When people think of Central Bucks East, they naturally jump to Jake Brophy. It’s a fair jump to make. In the past three seasons, Brophy has finished in the top 10 at XC states three times with two state titles and two footlocker championships. He has amassed three indoor state individual medals with an additional two in the relays. Plus, he added two individual and one relay medal at Shippensburg’s track. He’s arguably the best talent we’ve seen in PA this year.
But I’m sure if you asked Jake, he’d be quick to sing the praises of his teammates. This is a deep squad. One that qualified two different relays for the state championships during indoors. One that qualified for the state championships in XC out of the most difficult district in Pennsylvania. And one that put together three straight seasons with sub 8 3200m relays.
However, the story of the 2015-2016 seasons doesn’t start with any of these accomplishments. In fact, it starts with a race that occurred before many of East’s varsity stand outs were even in high school.
In the fall of 2014, the CB East Cross Country team was preparing for the District One Championships at Lehigh. If the boys squad finished in the top 5, they would secure a spot in the state championships at Hershey, returning to a course that they had excelled at just a few weeks earlier in the Foundation Invitational. At the Suburban One Continental Championship, East had finished with 7 runners at 17:22 or faster. Their five scorers averaged just south of 16:30. It was a strong performance, but not enough to convince so called experts that they were even in the state qualifying discussion.
But the bloggers don’t decide the outcome of the races. That’s for the runners to decide. And on race day, CB East put themselves in a position to contend. They dropped their average to about 16:24 and got individual state qualifying performances from Jake Brophy and Senior, Connor Sands. Their team average was the 4th best in the race, but when the final standings were revealed, it was determined that East had missed out on the 5th qualifying spot by just 11 points to Downingtown West.
“We were pissed,” explained a source close to the team, “The seniors were especially disappointed as they were only 11 points off from DT West in 5th. Our varsity seven generally had a good day but they were hellbent on making it to Hershey that year.”
Moments of hardship in sport can stick with you. Sometimes it’s tougher to live with the defeat than to enjoy success. So a year later, CB East came back with vengeance. “We knew we had to get top five, with Jake having been especially passionate about reaching the goal.” Brophy had attended the state meet each of the previous two seasons, but this year he wanted to pack the van full of friends and teammates. It would be a hard journey with perennial powers Council Rock North and Henderson taking up two of the five spots every season. Division rivals CB West returned a stacked squad and Downingtown West addedthe Hoey brothers. In addition, contending squads Spring Ford and Owen J. Roberts looked very strong in the early season and loomed as potential state qualifying sleepers.
East needed to turn it up a notch. They had Jake at the helm to set the tone and to ensure the rest of his squad was essentially racing 4 on 5 at the big meets, but the real x-factor was a group of 14 year olds. “Remember these names” Jake Brophy said in a post state interview with TheRealTrain, “David Endres, Cade Sands, Cole Sands. You’ll hear them again.” At the Suburban One Continental Championships, the three talented freshmen each broke 17 minutes with Endres running a blazing 16:31. They threw everything they had at CB West for the league title and, although they came up short, they had a tremendous race, building confidence headed into the district championships.
The return to Lehigh was a nerve racking experience. Overall, the conditions and race strategy made for a slower day so the times weren’t quite as quick as they had been at leagues. East had put 6 varsity runners under 17 minutes the previous week, but were now down to just 4. In addition, there was a tremendous amount of pressure on the freshmen of this team and, on the big stage for the first time, they had their fair share of struggles. As a result, the team thought they had missed out on state qualifying for a second straight season.
But when the scores were revealed, CB East had snuck into the coveted 5th spot, flipping the script on the 2014 season and punching a ticket to the state championships. Once in Hershey, they finished 8th in the state, jumping Henderson from districts and finishing just 3 points from 6th. Brophy earned a second straight state gold.
Although Brophy and the freshmen were important and noteworthy pieces of the puzzle, qualifying for states would not have been possible without Josh Goetz and Will Schulz. Goetz had been the team’s #2 runner all year, racing to a 16:02 at leagues and adding a critical 21st place finish at districts. That meant he was the 3rd best #2 runner in the district behind only DT West and CB West who each went on to have multiple state medalists. Meanwhile, Will Schulz saved his best race for the most important moment. He dropped a 16:22, some 20 seconds faster than his race a week earlier in better conditions, and placed 45th overall in the district. It was a massive race for Schulz. If he ran a similar time to his mark from Suburbans (as most people in the race did), he would have finished around 70thand CB East would have missed the state championships by about 5 points.
The team placed 20 runners under 18 minutes at districts as what could be described as “a really emotional day.”
