Grateful for chance to compete, Shady Side Academy freshman wins big race in Hershey

By: Josh Rizzo
Saturday, September 27, 2025 | 11:01 AM

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Josephine Lenart appreciates every opportunity to compete for the Shady Side Academy girls cross country team. While Lenart, a freshman, is short on experience, she is long on perspective.

Lenart won for the first time at one of the premier regular-season invitationals, the 19th PIAA Foundation Meet, which is held at the Hershey Parkview course, the site of the state championships. Lenart won the girls Class A classification Sept. 20 by finishing in 19 minutes, 43 seconds, seven seconds ahead of Richland’s Natalie Mavridis.

“In middle school, I was an anxious person,” Lenart said. “I can’t be appreciative and anxious at the same time before races and workouts. I try to appreciate and show gratitude for the opportunity to compete.”

The Bulldogs won the team title with 86 points, well ahead of second-place OLSH, which finished with 119. Shady Side Academy junior Charlotte Barker finished in fourth place with a time of 20:07.1, while senior Rhyley Bendel finished 13th (21:14.2).

“We really wanted to see the course,” Bulldogs coach Jeff Perlis said. “We only had two girls who ran varsity cross country in our top eight. The course is tough and we wanted to see it, but I’d be lying if I didn’t want to win this meet.”

Shady Side Academy was without Ella Van Norman, who is typically the Bulldogs’ No. 3 runner. Lenart said she appreciates having upperclassmen to help push her to get better times.

“I love the team aspect of the sport,” Lenart said. “There are girls on the team that I look up to and they are great role models. It is inspiring, as a human, not just about racing. They teach me about how to focus on the process and how running gives me so much more than running a race or getting a personal best. It’s a great environment.”

Perlis said he is happy with Lenart’s early performances. She has adapted well to being in a highly competitive environment.

“We have this idea with our whole group that there aren’t assigned seats on this team,” Perlis said. “Josie’s been training with Charlotte well. Charlotte has beat her a couple times. I don’t think it’s shocking that Josie beat her. She’s a confident, strong young athlete who has considerable natural ability that she is coupling with good training.”

On the boys side, Shady Side Academy finished fifth as a team. Sophomore Harlan Cooper ran a 17:43 to place ninth, while Will Nury finished 12th (18:17.9). Fox Chapel’s boys team finished in 10th place in Class 3A.

Michael Costello led the Foxes by placing 20th, while Asher Eckel and Nolan Gwin also cracked the top 36. On the girls side, Fox Chapel placed sixth.

The Foxes were led by three freshmen — Maeve Sherry (21:09, 29th), Sydney Kimmons (21:12.7, 34th) and Claire Loudice (21-20.4, 37th) — who finished in the top 33.

Lenart was happy with how she handled the Foundation course, which she acknowledged was a difficult challenge.

“I was trying to do my best,” Lenart said. “Regardless of the outcome, I know this is a tough course, but I am capable and competitive. I could do this. I was trying to calm my nerves down before. I’m really focused on taking the race mile by mile.”

Tags: Shady Side Academy