Post-District Takeaways: District 3

by Blake Behney

Districts offered us some exciting action across the state, and D3 was no exception. Here are some things that stood out to me after saturday’s meet at Big Spring.


Noah Affolder Looks Invincible
No wisdom teeth, no problem for Noah Affolder. The Herd senior has passed every test with flying colors this season and the story was no different this time around. His winning time of 15:17 was a new course record by 10+ seconds and he did it with uncanny ease. In his post-race interview, he said that his first two miles were around 10:05 before he dropped the hammer and ran away with it. Affolder says his goal is a national title, but that he also wants the individual and team titles in Hershey next weekend. We’ll get to the team race in a bit, but it seems inevitable that he’ll have that individual gold hanging from his neck.


Wisner Comes Through in the Clutch
Carlisle put together a strong showing, winning the district title with 106 points, 46 points ahead of second place Lower Dauphin. As the case has been all season, the Herd’s top 3 led the way with some really strong efforts. After Noah’s victory, Sam Affolder came in 4th at 15:47 with Isaac Kole finishing closely behind him in 6th at 15:51. However, the story of the meet for Carlisle was #4 man Jack Wisner, who ran a gutsy race to finish 24th in a big PR of 16:24. The Big Spring course is no joke, and neither is that time.  It has to be comforting for the Herd to see another piece of the puzzle coming together at the perfect time. Before the season I thought Wisner would be a little closer to Kole and that he’d be a potential medal threat at states. His season up to districts seemed a little underwhelming until word came out that he was a little banged up. It seems he’s finally back on track, but the question of whether the Herd still have the components to take down CRN’s pack (and the other team title threats) still looms. States are gonna be fun.


And the Final State Berth Goes to… Manheim Central?
I’m just gonna come out and say that I completely underestimated Manheim Central and that they weren’t really on my radar in terms of state qualifying standards. I wasn’t really familiar with their team besides Cole Sunderland, who I considered to be more of an 800 specialist. Well, he proved me wrong by displaying his versatility, along with the rest of their squad this past weekend. The Barons put 4 guys under 17 at a tough course and beat out perennial powers like CV, Hershey, and league rival Hempfield for the final state berth. Color me impressed. And they proved their win at LLs was no fluke either.


4-Peats Everywhere
The team battle in the smaller classifications was the same story as the previous 3 years: York Suburban winning in AA and Camp Hill winning A. Suburban’s entire top 5 medaled individually, led by Bryce Ohl and Jarrett Raudenski’s 2-3 finish. Even with senior Peter Wagner having a bit of an off day, they still looked dominant and like they belong in the tier of state title contenders with Greensburg Salem, Harbor Creek, Grove City, and Dallas. As for Camp Hill, the Lions scored a measly 35 points to run away with their 4th straight title. Ian Gabig led them in 3rd place overall with Dan Shank and Pat Dorsey also grabbing medals, finishing 5th and 10th. I’m not really sure what to expect of the Lions’ at states. Given their situation with a number of dual-sport athletes, it’s tough to get a read on them during the regular season. One thing I am sure of is Coach Haywood having them ready to go at states. As we saw last year, he’s sort of an expert at that kind of thing.


Can Anybody Stop Joe Cullen?
Another weekend, another W for Joe Cullen. I’ve already raved about this kid, but he just keeps on winning. There’s only been one race this year that he hasn’t won, which was Foundation where he finished second. Cullen took control of this race from the start and held off the Suburban boys for the win. I’m boldly slotting him for a top 5 finish at states at the moment considering he ran 16:30 at Hershey earlier this season and has consistently come up big in the clutch. Also, Wyo freshman Ben Kuhn nabbed the final medal in AA, running 17:18. Future stud alert. Overall, it was a good day for Wyo who looks like they could be a real threat to contend for an AA state title in the near future.


Brenden Who?
The biggest upset of the day in my opinion occurred in Class A. I’m pretty sure just about everyone had Ian Gabig from Camp Hill winning this one. There were some other contenders, like Morgan Morrison, Caleb Sneller, and Dan Shank, but it was going to take the races of their lives to beat Gabig. Coincidentally, a couple guys ran the races of their lives. The eventual victor was someone who I didn’t even know ran cross country or was even in Class A: Brenden Miller of Upper Dauphin. I remembered racing him on the track last spring at districts where he ran 4:36 in the 1600 and 10 flat for 3200, but this race was clearly a huge fitness breakthrough for him. His winning time of 16:29 would’ve won AA and put him in the top 30 for AAA. For comparison, Will Greene from Delone Catholic ran 16:27 here last year for second place and went on to finish 8th at states. So, I’m buying Miller’s chances as a state medalist with a ton of upside. Sneller ran a huge PR for the course (16:33) to take second ahead of Gabig (16:46) who still ran a great race despite not getting the result he wanted. Both guys have a great chance at grabbing medals at states and Gabig, who has been a little banged up, has top 10 potential if healthy. An under-the-radar effort in this race came from Morgan Morrison. The West Shore Christian senior PR’d in 17:01 for 4th place, and his improvement in recent weeks has made him a smart sleeper pick for a state medal. Overall, I feel like Class A really showed out this year and hope they can put that on display at states.


Feel free to offer some states-related discussion and predictions in the comments below.