On Saturday, November 8, the Padua cross country team ran in the state meet at White Clay Creek State Park and finished as the state champion. This amazing victory was the second consecutive state championship title and the 15th for the cross country team. All season, the runners have been training for this championship race. The team has been traveling to various meets in Delaware and Pennsylvania in order to prepare themselves.

At the start of the race, Lydia Olivere (‘18) was in the front of the pack, and she broke away to finish 19 seconds before the next runner. Lydia’s sister, Maddie Olivere (‘17), recently came back from an injury. “I was nervous coming back and running in states because I hadn’t been racing all season because of my injury,” Maddie explained, “I was mostly just really excited to be back because I worked hard all season to make a come back and I was honored that Coach Marine chose to run me in states.” All seven of the Padua runners finished in the top 16.

Five of the varsity runners are seniors this year and competed in their last cross country race wearing a Padua jersey. Padua competed against all 18 of the Division I high school teams in Delaware. With the state championship meet completed, the cross country season draws to a close. Some of the runners will travel to North Carolina to compete in the Regional championship, then most of the team will transition to an exciting indoor track season.