State Championship Recap: AAA Boys

by Jarrett Felix

AAA State Championship Recap

The Race

Carlisle tends to take a conservative approach in the early stages of a race and the District 3 champs were in 8^th place at the mile mark as a result. Of course, their top runner, Noah Affolder, the state title favorite, was out fast enough to be at the front of the field a mile in with his brother Sam not too far behind. The top group was about 4:53 at the mile with Noah, Nate Henderson, Rusty Kujdcych, Mark Provenzo and Connor McMenamin leading the charge. Some 30 plus runners were out under 5 minutes in this race.

Of that 30 plus number, many were wearing CR North uniforms as the district one champs had four guys under 5. Also running well through the mile was LaSalle who was in second place with 113 points. The WPIAL champions from Seneca Valley were all the way back in 13^th and were easily the farthest back of the top ranked teams in the state.

By two miles, Carlisle was beginning to surge back to the front of the standings. With Affolder firmly controlling the race from the front, the Herd came thundering forward with Isaac Kole and Jack Wisner making big moves up the field. Carlisle was in 4^th, about 26 points from second but 69 from the lead. The defending state champions, Downingtown West, hung tough in the silver medal spot, show casing a solid pack on the hills.

Individually, Affolder looked to be in control, but JP McCaskey’s Nate Henderson hung tight on his shoulder. Those two had nearly a 10 second advantage on everyone else. The top two spots seemed set, but the race was wide open after that. Noah Beveridge and Ryan James moved up to join the chase pack with Sam Affolder and Zach Lefever also in the mix.

At the finish, Noah rolled down the home straightaway and clocked the fastest time of the day with a 15:33. Behind him, Nate Henderson held on tight for second after giving everything he had to push himself alongside Noah. Sam Affolder was coming hard, throwing down a big kick, trying to give Carlisle a historic 1-2 finish, but coming up just 2 seconds short. The Affolders 1-3 run was eerily similar to the Hoeys run from a year earlier when they took 2-3.

I really respect the season Nate had. He was throwing down some terrific times each week and in most years would have been the state champion. But do to random circumstance, the Affolders came to town, a pair of unique, once in generation type talents and his favorite status was poached not just in the state, but within his district. A lot of people would have let that get to them mentally and maybe started to lose focus or enthusiasm, but Nate continued to excel and finished the meet with his best ever state finish (any season). Hopefully, he’s got something extra left in the tank for Footlocker Regionals.

It was a big day for District 3. After the Affolder-Henderson-Affolder stuff was sorted out, Zach Lefever of Ephrata won a three way kickers battle to sweep the top 4 spots for D3. Junior Noah Beveridge, much like Nate Henderson a year ago, was the top junior in the race after grabbing the middle spot in a kickers battle. We knew odds were good there would be a District 7 runner in the top 5 overall, but I think the general consensus was that would be the experienced senior Mark Provenzo (who had a great race of his own in 9^th), but Beveridge stepped up and grabbed the top WPIAL spot with a sub 16 mark on the new lay out. Keep in mind that Beveridge was 7^th at his first race of the season (McDowell) and 6^th at his second (RWB). He ends (?) his season with a 5^th place finish at states. Pretty cool.

Connor McMenamin finished as the top district one finisher in 6^th overall in a fantastic story of redemption. He had been in medal position at two miles each of the past two seasons but had struggled to finish the job. This year, healthy, strong and experienced, Connor held on valiantly with an awesome run.

Lots of other cool stories in this race including a couple big performances from guys who were in the background at districts. Jake O’Neill continues to find magic on the Hershey hills. He runs this course phenomenally and picked the right time to become West’s #1 runner with a 17^th place finish at states. Nick Norton of Hempfield barely even qualified for the state championships, but he made the most of his opportunity with a 19^th place finish and a state medal.

I loved see Amadou Diallo of Allerdice get on the medal stand as well. He finished 21^st in this race which, I believe is the best finish by District 8 at the state meet in the past decade plus, passing Ean DiSilvio, a super talented cross guy who is killing it at PSU as of late. Zach Case of Hampton was an interesting name to note as well. Case would have missed the state meet entirely if Mars’s freshman Zachary Leachman didn’t pull out. But Case pounced on the opportunity and raced to 39^th overall in the state championships. That was an impressive race that I definitely didn’t see coming and a classic example of seizing the opportunity.

Although we were all hoping for a crazy battle for the state championship, the top two teams really ended up asserting themselves pretty clearly in this one. CR North posted a big win with five top 50 finishers, and almost 4 medalists as their 3-4 punch essentially tied for the last state medal. North will now look to qualify for the national championships out West. They left no doubt about their ability to race the hills and officially silenced anyone who had dropped the “overrated” line on them earlier this season on the blog.

Carlisle finished 40 points ahead of 3^rd place and 42 behind 2^nd, putting them in their own tier. There’s not much to be disappointed with if you’re a member of the Carlisle team. Jack Wisner had an absolutely monster race. He finished 33^rd overall in an awesome performance, consistently moving up through the field. That solidified the team’s top 4 group as they also finished with 3 medalists. I thought Max Fiorentino had a strong race as the team’s #5, but unfortunately he would have needed to run a massive PR for this team to keep pace with CRN. Think of it this way, if Fiorentino ran roughly 20 seconds faster, it still would have taken a 1-2-3-4 finish in team standings for Carlisle to beat CRN. All the same, the Herd made a big statement for District 3. They performed well at every meet they traveled to and they had the best D3 finish at a state meet since 2005.

