The boys' cross country finished fifth in the PAISAA state meet held at Belmont Plateau in Philadelphia October 26.

Penn Charter took three of the top six spots to claim the team title and the Storm had an impressive performance to place fifth against a quality field of opponents. Ryan Du Plessis '25 was Mercersburg's top finisher in twelfth place while Joey Cechini '28 was close behind in seventeenth. Du Plessis earned second team all-state recognition for his finish with Cechini receiving honorable mention. Winston Watkins '25 finished twenty-sixth, Will Wallace '27 forty-fourth, and Ahman Habib '26 rounded out the scoring in fifty-second place.

"We had a very nice team effort today," said head coach David Grady, "with solid races from each of our runners. The PAISAA Championship is a great opportunity for our athletes to match up with some very competitive runners on a challenging cross country course.  We responded well by really engaging with the competitors from the other teams throughout the race. Ryan Du Plessis and Joey Cechini were working together in a productive way in the first and second miles.  Ryan took things up a notch in the third mile, passing a number of runners. He was closing in on the top ten but ran out of room as the finish line came before he could pass any more runners.  Joey, for his part, battled with several runners over the third mile and finished strong.  His finish marks the first time in recent history that a Mercersburg ninth-grader has cracked the top-20 in the PAISAA Championships. His time is also the fastest for a ninth-grader in recent history on the Belmont Plateau 5k course."

Mercersburg wraps up the season by hosting the MAPL Championship race on Saturday, November 2 at 2 pm.