Team Titles Revisited: 2010

2010 State Championships

By Jarrett Felix

Heading into the fall of 2010, the buzz was that this would finally be North Allegheny’s year. The previous three seasons they had finished 3^rd, 3^rd and 2^nd. In 2007, Penntrack crowned them as the up and coming contender from the west in their preseason preview. In 2008, they were surprise qualifiers for the NXN championships in Portland and finished 12^th out west in a truly impressive display of pack running. That was perhaps their best team of the decade, but states had proven to be their Achilles heel. However, 2009 had marked a turning point. The NA tigers, who had lost 3 important members of their scoring five, surprised at states, placing 2^nd overall and finishing just 9 points behind of WC Henderson.

But the Tigers were returning just three members of their varsity seven and just one member of their top five. That #1 was Footlocker Finalist Ryan Gil (so they were off to a good start), but other than reputation there wasn’t much to get them moved up the rankings. So why was there buzz? Because North Allegheny had added Meadville’s state medalist, rising junior Logan Steiner, to the roster thanks to the family’s move over the summer. With two returning medalists and a hungry group of JV runners (with a good coach to utilizing their talents), NA had weapons to make a run at gold again.

The other thing that NA had going for it was that the team’s closest to them in 2009 weren’t returning anything particularly jaw dropping. Although that didn’t stop people from talking about teams like Henderson (returned 4 of 7, 2 of their top 5), LaSalle (3 of 7, 2 of 5), Altoona (4 of 7, 3 of 5), and Baldwin (4 of 7, 3 of 5). In fact, Altoona, led by super star Wade Endress, earned the #1 spot in Penntrack’s preseason rankings. And when they opened up the season with a win at PTXC’s own Invite, that only supported the claim.

North Allegheny opened up their season, as they usually do, at the very fast Red, White and Blue Invitational. Any doubts of their depth were quickly put to rest as NA placed all 7 of their runners under 16:30 and in the top 25 overall. In combined results. That’s top 25 out of 505 runners. Ironically, the team’s weakness at this meet was arguably their front running. Ryan Gil finished a surprising 4^th overall and looked, unbelievably, human. It was the debut of the North Hills monster (Zach Hebda, Joe Kush and Juris Silenieks) and foreshadowing for the dominant individual forces that season.

After RWB, NA continued to impress, but PTXC help strong on their #1 ranked team, Altoona and kept the Tigers in the #2 spot. The team’s would have a chance to settle things on the course when they met at the prestigious Carlisle Invitational on September 25^th. It would also be a chance to see a Gil once again battle top competition in Wade Endress.

On race day, Endress got the best of Gil, who finished 4^th in the meet once again. But Gil would have the last laugh as his Tiger squad earned a convincing victory. NA won the title by 47 points 114 to 161, thanks in part to a 44 point advantage at the #5 spot. Altoona’s top 4 all placed in the 30 in team scoring but their #5 was just 84^th. It was a confidence building statement win for the Tigers, but they had left this meet victoriously in the past and left Hershey without hardware. And little did they know that a short bus ride away, a new contender was emerging to challenge them.

The PCL joined the PIAA prior to the 2008 season and stole state medals from the Tigers behind a stunning silver medal performance form LaSalle. LaSalle had been a force on the PIAA scene since arriving, including a 3^rd place finish in 2009 and had developed a nice reputation as an XC powerhouse. The second best team in the PCL, at least based on their recent performances, had been St. Joe’s Prep. Prep had excelled as a top 10 team in the PIAA and produced a two time state medalist in Chris O’Sullivan. Few schools from outside the Catholic League even knew about Cardinal O’Hara.

In 2009, O’Hara placed 18^th at states after qualifying as a team by grabbing all 5 individual spots in District 12. In 2010, they returned a modest roster, but were well off my radar. I was stunned to see OH get a #7 Pre-Season ranking in the PTXC poll and then watched them climb to #5 before their first invitational. However, they immediately backed it up, finishing as the top PA team at the Briarwood Invitational and then heading to the PIAA Foundation meet on September 25^th. While 95% of the state was focused on the talent explosion at Carlisle (14 of the top 26 at AAA states ended up racing at this meet, as did the AA state champ), O’Hara traveled to the state course and absolutely dominated the competition, putting the rest of the state on notice. O’Hara scored just 39 points and defeated second place Dallas by 104! Chris Garrity led the way for O’Hara as the team’s only senior in the top 5, placing 4^th overall. For added fun, O’Hara had the individual champ in the JV race.

And things were about to get worse for North Allegheny. Their star runner and low stick, Ryan Gil, missed the Pittsburgh Central Catholic Invitational and then the Tri-State Championship meets. It was revealed that he was nursing a broken toe and his status for the rest of the season was questionable. At the Tri-State meet, even without Gil, North Allegheny was just barely able to hold off Altoona (96 to 97) but Altoona had made impressive strides at the #5 spot and were seeing big improvements from Junior Korey Replogle. However, Altoona was no longer the team to worry about.

Baldwin pulled off the upset, defeated North Allegheny 64 to 96. The 5^th place finishers from 2009, Baldwin put 4 runners in the top 13 and five in the top 23 thanks to freshman George Kelly. NA placed just three in the top 20. One of their key contributors, senior Joe Pane, also slipped from his impressive early season form and finished as the team’s #7 man. It seemed like the window for a North Allegheny title was closing quickly.

