CENTER VALLEY – Scotty Zoscin glanced over his shoulder as he neared the finish almost in disbelief.

Even after crossing the line, the Weatherly junior still couldn’t believe it was real.

When Zoscin broke the tape Wednesday in the District 11 Class 1A race, he became the school’s first district champion since 1987 and the second in program history.

“it feels great, honestly,” Zoscin said. “I still can’t even believe it right now. Just being known as a district champion, it’s crazy. But coming that close, and then getting it ... I’m still just trying to take it all in. It just feels great.”

Zoscin, who won with a time of 17:40, pulled away from Mahanoy Area’s Cole Streisel (18:01) down the stretch to secure the win. Third as a freshman and fourth a year ago at districts, Zoscin’s was able to break through on a course where the Wreckers crowned their last district champion — Scott Coll — in 1987. Coll was on-hand to watch Zoscin’s triumph.

It was a moment Zoscin wasn’t sure he would experiece earlier in the race, with Streisel always providing a stiff test. Zoscin was second at last week’s Schuylkill League meet, while Streisel finished fourth, with the duo separated by just 16 seconds.

“He’s such a tremendous runner,” Zoscin said of Streisel. “I have so much respect for him. I wasn’t sure at the start, because he usually starts out in front of me, and I think he kind of changed up his game plan, letting me go up front a little bit there. I didn’t let that get to me; I just kind of stayed in front of him and didn’t really think about it too much, I was just doing my thing.

“Once he got in front of me, I knew I couldn’t let it get to me and that I had to just stay with him. I just tried to keep it basic and let the race come to me, and just trust in myself.”

Zoscin’s race-winning move delievered the moment of a lifetime.

“Once we got past the bridge, I thought I had it pretty secured there,” said Zoscin. “But even when I was at the finish, I still turned, even though I knew he was far. But once I knew I had it, it was such a great feeling. It’s just awesome.

“I haven’t had that feeling in a long time. I’ve been close to it, but never quite there. You just can’t take anything for granted. Anything can happen. When I was a freshman, I was always so close, and I expected to win all my races and all that. But you never know when it can go away. I’m just really enjoying it right now.”

Northwestern savored its first team title since 2013. The Tigers (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.

“We said, when you come out of the woods, every point is going to count,” said Northwestern head coach Chris Stitzel. “I don’t care what uniform they have on, you go get them. We had great finishes today, and I’m just so happy.

“They worked hard all year for us, and this is the icing on the cake now. We can go out to states, and have fun. We’re not favored out there, so we can just go out and have fun.”

Northwestern didn’t have a runner in the top-10. But the Tigers placed three in the top-20 ahead of the Pirates’ second runner, who was 21st.

The finishes offset a victory by Palisades freshman Thomas Smigo (16:28).

Sophomore Cole Chukoskie’s 14th place finish in 17:52 led the way for Northwestern. Freshmen Matthew Santana was 18th (18:00) and Samuel Bower (18:08) 20th.

“If one runner passes somebody, that’s one point,” said Chukoskie. “But if all three of us pass them, then we can really take advantage of that.”

After a runner-up finish in the team standings at last week’s Colonial League meet, Stitzel was optimistc the Tigers could get it done.

“They ran well, and they got a better start today,” said Stitzel. “That was key, because we didn’t want them to have the start they did last week where they were really working their way up. They hung on, and it paid off.

“They come out in the summer, and they work so hard. Everybody here is out for one goal, and that’s the title.”

So did Zoscin.

“I said that it was going to be a great race between him and Cole (Streisel),” said Weatherly mentor Paul Schertrumpf. “I thought going down into the woods, I knew Scotty was good on the hills, but Cole has better straightaway speed than Scotty does. I thought if he can get up that hill ... and then of course coming up the hill, you expected to see Cole behind him, so it was a surprise it was that much of a gap. But I think once Scotty felt he had it, that was it.”

DISTRICT 11 CROSS COUNTRY

At DeSales University

BOYS

Class 3A

Team scores and legend

*1. Nazareth (Naz) 71, *2. Southern Lehigh (SL) 82, 3. Parkland (Par) 86, 4. Emmaus (Emm) 107, 5. Easton (Eas) 173, 6. Northampton (Nor) 177, 7. Stroudsburg (Str) 180, 8. Liberty (Lib) 200, 9. Freedom (Fre) 212, 10. ES South (ESS) 321, 11. Whitehall (W) 340, 12. Pleasant Valley (PV) 344, 13. PM East (PME) 376, 14. ES North (ESN) 398, 15. PM West (PMW) 414, 16. Allen (A) 504, 17. Pottsville (Pott) 515.

