The Conductor Speaks: Week Two (Part Two)

by Jarrett Felix

Is it really an etrain blog post, if I don't have an unnecessary introductory paragraph? Of course not. I made this alphabetical order to try and avoid bias.

Abington Invitational
It's hard to deny the love Liam Galligan has gotten for his recent win at Abington. 15:56 is a solid time (Jaxson Hoey before running an absurd sub 15:40 at Belmont Plateau in 2014, Chris Cummings blasted a 15:31 in 2013 pulling 5 guys sub 16) and he picks up the win over a nice ensemble cast. James Abrahams (a top 50 guy with sub 16 chops) was 2nd overall and defeating another central league runner in Avery Lederer. This is two excellent races from Lederer in a row who flipped the script on David Endres (last week's Northampton winner) by beating out Endres (4th, but 27 seconds back of Lederer).

Although Endres didn't get the individual gold, his team won their second straight invite. And did it convincingly. Without Will Schultz (their #2 at Northampton), the team still posted a 53 point performance and beat Haverford (84) and Holy Ghost Prep (97) for the win. Owen Zila was the team's #2 runner in 9th and Declan Earles finished 11th. It's a fairly young team, but they have a lot of talent and a lot of confidence after being a part of such a great program a year ago. I'm not sure they will be able to survive District One, but they have looked better than I thought they were through two meets.

Big Red Invitational
Look out AA. Jonah Powell, a sophomore from Grove City, pulled out an upset win at the small invitational over Cambridge Springs senior Connor Walsh (the McDowell winner last week) by 7 seconds. He also beat Chad Grundy, Zac Tingley, Sam Lander and Harrison Keenan, some of the best A runners in the state. Grove City was also runaway champs in the team race, scoring 67 points. GC was one of my sleeper picks in AA to steal the title over Dallas. They look strong so far, but I still think Dallas is the better squad on paper (and York Surburban and Greensburg Salem look strong as well). That being said, they didn't appear to have Ben McKnight, Braydon Pyle or Ryan Myers in the varsity line up this week. Those are 3 of their top 5 returners from Districts last year.

North East put together a nice showing with three runners in the top 20 overall. That was good enough for 4th overall and second among A schools. Cranberry, who placed 3rd, was the top A school 26 points ahead.

Bull Dog - Rose Tree
The boys from Avon Grove came in looking to make a statement. They showed glimpses of a strong pack in early meets, but proved just how capable that group was with a runaway victory at Rose Tree. AG took 4th-7th-8th-9th-10th in the meet, utilizing a 25 second spread. They also had a freshman, Luke Tallham, as their #6 who looks like a bright young star who may make a bid for the top 5 before the season is finished. Avon Grove has had a nice run as a program in recent years (a couple state qualifiers like Josh Smith, Jake Ilgenfritz and consistent team performances), but they've yet to break through with a top team in the District. Maybe this is the year?

Josh Hoey of Shanahan led the way in this race, running 16:42 to win by almost 30 seconds. It was an easy win for the man who is the top returner from last year's state meet and, if not for the Affolders, would likely be the favorite for state gold. Logan Yoquinto of Shanahan also had one of his best XC performances of his career, finishing 6th. He was consistently under 2 minutes on relay splits as a soph last year. They will need to get the pack a bit tighter to contend at districts, especially now that they are AAA, but there is room to grow looking forward.

All the same, lots of really good schools in the Ches-mont. Should be a really fun year and should prompt plenty of discussion (since it seems that's where most of our readership comes from).

In the small school race, Westtown School's Ryan O'Donnell ran away for the victory over Ben Hoyer of Wissahickon. I like O'Donnell a lot as a sleeper in the Independent League. It doesn't seem like an incredibly deep year (as of now) outside the PIAA, but with this kid's talent he could get the silver. He, Owen Ritz, Jorgensen and the GFS pack seem to be the primary contenders behind Dahl.

Centaur Invitational
So I've been reading the comments (and there have been a ton, great work guys) and one of the most interesting ones I saw was a set of District One rankings with William Tennent in the 5 spot. Sounds a little bold, but I, ironically, was also very impressed with Tennent this weekend. They were on my short list of District One sleepers because I really liked their returning top 3 (Hutton, Rahill and Kraus). In this race, Christian Craig was actually their #2 finisher in 7th place with Hutton taking 3rd overall. Now I'm not ready to put these guys in the state qualifying picture, but I want to point out WT has really been impressing me over the last 4 seasons. They've quietly finished in the top 10 at districts twice and they were the Etrain Award Winners (Top D1 finishers without any state qualifiers, there's a story behind that I may share later this season and have shared in the past) one of those times as well. They can get a pack and they can contend. They haven't been state qualifier level good, but those things don't happen over night. Maybe this team is a sleeper to get there.

That being said, the best team on race day was certainly Parkland. I was skeptical of this teams high preseason ranking by most, but I gotta say they are very strong. They returned an experienced crew that includes Michael Geiger who just continues to get better each season. He finished 2nd overall at Centaur (he kills it on those hills) with a nice time of 16:37 in the heat. Nicholas Bower, just a sophomore, finished in 6th and Sam Morgan (a ET top 50 guy who can run low 4:20s) finished 8th. All seven of their runners placed top 30 which I like and it looks to me like there will be great inter-squad competition at each position. That really helps keep your team hungry when everyone has someone to chase and is being chased as well. I'd like to see them at some bigger meets, but I like their start.

