Team Titles Revisited: 2011

2011 State Championships

By Jarrett Felix

In 2011, Cardinal O’Hara established themselves as a championship contender from essentially day one. The boys surged to impressive wins at Briarwood over powerhouses North Penn and LaSalle then they traveled to Foundation where they defeated Mount Lebanon, the #1 contender in most people’s eyes to that point. In my October 11^th rankings, I wrote, “Only thing I can find that concerns me is that if a guy gets hurt in their top 5 they don’t have much of a 6/7 that I have seen to come save the day. We will see, but definitely #1 team.” Arguably the most impressive performance (despite the fact that it was a quick course), came when O’Hara traveled out of state. At Great American they placed 4 runners under 16 minutes (including freshman Kevin James) and had 6 runners at 16:16 or faster. That seemed to answer the few remaining doubters.

The remaining top five teams in those mid-season rankings were, in order, Mount Lebanon, North Allegheny, Henderson and North Penn. I had a hard time letting go of the North Penn Knights writing, “They were my pick to win Districts and I am really having a hard time letting go of that (they are still my pick to win by the way, I don’t back out of things I say very easily, I’m just stubborn like that).” Of course that point would be smashed just a few weeks later as West Chester Henderson threw down a monster performance at Lehigh for the District Championships. With a top 3 of all sophomores (and none were arguably their most talented soph, 2010’s #1 frosh in the state Reiny Barchet who was injured) Henderson scored just 89 points and defeated North Penn by 66 points. In fact, North Penn wasn’t even the 2^nd place team as Great Valley (who had sophomores at #2 and #3) stormed ahead of them by seven points behind a second place overall finish from Ned Willig.

But the bigger upset happened in the WPIAL. Mount Lebanon, one of the preseason favorites for gold in the state was hoping to end North Allegheny’s title streak in District 7. NA, who had won state gold the previous season but graduated the majority of their core, was beaten soundly at Tri States and seemed like the underdog. However, thanks in part to some wild weather on race day (no one broke 17), NA pulled off a big upset and smashed the competition, winning 50 to 115. Their #2 and #3 runners were a sophomore and a freshman respectively.

The wacky circumstances threw the state into flux heading into the state championships. Could North Allegheny or West Chester Henderson, the state’s previous two state champs, muster up one more big race and usurp Cardinal O’Hara? Or would the PCL finally get the state title they had been chasing since joining the PIAA in 2008?

As of October 31^st, 2011 (the Monday after Districts), I posted up my predictions for the team race. I had O’Hara at the #1 spot, North Allegheny at the #2, and North Penn at the #7. In my mind, O’Hara was a big favorite. North Allegheny was getting some love as a sleeper team as well as they really started to turn it on at the right time (again). North Penn, who had won state titles in 2007 and 2008, was no relegated to an afterthought. Even Dan Davis, one of the team’s senior leaders, said this in an interview with our site, “Coach Werner and assistant Coach Hertz were having doubts about winning this state meet because of our position and other teams’ rankings and previous performances at bigger meets. Coach Werner told my dad that he hopes to at least pull away with a fourth place.”

Interestingly, the theme of the meet was certainly youth. As mentioned, all the competitive squads had young guys in key slots. O’Hara featured a frosh at the #5 spot and were almost exclusively juniors at the other spots. I mentioned North Allegheny, Henderson and Great Valley’s incredible youth, but it’s important to remember North Penn’s #4 and #5 runners were also just sophomores. Lebo had Patrick Quirk, a sophomore, contributing in a critical role as well although their projected top three were all seniors. How would all the young runners handle the difficult Hershey hills?

It was a wild day on November 5^th, 2011. In the individual race, Conner Quinn of Hatboro Horsham pulled off one of the most unlikely wins in the last decade when he stunned guys like Drew Magaha, Logan Steiner, teammate Sam Hibbs and more to become the first junior to grab state gold since Craig Miller in 2004. But somehow the team title would be decided in an even more surprising turn of events.

At the mile mark, O’Hara got out fast as expected. They had 95 points and six runners under five minutes. But surprisingly, North Penn was keeping pace with them. The Knights got out very well and had 98 points, three less than O’Hara. A newcomer to the varsity squad, Hunter Hill, was out as their #4 runner in 4:57 and 50^th overall. The bold early pace buried some early contenders as well. North Allegheny sat back in 6^th place through the mile with 217 points and just two runners under five minutes. Their inexperienced duo of Luoco and Seel were their 6^th and 7^th men and were outside the top 150 overall. Great Valley had been even more conservative and were 13^th through the mile with 341 points.

Unfortunately, 2 mile splits weren’t available for this race as they would have likely told a compelling story. But we do know that, by the finish, the fast pace had taken its toll on many of the runners. Holy Ghost Prep, who was in 3^rd place at the mile, slipped back to 10^th in the standings and all the teams were over 100 points overall. As the runners filed in, it looked like O’Hara had done enough to take gold. They placed 4 runners in the top 50 overall (top 25 of team scoring).

North Penn had surprised with three of their own in the top 50, including an impressive breakthrough for Junior Jack Macauley who bounced back from a 22^nd finish at districts to take 17^th at states. But their #4 runner was 20 seconds back of O’Hara’s and none of their top 3 had beaten the corresponding top 3 member of the opposition.

North Allegheny placed two runners in the medals and Lebo’s top two were both in the top 30. The squads were battling for position throughout the finish as Roddy-Seel-Quirk finished all in a row at 17:24 with Bojarski at 17:23 as well. Henderson had two strong runs by their lead sophomores, but finished without a state medalist in a rare turn of events. Each team had their fair share of flaws that likely meant they would not finish with the title.

But O’Hara’s #5 ended up back in the field farther than expected and it opened the door for a surprise. In a relatively unprecedented sequence O’Hara’s #4 and #5 were separated by 53 seconds. North Penn sophomores Ryan Grace and Matt Molloy stepped up big time in the mad dash for the 4-5 spots and finished 78^th and 82^nd overall. That was better than all but 2 of Henderson’s runners and a big step up from their 52^nd and 53^rd place finishes at Districts just a week earlier. Their finishes bridged the gap back to O’Hara and, when they examined the scorecard, the teams were exactly tied at 132 points. North Allegheny was just 12 points back in 3^rd and Lebo finished 21 points away in 4^th.

The tie-breaker in XC is the position of each team’s 6^th runner. That was Hunter Hill for North Penn, who, after a JV race the previous week, went out hard at the state final and held on to be just 13 seconds ahead of Christian Ostrowski of O’Hara and clinch the victory for the Knights. It was their 3^rd state title in 5 years and proved that every second truly does count.

There was definitely some heartbreak for the other teams. Kevin James, O’Hara’s 5^th, didn’t have his best day on race day, but ended up giving O’Hara one or two (or like sixty) high quality races including a state championship anchor leg and an 8:57 3200. So he turned out alright. And the majority of the team came back in 2012 and delivered with a 5^th place finish at nationals.

And that Henderson team that ended up having an off day? They turned out alright as well. They ended up grabbing back to back titles in 2012 and 2013 led by a couple of those super sophomores we were talking about before.

And Great Valley? Well varsity member Garrett Zatlin ended up becoming a writer for this blog. So, yeah, I guess things didn’t get any better for him. But you can’t win them all.