Reagan Pender wasn’t thinking about how or where she fit into the mix heading into Saturday’s PIAA Cross Country Championships.

But the Northern Lehigh senior’s results have made her a topic of conversation when it comes to who will come away with the title in the girls’ Class 1A race.

Pender has shown great form all season, but perhaps never more so than the past two weeks, when she captured Colonial League and District 11 titles for the second year in a row, doing so in dominant fashion.

She won her second league title by nearly a minute, and captured another district title with an even faster time, and by an even wider margin.

With her run of postseason success, Pender is positioned well to improve on her sixth-place finish a year ago. A second-place finish at the PIAA Foundation Invitational earlier this year gave her a good look at what she will be up against on Saturday.

“I’m not sure, exactly. I’m just trying to play it by ear,” Pender said after districts. “I know that based on the Foundation race, I’ve run with these girls before. I’ve run with some of them before. I know which girls I need to stay up with a little bit more.”

One of the runners Pender will be keeping an eye on is Our Lady of Sacred Heart’s Haley Hamilton, who won the Foundation Invitational, and was seventh at states last season.

“States has been in the back of my mind more than hers,” said Bulldogs head coach Dave Oertner. “It’s been in the back of hers, but as far as training is concerned, I’m trying to keep states in mind … we kind of worked through the invitationals this year, and she got second, second, second, which was fine, but we were thinking way ahead. They aren’t as important.

“The league meet is important, especially for her as a senior. The district meet was important to her. You have to make sure you’re ready for those, and these (leagues and districts) we rested for a little more probably than we did for the invitationals, at least a day or two, whereas with the invitationals we kind of worked right through them. The long-term thinking is my job. She just executes, and she executes really well.”

For the first time since 2013, Northwestern will send two teams to the state meet in Hershey after the Tigers captured the boys’ and girls’ Class 2A team titles at the District 11 meet last week.

Northwestern’s girls won the 2A team title for the second year in a row, topping North Schuylkill 83-98 to secure the lone qualifying spot for 2A teams at states.

The Tigers savored their first boys team title since 2013. Northwestern (109) edged Palisades (111), Notre Dame Green Pond (111) and Central Catholic (113). The Pirates secured the runner-up finish and a spot at states on a tiebreaker.

The Northwestern girls narrowly missed reaching the podium in the Class 2A team standings a year ago in Hershey, placing third with 116 points and improving on 2017’s sixth-place result.

Coming off his first district title, Weatherly’s Scotty Zoscin will try to improve on last year’s 95th-place result in the boys Class A race.

“I definitely want to medal,” said Zoscin. “I can’t wait. No matter what happens, I’m just going to give it my all like I did (at districts), and at leagues too. I want to leave it all out there. I want to give it everything I have.”

Tamaqua’s Grace Stegemerten qualified for states with a third-place finish in 20:07 in the 2A race. Palmerton’s Natalie Mosier placed fourth with a time of 21:14 in the 1A race to advance to Hershey.

THE DETAILS … The state meet will be held Saturday on the Parkview Cross Country Course in Hershey, beginning with the Class 1A girls race at 9:30 a.m., followed by the 2A girls (10:15); 3A girls (11); A boys (11:45); 2A boys (12:30 p.m.) and 3A boys (1:15). The awards will be presented at 2 p.m. behind the start line. The top-25 individual finishers in each class will receive medals. The championship and runner-up teams in each class will receive trophies.