PTXC
The surprise of the season thus far likely came at the much anticipated PTXC Invitational. While we (or at least I), was expecting to see CB West's boys squad in attendance, they were absent from the weekends proceedings, leaving the door open for Cumberland Valley to prove itself as district 3 favorites. But the boys from Hershey had other plans.
In all, 24 boys stopped the clock under 17 minutes, none of which were wearing Hershey jerseys. But it didn't matter. Behind Peter D'Amico's 26th place finish, Hershey rocked a spread under 20 seconds and won the PA team title by 10 points over Dallas and won the AAA title by 31 points over Cumberland Valley. They also beat Easton and CRN who were among the top 10 teams in the state in 2014.
The performance is incredible, in part, because Hershey lost its best two runners last year (Demko and Sponaugle) from a team that didn't qualify for states out of district 3. It's impressive that they have turned things around and now look better in 2015. Cumby and Hempfield are still my favorites for the district title spots, but Hershey now jumps among the favorites from a virtual unranked position. And they still have room to grow with a few freshmen and sophomores among their top 7 and the JV individual champ at this meet, freshman Patrick Gavazzi.
Meanwhile, Dallas, although they didn't get the team title, looked very strong as well. Jack Zardecki continues to impress as a sophomore, finishing 14th in this one to provide a strong low stick. Junior Jason Culp and sophomore Adam Borton also finished among the top 40 finishers overall. It's amazing to see this young team continuing to improve and, at this stage, I think it's hard to deny they are the favorites for the AA state title. Their top 5 is three sophomores, a freshman and a junior. This should be fun.
Cumberland Valley and CRN were the next teams to finish for PA and both had solid days. These are two of the most consistent programs in the state and both teams look pretty solid to start the season. I'm really liking this CR North squad. They have killer depth with a top 7 all in the top 60 team places in this one and Heintz as a potentially dangerous front runner.
Ephrata's top 3 were phenomenal in this one and my preseason sleeper pick was almost in the mix for top PA honors as well after Lefever (huge day), Becker and Hart all cracked the top 20 overall. However, the gap to 4-5 was too big to put them in the top group of teams. Quite impressed with Easton's ability to remain a top team even after some key graduations (most notably of course Colin Abert). They can definitely come out of D11 this year. Mechanicsburg had a strong day as well, without Thomas Nicewicz, a 1:55 800m man. That would be worth roughly a 70 point swing in team score for these guys by my math, putting them up there with Ephrata, Easton, etc.
Individually, it was a fantastic race with Hockenbury continuing to be a dominant force in PA XC. He laid down a 15 second victory over a very strong runner in Zach Seiger and bettered his time from a year ago. Seiger took care of business for 2nd and looked good in his season debut, earning top AAA honors.
Kevin Lapsansky, another returning state medalist, is ready to step out of Abert's massive shadow in 2015. He looked excellent in his invitational opener. Then came perhaps the individual surprise of the day in Zach Lefever. He ran 16:19 to finish right with Lapsansky and 6th place finisher Tucker Desko. Lefever wasn't even my top ranked individual from his own team in the preseason, as I thought Nate Becker, a top 50 finisher at states, might be ready for a breakout run. Instead Lefever, making the junior jump, steps up big and really impressed. Connor McMenamin and Seth Slavin, two of the state's best sophs a year ago, also placed in the top 10 in this one. Joe Maguire, Jack DiCintio, Morgan Cupp, Jack Zardecki and Nate Becker rounded out the top 15.
And that was just the gold race! In the blue race, Byrce Descavish ran a 16:32 for gold, just faster than Maguire's 11th place time in the faster section. Bryce now has had two impressive victories to start the season (this second one coming by 15 seconds over Stoga stand out PJ Murray) and seems like a potential top 5 man at the state championships in 2015. A pair of sophs from Milton Area placed third and fourth in the Blue race, both running strong times that would have put them in the mix for top 25 in the faster race. In the end, a strong top 3 earned Elizabethtown the team trophy in this event, beating out district 3 small school powerhouse Trinity, who was second.
Red, White and Blue
For those of you keeping score at home, that's a +5 for Evan Hatton in the prediction contest. Hatton calls the upset with Nick Wolk winning RWB and Wolk delivers emphatically with a dominant victory, the only runner to break 16 minutes on the day. Wolk, who was solid in XC last year for Peters Township, earning a top 50 finish at states, suddenly catapults himself into position as the AAA WPIAL championship favorite. And if you are WPIAL champ, history tells us you have an excellent shot at a top 5 finish at states. It's early (very early) but Wolk looks like he is in great shape. And of course the RWB winners have a pretty good resume at states with guys like Jaskowak, Hebda, McGoey and Martin earning victories here with Hebda, Jaskowak and I believe Gunzenhauser standing out as guys who had their breakout race at this meet and held it all the way through to states (or nationals).
