Class 2A silver for East Penn’s Namatka, Class 3A surge for Carlisle’s Heberlig

Andrew Namatka made the final ascent, about 80 yards to the finish line Saturday at Big Spring’s cross country course during the District 3 Championships. Lampeter-Strasburg’s Colin Whitaker had cruised to the Class 2A boys crown, covering the 3.1 miles in a crisp 15 minutes, 39.6 seconds. Namatka, the East Pennsboro senior, sat in second place, battling fatigue from the unseasonable warmth and the course’s notorious hills and the wave of competitors cresting at his back.

“I kind of felt my legs starting to get really tired,” he said. “I was like, ‘Oh, no.’ But I kept in my head that I wanted second, and I just kept going.”

Namatka powered through, claiming second place at 16:28.5. His silver-medal run headlined the District 3 performances from Sentinel-area boys, who earned four medals and seven berths in the state meet scheduled for Nov. 4 at Hershey’s Parkview Course.

“Obviously, I wasn’t going to stay with the top runner,” said Namatka, who had finished 23rd and 10th in his previous two district meets. “He’s pretty fast. But I was just trying to keep that second, third position for the race. I was hoping at the end that I could kind of out-kick, and I kind of did.”

Namatka’s late push helped him hold off Wyomissing’s David Giles (16:32.2) in the battle for silver. Lampeter-Strasburg, Northern Lebanon and Conrad Weiser collected the three automatic Class 2A team berths in the state meet. The Pioneers ran away with the team title, collecting 76 points to 111 for the second-place Vikings on a day that saw the temperature rise above 80 degrees before the starting gun sounded.

“Going into it, I felt pretty tired, so I was a little scared about how I would do,” Namatka said. “But I tried to get that out of my head as soon as I started running. … The heat made it a little rough mentally. Those hills, for sure, really did. But I just tried to run my own race.”

Big Spring’s Blake Wenger was aware of the head, and its potential effects, when he lined up for the final time as a Bulldog on his home course.

“I didn’t want to choke and not make it,” Wenger said, “and the thing is, with the heat, anybody can have a bad day in the hot weather. I was just happy to get out hard and stay with it and feel good mentally and physically.”

Wenger charged to 11th place in Class 2A at 17:10.5, punching his ticket to states for the third straight year and earning his first spot on the District 3 medal stand.

“I gave a few glances back in the last mile and was like, ‘Well, that’s like 10 guys right there,’” Wenger said. “In the past two years, I finished 21st each time, one a way from a medal, so I was like, ‘This is a little bit of unfinished business. I want to have that medal around my neck.’”

Boiling Springs senior Connor Petula also mined a Class 2A district medal for the first time, finishing 18th at 17:36.8.

“After two years of just missing the mark, it really feels nice to get in,” Petula said, “even if it was just by that much. The fact that I was able to sneak into states is just like a second chance for me to really prove what I’ve got next week.”

The unseasonable heat had ticked a bit higher by the time the Class 3A boys stepped to the line. Carlisle’s Kole Heberlig felt it as he attacked the Big Spring hills. About halfway through the race, the Thundering Herd sophomore noticed something.

“When I came up to…