SLIPPERY ROCK — Dale Boring was thinking of a possible championship. Wess Brahler was just hoping his team could get through.

At Thursday’s WPIAL Cross Country Championship at Cooper’s Lake, the Mars’ boys squad came away with a runner-up finish in the boys Class AA race while the Knoch girls team place third in its respective race.

By placing in the top three, those two teams will move on the PIAA Championships, which will be held Nov. 3 in Hershey.

“We expected to be one or two,” said Boring on his Mars team. “We were hoping for first. Quaker Valley was somewhat of a surprise. We edged out South Fayette and we figured it would be South Fayette that could win it, not Quaker Valley.”

As it turned out, both Quaker Valley squads won titles. The boys finished with 66 points over Mars (132) and South Fayette (135) while in the girls race, the Quakers had 65 points, Uniontown 65 and Knoch 110.

“I really thought we could have a run at it,” said Brahler, who also guided the 2008 Knights’ team to a runner-up finish. “We ran well enough to get to states.

“We really knew we’d be in the mix for qualifying, although it was so hot today. We handled the pressure, we handled the heat, we walked off healthy. The girls are so excited,” Brahler added.

The Mars team had all five runners break the top 50, led by Scott Slaney’s sixth-place finish (17:24). He was followed by Chris Georgiadis (17th, 17:42), Nathan Mrdjenovich (22nd, 17:58), Frankie Petrini (41st, 18:33) and Brendan Knox (46th, 18:38).

Only 74 seconds separated the five runners.

“We thought Nos. 1-5 would be about 45 seconds. But, our Nos. 4 and 5 runners were a little further back, but they still ran well.”

The Knoch girls team had its top five runners in the top 40 — Abby Jones (14th, 21;16, Mandi Moxie (16th, 21:21, Tena Pettit (20th, 21:35), Mandy Hunt (24th, 21:43) and Ashlyn Carlsson (36th, 22:18).

“We prepared all week for the hot weather, hydrating and getting rest,” Brahler said. “We took the approach to start out slow and when we got to the top of the hill, we were back.”

Jones, Moxie and Hunt are freshmen, Carlsson is a sophomore and Pettit a senior.

Those who also qualified as individuals for the state meet include Knoch’s Preston Carlsson — who finished fifth overall in the boys race with a time of 17:15 — and teammate Brandon Grumski (19th, 17:50).

In the girls race, Freeport’s Kayla Zboran (seventh, 20:40) and Rebecca Dudek (11th, 20:59) and Mars’ Maggie McChesney (21st, 21:36), Shannon McChesney (25th, 21:45) and Jessica Monberg (26th, 21:55) also advanced to Hershey.

In Class AAA, only Seneca Valley’s Ben Nickel (21st, 17:01) and Lauren Sauer (26th, 20:45) qualified in the boys and girls races, respectively.

Sauer was the last qualifier in her race while the Raiders’ Brett Foster finished 25th, missing the cutoff in the boys race by one place.

North Allegheny won the boys title with 50 points, easily outdistancing Fox Chapel (136) while Mt. Lebanon won the girls race (49) ahead of North Allegheny.

The following are team standings and results of area individuals. The top three teams qualify for the PIAA Championships, which will be held Nov. 3. Team qualifiers as well as local individuals qualifiers are in bold.

Boys Class AA

Team Standings (out of 31 teams):1-Quaker Valley 66, 2-Mars 132, 3-South Fayette 135, 6-Knoch 217, 20-Freeport 556

2-Mars: 6-Scott Slaney 17:24, 17-Chris Georgiadis 17:42, 22-Nathan Mrdjenovich 17:58, 41-Frankie Petrini 18:33, 46-Brendan Knox 18:38

6-Knoch: 5-Preston Carlsson 17:15, 19-Brandon Grumski 17:50, 32-Drew Venesky 18:21, 76-Nathaniel Pettit 19:32, 85-Don Bierhals 19:40

20-Freeport: 51-Colin Meehan 18:47, 123-Jared Kapustik 20:29, 124-Nathan McCombs 20:30, 128-Caleb Smith 20:39, 130-Noah Bowser 20:42

Class AA Girls

Team standings (out of 32 teams): 1-Quaker Valley 65, 2-Uniontown 67, 3-Knoch 110, 6-Freeport 145, 7-Mars 179

3-Knoch; 14-Abby Jones 21:16, 16-Mandi Moxie 21:21, 20-Tena Pettit 21:35, 24-Mandy Hunt 21:43, 36-Ashlyn Carlsson 22:18, 69-Lauren Karenbauer 23:40, 92-Katie Jones 24:16

6-Freeport: 7-Kayla Zboran 20:40, 11-Rebecca Dudek 20:59, 34-Rachel Kubeldis 22:07, 45-Hayley Davis 22:41, 48-Nicole Miller 22:50, 53-Laura Will 23:07, 81-Katie 23:58

7-Mars: 21-Maggie McChesney 21:36, 25-Shannon McChesney 21:45, 26-Jessica Monberg 21:55, 47-Amanda Alikhani 22:48, 60-Liz Smialek 23:24, 65-Reilly Butler 23:31, 101-Sydney Cole 24:42

Class AAA Boys

Team standings (out of 34 teams): 1-North Allegheny 50, 2-Fox Chapel 136, 3t-Mt. Lebanon and Hampton 175, 13-Seneca Valley 391, 17-Butler 447

13-Seneca Valley: 21-Ben Nickel 17:01, 25-Brett Foster 17:05, 61-Alex Taylor 17:52, 130-Blake Melo 18:49, 154-Tommy Abramson 19:16

17-Butler: 42: Jeromee Geibel 17:36, 66-Sean Rundle 17:55, 98-Christopher Boyd 18:24, 109-Christopher Short 18:31, 132-Patrick Fullerton 18:50

Class AAA Girls

1-Mt. Lebanon 49, 2-North Allegheny 97, 3-North Hills 108, 6-Seneca Valley 248, 9-Butler 303

6-Seneca Valley: 26-Lauren Sauer 20:45, 42-Katie Lutz 21:13, 45-Mary Zeckzer 21:18, 56-Angela Mignanelli 21:41, 79-Emma Sledge 22:16

9-Butler: 38-Alexis Swiergol 21:05, 50-Tori Sawhney 21:32, 57-Kelsee Callihan 21:42, 63-Amanda Wiest 21;59, 95-Holly Keefer 22:36