A year ago, Klein led Tower Hill to a close second-place finish behind Maryvale (Md.) in the Girls Varsity B race. The Hillers went on to win the Division II girls state title.

Klein attends Tatnall this year. She won her second straight Lake Forest title Saturday as Tatnall put four runners in the top nine and beat Maryvale 71-85 for first place.

That performance makes Tatnall the early favorite for this year's Division II title. After Maryvale, Archmere (113) and Tower Hill (153) were considerably further back. The Lake Forest Invitational divisions are based on the same guidelines used to classify teams for the state meet.

Klein won the 3.1-mile race in 19:29, beating Ursuline's Julie Taylor by 19 seconds.

"I [didn't] want to take my first mile too fast," Klein said, "and I worked my second mile a lot."

Following Klein into the top 10 for Tatnall were eighth-grader Katie Kershner (fifth, 20:28) and freshman twins Joanie (eighth, 21:14) and Annie Castagno (ninth, 21:18).

"[Varsity] is a lot more competitive than middle school," Kershner said, "but I think it's pretty fun."

Like Tower Hill a year ago at this point, Tatnall has no state titles in girls cross country.

The first two runners to finish were from Tatnall. Then came the Archmere pack.

The Auks put six runners in the top nine to walk away with the Boys Varsity B race in the 46th annual Lake Forest Invitational at Killens Pond State Park on Saturday.

Two Tatnall seniors took the top two places in the 3.1-mile race, Kyle Kershner (16:32) and Mike Ward (16:52). But Archmere won with 27 points, an impressively low total for an 18-team field. Tatnall was second at 54.

The Auks finished 3-4-5-7-8 with two more runners at ninth and 36th. That's similar to the Sept. 9 dual meet at Bellevue State Park, where Kershner and Ward were first and second, with the Auks taking the next seven spots.

Peter McBride was Archmere's top runner Saturday, finishing third in 17:14. He was followed by teammates Jason Nista (fourth, 17:30), Chris Burke (fifth, 17:36), Jon Corsini (seventh, 17:53), Tom Procopio (eighth, 17:54) and Billy DiNardo (ninth, 17:56).

"It's a good surprise," McBride said. "We had six guys under 18 [minutes] and they weren't our best times, [but this] was pretty good."

The Brandywine High runner won her third straight Girls Varsity A title in the 46th annual Lake Forest Invitational on Saturday. She is the returning state champion in Division I.

Padua, however, beat Brandywine 41-64 to win the team title. The Pandas had seven runners in the top 17.

Leitsch won in 19:19 over 3.1 miles, beating Padua's Jenna McCartan and Brandywine's Anna Brousell (each 19:32).

A year ago, Leitsch won every race she entered in the high school season. But she finished behind McCartan and Brousell last weekend in the Centaur Invitational at Center Valley, Pa.

Now, Leitsch is 3-for-3 in this event. Her state meet win last year also came at Killens Pond.

"This year there is so much [more] competition, I came in as an underdog," said Leitsch, who said she put her past success out of mind.

Leitsch said she broke ahead of the leaders midway through the race. Her 19:19 was just one second slower than her state meet win last year.

He has been running varsity cross country for Salesianum School since his sophomore season, and he has been the Sallies runner who isn't the fastest but still helps the team win state titles. State title No. 29 came last year.

Now DeCecchis is a senior. Now the other runners look to him as the leader.

DeCecchis was the first of five Sallies runners in the top 13 as it won the Boys Varsity A race in the Lake Forest Invitational, held at Killens Pond State Park on Saturday.

"It's a lot easier mentally. Now I know what I'm doing," DeCecchis said of being a Sals veteran.

Dover senior Charles Gibson won for the second straight year in a runaway. He covered the 3.1-mile course in 16:44, followed by DeCecchis at 17:02.

DeCecchis said he kept up with Gibson until the second mile, when Gibson surged. "He was smooth the entire time. There wasn't a single change in his stride and I don't think he looked tired once," DeCecchis said.

Sallies won with 38 points, ahead of St. Mark's (72) and Caesar Rodney (120).