PA HS XC Top 50: #50-41

by Jarrett Felix

51. Aaron Pfeil, Senior South Fayette (7 AA)

50. Sam Snodgrass, Junior South Fayette (7 AA)

Well readers, you can thank the boys over at South Fayette for  getting you an extra runner on the list as these two were so interchangeable, I decided to bump things up to 51. Snodgrass gets the slight nod here as he’s making that all important sophomore to junior jump (be prepared to read that plenty of times during the next 49 explanations). At WPIALs in AA, Snodgrass finished 4^th and Pfeil finished 6^th, about 8 seconds back from his teammate. Then at states, they turned the tables as Pfeil finished as the top dog with an 8^th place finish at Hershey and Snodgrass took 12^th (this time the two athletes were separated by just 4 seconds). It’s clear these two runners pushed each other to another level during the season and, after another year of solid training, that trend should continue.

On the track, Pfeil really impressed at the WPIAL championships, running 9:38.30 for a 9^th place finish in the loaded district. Sam qualified for the district finals in the 1600, running 4:28 at WPIAL qualifiers.

49. Jakob Jorgensen, Senior Episcopal Academy (Independent)

Jorgensen’s school isn’t a member of the PIAA, so we don’t have the same opportunities to compare his peak performances to many of the other guys on this list. However, Jorgensen raced a variety of top athletes throughout the season at some key invitationals, and really impressed with a 4:25 1600 at DELCOs and a 4:24 full mile at John Hay. When the lights were brightest during Cross Country, Jorgensen proved he could perform in the clutch. At the Independent State Championships, he finished 4^th overall and will be the #2 returner for next year’s final behind only Nick Dahl of GFS.

48. Jonah Powell, Sophomore Grove City (10 AA)

Only three sophomores are currently included in the top 50 rankings, but there were 11 sophomores in the top 90 finishers for all three divisions combined at Hershey this year including 6 in the top 50. So there’s bound to be some breakout performers from the class of 2019. I’m taking a bit of a risk here, but I’m on board with Grove City’s stand out Jonah Powell as a potential breakout star for this class. GC has produced some of the greatest runners in recent history, including Jacob Kildoo and Dan Jaskowak (but also top 10 finishers Aaron Benka and Ryan Budnik). In just one year, Powell has shown signs that he could be on Kildoo and Jaskowak’s level this season.

In combined results, Powell was the top freshman in the state, finishing in the medals for Grove City and running 16:52. He also finished second at the D10 AA Championships (behind another freshman, Ryan Starvaggi). His time of 16:42 at Buhl Park was faster than A state runner-up Noah Curtin’s mark on the same day. On the track, Powell clocked a 9:49 as just a frosh. I think he’s the next in line for the Grove City all-timers squad and this year he will back that up on the grass. And this Grove City team (who returns their top 6 from districts) will be a force to be reckoned with in a compelling AA state title race.

 

47. Sam Morgan, Junior Parkland (11 AAA)

Parkland is consistently one of the top teams in District 11 and finished 14^th as a team a year ago. Their top runner was Michael Geiger (a rising senior) who finished 58^th overall. However, it was Geiger’s teammate, sophomore Sam Morgan, who ended up grabbing a spot in the Top 50 this year. Morgan ended last fall as the team’s #2 runner at states, dropping to 17 flat at states and 83^rd overall. He showed significant improvement over the course of the year, running his fastest invitational time of the year at the difficult Hershey course. But when he got to the track, that’s when Morgan really took flight. After a solid run into the 4:20s at ASD, Morgan pulled out a surprising upset at the District 11 championships, winning the 1600 over Kevin Lapsansky and Will Alpaugh in a very fast 4:21.

 

I like Morgan’s upside and, with a Parkland team that returns 5 of their top 7, he will have plenty of help each day in practice as he tries to make a mini leap into the top tier of PA.

 

46. Christian Babo, Junior Harbor Creek (10 AA)

Every year I have a team that I’m super high on as a sleeper. Anybody who has been reading me knows I can sometimes go a little overboard with those picks, but every once in a while my gut instincts are right. My team for this year? Harbor Creek in District 10. They remind me a lot of the defending state champions from Dallas (a young team with a ton of talent) and they are running in a loaded District when you consider all the classifications (lots of D10 guys made the list this year). They return their top 4 for last year including a pair of freshmen who finished 1^st and 4^th at the District championships last year (Ryan Starvaggi and Aiden Weber, yes the top 4 at D10 AA were 3 froshs and a soph).

 

But arguably their best runner didn’t compete in 2015. That would be Christian Babo who, as a freshman in 2014, finished 3^rd at Districts and 23^rd at the AA state championships. He also won the Harbor Creek Invitational in 16:37 over Phoenix and Donovan Myers, Ryan Zimmerman and Jake Lehotsky. That time would have won this year’s edition of the meet by 26 seconds.