The other big news from the AAA race: North Allegheny is still really good. The defending state champs didn't take long to return to top form, led by the breakout performance of Marc Migliozzi, who put his nose right in the thick of things at the front of the race, ending up a tight 4th behind only Wolk, Peretta and Kolor. That's strong company. Migs was followed by sub 4:20 man Jacob Stupak, who took 5th, and then a pack of runners at 10-11 essentially clinched it. It's amazing to me how the Tigers continue to turn over the roster and remain incredibly strong. The championship squad did not even feature a scoring performance from Zach Dieble (in the top 60 or so at states in 2014) or TJ Robinson (one of the best freshmen in the state last year) who were (are?) both projected to be studs this year. I still think CB West may be better (and of course DT West), but North Allegheny is putting themselves in the state title conversation once again.
Mt Lebanon was a clear and emphatic #2 in this race, placing their top 4 in the top 18 as well, but it wasn't enough to catch the Tigers. Lebo's Ian Harris led the way for the second straight week with a 12th place overall finish. Then it was Seneca Valley who impressed their way to the third place AAA WPIAL team in the race, helped by Mike Kolor's 3rd place finish, but also benefiting from Grant McCarthy's clutch run in 25th. Norwin, Canon-Mac, Hampton and USC still loom as potential challengers, but Seneca Valley made a big statement this weekend about who the favorite is for the 3rd state spot in the always difficult WPIAL field. Nice run also by Cathedral Prep, who had an excellent pack performance. I believe they run out of District 10 and should be very competitive within those borders.
Don't think I forgot about defending "A" state champs Winchester Thurston. I ranked WiT in my Top 10 preseason teams, regardless of division, and I think their third place finish in this invitational really helped back up the hype. Their top four, just like Lebo and NA, placed among the top 25 team scorers, led by an excellent performance from Shaun Hay. Considering Hay appears to be fully healthy this year, it's not unreasonable to think that Winchester Thurston could have three runners in the top 10 overall at the "A" state championships (Loevner and Littman both return after top 10 finishes in 2014). Forsythe at the #4 spot is a real talent and Gordon Pollock has already shown great improvement at the 5. To hang with the AAA squads, they will need to shrink down that spread, but Winchester Thurston did not really come on last year until the final meets (they didn't win districts) and they pulled a few runners out of nowhere to round out that top five as well.
In the AA/A race, WPIAL rivals and defending district champs, Sewickley Academy made a statement: we aren't going anywhere. Griffin Mackey and Ben Clouse (fantastic race out of him) were the top two "A" runners in the race and both ran faster than the entire Winchester Thurston pack. I believe on Peretta had a faster time out of "A" competitors. Sewickley earned the team title over Saegertown (a very good D10 team that ran strong in this one), but I think they understand they will have to continue to improve to beat WT. Pollack, WT's 5th, ran about a minute faster than Sewickley's #4. And Pollack finished over a minute behind his team's #4.
Grove City ran with a strong pack in the AA race and ended up running away with the title over Beaver Area and Quaker Valley. Grove City did not have anyone under 17:30 (they lost Benka and Budnik who were two of their biggest hitters), but 5 in the top 15 and 7 in the top 22 is tough to beat. Beaver's Sean Rendar and Riley Lamison had top 10 finishes as did Quaker Valley's Zach Skolnekovich (who finished 1st).
Individually, beyond Wolk's dominant victory, Zach Skolnekovich ended with the second fastest time of the day. He battled it out with Griffin Mackey, another top WPIAL talent, and came out on top with a 16:01 to Mackey's 16:05. Mackey was barely edged out on time by Peretta in the AAA race. Speaking of Peretta, he is off to a much faster start on the trails than he was in 2014, which could be big news. Although he couldn't hang with Wolk, Peretta ran what I believe is a massive 5k PR and beat a lot of proven talents. On barely any racing in 2014, he was still able to win the "A" district title and place top 10 in the state, so this year he may be able to take the all important leap into state championship contention. With the top two returners within district borders (Mackey and Will Loevner, who placed 23rd in AAA), Peretta will know his competition well. Meanwhile Skolnekovich, the defending district champ as just a sophomore last year, looks like he once again is in fantastic shape. He is a heavy favorite to win another WPIAL title (fastest AA time by 35 seconds ahead of Pfiel) and might be the best hope at challenging Hockenbury in AA. I think I've said that about a few guys now, but if I'm truly thinking about it, Skolnekovich may be the best shot. I'll probably change my mind in two minutes when I get to Forest Hills ...
