In a cross country tri-meet Wednesday among three of the area's best programs, everything evened out with each school coming up with two victories.

Jim Thorpe's boys team defeated Tamaqua, 23-32, and Lehighton, 24-31. Tamaqua's Lady Raiders remained undefeated with victories over Thorpe, 24-43 and Lehighton, 17-44. Lehighton's wins were a boys' 24 -31 score over Tamaqua and a girls' 27-28 victory over Jim Thorpe.Jim Thorpe coach Drew Benyo, whose boys and girls both now sport 8-2 records, says that his teams' performances should act as a springboard for the rest of the season."I couldn't be happier, " he said, " and I'm hoping our runners get excited about this as well. Our boys beat a great Lehighton team. In addition, they beat a solid Tamaqua team on their own course and there were a lot of individual improvements by as much as 15 seconds."Dylan Bucior was first overall for Thorpe with a time of 17:49. He led the pack from the start and crossed the finish line without anyone within visible distance despite the course being what he described as "very challenging." He had blood on his hand as evidence."I like to be the front runner," Bucior said. "This course was tough. There were loose rocks where I had to take my time and down hills where I felt my ankle twist. My strategy was to slow the pace in the woods where I cut myself pushing a sticker bush out of the way, but kick hard on the flats to keep the lead."Bucior's teammate Delana Nalesnik, took the girls' first for the Olympians with a time of 21:58. She also never relinquished the lead from the start."I paced myself early, but then I stepped out of my comfort zone," she said. "No race is ever easy. I use the efforts of the other girls to push myself and I needed that especially today because the course was very rocky in spots."Lehighton third-year head coach, Erica Pagotto, who saw her boys team lose for the first time in eight meets, kept repeating that it was a rough day for her runners despite their two victories."We knew it was going to be difficult coming in," she said. "Our boys are usually front runners, but they fell back today. These teams today were great competition, and if you add in the woods and the tough footing, these are huge obstacles to overcome.'Tamaqua coach Tom Kanger, in his 12th season, agreed with Pagotto."There were many top runners here today so I'm satisfied with our results. Our girls stayed unbeaten setting up a huge league meet against unbeaten Blue Mountain next week. They continue to be impressive. Last week we finished sixth out of 36 teams in the Paul Short Invitational at Lehigh University. I think our girls proved their abilities there as well as they did here again today."WORDS FROM THE WISE ... Benyo, in his 28th year at the helm of the Olympian program, offered this advice to his team before they lined up for the race. "First you run with your head. Then you run from your heart, and finally you run from your soul."STICKING TOGETHER ... Kanger's strategy that has worked so well for his girls this year - is "run with the pack.""We're not real flashy and we may finish long behind the race winner, but what we do well is score a lot of points because we cross in bunches." His strategy was proven successful again when nine of the first 15 runners to cross the finish line were his Lady Raiders.LIVE AND LEARN ... Pagotto's advice to her teams will be to learn from the experience and that overcoming a loss is the key to moving forward. "We will have to prove we can rebound from any setbacks we had today," she said.BOYSJim Thorpe 23, Tamaqua 32Jim Thorpe 24, Lehighton 31Lehighton 26, Tamaqua 311. Dylan Bucior (JT) 17:49, 2. Adam Melnick (T) 18:40, 3. Trent Frey (L) 18:54, 4. Jian Gentile (JT), 5. Ben Saxon (JT), 6. Brad Clemson (T), 7. Anthony Tavella (L), 8. Chris Valdez (JT), 9. Michael Blacketter (L), 10. Andy Tite (T), 11. Luke Fisher (L), 12. Blade McCabe (L), 13. Raymond Kinder (T), 14. Sam Hydro (JT), 15. Alex Schwab (L).GIRLSTamaqua 20, Jim Thorpe 43Tamaqua 17, Lehighton 44Lehighton 27, Jim Thorpe 281. Delana Nalesnik (JT) 21:58, 2. Kailee Carroll (T) 22:13, 3. Sarah Maue (T) 22:15, 4. Nicole Wasserleben (T), 5. Cera Gaston (L), 6. Piper DeMatte (L), 7. Victoria LaBar (T), 8. Chelsea Frantz (T), 9. April Gerber (T), 10. Jenny Beck (T), 11. Jonique Pace (L), 12. Payton Kovac (JT), 13. Melanie Kostecky (T), 14. Kylee Gahman (JT), 15. Kailee Romanchik (JT).