Footlocker and NXN Recap

by Jarrett Felix

After celebrating Thanksgiving, eating a lot of food and playing some football, I've had plenty of time to think about the weekends post season action and to appreciate the efforts of our PA talents. In case you haven't been able to read my mind and you are interested in some of those thoughts, I've decided to make a post to help you out.

Footlocker Northeast Regional
After many long seasons and gutsy races, the cross country season ended for all but one of PA's athletes competing at Van Cortlandt Park. Jake Brophy punched his second straight ticket to the Footlocker Championships, finishing 2nd in the region and clocking a time of 15:27.2 which (if memory serves) places him #2 in the last decade worth of marks from the course behind Mark Dennin. Brophy is also the first two time Footlocker Finalist from PA since the late 80s based on the lists I've found in my research and could potentially become our first top 10 finisher at Nats this millennium if he has a strong race in two weeks.

Brophy was focused all season on this race (and more importantly, the national championships which he has said he wants to win), consistently mentioning this dream from his interviews dating back to August. Apparently, Brophy ran fairly reserved in the early part of the race and used a strong finish to work back through the pack and take 2nd by utilizing his strong finishing kick. It's unclear whether he was being cautious because he making absolutely sure to qualify or if he was just a bit outmatched by all the out of state talent. If you believe in the first theory, that sets him up nicely to make a big jump at Balboa Park.

Interestingly, from what I can tell, this was the first time all year Brophy did not lead the majority of a race and that must have been a pleasant, but difficult, change for him. It was probably a very strong practice race for him headed into Footlocker Nationals where he will be facing an overwhelming amount of talent (Hunter, Tamango, etc). Right now, Jake is chasing history. With a strong performance like this, a top 10 finish at nationals would put him in the conversation for top runner of the last decade in PA (Tony Russell holds the crown for now). A top three to finish in Cali would be truly incredible and would sky rocket him up the all time rankings as well.

But for now, let's appreciate a fantastic effort from Brophy, yet again making the state proud. Sure, a lot of us projected he would make it back to this point, but so much can go wrong and nothing is ever guaranteed in this sport. Major props to Jake for coming through and earning another golden ticket. Good luck at Nationals.

As for the rest of the crew, PA managed to add two more finishers in the top 15 and another 3 (technically 4) in the top 26. Nathan Henderson grabbed 26th in his first post-states championship, Seth Slavin took 23rd overall (higher than he finished at states) and finished as the 4th Junior overall, Jake Susalla continued an impressive stretch run to the year in 22nd and Dalton Hengst (goes to school in Maryland I believe, but lives in PA, similar to 2008 Phil Wood) took home 24th (the top sophomore in the race). This was an excellent race for all of these guys, especially considering we have some underclassmen in this group. Slavin has now had two of his best ever races on this course at this meet which makes him a sleeper for 2016.

PA's #3 man Nick Wolk finished off a truly remarkable career in 14th overall. Wolk barely cracked the top 50 at states and the top 100 at regionals in 2014, but a year later he finished 1st at WPIALs, 4th at states and 14th at Van Cortlandt, breaking 16 minutes on the course. Quite the rise for the Senior who I believe is headed to Pittsburgh next fall, hopefully ready to continue his meteoric rise.

In the dreaded 11th spot was PA's two time AA XC State Champion, Dominic Hockenbury who will be at home in two weeks despite running a jaw dropping 15:38.5. Don't quote me on this, but that might be the fastest time run by someone who did not qualify for Footlocker on this course. It certainly is faster than a variety of guys who have qualified in recent years and right in the mix with many of the top individuals over the years. Hockenbury apparently took out the pace early in a very quick 4:40ish clocking at the mile. He couldn't hold on to close out the race and set the stage for fast times across the board in the meet. Hockenbury had been, with all due respect to his competition this season, running his races completely alone, breaking away from the field early and never looking back. It's possible that a little extra seasoning and racing against competitors who could push him or wake him up a bit could have helped him prepare for the challenge he would face at Foot Locker, as this meet was unlike anything he had raced all season. Regardless of this frustrating finish, Hock is still a truly remarkable XC talent who has earned a lot of respect with his grind it out tactics. Although he is "only" a AA runner, I think he has proven to many around the state that he is truly one of the best talents in all classifications and has helped get the division some well deserved respect.

Props to other top 50 finishers, Eddie Goebel from LaSalle, Bryce Descavish from Central Cambria and Matt D'Aquila from Lower Merion. I'm really impressed by the way this trio was able to handle the extra weeks of training an end their season on a high note.

Also worth noting, Mike Morris finished 4th out of freshmen in the freshman/sophomore race while Kyle Hontz from Horsham surprised with a 5th place finish, one spot behind the phenom from Hershey. Nicholas Bower of Parkland was the 11th frosh to cross the line. Meanwhile, sophomores Ryan Campbell from CRN and Jacob Underwood from Wilson both cracked 17 minutes on the course to finish 2nd and 3rd in their grade. Both runners capped off magical stretch runs to their seasons, particularly Campbell who has some nice history on his side for the future. His brother finished in the top 10 at regionals in 2010 and CRN has produced 3 FL qualifiers since 2005.

Nike Northeast Regional
For the first time in meet history, a PA team won the Nike Northeast Regional! The Christian Brothers Academy dynasty was defeated at Bowdoin Park by the AAA state champions Downingtown West, helping the Whippets clinch their first NXN birth. When they head out to Oregon, they will be in legitimate contention for a top 5 team spot, the highest finish since 2012's O'Hara squad.