In AAA, Casey Conboy from Baldwin followed up his Gateway victory with a strong 6th place finish. Mark Provenzo of Franklin Regional also had a strong breakthrough with a 9th place finish, just behind AA stand out from South Fayette Aaron Pfiel. And of course you have to be impressed by the potential for stars in the North Allegheny locker-room as Sam Blechman and Jacob Greco both bested the 16:40 barrier and beat out Lebo's Ian Harris, who earned top 50 honorable mention last weekend after his killer Cal race.
Mt Lebanon was a clear and emphatic #2 in this race, placing their top 4 in the top 18 as well, but it wasn't enough to catch the Tigers. Lebo's Ian Harris led the way for the second straight week with a 12th place overall finish. Then it was Seneca Valley who impressed their way to the third place AAA WPIAL team in the race, helped by Mike Kolor's 3rd place finish, but also benefiting from Grant McCarthy's clutch run in 25th. Norwin, Canon-Mac, Hampton and USC still loom as potential challengers, but Seneca Valley made a big statement this weekend about who the favorite is for the 3rd state spot in the always difficult WPIAL field. Nice run also by Cathedral Prep, who had an excellent pack performance. I believe they run out of District 10 and should be very competitive within those borders.
Don't think I forgot about defending "A" state champs Winchester Thurston. I ranked WiT in my Top 10 preseason teams, regardless of division, and I think their third place finish in this invitational really helped back up the hype. Their top four, just like Lebo and NA, placed among the top 25 team scorers, led by an excellent performance from Shaun Hay. Considering Hay appears to be fully healthy this year, it's not unreasonable to think that Winchester Thurston could have three runners in the top 10 overall at the "A" state championships (Loevner and Littman both return after top 10 finishes in 2014). Forsythe at the #4 spot is a real talent and Gordon Pollock has already shown great improvement at the 5. To hang with the AAA squads, they will need to shrink down that spread, but Winchester Thurston did not really come on last year until the final meets (they didn't win districts) and they pulled a few runners out of nowhere to round out that top five as well.
In the AA/A race, WPIAL rivals and defending district champs, Sewickley Academy made a statement: we aren't going anywhere. Griffin Mackey and Ben Clouse (fantastic race out of him) were the top two "A" runners in the race and both ran faster than the entire Winchester Thurston pack. I believe on Peretta had a faster time out of "A" competitors. Sewickley earned the team title over Saegertown (a very good D10 team that ran strong in this one), but I think they understand they will have to continue to improve to beat WT. Pollack, WT's 5th, ran about a minute faster than Sewickley's #4. And Pollack finished over a minute behind his team's #4.
Grove City ran with a strong pack in the AA race and ended up running away with the title over Beaver Area and Quaker Valley. Grove City did not have anyone under 17:30 (they lost Benka and Budnik who were two of their biggest hitters), but 5 in the top 15 and 7 in the top 22 is tough to beat. Beaver's Sean Rendar and Riley Lamison had top 10 finishes as did Quaker Valley's Zach Skolnekovich (who finished 1st).
Individually, beyond Wolk's dominant victory, Zach Skolnekovich ended with the second fastest time of the day. He battled it out with Griffin Mackey, another top WPIAL talent, and came out on top with a 16:01 to Mackey's 16:05. Mackey was barely edged out on time by Peretta in the AAA race. Speaking of Peretta, he is off to a much faster start on the trails than he was in 2014, which could be big news. Although he couldn't hang with Wolk, Peretta ran what I believe is a massive 5k PR and beat a lot of proven talents. On barely any racing in 2014, he was still able to win the "A" district title and place top 10 in the state, so this year he may be able to take the all important leap into state championship contention. With the top two returners within district borders (Mackey and Will Loevner, who placed 23rd in AAA), Peretta will know his competition well. Meanwhile Skolnekovich, the defending district champ as just a sophomore last year, looks like he once again is in fantastic shape. He is a heavy favorite to win another WPIAL title (fastest AA time by 35 seconds ahead of Pfiel) and might be the best hope at challenging Hockenbury in AA. I think I've said that about a few guys now, but if I'm truly thinking about it, Skolnekovich may be the best shot. I'll probably change my mind in two minutes when I get to Forest Hills ...
In AAA, Casey Conboy from Baldwin followed up his Gateway victory with a strong 6th place finish. Mark Provenzo of Franklin Regional also had a strong breakthrough with a 9th place finish, just behind AA stand out from South Fayette Aaron Pfiel. And of course you have to be impressed by the potential for stars in the North Allegheny locker-room as Sam Blechman and Jacob Greco both bested the 16:40 barrier and beat out Lebo's Ian Harris, who earned top 50 honorable mention last weekend after his killer Cal race.