And to make matters worse, the defending champions, racing their league championships the same day, threw down the gauntlet at Ches-monts. Henderson, who hadn’t raced a major invitational on PA soil all season, scored just 25 points at the meet and defeated Great Valley, a top program in the district, by roughly 50 points. Their returners from the state championship squad, Austin Stecklair and Bryan Andrews, took 1-3 outdueling the highly touted duo of Devlin and Barnhill from DT West. Besides the West duo and Connor McLaughlin from Coatesville, Henderson accounted for the rest of the top 10.

At Districts, they doubled down on that performance. The reigning gold medalists won the District 1 title by 159 points. They won by over double the amount of points they actually scored (73). And District 1 was, of course, no slouch of a district. What was perhaps most impressive was the performance of freshman Reiny Barchet who finished 13^th in team scoring at the championships. It was one of the best freshman performances in the history of the district.

North Allegheny tried their best to counter at Coopers Lake. Gil returned to the lineup and, even banged up, was able to pull out yet another 4^th place finish. And boy would the Tigers need that. NA defeated Baldwin by just 6 points in the rematch, setting up a rubber match in Hershey. NA’s #2 Logan Steiner stepped up big time to grab 5^th overall and Tim Appman and Mike Meehan also added important top 20 finishes. The Tigers also showcased a bit more depth than their opponents from Baldwin who, although they matched up well through 5, did have a bit of a drop off from 5 to 6 (almost a minute). That could potentially play a factor at Hershey, especially since their #5 was a freshman.

Interesting side note: The North Hills Monster took 1-2-3 at the WPIAL Championships (after finishing 1-2-3 at Tri-States) and still finished just 12^th in the team standings. If their #4 and #5 runners had placed just 96^th and 97^th (about 17:49 on a fast day at Coopers) they would have qualified for states. Based on their runs at states, they would have needed two guys in the mid 17:20s at Hershey to win the state title, two guys in the high 17:30s to get second, and two guys under 18 to place top 5. Pretty wild.

Meanwhile, everyone again counted out the boys from O’Hara. They were pegged as maybe a top 5 team by more than one observer. But they entered the meet with confidence in themselves and dreams of upsetting one of the schools who had inhabited the top 5 a year ago and breaking up the party.

On November 6^th, the teams toed the line at Hershey to decide would be state champion. It was unclear how healthy the Tiger’s lead runner, Ryan Gil, would be. I had finished 4^th in all of his races so far after dominating the WPIAL landscape as a junior. Against the best runners in the state, I speculated he would struggle just to crack the top 10. And through the first mile, that was where he was, sitting in 17^th overall. His Tiger teammates were even farther back, as only Gil hit the first mile under 5 minutes. That meant North Allegheny was in 2^nd place overall. Henderson had the lead, with a roughly 60 point advantage over NA. Then Altoona and WPIAL rivals Mount Lebanon were in 2^nd and 3^rd. North Penn sat in 5^th and, surprisingly, Baldwin sat back in 6^th. They too had gotten out slow and their inexperienced freshman was back in 97^th for team scoring. Then, even farther back behind them, was Cardinal O’Hara who sat in just 10^th place overall with 252 points.

But on the Hershey course, ambition can sometimes be the enemy. The early efforts of the young North Penn team proved costly and they slipped back to 12^th overall by mile 2 (maybe next year). Mount Lebanon had slipped slightly, but were holding on admirably in 4^th. But North Allegheny knew what to do. They surged well over the second mile, thanks in large part to a big move from #2 runner Logan Steiner. He found his way up to 19^th overall after a 5:02 first mile. His second mile, over the aloha hills, was a 5:10. And Gil was hanging around up front. He was in 7^th but within striking distance of the lead. But Henderson still held the advantage. They had 131 points and their #4 runner was 7 seconds and 10 points ahead of NA’s #3. But the NA team was charging.

A year earlier at two miles, NA was ahead of Henderson by one point, but the Warriors ran them down. This year, the roles were to be reversed. The Tigers erased a 14 point deficit on the final mile thanks to a huge final mile from Junior Tim Appman and a clutch #5 run from sophomore Mike Meehan. And oh yeah, Ryan Gil won! Despite the fact that he had barely trained and been hampered in every major invite of the season, Gil pulled out the state title in thrilling fashion, stealing the race from 3 eventual national qualifiers and running 15:52.

Henderson held on quite well, but lost just enough ground at the #5 position to swing the title. They still ended up on the podium for a second straight season.

O’Hara closed like mad over the final mile and finished in 3^rd overall, just 14 points away from 2^nd. Chris Garrity earned an impressive 22^nd place state medal and the senior would set the tone for a generation of top 3 teams to follow. Baldwin finished in 4^th, making a nice final mile surge as well, including a strong finish from George Kelly and Altoona ended up 5^th. The teams scored 201 and 207 points respectively.

But here is perhaps the story of the meet and one that many people may not remember. Tunkhannock, a small relatively unknown school from District Two, scored 208 points and finished 6^th overall and just 7 points out of 4^th (and one point out of 5^th). District 2 rarely makes a dent in the AAA state meet and Tunkhannock barely defeated Dallas as their district meet (just 13 points up). They also finished 9^th at Carlisle (151 points back of Altoona) and finished 13^th at Paul Short, but at states they stepped up big time. Reece Ayers led the way with a top 10 finish and then Jake Seigel added a top 50 performance. David Novak’s 75^th overall finish as the team’s #3 was enough to get the team far enough up the field and escape the mad dash behind them (they beat Lebo by 4, Horsham by 9 and CRN by 20).

And so, after years of struggle, the North Allegheny Tigers pulled off the win in perhaps their most unlikely season to date. They had just two top 50 finishers in the race, the only time in the past decade a team has won without placing three in the top 50 (for AAA). For the first time in a long time the state team and individual titles belonged to the WPIAL.