WORTH TWP — Wind, cold rain and mud: not the ideal conditions for a high school cross country race with as much riding on it as the WPIAL Championship.

Unless you are the Mars girls cross country team, that is.

“The most miserable weather,” said Mars boys and girls cross country coach Dale Boring, “is the best weather for us.”

The Mars girls proved that, placing seven runners in the top 37 at Cooper’s Lake on a raw Thursday afternoon on the way to the program’s first WPIAL title since 1976.

The Planets won the Class AA championship with a score of 74 and comfortably edged second-place Greensburg Salem (90).

“Oh my gosh, we were so excited,” said junior Sydney Cole. “It’s been 37 years since that has happened. Not many people know about our program.”

People do now.

Freshman Natalie Petrini finished eighth with a time of 20 minutes, 29 seconds. Cole was 10th and Shannon McChesney 11th for Mars in a dominating team effort.

“Everyone ran really, really well,” Boring said. “It wasn’t unexpected. We set a goal at the beginning of the year, the girls set the goal to win the WPIAL.”

Cole said when she and her teammates took a look at the weather forecast for Thursday, they smiled.

“We really wish for extreme weather,” Cole said. “We always have practice, no matter what, even in bad weather, even when other teams don’t. It’s a mental thing. (The coaches) stress being mentally strong. We’re not allowed to be negative.”

Cole has been a huge positive for the Planets the last two seasons, her first two as a cross country runner.

Cole started out as a sprinter on the Mars track and field team and Boring convinced her before last season to give cross country a try, too.

The transition was by no means an easy one.

“I’m running 3.1 miles when I ran 400 (meters) at the most,” Cole said, laughing. “It was hard for me at first, but I pushed myself, worked really hard and trained over the summer by myself.”

Now Cole is one of the best runners in the WPIAL on a team that is the best in the district in Class AA.

The best may be yet to come; There are no seniors on the roster.

“We’ve all worked hard,” Cole said. “We just have a great team, and we’re really excited for the state meet. We want to go and try to win it. We’ve gotten this far.”

It was almost a double celebration for Mars as the boys placed fourth, just missing out on a spot at the PIAA Championships by two points.

Still, three Mars boys — Nathan Mrdjenovich (seventh place), Gage Zimmerman (17th) and Frankie Petrini (25th) — will make the trip to Hershey Nov. 2 for the state meet.

“I’d say we were up there as one of the best programs,” Boring said.

The Seneca Valley girls team came four points shy of their own WPIAL Class AAA title.

The Raiders, who had six runners place in the top 27, finished second behind Mt. Lebanon, who won with a score of 80.

The difference was three top 10 finishers for the Blue Devils.

Freshman Rachel Hensler was the top finisher for Seneca Valley, placing eighth with a time of 19:34.

Individually, Knoch’s Brandon Grumski was the top local finisher. Grumski placed fifth in the Class AA boys race with a time of 17:04.

Class AA Boys

Team Results

Top 3 qualify for PIAA Championships

1-South Fayette 74, 2-Uniontown 93, 3-Quaker Valley 118, 4-Mars 120, 5-Knoch 124, 18-Freeport 523

PIAA individual qualifiers in bold

Mars: 7-Nathan Mrdjenovivh 17:11, 21-Gage Zimmerman 17:38, 25-Frankie Petrini 17:48, 33-John Caraway 17:57, 34-Brendan Knox 18:05, 38-Jacob Porter 18:10, 80-Evan Monteleone 19:21

Knoch: 5-Brandon Grumski 17:04, 13-Preston Carlsson 17:26, 29-John Ejzak 17:53, 37-Luke Brewer 18:07, 40-Paul Kasunic 18:15, 49-Nathaniel Pettit 18:34, 56-Aidan Neigh 18:39

Freeport: 36-Colin Meehan 18:07, 98-Noah Bowser 19:47, 115-Caleb Bowser 20:07, 124-Nathan McCombs 20:16, 150-Tyler Ben 20:50, 152-Malique Nadzam 20:51, 174-Ryan Miller

Class AA Girls

Team Results

Top 3 qualify for PIAA Championships

1-Mars 74, 2-Greensburg Salem 90, 3-Moon 99, 6-Knoch 152, 7-Freeport 208.

PIAA individual qualifiers in bold

Mars: 8-Natalie Petrini 20:29, 10-Sydney Cole 20:31, 11-Shannon McChesney 20:36, 21-Jessica Monberg 21:09, 24-Lindsey Brand 21:13, 36-Emma Gentile 21:45, 37-Reilly Butler

Knoch: 9-Mandi Moxie 20:30, 18-Ashlyn Carlsson 20:54, 33-Lauren Karenbauer 21:35, 45-Rachael Wittmer 22:11, 47-Abby Jones 22:16, 48-Mandy Hunt 22:17, 74-Elizabeth Butler 23:00

Freeport: 14-Hayley Davis 20:43, 20-Becca Dudek 21:07, 31-Kim Mixon 21:32, 70-Haley Redmond 22:57, 73-Katie Hill 23:00, 89-Jade Clinton 23:37, 93-Laura Will 23:45

Class AAA Boys

Team Results

Top 3 qualify for PIAA Championships

1-North Allegheny 38, 2-Fox Chapel 114, 3-Mount Lebanon 132, 5-Seneca Valley 215, 9-Butler 345

PIAA Individual qualifiers in bold

Seneca Valley: 13-Brett Foster 16:48, 14-Tanner Quiggle 16:48, 38-Mike Kolor 17:24, 66-Ben Gardner 17:39, 84-Alex Taylor 18:00, 99-Kyle Morgan 18:11, 142-Sean Reiterman 18:51

Butler: 42-Patrick Fullerton 17:27, 65-Christopher Short 17:38, 73-Adam Knauer 17:44, 79-Chris Boyd 17:51, 86-Ethan Linnon 18:00, 132-Jordan Blum 18:41, 191-Chad Pakozdi 19:48

Class AAA Girls

Team Results

Top 3 qualify for PIAA Championships

1-Mount Lebanon 80, 2-Seneca Valley 84, 3-North Allegheny 124, 19-Butler 470

PIAA Individual qualifiers in bold

Seneca Valley: 8-Rachel Hensler 19:34, 12-Mariah Mack 19:43, 13-Isabelle Biase 19:44, 25-Becky Paine 20:13, 26-Angela Mignanelli 20:14, 27-Emma Sledge 20:18, 53-Lauren Sauer 21:07

Butler: 48-Holly Keefer 21:00, 54-Michaela Brydon 21:16, 103-Lucy Lewis 22:04, 128-Kelsee Callihan 22:40, 137-Belle Losch 22:54, 151-MaKenzie Harris 23:18, 152-Kylie Sheppeck 23:21