finish 16th. Meanwhile, Joel chose to 
tuck in the chase pack behind last year's runner up Tom Fennelly of St. Pius 
X. It wasn't until the only real difficult long rise on the course nearing 
the 2 mile marker that Joel decided to make his move to catch Carroll. He 
passed 4 runners and moved onto the heels of Andy Weilacher of Eisenhower and 
Scott Munroe of South Park, whom Joel dueled for 5th last year. As the 
leaders all turned into a strong wind and onto the last rectangular loop, 
this small posse was almost within roping distance of Carroll, who was 15 
meters ahead. But, Carroll could sense the chase and put the hammer down. 
Weilacher, Munroe and Moceri all strained with their maximum efforts into the 
wind. Carroll was "Da Man" as he steadily pulled away from all. Turning onto 
the fast tail wind aided downhill finishing straight, Moceri was still 4th 
and couldn't muster enough speed to close. Carroll easily took the win by 30 
meters, but collapsed in the chute, Weilacher was second and Munroe 3rd. In 
the final 300 meters, Matt Stephens of Bloomsburg made a mad, out of control, 
head wagging and rolling dash past Moceri to take 4th. Moceri was a 
magnificent 5th again and Fennely was 6th. Josh VanderVeen stayed steady all 
day to finish a commendable 104th. Joel Goodling finished in 197th, Shawn 
Goodling in 205th and Jeff Muir in 216th to complete the Wyo scoring. The 
boys placed 15th. 


Year summary: This was the greatest year ever for Wyo Cross Country: 
team-wise, individual wise and coaching wise. Junior Joel Moceri matched his 
accomplishments of 1998. Joel repeated as All-State (5th place medal) 
District III Champion and Berks County Champion and will be selected as the 
outstanding Berks County male runner by the Reading Eagle-Times for the 
second year in a row. The Wyo boys surprised all of the pre-season experts 
with their grit and toughness. They had the best dual meet record of all 
Berks County boys teams (13-1), were Berks Division II Champions, defeated 
County Champion Gov. Mifflin in a tough dual meet at the end of the year, and 
made their best showing of the year at the District III meet with a 3rd place 
qualifying for the State meet where they finished 15th. They only lose one 
senior in the top five (Joel Goodling) and have a strong core returning for 
next year in Joel Moceri, Josh VanderVeen, Jeff Muir, Shawn Goodling and Paul 
Stoltzfus.


The real story of the year was the girls team. And what a team it was. They 
were Kutztown Invitational Champions (defeating AAA state 3rd place finisher 
Chambersburg), Harrier Invitational Champions, Berks County Conference 
Champions, District III AA Champions and finally the sweetest of all: 
Pennsylvania State AA Champions. They finished the dual meet season 
undefeated at 14-0 and snapped the Gov. Mifflin girls 81 dual meet winning 
streak on the Mustangs home course.  They were made up of a front five girls 
that were all All-Berks first team and District III AA medalists at one time 
or another in their careers. Three of the girls are now All-State (Janna 
Sallade in 1998 and Debbie and Amy Huss in 1999). They had experience, 
leadership, talent and depth. Individually, Freshman Amy Huss won the Berks 
County Conference Championship, earned a 5th place medal at the District III 
AA meet and a 12th place medal at States. Freshman sister Debbie Huss 
finished 5th at the Berks Conference meet, earned a 4th place medal at the 
District III AA meet and an 8th place medal at States. I believe that the 
Reading Eagle-Times will jointly name both Debbie and Amy Huss as the 
outstanding Berks County female runner (tied) for 1999. This is the second 
year in a row that the Spartans have both the #1 individual male and female 
runners in the County. (Last year it was Moceri and Sallade). Junior Janna 
Sallade earned a 4th place medal at the Berks County Conference meet and a 
3rd place medal at the District III AA meet, was 37th at States, and finished 
as the 3rd ranked Berks Co. female runner behind the Huss girls. Janna earned 
her 3rd straight All-Berks first team berth. At all of the big meets, it was 
Janna who always led the team to great starts in the first 1/2 mile. Senior 
Jess Geissler closed out her fabulous career with what I feel was her best 
year ever. (Yes, she was 4th in the Berks Conference Championship and 8th at 
District III as a Freshman in 1996, when she earned All Berks first team 
honors.) However, this year she provided the strong veteran leadership that 
is required of any successful team and also was up front early in all of the 
big meets. In addition, she earned an 11th place medal at the Berks 
Conference meet, a 15th place medal at the District III AA met and was 55th 
at States. Jess finishes her fine career with the following palmares: 3 
District III individual medals(1996-8th, 1997-12th and 1999-15th), one 
All-Berks first team berth (1996) and two Berks second team berths(1997, 
1999), 2 District III team gold medals(1997, 1999), 1 Berks County Team 
Championship (1999), 4 Berks Division II team Championships (1996, 1997, 
1998, 1999), 1 State Team Championship medal (1999) and was the outstanding 
Wyomissing female Cross Country runner for 1997 (See plaque outside of 
gymnasium). She will be missed next year. Another who will be missed next 
year is Senior Erin Flannery. Erin came into the Wyo X-C program as a 
Sophomore after competing by herself for Holy Name as a Freshman. She was a 
strong and consistent #5 all year and also provided strong Senior leadership. 
In the big meets, a team is only as good as its #5 runner and in the Berks 
County (21st), District III (27th) and State Championships (99th), Erin was 
always the first team #5 finisher of all teams. Erin also finishes her career 
with some impressive palmares: At the Berks Co Championships, she earned a 
6th place medal in 1997 and 8th place medal in 1998. She was All-Berks First 
team in 1997 and Berks Second team in 1998. She earned one District III AA 
individual medal (1997-10th), 2 District III team gold medals(1997, 1999), 1 
Berks County Team Championship (1999), 3 Berks Division II team Championships 
(1997, 1998, 1999) and 1 State Team Championship medal (1999). This 1999 
girls team was the best Wyomissing Cross Country team ever (Boys or girls). 
And they return an extremely talented All-State trio (Janna Sallade, Debbie 
Huss and Amy Huss) for next year. They also return solid depth in Sophomores 
Erin Crider, Astrid Chastka and Lauren Shaub, Junior Caitlin Zacharias, and 
Freshman Jess Johnson.


The Coaches: Wyomissing has one of the best cross country coaching staffs in 
Pennsylvania, if not the U.S. Head Coach Tim Hetrich has built one of the top 
Cross Country programs in the state. In the last five years, he has taken his 
boys and girls teams to the State meet 4 times each. Both teams went to 
States 3 times (including this year). This year he achieved his holy grail - 
A Pennsylvania State Championship. He has added two top assistant coaches to 
his staff. Coaches Larry Levy and Terry Flannery had an immediate positive 
effect on the program. Coach Eric Uliasz continues to be the best combination 
assistant coach/cheerleader in the county. We are lucky to have such talented 
and enthusiastic coaches. The enthusiasm, athletic knowledge, work ethic and 
leadership of the coaching staff has obviously rubbed off on both the boys 
and girls teams this year. Thank you coaches!

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