If you were looking for craziness, then you probably liked the battle for the remaining top 10 spots. Some teams definitely had some bad luck, perhaps most notably Mechanicsburg whose projected #2 runner Alex Tomasko ran with what appeared to be a nail in his foot the whole race. Although he finished farther back than hoped, you have to really respect Tomasko’s will to push through this misfortune and finish the race. He helped Mechanicsburg finish 11^th in the state, just two points off 10^th. It looks like Lower Dauphin’s Mark Walsh, the freshman sensation who had been a big part of their climb to states, didn’t race. Hope he is OK.

And how about LaSalle? They had an unfortunate DNF from one of their top guys and Stephen Paul, who had been a top 2 guy on the team in the early season, had a rare off day, but the Explorers still managed to take 5^th in the state, just 2 points away from 4^th. That just speaks again to the depth of this team. How many of the top programs realistically could have survived the state course without their top 2 runners having strong performances?

The WPIAL champions, Seneca Valley, survived all the let down potential from their big win at districts and finished 4^th in the state. Literally no one picked them higher than 5^th place and they spent the majority of the season struggling to just crack the top 10 on most people’s state team rankings. But at the end of the day they are WPIAL champions with a 4^th place finish at states, led by two sophomores who both notched top 40 finishes. Their lone senior, Trey Razanauskas, helped lead SV to a historic year and, with everyone else coming back next year, perhaps the beginning of something great.

Lastly, big shout out to State College. Nick Feffer grabs a second straight medal, but Owen Isham, just as sophomore, crushes this race with a top 50 finish overall. That was huge. The injury to Mitchell Etter could have really brought down the resolve of this team, but everyone stepped up at the right time including #4 Thomas Branstetter and the #5-6 punch of Sam Horn and David Wong. Now we move to track season where Feffer and Owen Wing (strong stretch run to his XC season) will look to lead them back into the 7:40s yet again. The last three years they’ve run 7:41, 7:41 and 7:37.

Quick Thoughts

1.      District One Teams All in the Top 10 … Again. Since the move to three classifications, all 5 district one teams have built a house in the top 10 at states. No matter what happens, they seem to always find a way to get there. This year, I thought it was going to be basically impossible for Henderson or Lower Merion to get in the top 10 and I was worried about CB West as well. But all three teams had awesome days and they took 8^th-9^th-10^th on the Hershey hills. For Henderson, Jack Downing’s return to the line-up was big and he came on just when this team needed him most. Stephen Heck also crushed his last two races of the year. CB West’s Michael Samson stepped up into the #1 runner role (outside the scoring 5 last week) as West ended up in the top 10 even without a top 50 overall finish, speaking to their ability to pack run. And for Lower Merion, D’Aquila led the way with a state medal, but you have to love the racing by Theodore Neckowitz. He finished just outside the top 50 in this race despite the fact that he didn’t even race with the team at Foundation. Great stuff from LM and District One.

2.      That being said, D3 individuals really stepped up. D3 took the first 4 spots overall and, with Noah Beveridge stepping up, D1 didn’t have a top 5 finisher. When’s the last time that happened? But it wasn’t just the big 4. Isaac Kole and Morgan Cupp, who’ve battled all year, finished 13^th and 14^th overall. Junior Jared Giannascoli picked the right time to step into the #1 runner role as he led the team at both districts and states, finished 15^th overall. His teammate Colton Cassell and Hempfield’s Nick Norton also finished in the medals, giving D3 9 state medalists! That matched D1’s total.

3.      Just one sophomore medalist … and he may not even be back next year. Sam Affolder was the only sophomore state medalist and it’s very possible the Affolder family may move again next year, meaning things in the class of 2019 could get real interesting. In fact, after Sam Affolder the next best young runner was freshman Carlos Shultz (29^th in an awesome young gun performance). Seneca Valley had two of the next three sophomores with Sam Owori (30^th) and Seth Ketler (34^th) while Jack Wisner split those with his 33^rd place finish. Freshman Dan McGoey (45^th) of North Allegheny and State College’s Owen Isham (47^th) were other young stand outs who handled the state pressure well.

4.      Where does CRN stack up among the great teams? Do we start talking about this team with the other great squads? They had 4 in the top 26 overall which, if I’m not mistaken, hasn’t been done since Coatesville in 2006 (i.e. the National Champs). We have yet to see how North transitions from states to regionals as they’ve never attended that meet, but they are apparently going to make the trip this year. I’m looking forward to seeing how they continue to bolster their legacy.

5.      Alright, I’m ready to see Noah Affolder get after it for real. And maybe he takes some others with him. With all due respect to the state of PA (we had some incredible performances this year), I want to see Affolder in the regional and national championships. He’s been openly stating that those are his focus all year and maybe one of those will be the race he loses this year? It’s yet to really be close (Nate Henderson has been his best challenger this year that I’ve seen including the competition at McQuaid and Manhattan). But the logical follow up is who might have a chance to attend Nationals with him? I like to say the best brings out the best, meaning when someone good comes along to train with or race again, it elevates everyone around them because they are trying to beat him (or her). So will Nate Henderson survive Footlocker, running on Noah’s hip? Will Sam Affolder join Noah in San Diego? I hope PA sends a lot of guys to both meets, I think it is great for the state to represent at these big regional meets. That being said, it’s a long season if you go to the end of November and it’s not for everyone.

#DerailTheTrain

As always, I didn’t have a perfect resume for my state championship predictions. I’ve already touched on a lot of the big breakthroughs (the D1 teams, State College, Nick Norton come to mind), but let’s see if I can find a few more upsets. Eric Kersten of Pennsbury finished 18^th overall in this race, showing that his breakthrough at Foundation was no fluke. He becomes Pennsbury’s third different medalist within the last few seasons. David Merkey of Manheim Central had an awesome day. He took 36^th overall and I wasn’t even sure he would be top 2 on his own team. Brett Brady of Butler had a terrific day, cracked the top 50 overall and Cheltenham’s Will Griffen also finished his season on a high note with a 49^th place finish.