The Dock boys cross country team earned five personal bests at the District 1A Championship at Lehigh University on Friday, and two Pioneer finishers were fast enough to qualify for the upcoming state championships.

Seniors Aaron Sensenig and James Steinmetz extended their final season by one week by finishing 12th and 13th respectively in the boys race to snare two of the 10 automatic bids to the state championships. The top 10 individual finishers who are not part of the first- or second-place teams move on to states. Dock placed sixth in the team standings with 136 points, 12 behind fifth-place Delaware County Christian. Regina Luminis Academy won the race with Bristol High second.

Sensenig ran consistently start to finish. His steady approach helped him hold his spot over the final two miles to take 12th overall in a personal best of 18:21.1. The finish earned him his second career appearance at the state meet. He is the lone runner on this year’s team who has competed at states.
Steinmetz used a huge kick over the final 400 meters to improve his place in the race. He opened up the meet in 17th at the first mile mark, then moved up and positioned himself for a state qualifying spot over the next mile and a half. With a half-mile left, he sat in a pack of four runners and came out ahead of all of them as he surged to a personal best 18:32.0 for 13th place. The next three finishers also recorded personal bests as well. All of them also were under 20 minutes, the first time since 2019 that the Dock boys have had their first five finishers under that mark. Xander Morsby finished his first season of cross country with a solid personal record. The sophomore again closed well to finish in 19:20.4 for 32nd place. His time was more than a two-minute drop from some of his first races of the year. Ryan Ykoruk was next for the Pioneers. The freshman saved his best for last as he ran under 20:00 for the first time Friday. Ykoruk’s fastest mile was the last and it propelled him to 40th place in 19:47.3. No Dock runner dropped more time off their previous PR coming into Friday than Ykoruk, who dropped 46 seconds from the last time he ran at Lehigh a month ago. Josh Frederick enabled Dock to score as a team as their fifth finisher. The junior ran a smart race to come in 42nd overall in 19:50.3, a drop of about 2:00 off the first times that he recorded in August this year. The new personal record for Frederick sets him up for a strong track year. Jinyang Li gained race experience. The junior completed his fourth race of the season. He came within four seconds of his personal best when he ran 24:10.7, well over a minute faster than the league championship race a week ago.

Sensenig and Steinmetz will race at 11:45 a.m. November 2 on Hershey’s famed state cross country course.