 

Babo ran a key leg on Harbor Creek’s 7:57 4x8 this year outdoors when he returned to action and showed some nice speed to compliment his XC strength. He dropped about 9 seconds in the open 800 according to milesplit data. It may be a bit of a stretch to assume he will be back, be healthy and be competing at a high level, but I’m going with my gut and giving Babo a top 50 spot.

 

45. Austin Maxwell, Senior Kennett (1 AAA)

The Kennett program is sometimes easy to overlook in the loaded Ches-mont, but their star runner, Austin Maxwell, is putting the league on notice. After a sophomore season that included an 11^th place finish at Ches-monts and a 25^th place finish at the District 1 Championships, Austin improved as a junior. He placed in the top 50 at the AAA state championships (44^th) and placed 5^th at Ches-monts. On the track, he showed some serious 800 speed, running a 1:58.93, but also ran 9:39 for 3200. The kid has some serious range. There’s a lot of talent here and he should get plenty of push from his league each race.

 

44. Alex Tomasko, Senior Mechanicsburg (3 AAA)

Mechanicsburg’s Alex Tomasko has had an interesting cross country career. In 2015, he placed in the top 30 of a variety of impressive invitationals including PTXC, Carlisle and Paul Short. He finished 18^th at Mid Penns, but then, unfortunately, had an off day at Districts and ended up outside of the state qualifying group. In 2014, Tomasko also had a terrific sophomore season, but ended up 35^th at Districts and among the first five runners to miss out on the state championship. These two seasons came on the heels of his freshman year, where Alex took the final state qualifying spot, finishing 29^th at districts ahead of future state medalists like Sean Weidner, Matt Wisner and Nathan Henderson. At states, he was the 4^th fastest AAA freshman behind Ryan James, Nick Feffer and Yahya Soliman.

Clearly, Tomasko has the talent to be a top tier XC runner, he just needs a little bit of luck and good timing. During track season, we saw those aspects come together for Alex. He finished 6^th in the D3 1600m and qualified for the state championships (and also finished 10^th in the 3200).  He added PRs of 4:21.06 and 9:35.19 to his resume as well. In 2016, Tomasko will have an excellent training partner in junior Morgan Cupp along with a young team with sleeper potential if they can find the depth needed to compete in one of the state’s biggest districts.

 

43. Jack Zardecki, Junior Dallas (2 AA)

Last year, a very young Dallas squad entered the XC state championships against two of the biggest, baddest programs in AA: York Suburban and Grove City. But the Dallas squad, featuring two sophomores and two freshman in their scoring five, pulled off an Oscar worthy upset and grabbed the victory. The leader on the squad was sophomore Jack Zardecki who, in two trips to the state championship, has two top fifty finishes and a state medal. He’s got excellent training partners (everyone is coming back plus Josh Wyandt) on this young squad and a fantastic coaching staff that has coached Dominic Deluca in recent years to a state championship. On the track, Zardecki dropped a 9:39 for 3200 and proved his recent cross success is no fluke. I really like this kid’s upside for 2016.

 

42. Ben Littmann, Senior Winchester Thurston (7 A)

Littmann is a two time XC state medalist with two top 14 finishes in the state for 3200 (including a 7^th place finish last spring). As a sophomore in 2014, Littmann finished 10^th at A states, one spot ahead of 2015 runner-up Noah Curtin, running a time of 16:48. That placed him as the #2 sophomore in A behind only future state champ Griffin Mackey.

Although Littmann finished 18^th at states this past year, he was part of a consistently strong Winchester Thurston squad that placed in the top 4 at states as a team for the second year in a row. The trio of Littmann, Loevner and Forsythe got out a bit fast but still all held on for state medals. Based on the trios track season (they all ran strong PRs, including a 9:30 3200 best for Ben), I think they are trending back in the right direction heading to XC with a little extra confidence from their big achievements.

 

41. Brian Mass, Senior CB West (1 AAA)

The past two seasons, CB West has emerged as more than just a 4x800 school. They qualified for back to back state championships and finished 6^th and 3^rd over those two seasons. Last year’s squad put five guys under 17 minutes on the Hershey course. However, with Rock Fortna and Brian Iatarola graduating, the team will need to transition to the next era. If they are going to remain on top, they will need big performs from Ben Smullen and Brian Mass. Smullen is a top 50 returner from last year’s state championships, but Mass gets the nod for the rankings based on his track season. Although Mass finished 40^th at Districts this past year (16:19) and a solid 76^th at states, he uncorked a 9:21.60 for 3200m at the District 1 Championships and cemented himself as one of the state’s best. Over the past two seasons, Mass has spent time on and around the Top 50 list and shown flashes of brilliance. As a senior leader, the 3rd place finisher in this year's Most Improved Oscar Voting could be up for another Oscar in the future.