The course was muddy. The wind howling. The temperatures low.

Despite the raw weather conditions Saturday at Buhl Park in Sharon, Andrea Shaffer and Brittany Lyons of Slippery Rock and Helen Phipps of Grove City placed high enough at the District 10 Cross Country Championships to qualify for the state meet.

"The coaches and runners were all displeased with how we performed," said Slippery Rock coach Tony Consbruck. "(The weather) was horrid. It was horrid. They were running in ankle-deep mud. It was not a good day."

But it was good enough for Shaffer, Lyons and Phipps.

Shaffer, a sophomore, placed 17th with a time of 21 minutes, 26 seconds and Lyons, a senior, came in a second behind her teammate in 18th place.

Phipps, a senior, finished 20th with a time of 21:32.

Lyons advanced to the state meet last season. Shaffer and Phipps will make their first appearances at the state meet, which will be held this weekend in Hershey.

Phipps played soccer last season and did not run on the cross country team.

District 10BoysSlippery Rock (426): 55-Owen Bowser 19:28, 58-Dan Hartzell 19:30, 78-Nate King 19:59, 98-Eddie Schrieber 20:24, 137-Jackson Udy 21:01.

Grove City (385): 41-Tom Bollinger 19:03, 76-Jim HsLeh 19:55, 83-Ryan Sestal 20:07, 86-Adam Stillwagon 20:10, 99-JohnStewart 20:24.

GirlsSlippery Rock (254): 17-Andrea Shaffer 21:26, 18-Brittany Lyons 21:27; 67-Nicole Fuchs 22:57, 71-Sarah Opp 23:06, 81-Ally Plummer 23:31.

Grove City (274): 20-Helen Phipps 21:32, 45-MeganDeGraff 22:23, 48-Becky Consbruck 22:26, 79-Rebecca McClure 23:29, 82-Chelsie Hensel 23:32.FootballStephen Grandison and Lamont Valentine each scored touchdowns as the Summit Academy football team closed out the season with a 14-0 blanking of Cornell (1-8, 0-8).Both scores for the Knights (4-5, 3-5) came in the first half.