West made a huge statement at this meet. After articles from this site and others drooled over the team's top 3, DTW's #4 and #5 men stood up and took notice. Ryan Barton and Ben Ryherd finished 36th and 39th overall (31st and 34th team scoring) both clockign sub 16:50 times and making strong surges over the second half of the race. The pair beat a variety of top fifty finishers from the state championship and helped keep the West spread at just 46 seconds despite the fact that they had the 7th overall finisher. For Barton, it was an impressive story of redemption after he was left off the state championship squad earlier this month. He did not hang his head, but instead trained and raced with a renewed passion which gives them a nice lift in depth at the back end of the scorers. Of course, Ryherd's consistency can't be overlooked here either. He has now delivered three straight times on three of the state's biggest stages and three very different courses/circumstances to ensure that the team was solid at the #5 spot. What a fantastic season from this guy who has been arguably the team's most consistent piece dating back to Oakbourne Relays.

It's worth mentioning that the team's top 3 did still deliver. Sophomore Josh Hoey took 7th place overall and finished with a mark of 16:02.5. Henry Sappey took home 10th overall, a huge improvement on his 2014 performance and a clutch mark in the team standings. And although Jaxson Hoey had a tough second half of the race and finished in just 22nd overall, he still hung on well enough to give the team 3 scorers in the top 20 overall: only 6th place LaSalle Running Club had 3 top 20 finishers (their 4-5 were in 102nd and 108th team scoring). So realistically, out of the top competitors in the field, DT West had the best top 3, despite the small hiccup. They also had the best 5 man in the entire meet (Ryherd would have been at least #4 on any other squad). In other words, they were firing on all cylinders. So I suppose it's not a surprise that they won by 43 points.

Nationals should be an interesting test. I can't speak to how strong the region was this year compared to year's past, but I can tell you this DT West team is very strong. I think they are built nicely to do something similar to what O'Hara did in 2012 and potentially even place higher if things break right around them. It's worth noting that O'Hara had the advantage of incredibly sloppy race conditions to help even the playing field a bit and allow them to out tough their competition and grab their top spot. But the point still stands: this DT West team has the talent to pull off something like that.

I'm preparing the research now to have an all-time type discussion about this team .... but let's not get ahead of ourselves. We still are lucky enough to watch these guys work their magic once more at Nationals. That's definitely something to be thankful for this holiday season.

Something else to be thankful for: Kent Hall. The Unionville Senior stole the show at NXNE, taking top PA honors ahead of the 3-4-6 finishers from states and the independent league champion when he grabbed 6th overall and punched his ticket to Portland (I believe he was the last individual qualifier). Believe it or not the most popular tweet in our twitter account's history was the following: "Kent Hall" and that was literally the whole quote. So I think the running community really appreciates the work this kid did for us at Wappinger Falls.

But that still won't stop me from spelling it out. It's my understanding that 2015 was Hall's first ever season of cross country. He had never competed at Lehigh, Hershey or Wappinger Falls prior to districts, states and regionals but he still earned 8th, 11th and now 6th overall in each of those meets. Yes he finished higher at regionals than he did at districts and states. That's pretty unprecedented in my mind. Especially for a kid with no XC experience.

And let's be honest for a second. It's not like Hall's track season made everyone stand up and start buying his stock as a sleeper pick for 2015. He ran strong times of 4:26 and 9:43, but those were far from the flashy marks of many of his XC peers from this season. Hall did not get any slice of the ET top 50 rankings and I don't think he even got an honorable mention in that section. Plus he didn't even get any love in the NXN previews (although to be fair, I had no idea he was racing, but would I have picked him to make Nats? I really doubt it). Props Kent Hall. Congrats on a fantastic season.

Hall's epic day kind of stole the show from the other would be stand out, Ryan James from Cardinal O'Hara. James finished 15th at Regionals, higher than he finished at states and 4th among PA athletes in the field. His mark was just 4 seconds off what Sami Aziz ran in 2012 when he qualified for Nats as an individual and faster than the time Brad Miles ran when he qualified in 2008. It was a huge day from RJ who has now quietly put together two straight years of excellent performances at this meet, adding to a nice James family tradition at Wappinger Falls. He also led O'Hara to #2 PA team honors yet again at regionals.

Nick Dahl also added a top 20 finish for the great state of PA, finished just behind Ryan in the meet. Although the independent state champ may have been hoping to contend for a national bid in this one, it's worth noting the kid is still just a Junior and likely just ran the best XC race of his career at Wappinger this Saturday. He's got a real knack for running 3200m on the track and, considering he's roughly 9 seconds ahead of where he was this time last year (he ran 9:11ish prior to NXN last fall) and is set to make the sophomore to junior jump on the track ... could we see this guy take a shot at the 8:50 barrier this year? I'm getting ahead of myself, but I'm just trying to clarify that Dahl is definitely a name to watch this year. He's had a strong XC year no doubt.

Also a very nice run from Justin Yurchak who finished off a killer XC season with a 30th place showing at NXNE. I like that he and a few of his Hempfield teammates came out to compete at this meet. They had a great season, particularly their senior leader.

And I suppose it's worth noting that Josh Hoey and Sappey had huge days as individuals, not even factoring in the team performances. Josh ran about a second faster than his brother did as a soph and Sappey joins him as one of 9 guys from PA who have gone sub 16:10 on this course. I believe only Henderson and DT West have put two guys in the top 10 in the same race at Bowdoin (Henderson took 1-2 in 2012 with Russell and Barchet).

Congrats to our National qualifiers! And perhaps just as importantly, congrats to the guys who trained hard for the extra weeks and finished their seasons/careers at one of the regional meets! It takes an incredible amount of heart and determination to put yourself out there and go to one of these meets and I really respect those who have put it out there in the name of PA XC.

Sure it's cliche, but I'll just say it. PA Don't Play.

Let's kill it on the West Coast.