A State Meet Recap

by Jarrett Felix

Recap
One Mile
Mackey took things out hard to start the race and opened up a solid lead on the field. Once I saw Griff at the front, I was keeping an eye out for where Peretta was going to be as a chaser, but I actually completely missed him in the lead pack the first time they passed (Dom was 9th at the mile, 7 seconds back of Mackey). The WPIAL had plenty of power out front: at the mile they had 7 of the top 9 runners, including three Winchester Thurston runners and two from Sewickley Academy, both squads looking for the state title. Northeast Bradford had a nice pack, but their pack was reasonably far behind their opposition. They were sitting in a distant third overall. Sitting way back, almost forgotten by people like myself, were the boys from Camp Hill, who sat back in 6th place overall with no runners in the top 40.

Two Mile
Mackey was in complete control of the race by two miles, leading by 11 seconds over his next closest competitor. He still looked extremely strong and although he was bobbing a bit form-wise, there was little doubt who would win the race. Moving strong from one to two miles was Noah Curtin from Mercyhurst Prep who moved into second place heading into the hills and looked strong enough to even potentially put on a strong chase. Joining the lead pack as well was District 10 champion (over Curtin) Connor Walsh from Cambridge Springs who was now running alongside Masterman's Joe Previdi. Peretta was up to 6th, but he wasn't chewing up the gap to the lead pack, meaning he would end up in the dog fight for the top medal spots.

Meanwhile, at the 2 mile mark it was clear to me that WT did not have Shaun Hay on the course for the race, opening the door for another squad to beat them. Again, I missed most of the Camp Hill guys (although Leslie was now up to 14th), NEB seemed like they had a strong pack but it looked to me like Sewickley Academy was in the driver seat. Freshman Henry Meakem was running extremely well (sitting in 22nd at 2 miles) and the team standings showed Sewickley with a 27 point lead over NEB and a 43 point advantage over Camp Hill (now up to 4th).

Finish
At the finish, Mackey had an opportunity to celebrate his first state championship. He ran 16:05 to take the victory (the first time that the A champ was over 16 minutes) and continued the streak of at least one junior winning a state championship among the three XC races. It was a purposely executed race plan and a strong, fearless run. The guy knows how to run this Hershey course.

Meanwhile, Noah Curtin was able to take 2nd fairly easily as well, keeping the silver medals in the family. His brother Sebastian was second last year at this meet and now Noah, as just a junior, has matched his brother's mark. It was a nice moment for the family as it looked like Seb was on site to support his brother. This marks three straight seasons with a top 3 finish at states for the Curtin family and is particularly impressive when you consider that fact that Noah was second at districts last week and ran a roughly 20 second PR on one of the toughest courses in the state. It's another clutch performance for Mercyhurst Prep and the Curtins.

Joe Previdi lived up to expectations with an excellent 3rd place and Connor Walsh from Cambridge Springs ran fantastically to take 4th. Peretta put on a strong finish to get 5th, his best ever finish at the state championships and then Camp Hill got their first finisher in 6th. Leslie came on extremely strong over the final stretch, moving all the way to 6th overall with a strong kick. He beat Hunter Crawley and helped pull Will Greene from Delone to a well deserved top 10 finish at states.

Winchester Thurston got three guys in the medals, one more than they had last straight season, with Tristan Forsythe leading the cause in 17th, making up some strong ground over the final stretch.

As I stood at the beginning of the straightaway, I had no idea who had won the state championship. In the end, after all the math had been added up, it was Camp Hill, with three runners in the top 26, who earned the state gold. Sewickley Academy grabbed silver for the second year and a row and NEB edged out Winchester Thurston for 3rd on a 6th man tie-breaker. The top 4 teams all finished within just 17 points. Rounding out the top five was Seneca, who ran an excellent race to finally jump up out of 6th place. Donovan Myers ran an excellent race to finish 9th overall to help seal it.