Liam Conway got the individual victory here with a 16:20. Clearly a strong runner and seems to have not missed much of a beat after losing some key seniors from last year's surprising squad. I also like seeing him excel on the hills as he's always been a beast on the fast courses (he's a 1:54-4:15 guy so no surprise). This is a big year for Liam who has run some spectacular times. I'm rooting for him to get on the medal stand at states for the first time and hopefully get an impressive one this season. He definitely has the talent.

Cherokee Challenge
Looks like Conestoga and Unionville with both have some very talented freshman in the mix this season. Carlos Shultz of Conestoga won the freshman race with a 10:34, a 14 second edge over U-ville's second placer Cole Walker. It wasn't that long ago that Stoga was 2nd in the state and, although I believe they lost the coach that got them there, there's still life in the program. Unionville seems to find state medal contenders almost every year. I'll keep an eye out for both names going forward.

Joseph Chamoun was the top soph for PA, taking 10th overall in the race for DT West. He ran a 10:38 in this race (won in 10:14). Chamoun is a relative newcomer to the varsity circle for West, but is an interesting name to watch looking ahead. He's got some talent and West has proven they can cultivate younger talent. Remember a team of mainly sophomores and freshman finished 8th at districts just a few years back.

West also took the top junior spots for PA with 9th and 10th place finishers Evan Kaiser and Tyler Rollins. They raced to 10:27 and 10:28 marks. Those times ended up stacking up quite well relative to the rest of the team. Shaun Bullock of DT West, Bruce Herriott of Harriton (10:24 for him, a great performance) and Patrick Blair of West were the only guys to go faster. In total, DT West also added Jake O'Neill (10:33), Ben Codd (10:35) and Drew Alansky (10:37) to the sub 10:40 club.

West has a deep squad and if Shaun Bullock continues on this nice little tear he's on (10:14 for 5th overall in the senior race was great), that will make them even more dangerous. However, this team has struggled before on the Lehigh course (Bullock has actually had the best resume at Districts of the bunch) and in a crowded year anything can happen. I'd like to see these guys run a 5k before I go too bold in either direction, but I like the depth and I like the upside.

Forrest Hills
Samuel Lenze of Indiana Area picked up the win over the Somerset boys of Dominic Mazzariello and Cejay Walker. Lenze's team also defeated the always strong Central Cambria by just 4 points in the team standings. Somerset, who runs out of District 5, is a nice program and should get a little bit of buzz this year behind their two stand out front runners. Both guys are underclassmen and have the ability to get District 5 in the top 50 even after Kachman graduates.

Lackawanna
David Haines of North Pocono picked up the win over Thomas Johnson of Wallenpaupack. Haines was a AA state medalist last season and trained with surprise outdoor 3200 champ Matt Kravitz. Haines got buried a bit in Kravitz's shadow, but now he will have his chance to shine. Looks like he's seizing the moment quite well so far.

Quad XC
It's tough to lose out on a state qualifying spot. We saw some of the teams who have just missed in the past come back with a huge vengeance (CB East most recently but also schools like Pennsbury and DT West). This year's team may be Spring Ford. After sweeping the top 3 spots in the JV race, the Rams took care of business against Hempfield (the defending District 3 champs and the team that beat them out for gold at Paul Short last year) with a killer relay. They loaded up their "A" squad for a 4x2 Mile time of 44:57 on a hilly course. Their "B" squad also defeated Hempfield's "B" squad by one spot as the 4th and 5th place teams. I think this says more about Spring Ford's strength than any possible Hempfield weakness (they will be good again after back to back district championships) and Spring Ford is getting some well deserved buzz. Excited to see them in a 5k and see how the pieces are fitting and who #5 will be from the B team.

Nice race by Pennsbury's "A" squad to get 3rd. You can never sleep on Pennsbury. They quietly have been one of the 4 or 5 best district one XC schools over the last 4 years and always seem to get talent on the starting line. Eric Kersten was an individual state qualifying contender last year and has big game. It looks like Mink also opened up with a big split on the 4x2 Mile relay as well.

Spiked Shoe
After being on the wrong side of a close finish in week one, Nick Feffer of State College pulled out a one second victory over University's Phillip White. The victory set the stage for a big team victory for SC that included 4 runners in the top 10 overall. Mitch Etter, who ran JV in week one and won big, is clearly legit and will be a great front runner to add to the mix after placing 5th in this one and finishing as SC's #3. The #5 spot on this team is still up for grabs, but with plenty of time to find the right piece and an increasing contingent of possibilities (Chris Diperna the latest after his 20th place finish this weekend), I like SC's chances to contend for a top 10 spot again.

Wilson (District 3) picked up second as a team. Jake Underwood placed 3rd overall in this race (second for PA) and the team placed 4 in the top 13. They had a 50 second gap between 4 and 5 which will need to decrease if they are going to survive a crowded district 3, but their first two races have been very encouraging. Underwood is a star and the pieces behind him have real potential. Don't forget, these guys made states last year out of district 3 and likely have the confidence to come back and do it again.