Butler won't be sending a team to the PIAA Cross Country Championships next weekend, but it will send four runners.

After Thursday's WPIAL Championships at Cooper's Lake, near Slippery Rock, Tornado runners Danica Snyder (fifth overall, 19 minutes, 17 seconds) and Alexis Swiergol (30th, 20:03) in the Class AAA girls race, and Evan Gomez (10th, 16:25) and Chris Grooms (36th, 16:55) in the boys race are headed to the state meet.

The Butler girls placed fifth out of 40 teams in the team standings, with the top four teams moving on.

"We had some very nice performances but we just fell short," said Butler coach Rick Davanzati. "I was very pleased with our effort, especially on a day as chilly and windy."

The Tornado boys placed 13th out of 52 teams.

Knoch had three runners qualify for the state meet: Emilee Hertweck (16th, 19:43) in the girls race, and K.J. McCrea (26th, 16:47) and Van McCarren (31st, 16:52) in the boys race.

"Emilee ran a super-great race," said Knoch coach Wess Brahler. "Last year she missed qualifying by one place and it was the same with K.J. ... It's also nice for Van to get there."

In Class AA girls, Freeport's Kayla Zboran qualified for the state meet by placing seventh overall with a time of 20:14.

WPIAL Cross Country ResultsGirls AAA5-Butler (220): 5-Danica Snyder 19:17; 30-Alexis Swiergol 20:03; 48-Holly Keefer 20:32, 67-Trisha Brandt 21:03, 70-Christy Monnie 21:06

12-Knoch (353): Emilee Hertweck 19:43, 46-Jolene Kunkel 20:31, 47-Shannon Evanchec 20:31, 93-Tena Pettit 21:30, 151-Katie Jones 22;23

14-Seneca Valley (408): 37-Kristen McKinney 20:16, 73-Emily Seibert 21:06, 86-Taryn Latsko 21:23, 96-Lucy Moore 21:30, 116-Emily Clark 21:54

26-Mars (689): 87-Maggie McChesney 21:23, 95-Salina Smialek 21:30, 128-Phoebe Pierre 22:00, 181-Bethany Catanzaro 22:56, 198-Amanda Alikhani 23:27

Class AAA Boys

10-Seneca Valley (377): 41-Mark Davis 17:05, 59-Ben Nickel 17:22, 72-Madison Goodman 17:37, 91-Ryan Kerr 17:47, 114-Eli Brinker 17:59

13-Butler (468): 10-Evan Gomez 16:25, 36-Chris Grooms 16:55, 108-Steven Stauffer 17:55, 153-Trey Neveux 18:21, 161-Tyler Cranmer 18:25

27-Mars (648): 60-Sean Gannon 17:24, 69-Chris Georgiadis 17:34, 147-Scott Slaney 18:19, 184-John Caraway 18:35, 188-Ryan Winner 18:37

28-Knoch (656): 26-K.J. McCrea 16:47, 31-Van McCarren 16:53, 154-Alex Cetnar 18:21, 217-Phil Kletzli 18:56, 228-Mike Beamer 19:05

Class AA Girls16-Freeport (411): 7-Kayla Zboran 20:14, 43-Rebecca Dudek 21:58, 110-Carol Amadee 24:00, 115-Hayley Davis 24:11, 136-Laura Will 24:41

Class AA Boys

22-Freeport (579): 40-Kevin Keppel 18:19, 124-Colin Meehan 19:48, 134-Stephen Posney 19:57, 138-Ryan Armitage 20:00, 143-Kyle Zboran 20:03

Lara Caraway's 26 digs helped Mars to a 3-2 win over Thomas Jefferson in the WPIAL Class AA playoffs at Freeport High.The Planets won by scores of 25-21, 25-17, 14-25, 21-25 and 15-13.Mars received 17 blocks from Brooke Finney, 10 kills from Abby Matusik and five aces from Domenique Roach.The Planets face Freeport in the quarterfinals Tuesday at a site and time to be determined.<B>Hopewell 3, Knoch 0 —</B> The Knights' season ended on scores of 25-21, 25-14 and 25-20 in a WPIAL Class AA playoff match at Montour High.Julia Kleinfelder had 11 kills, Celina Sanks had nine kills and Tori Lark had five kills for Knoch (11-7).<B>Freeport 3, Greensburg Salem 0 —</B> No details were available from this playoff meeting.