But CB East wasn’t done making a name for themselves as a team. During the 2016 indoor track season, East dropped a 10:39 at the Lavino Relays in a race that featured three top ten times in the United States. In the various association meets at Lehigh, it felt like CB East was always in the mix in the distance relays. They had a ton of depth with Brophy and Goetz, but also mid distance stand-outs Louis Kettelberger and Marc Motter. Each week it seemed new stars emerged and the inter squad competition brought out the best in all the athletes.
“There is a good deal of competition to be included on (a relay) so that is motivation enough for most people.” One team member explained. “The indoor DMR was an especially sought after relay to be on, since we medaled almost every time we ran it. Coach Wilson gives chances for everyone to try to prove their worth and is not afraid of experimenting with the 4x800 at dual meets.”
The experimenting certainly paid off. A variety of team members boasted sub 2 minute 800 times and a relay that didn’t include Jake Brophy came within a few feet of an indoor state medal. Later in the day, the team’s DMR finished 6th in the state final with Brophy on the short double from the 3,000m (which he had won). On the team’s website, they listed 180 PRs for the winter season.
As the team transitioned to outdoors, they set their sights on continuing the successes they had found indoors. At the Kiwanis Invitational, they ran 8:01 to take the victory in the 4x8 and qualify for the Penn Relays (where they ran 8:03 in cool conditions without Brophy). At the CB West relays, East finished second in the 4x1600 and cruised to a big win in the DMR.
But beyond the relays, guys were dropping big PRs left and right. Racing against North Penn, Dylan McKeever dropped 12 seconds off his 1600m PR, running 4:44.0. A week later, Russell Curtis dropped 18 seconds off his 800 by dropped to 2:09. Josh Goetz added a 4:26 1600m split and Will Schulz dropped an 11 second PR of 9:47 at the League Championships. Overall, East sent six runners to the conference finals in the 3200 including Josh Goetz, who ran a 9:32 in a loaded District One championship 3200. This balanced out a terrific mid distance squad which qualified for the state championships with a 7:55.70, placing 4th overall.
At states, East ran 7:52.98 in qualifying with fresh legs with 4sub 2 minute splits (including a 1:59.0 for freshman David Endres, a 1:59.2 from Josh Goetz and a 1:55.7 from Brophy). Then, in the state final, East added a couple more PRs as they subbed into the lineup Louis Kettelberger who ran a phenomenal 1:57.4 and lead off leg Marc Motter dropped to 1:58.5. In the span of two days, East put 5 different runners under 2 minutes in the 800.
It was unreal season that redefined expectations for the Patriots. “As a team, we went from 13 guys under 5 in the mile in 2015 to 16 at or under 4:50 in 2016, so ‘impressive’ performances have been changing in meaning.”
And the team isn’t finished. Although they will graduate important team leaders Jake Brophy, Josh Goetz and Tom Jordan, CB East has established an excellent foundation for the future. Most notably, with their unbelievable freshman class.
“I don’t know how or why we were gifted such an outstanding freshman class. They had to be one of the most talented in PA history. The top 5 freshmen all went sub-18. I am very excited for the CB East XC and track future and you bet I will be watching next year!” One of the departing seniors told us. The team also returns Motter and Kettleberger (to pair with freshman Endres) from their sub 2 core as well as their breakout XC star Will Schulz. “Will is one of the XC captains next year and (his 16:22) helped solidify the feeling that East can still have success, even after the Jake Brophy era.”
Although the seniors will be graduating this season and no longer competing in East jerseys, it’s hard to downplay the critical role they played in shaping the team attitude, environment and expectations. These seniors imprinted the importance of working as a team and striving for big goals. They showed their young stars that hard work and determination canlead to results. They re-defined what it means for a performance to be “impressive”.
But it’s not all about the struggle and the grind. At its heart, the sport is about friendship and brotherhood. “We placed emphasis on our goals and encouraged (the younger runners) to stay focused but also have fun, since XC is a depressing sport without camaraderie … Everyone on the team is friendly with one another and seniors definitely don’t see themselves as superiors to underclassmen. Quite a few freshmen and sophomores had roles in the team and were imperative to its success.”
Sure on its surface, running is an individual sport. No one has to pass you the ball or hit you home. But if you dig a little deeper, you will find there is much more to the sport.
Jake Brophy is one of PA’s biggest stars. When the WPIAL guys came on TheRealTrain blog to do their interview, Brophy was probably the most mentioned and revered figure. But last December, when we asked him where qualifying for states with his team in cross country ranked on his list of career achievements, do you remember what he said?
“Definitely at the top. After working for 4 years toward this goal, it was an amazing feeling to finally do it. After the race we actually thought we didn’t make it, but after our name was announced we got so hype.”
“That was a good day.”
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