Forest Hills
Note: Apparently, all times listed online are exactly one minute faster than the actual performances according to our commenters.
Bedford's Will Kachman continues to be dominate here in the early season, with his closest competition coming in house: Zane Baker finished 2nd. It's hard not be impressed by Bedford's 1-2 punch as Kachman is a proven stud and Baker has really come on strong to start this year. However, in the team standings, Bedford had to settle for 5th as local rivals Somerset stole the team title with 158 points, beating St. Joe's by 11. Somerset, a strong team in 2014, looks poised to continue their excellence in 2015, after placing two runners in the top 7 overall in Dom Mazzariello (4th) and Cejay Walker (7th), the later of whom was a big surprise to me as a top 10 finisher. Walker is just a freshman (one of two who placed in the top 7) and Mazz is just a sophomore.
Strong runs were also had by Sam Lenze, who placed 3rd, and Sam Cunkleman, who was 5th. While most of these runners will be shining on the D5-D6 stage, Lenze is from Indiana Area which I believe is in the WPIAL. Lenze had a fantastic WPIAL race a year ago, so keep an eye on him out West.
Note: Apparently, all times listed online are exactly one minute faster than the actual performances according to our commenters.
Bedford's Will Kachman continues to be dominate here in the early season, with his closest competition coming in house: Zane Baker finished 2nd. It's hard not be impressed by Bedford's 1-2 punch as Kachman is a proven stud and Baker has really come on strong to start this year. However, in the team standings, Bedford had to settle for 5th as local rivals Somerset stole the team title with 158 points, beating St. Joe's by 11. Somerset, a strong team in 2014, looks poised to continue their excellence in 2015, after placing two runners in the top 7 overall in Dom Mazzariello (4th) and Cejay Walker (7th), the later of whom was a big surprise to me as a top 10 finisher. Walker is just a freshman (one of two who placed in the top 7) and Mazz is just a sophomore.
Strong runs were also had by Sam Lenze, who placed 3rd, and Sam Cunkleman, who was 5th. While most of these runners will be shining on the D5-D6 stage, Lenze is from Indiana Area which I believe is in the WPIAL. Lenze had a fantastic WPIAL race a year ago, so keep an eye on him out West.
Cherokee
DTW, after a strong dual meet with Henderson, looks like they held out a few key members of their squad at this meet. Most notably, of course, are Jaxson and Josh Hoey (who are healthy and racing in general, as they raced the dual meet) but also Ryan Barton and Shaun Bullock, very capable members of the top 5-7.
If the team is holding back, don't tell Henry Sappey. Hank the Tank won the senior race on New Jersey soild this weekend and, after running a convincing pair of legs at Oakbourne, continues to really impress. And these are still the underdistances, only totaling two miles of racing both weekends (and a dual meet of even less distance). I think Sappey will only get stronger when things are pushed up to 5k.
Props to Ryherd as well. He's penciled in as a #5 guy for this team, but I'd imagine most schools in the state would love to have this guy as a #1. Ben clocked the #15 time of the meet and finished with the third fastest time of PA runners. This DTW team is loaded, with four talents in the current Top 50 rankings, but the difference between being a good team, a great time, or maybe even an all-time team could be Ryherd. He's off to a great start.
Kent Hall continues to excel for Unionville. After an impressive Oakbourne performance, Hall ran under 10 minutes at the Cherokee Invite to place 6th overall on a combined time basis.
As always, I'm sure I missed some top PA performances from around the state, so comment away! Also we got a ton of votes for the Fantasy League, but we have almost no sign ups! Currently, we are looking at a four team league unless more people jump forward. Remember, you can sign up anonymously, just leave a comment on the blog and we will get you involved!
Lastly, Team Rankings will come out Wednesday and the Top 50 will be released on Tuesday. We can maybe start a #Top50Tuesday. Or we could also not do that, but I'm just saying.
Kent Hall continues to excel for Unionville. After an impressive Oakbourne performance, Hall ran under 10 minutes at the Cherokee Invite to place 6th overall on a combined time basis.
As always, I'm sure I missed some top PA performances from around the state, so comment away! Also we got a ton of votes for the Fantasy League, but we have almost no sign ups! Currently, we are looking at a four team league unless more people jump forward. Remember, you can sign up anonymously, just leave a comment on the blog and we will get you involved!
Lastly, Team Rankings will come out Wednesday and the Top 50 will be released on Tuesday. We can maybe start a #Top50Tuesday. Or we could also not do that, but I'm just saying.
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