Analysis
It's funny how even in a sport like Cross Country, we can still leave races debating who was "a better team". The fact of the matter is, ultimately injuries, off days and bad luck are part of the game and Camp Hill managed to navigate those waters and grab the state title. They are very deserving champions and deserve some serious credit for their achievements this year. CH had two soccer players on their squad that, according to the team's post race interview, rarely practice with the XC squad, meaning they probably aren't getting in the running-centric training many other top runners were getting. One of those soccer players was Cooper Leslie who made a big jump from borderline state medalist to sure fire top 10 pick in 2015. This top three held their own on the course with three runners in the top 26 overall and then rounded out their efforts in the back end with a strong enough run from Shank and Dorsey to take the title. They took things out conservatively and really had to trust their plan to come together, passing three teams in the final mile, a stretch Mackey pointed out in his interview is very hard to pass people. All season, this team had been lurking, ready to steal the crown from the western teams if the moment presented itself and, when it did, they pounced. Congrats to Camp Hill on the win.

Of course there will naturally be "what if" talks as Sewickley's Ben Clouse suffered an injury on the course and faded out of the team's scoring five. Similarly, it seems Winchester Thurston lost Shaun Hay, an early season front runner, to an injury as well, costing them some precious points in their title defense. However, I would not like to focus on the "what ifs" given that we will never be re-running the 2015 XC State Championships. First, I'd like to say you have to respect the gutsy efforts of Clouse to try and finish things up for Sewickley. Despite clearly laboring over the final stretch, the kid tried to bring it home, knowing his team needed every point. After the race, he seemed pretty hobbled and I'd imagine this likely will be his race, which is a shame because I would have liked to see Mackey and Clouse test themselves at Footlocker Regionals as Juniors to get experience for their senior season.

And it's worth noting this Sewickley program has really blossomed over the past two years. I hadn't heard much about them while covering the sport, but in the past two years, they have produced two WPIAL titles, two runner-up squads, an individual state champion and a variety of medalists or near medalists. One of those medalists was freshman Henry Meakem who finished a very impressive 24th at the state championships, a dramatic improvement from his previous trip to Hershey in September. Overall, after graduating a good portion of last year's squad, I really doubted Sewickley's ability to rally back in 2015 and contend with these other top schools. However, they rebuilt and came back just as strong. Now, headed into 2016, they return all seven guys and will look for that elusive first gold.

 Individually, this race was the Griffin Mackey show. Assuming his hamstring is ok, he should be a fun watch at Footlocker Regionals (I imagine he is going because I believe he went last year and hasn't been afraid of travel in 2015). This kid is a great hill runner and fearless on the course. He went out and earned the title by keeping things honest and few could keep pace. A title defense in 2016 won't be a cake walk as two other top five finishers will be back next season, including the runner up Noah Curtin and one of the break out stars of 2015 Connor Walsh, both from District 10.

I was very impressed with Devan Cavanaugh from Coudersport, who took 10th overall. He was 15th last year, but he looked like he would have a hard time matching that finish in 2015. Yet he got out hard and kept his nose in it out front and it paid off with a 9th place finish. Gannon Leech took 11th overall for Shady Side, another runner who  seems to bring his "A" game for the Hershey hills.

Will Davies from Riverside ended up being no fluke either as he rolled through his first attempt at the Hershey course to a 12th place finish, a week after rolling at the District 2 Championships. I'm curious what this guy will do come track season.

I'll be saying this a lot, but I really encourage some of the top runners in this field to consider running the Footlocker Regional meet. That goes for the top guys in their respective classes as well as the top guys overall. It's always a good idea to get experience, especially for a race as difficult as the Footlocker Regional championships. Plus, a lot of top A runners won't have a serious indoor season, so the extra month of training won't cut into their next training cycle. I mean I'd love to see someone like Peretta give it another go (although I know he probably should start to set his sights on track).

Take some time off and think about it because you have to be committed if you want to run well. And of course you want to make sure you are healthy and won't be risking any serious injuries or mental burn outs. But if you think you feel strong enough to go on, I really suggest it. It's a fun experience and a great chance to show the rest of the country how strong PAXC can be.