HERSHEY — Noah Beveridge was honing in on the PIAA Class 3A cross country championship Saturday.

“My legs and back just didn't hold up,” the Butler senior said.

Beveridge had to settle for second place overall in the boys meet. He completed the course in 15 minutes, 55 seconds.

The champion was Rusty Kujdych of Neshaminy, who crossed the finish line 10 seconds in front of Beveridge.

“We were running together for the first two and a half miles,” Beveridge said. “He gapped me on a down-hill at that point. I tried to close the gap on an up-hill, but my legs buckled a bit.

I was able to hold on to second place with a decent finishing kick. I knew those guys were catching up to me.”

Those guys included Daniel McGoey of North Allegheny and Morgan Cupp of Mechanicsburg. Both finished one second behind Beveridge.

Seneca Valley's Seth Ketler finished sixth overall, three seconds behind Beveridge.

“Rusty is a very good runner from the eastern side of the state,” Butler coach Rick Davanzati said. “He's run a 9:03 in the two-mile and finished ahead of Noah in the 3,200 meters in state track last year.

“On another given day, Noah may have beaten him. This just wasn't his day.”

Beveridge finished fifth in the PIAA cross country meet last year.

“I'm not disappointed about this. I'm not elated, either,” Beveridge said.

Beveridge said he will now prepare for the Foot Locker regional qualifier Nov. 25 in New York. He hopes to qualify for the Foot Locker Nationals Dec. 9 in San Diego, Calif.

“This was a good end to a great cross country career,” Davanzati said of Beveridge.

Seneca Valley finished sixth in the team standings while Butler was 15th. Sam Owori placed 23rd overall for the Raiders while Butler's Brett Brady was 24th.

“Brett had a very solid, steady career for us and was overshadowed somewhat,” Davanzati said. “He ran under 16:30 a number of times. Before Noah, the only runner I've had in the past 13 years get under that mark was Evan Gomez.

“Brett did it a number of times.”

In boys Class 2A, Grove City's Jonah Powell placed third overall in 16:18. The Eagles finished fifth as a team.

Karns City's Rebecca Pennington placed 19th in the girls 2A race.

Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic's Rylee Kopchak was 10th in girls Class 1A and teammate Katherine Fedko was 18th. The Trojanettes placed sixth as a team.

Top local results follow:

Girls

Class 1A

10-Rylee Kopchak (CWNC) 19:43, 18-Katherine Fedko (CWNC) 20:01

Class 2A

19-Rebecca Pennington (Karns City) 19:44, 89-Samantha Jo Barnes (Knoch) 20:56

Class 3A

76-Lizzy White (Seneca Valley) 20:15, 92-Megan Aaron (Seneca Valley) 20:27, 105-Abby Lizewski (Seneca Valley) 20:33, 113-Royhab Bailey (Seneca Valley) 20:40

Boys

Class 2A

3-Jonah Powell (Grove City) 16:18, 51-Ben Jones (Grove City) 17:23, 62-Johnathan Asay (Freeport) 17:28, 76-Luke Owrey (Grove City) 17:37, 80-Tobias Jones (Grove City) 17:37, 92-Joseph Somora (Grove City) 17:47, 109-Mason Murray (Grove City) 17:54

Class 3A

2-Noah Beveridge (Butler) 15:57, 6-Seth Ketler (Seneca Valley) 16:00, 23-Sam Owori (Seneca Valley) 16:27, 24-Brett Brady (Butler) 16:29, 51-Zach Leachman (Mars) 16:51, 74-Connor Volk-Klos (Seneca Valley) 17:01, 79-Alex Dixon (Seneca Valley) 17:02, 121-Aden Dressler (Butler) 17:20, 167-Doug Kostelonsky (Butler) 17:44