Sharpsville
During
a fast weekend of action, two of the quickest performances of the weekend came
from out west. At Buhl Park, Zach Skolnekovich and Mark Provenzo dueled into
the 15:30s with Zach pulling out another win. His time of 15:33 is the fastest
since Austin Pondel soloed a 15:32 on this course back in 2012. Pondel went on
to become a Footlocker Finalist. I was very impressed with the performances
from both runners, especially after I was beginning to worry if the WPIAL was going
to be as strong this year as in year’s past.
In
third place, Connor Walsh of Cambridge Springs also busted under 16 minutes with
a 15:55. He was stuck in a bit of no man’s land with the leaders some 20
seconds ahead 4th place some 30 seconds behind. Considering Griffin
Mackey and Noah Curtin (the top two returners from A states) have yet to race
on PA soil, Walsh is emerging as a potential title favorite to rival Forsythe.
Harbor
Creek has been one of my teams to watch this season and you can probably see
why looking through these results. They placed 3 in the top 10 including two
sophomores in Ryan Starvaggi and Aiden Weber. Their 4th runner was 20th,
but a gap back to #5 opened the door for Quaker Valley to come through and
steal the team title. QV had 4 of the top 30 with a 5 at 17:23 (11 second
spread 2-5).
CR North Invite
In a
weekend that was dominated by two invitationals, it’s easy to forget about CR
North. They took spots 3-6 at their home invite and Ethan Koza returned to the
line-up with a 12th place finish to round out the scoring. As a
result, North won the team title going away against CB West. CRN was a
non-factor at Briarwood without a couple top runners, but based on what they
did this weekend, they belong on a tier with LaSalle, O’Hara, DT West, etc. I
really like this team’s upside going forward, but nothing will be easy with
this many good teams in the mix.
CB West
is an interesting team to watch going forward. They still are searching for an
identity, but they recently toppled CB East in a dual meet. Michael Samson is
having a terrific breakout season and Brian Mass is a big talent that can’t be
slept on.
Individually,
Rusty Kujdych picked up the win, besting the field with a quick 15:47. Matt
Scarpill of CB South dropped a 15:57 for 2nd, a strong opening
invite for him, and then Ryan Campbell finished off the sub 16s in 3rd.
I really like Scarpill as a sleeper for this season. He’s had some tough luck
at districts recently, but he has the talent and speed to be top 10 there and
then compete for a state medal in Hershey. Also, you have to like the
development that Campbell has taken in the past few weeks. Does CRN have two
medalists on their roster? They’ll probably need it to win states.
Other Notes
Noah
Curtin opened up his season out in Ohio with his Mercyhurst Prep team. He
finished 6th in 16:38 in the out of state meet. For reference, his
brother Sebastian won the race back in 2014 with a team of 16:14. Then he went
on to grab the silver at states with a sub 16 on the old Hershey lay out. Two
years ago, Noah ran 18:02 on this course and then went on to crack the top 15
at states individually.
Avery
Lederer took care of business by a big margin with his 15:57 victory at his
home meet. He won the race by 61 seconds and ran the fastest time in the meet’s
brief history by roughly 35 seconds.
In a
battle between top 50 talents, Ben Bumgarner and Casey Conboy ran away from the
field at the AJ Everhart Invitational. Bumgarner edged out Conboy 15:49 to
15:51. That was roughly a minute ahead of anybody else. The pair finished in
the same order at this meet a year ago, but their times were just 16:45 and
16:58. Those marks are much quicker than anybody else has run on the course
from PA in recorded meet history.
AJ Everhart Invitational's course had to be changed this year, and while it is still a very difficult and hilly course, it is slightly short, which allows its times to be more in line with times on other courses.
ReplyDelete