Individual results

(Top-20 plus other locals in the top-50)

*1. Cole Frank (Lib) 16:20, *2. Marco Cardone (Eas) 16:35, *3. Alex Kane (SL) 16:38, *4. Alex Heidemann (Fre) 16:57, *5. Ethan Warren (Par) 17:05, *6. Dominik Lisicky (SL) 17:07.0, *7. Jack Hollar (PME) 17:07.4, *8. Travis Lahr (Naz) 17:09, *9. Daniel Brunner (Naz) 17:14, *10. Brayden Graham (Str) 17:16, *11. Alec DiCesare (SL) 17:19, *12. Nate Reimer (Par) 17:20, *13. Anthony Kositz (Naz) 17:21, *14. Vince Gallagher (Nor) 17:22, *15. Owen Nahf (Nor) 17:23.0, *16. Keshav Shankar (Emm) 17:23.7, 17. Ben Esquirers (Par) 17:24.6, *18. Adam Kollgaard (Naz) 17:24.9, 19. Cameron Carter (Emm) 17:29, 20. Mark Magee (Emm) 17:30, 44. Evan Fisher-Perez (PV) 18:09.

Class 2A

Team scores and legend

*1. Northwestern Lehigh (NW) 109, *2. Palisades (Pali) 111, 3. Notre Dame-GP (NDGP) 111, 4. Central Catholic (CC) 113, 5. Blue Mountain (BM) 165, 6. Pen Argyl (PA) 175, 7. Saucon Valley (SV) 188, 8. Bangor (Ban) 203, 9. Palmerton (Palm) 257, 10. Wilson (Wil) 267, 11. Pine Grove (PG) 277, 12. North Schuylkill (NS) 297, 13. Tamaqua (Tam) 335, 14. Bethlehem Catholic (BC) 359, 15. Lehighton (Leh) 368, 16. Jim Thorpe (JT) 372, 17. Salisbury (Sal) 378.

Individual results

(Top-20 plus other locals in the top-50)

*1. Thomas Smigo (Pali) 16:28, *2. Anthony Coppolella (PA) 16:36, *3. Matthew Chaikowsky (SV) 16:46, *4. Shane Artis (Sal) 17:09, *5. Marino Bubba (Ban) 17:09, *6. Cody Smith (NDGP) 17:25, *7. Travis Anderson (PG) 17:33, *8. Jack Flynn (NS) 17:37, *9. Nathan Harris (CC) 17:41, *10. Mike Driscoll (CC) 17:43, *11. Justin Williams (NS) 17:47, 12. Colin Phipps (BM) 17:51, 13. Aaron Koehler (Wil) 17:52.3, *14. Cole Chukoskie (NW) 17:52.8, 15. Owen Fitzgerald (NDGP) 17:54.3, 16. Justice Scheidel (BM) 17:54.7, 17. Declan Fitzgerald (NDGP) 17:59, *18. Matthew Santana (NW) 18:00, 19. Jacob Huber (SV) 18:01, *20. Samuel Bower (NW) 18:08, 22. Brandon Fogarty (Tam) 18:11, *27. RJ Zack (NW) 18:24, *30. Joe Chukoskie (NW) 18:37, 31. Michael Noyola (Palm) 18:39, 35. Jared Thomason (NL) 18:45, 37. Owen Hibell (Palm) 18:49, *45. Nathan Vincent (NW) 19:08, *48. Joseph Pleban (NW) 19:11, 50. Brance Fronheiser (Palm) 19:13.

Class A

Team scores and legend

*1. Moravian Academy (MA) 39, 2. Shenandoah Valley (SV) 53, 3. Weatherly (Wea) 83, 4. Minersville (Min) 145, 5. Marian (M) 156, 6. Nativity (N) 184, 7. Catasauqua (Cat) 185, 8. Notre Dame East Stroudsburg (NDES) 196, 9. Mahanoy Area (Mah) 201, 10. Schuylkill Haven (SH) 216.

Individual results

(Top-20 plus other locals in the top-50)

*1. Scotty Zoscin (Wea) 17:40, *2. Cole Streisel (Mah) 18:01, *3. Sam Carter (MA) 18:25, *4. Jack Blobe (MA) 18:26, *5. Mason Tran (MA) 18:29, *6. Joelvi Nunez (SV) 18:31, *7. Landon Boyle (Min) 18:33, *8. Connor Stasulli (SV) 18:34, 9. Frankie Willis (Wea) 18:35, *10. Aaron Salen (MA) 18:38, 11. Educ Zamudio (SV) 18:49, 12. Diego Olayo (SV) 19:05.6, 13. Malcolm Naughton (NDES) 19:05.9, 14. Gavin Vercusky (M) 19:06, 15. Ricky Ray (Wea) 19:18, 16. Luis Velazquez (SV) 19:19, *17. Jacob Farr (MA) 19:20, 18. Astin Daniels (SH) 19:30, 19. Kevin Earley (M) 19:45.0, 20. Cole Brown (Cat) 19:45.9, 27, Jacob Parker (Wea) 20:22, 30. Justen Arriaga (M) 20:31, 31. Brady Walters (Wea) 20:44, 33. Michael Berger (Wea) 20:53, 43. Ean Chelak (M) 21:58, 50. Mathew Kokinda (Panther Valley) 22:35.

*-Qualified for states