The Conductor Speaks More

by Jarrett Felix

The conductor likes to hear himself talk. So he will do that now.

Rock Grove

The District 10 boys aren’t afraid to converse the state’s toughest courses out west and, in a showdown between arguably the district’s best AA runner and its best A runner. Jonah Powell of Grove City pulled out the victory for AA, beating Cambridge Spring’s Connor Walsh for the second time in two match ups this season. Powell, just a sophomore, will battle it out with the big talents from his same class over at Harbor Creek at Districts while Walsh will have to deal with last year’s A state runner up Noah Curtin who had a strong race a weekend ago at Northern Tier.

I’ve always thought highly of Walsh, he’s a tough competitor and consistent runner, so for Powell as just as soph to best him twice is pretty impressive. I’m super excited to see how Jonah continues to progress through until states. At Foundation, he finished 4^th and I think he may be better than that come states. Walsh is still among the A title contenders in a relatively wide open field. I’m not completely sold on Forsythe for the win even though he’s definitely proven himself as the favorite.

Brookville’s Ryan Thrush continues to prove his XC ability on hilly courses as he takes 3^rd in this race, 10 seconds back of Walsh. He looks like a top flight medalist in Hershey and considering he has 48 second quarter speed, if he can keep things close watch out for him. Zac Tingley of Lakeview also had a strong day, taking 4^th. He’s part of a loaded District 10 A group and is looking for his first state medal as he makes that sophomore to junior jump. Sophomore Nate Price of General McLane rounded out the top 5 with an excellent showing ahead of Cranberry’s 1-2 punch of Lander and Keenan.

Central League

The Central League title bout between Lower Merion and Conestoga could help anoint a favorite for one of the five district one state qualifying spots as both schools were among the top group at Paul Short. I was expecting a pretty tight battle as both team’s had fantastic top 4s. Ultimately, Lower Merion’s top 4 got the better of Stoga’s and a strong showing from LM’s 5-6-7 clinched the title in their favor.

Matt D’Aquila led the way with a runner-up finish and Theodore Neckowicz and Evan Hassman bested their equivalent runners from Stoga. This team looked strong, has a nice pack and I personally think they are going to get one of those 5 spots as things stand (want to see what the CBs have to say next weekend). Stoga will have a bit more of an uphill battle, but they will have a little extra motivation after this hard fought loss.

Individually, James Abrahams turned things around on Avery Lederer of Penncrest who had bested him last weekend at DELCOs to pull out the individual title over Lederer (3^rd) and D’Aquila. It was a tight race with the top 3 finishers being decided by just 5 seconds. All three guys have proven themselves to medal contenders in 2016 and all have a chance to run in the 15:40s at districts on the quick Lehigh course (weather permitting). Meanwhile, star freshman Carlos Shultz took 4^th place overall in 16:24 to continue his phenomenal first season. Syed Shah of Upper Darby rounded out the top 5 with a 16:33. I’d guess Shah will be among the bubble contenders for a state qualifying spot at districts, although I haven’t quite worked through all the numbers to say for sure. But he’s a strong runner who I think has good speed for the Lehigh grass.

Mid-Penns

Another meet, another Carlisle victory. Well, sort of. Carlisle continues its streak as the top PA team, but I believe this may be their first major win as they've done battle with some out of state teams and been bested. The Affolder brothers continued to do what they do with a fairly dominant 1-2 finish, but Isaac Kole seemed a little extra hungry headed into the meet after a disappointing run at Manhattan and showed excellent resiliency with a 4th place finish at a very fast 16 flat.

That big three was enough to carry the Herd to the victory as they entered the 4th and 5th positions with just 7 accumulated points. For comparison, runner ups Lower Dauphin (known for their own impressive top 3) entered the 4-5 scoring with 26 points. Carlisle's #4, Jack Wisner, finished 30th in team scoring and their #5, a surprise run from Bryce Dunkleberger, was 34th in team scoring in perhaps his best run of the season. That's a great sign for Carlisle as it means they have a little extra flexibility at perhaps the most important scoring position. Their #6 and #7 runners were actually the best in the 27 team field.

All that being said, the team title race was fairly close as Carlisle scored 71 points and Lower Dauphin kept things close with 89. That result came with Kyler Shea (the team's #1 runner at the season's first two meets) finishing as the team's #3. Of course the big swings in points come in the pack, where LD's Mark Walsh continues to excel. He finished 24th overall in the meet, running under 17 minutes on the tough Big Spring lay out. Their #5 was 40th, which was a solid result, but not quite quick enough to catch Carlisle. Now the big question will be, how will Lower Dauphin handle districts? They've excelled at this meet in the past and have not been able to translate it to a state qualifying spot. They look safe as of now, but there are a couple dominoes that could lead to them missing out.

One of those dominoes is the situation in Mechanicsburg. As you may have noticed, Mechanicsburg was just 5th in the team standings with 122 points. That's 51 points back of Carlisle. However, Mechanicsburg did place 4 runners in the top 20 overall. Their #5 runner was 81st which ended up bringing down their team scoring but it is at least worth noting that their early season #4 runner (and etrain midseason team MVP), Michael Vigliano, did not compete. I'm a little concerned he might be injured as his race directly before this was a bit slower than his performance at Carlisle. But, hypothetically, if he was healthy and beat out Jack Wisner (as he did at Carlisle) then Mechanicsburg would have won the meet. I'm not saying watch out for Mechanicsburg for state champs, but I am saying if they get Michael back and healthy they will be an interesting to team to watch at districts and, hopefully states. 

Interesting side thought, could Mechanicsburg send 4 individuals to states without qualifying as a team? Tomasko and Cupp are early favorites, Sulon is racing very well and Knepper is progressing very quickly over the past few meets. 

Cumberland Valley looks like they are beginning to find the pieces at the right time yet again. They have consistently graduated from the District 3 meet to the state championships and, at the often talked about #5 spot, CV was best this weekend with 5 guys in the top 28 scorers. Nick Demario stepped up at the right time, racing in the #3 spot and delivering a great race beside Andrew Brown.

Lastly, I just want to give a shout out to Hershey. They scored 128 points at this meet, finishing right with Mechanicsburg. They were excellent through 4 runners and had a small drop off to the #5 spot. That top four is super talented and has a chance to carry this team up the standings next week at Districts of Morris can recapture at top 12 spot. A little more out of the 5 and they could shock everyone with a state qualifying performance.

The non-D3 intrigue comes from State College out of D6. They placed 4th overall, just ahead of Mechanicsburg. Nick Feffer had an excellent race, breaking 16 on the Big Spring lay out and giving SC a great low stick ahead of all the runners from Mechanicsburg and Lower Dauphin. At the #4 spot, Thomas Branstetter had his best race of the season, giving this team a huge lift in the standings. Unfortunately, it looks like Mitchell Etter is injured and won't be able to add to their front running contigent (if he was healthy, XC may have been second in this one), but SC is a resilient team and they continue to develop strong talent. They should make it out of districts and back to states and, once there, if they get a little extra from the pack of guys they have competing for their 5th scorer, they could sneak into the top 10 yet again.