All My Friends are Runners: The Men in Black

Chapter 5: The Men in Black
by Jarrett Felix

It was a perfect fall day at the 2006 District One Cross Country Championships. I remember the weather being fantastic as we stepped off the bus and I took my first look around the Lehigh course. The place instantly felt special. The footing was amazing, everything was lined and marked perfectly, the landscape was picturesque. This, I thought, is a real cross country course[1].

The Upper Dublin Cross Country team set up camp at the bottom of the course’s sharpest downhill, roughly half way through the 5k race. The mood was light, it tended to be with this group of guys. Our varsity squad was going to wear some sweet throw back white uniforms as opposed to our usual worn-out, old red ones. They were laying out spikes and pinning on numbers when someone pointed at a group of runners and said, “It’s Coatesville”.

It was a pack of young men, dressed in all black, including hats and gloves, jogging along the course. The lone bit of color was a red “C” in the corner of their jacket. While our team resembled a rag tag group of hobby joggers thrown together for a charity relay race, this looked like a legitimate, organized unit[2].  

After Coatesville’s surprising defeat at the 2005 State Championships, their five senior leaders had come back with a vengeance. The team dominated the Gettysburg and Carlisle Invitationals in historic fashion. They were fresh off back to back victories over the same West Chester Henderson team that had dominated my first ever cross country invitational. C-ville’s top 5 had looked incredible all year, earning the team recognition in the national rankings.

The Men in Black were led by Kyle Dawson, the team’s top runner at every meet that season. Behind him was a pack of four seniors who ran close to interchangeably during the season. Owen Dawson, Kyle’s twin brother, was an excellent speedster who would likely excel at Lehigh. Tom Pannulla was in a friendly rivalry with Owen, keeping a tally of who had beaten who each meet. Jason Leonard was a strong runner with the skill to excel on hills or flat surfaces (and he was also a big Penntrack poster) while Sean Ward was a consistent runner who did his best running late in the season when the team needed him most. Andrew Mahoney and Chris Rosato, a Junior and Sophomore, ran solid times at 6-7 and learned a lot from their senior leaders.

The individual race was sure to be memorable as well. Jason Weller from Boyertown was the top senior returner from the previous year’s state championship and had proven himself well at the hilly Steel City invitational running 15:47. Paul Springer from Unionville was the defending state champion in the 3200m the previous outdoor season, where he ran 9:01 and just missed the meet record. And rounding out the star studded group was Coatesville’s own Kyle Dawson: Coatesville’s front-runner had run 15:10 in a recent dual meet to set the Oakbourne course record. He also beat runners Vince McNally (3^rd at States in 2005 as a sophomore) and Scott Van Kooten (newly crowned WPIAL XC Champion) in impressive fashion at the Carlisle invitational. Dawson was seeking revenge against Weller who had beaten him by seven seconds on Dawson’s home course.

From the gun, you could tell things were going to be fast. These three favorites broke away from the field and Dawson, never afraid of leading a race, took them through the mile in 4:44.Weller and Dawson jockeyed at the front with Springer hanging around, ready to use his closing speed[3]. At two miles the group was around 9:45ish and, upon hearing the split, Springer felt it was time to go. He took off up the back hill and Weller followed, with Dawson a bit too tired to cover the move.

I was standing about halfway down the final straightaway when I saw Paul Springer sprinting along the course. I turned frantically within the crowd, standing on tip-toe to see the clock, and watched him cross the line in an unthinkable 14:47. Weller came home in 14:54 and Dawson, who was beginning to catch back up to Weller, ran 14:58. The first three guys under 15 minutes on the course in a truly spectacular race. I was dumbstruck, sub 15 in the 5k seemed like a world record to a kid struggling to break 19:30[4].

About 20 seconds back was Henderson’s first man Chris Aldrich and then a sea of runners started rolling in. I was just stunned by the troves of kids under 16 minutes[5]. Coatesville got five guys in before our #1. The Coatesville top five ran an unmatched 14:58 (KD), 15:22 (Owen Dawson), 15:29 (Pannulla), 15:39 (Leonard), and 15:47 (Ward) to score just 51 points in a meet that included 56 teams. Their average time of 15:27 is still a meet record.

And no one could argue it was a down year for district one. There were record numbers of sub 15 and sub 16 performances. The six teams that qualified for the state championships would all finish within the top seven overall team spots at the state meet the next weekend, an achievement that has yet to be matched. Central Bucks South, who averaged a time of 16:11 per man, was the 7^th place team and missed states. Eleven different schools had team averages under 16:20: most years that number is cut in half[6].

This was my first, and only, encounter with the legendary 2006 Coatesville team. They did not disappoint.

…

At the state meet the next weekend, Coatesville did not take their foot off the gas. Because only the state qualifying teams are counted in team scoring at the state meet[7], Coatesville was able to drop their score to a state meet record 26 points! Their five seniors all broke 16 minutes on the difficult Hershey lay out and finished 3^rd (Kyle), 6^th (Pannulla), 8^th (Owen), 12^th (Ward) and 18^th (Leonard) overall (1-3-4-7-11 in team scoring). No other team since has had more than three finishers in the top twenty overall and no one has come even remotely close to matching four in the top twelve[8].

The individual race was an exciting rematch between the big three from Lehigh. I watched the race on PCN in my friend Matt Sidell’s basement (I forced him into it, he was never very into running), and was naturally convinced Paul Springer was going to win. He had just run 14:47 so for a brief moment he was like a god to me[9]. But in a battle to the finish Jason Weller outdueled Paul to the line to win by two seconds 15:04 to 15:06 on the difficult Hershey course. It was the first of a pair of fantastic upsets for Weller and my first piece of evidence that Weller was one of the most gutsy and clutch runners in Pennsylvania history.

This state meet was also famous for the way District One dominated. There are twelve districts in the state of Pennsylvania, with District One the largest, containing most of the suburban schools outside of Philadelphia. District Seven (the WPIAL) is the biggest out west and District Three is the biggest in the middle of the state. Previously, District One had been strongest, but District Three and sometimes District Seven often put up a strong fight for the top spots. However, we witnessed history in 2006.

The senior and junior class from District One was so strong, no sophomores medaled in the meet, the only time I have ever seen this happen. The top four individuals and teams in the race belonged to district one. District One also had 19 of the 25 medalists and 34 of the top 50. As previously mentioned, they grabbed six of the top seven team places. It was a dominating performance that, for a variety of reasons, will likely never be duplicated[10].

…

Back in 2006, there were no regional qualifying meets for the team national championships, called Nike Team Nationals. Instead, individuals were selected based on national and regional rankings. Coatesville’s impressive showings at Districts, States and a post states Last Gasp meet garnered enough attention to receive a national bid[11].

PA’s hopes were high for the historic team from Coatesville as they trekked across the country to Portland, Oregon for the big dance. This was the third edition of Nike Team Nationals: the previous two champions, York from Illinois and Saratoga Springs from New York were top flight, well known national programs. In fact, the York boys, a favorite for the national title in 2006, even had a movie made about their program called “The Long Green Mile”.

Coatesville, however, was not intimidated by the competition and rode a 22 point spread to a 126-148 upset win in the national championship! Kyle Dawson led the way finishing 8^th overall, followed by Sean Ward (20^th), Owen Dawson (21^st), Tom Pannulla (32^nd) and then Jason Leonard (45^th) in the field of 20 teams (140 runners). The win capped off a truly remarkable, record setting 2006 season for Coatesville and, in my opinion, proved they were the greatest cross country team in state history.

Beyond all the incredibly impressive performances, there are a few underappreciated elements of the championship run. For starters, Kyle Dawson, the team’s front-runner, had a fantastic season. Overshadowed by the jaw-dropping marks of Springer and Weller, Dawson took out the pace hard and still ran to third at states, not to mention a 14:58 at Districts (still 4^th best ever at the Lehigh course). He was Coatesville’s number one man every race and delivered at nationals with an 8^th place finish against the country’s best competition. Secondly, this Coatesville team had a bit of a drop off to their 6-7. Their 6-7 was solid, but there was enough of a gap that an injury or a bad day from anyone in the top five would make this team a lot more vulnerable. But their top five guys consistently delivered and never faltered under pressure.

I was spoiled to start my career watching a national championship squad. I assumed we would have teams competing for national titles every year. I never realized just how special this team was until it was too late.

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[1] My friend Luke Munyan likes to mockingly point out the fact that Lehigh’s coach called it: “The Best Cross Country Course in the World”

[2] It was almost like the Globo Gym Purple Cobras in Dodgeball. I’m still stunned they didn’t have anyone named Blade, Lazer or Blazer.

[3] Springer was an underrated miler. He won two indoor state titles, set the state meet record and ran 4:08 converted for 1600m the night after his state record run at outdoor nationals in the 2 mile. Kid was fast.

[4] For perspective, I PRed and ran 19:12 that day, meaning Springer beat me by 4 minutes and 25 seconds! So I would not be over exaggerating if I told you he beat me by a mile.

[5] 36 guys cracked 16 minutes that day, including our top guy, Joe Dorris, who ran 15:52. Another three ran 16 flat and Mike Mahoney ran 16:04 as a freshman which I remember absolutely blew my mind.

[6] In 2013, the fastest district one race since 2006, only 6 teams broke the 16:20 average. The team depth in 2006 for District One is unlike anything that has been seen before or since.

[7] For example, Jason Weller and Paul Springer had counted at Districts in the team scoring ahead of Dawson, but neither of their teams had been in the top six and advanced to states. Therefore, although they qualified individually, they were not scored among the team totals. So Dawson was 3^rd overall, but 1^st in team scoring.

[8]In fact only Henderson in 2013 had three in the top 20 (Russell, Barchet and Knapp), other than that nobody has gotten more than two. Unless you count North Hills in 2010 who had three guys in the top 11 at states, but didn’t qualify as a team for the state championships. We’ll get to them.

[9] Here’s a story you can make fun of me for. In middle school and high school my friends and I often would go to a local park called Mondauk and play sports like football, basketball and Frisbee. After Paul Springer ran 14:47, I cut a yellow U out of construction paper and tried to tape it onto one of my dark blue shirts. I called it my Paul Springer jersey. To be fair I liked Weller better because he had blonde hair like me, but the Unionville jerseys were cooler and easier to duplicate.

[10] One of those reasons: thanks to rain, the District Three championships got pushed back to the Monday before the state championships, giving athletes competing in that meet just 6 days to recover and run back to back meets on the difficult Hershey course. Only Vince McNally was able to survive and get District 3 a medalist. The first of many grievances I have with that set up. Plus D1 only sends five teams instead of six nowadays.

[11] It’s a bummer they didn’t have a regional meet set up that year because PA was loaded with talent overshadowed by Coatesville. West Chester Henderson scored just 86 points at the state meet, a very respectable total, and had three incredibly talented front runners with an improving 4-5. Strath Haven, who beat Henderson at districts, had a fantastic top four (all sub 16) behind Rob Speare (15:26 at Lehigh and 14th at states) they were just missing a #5. Even defending champions West Chester East were impressive that season.