State Championship Recap: A Boys

By Jarrett Felix

A State Championship Recap

The Race

Winchester Thurston entered as favorites and their pack got out hard, ready to defend that reputation. They had five runners in the top 25 of the team standings at the mile mark, giving them a comfortable lead in the standings. Both Tristan Forsythe and Ben Littman, the team’s front runners, were among the small group of runners that went through the mile under five minutes.

Leading the way was Griffin Mackey from Sewickley Academy. The defending state champion pushed the pace out quickly as he had last year. He raced sparingly in 2016, but he went for it in the early stages of the state championship. Also in the top group was Noah Curtin and Jimmy Zimmerman of Mercyhurst Prep, Donovan Myers and Phoenix Myers of Seneca, Connor Walsh of Cambridge Springs, Brenden Miller of Upper Dauphin and Ryan Thrush of Brookville.

The first mile ends with a hill and then the alohas come into play on that second mile. Anybody who went out too hard really had to be feeling it through the second mile as almost all the hills in the course are featured during that stretch. Navigating the hills best was Tristan Forsythe of Winchester Thurston. He opened up a big lead, a six second edge, and crossed the road with a solid lead. His teammate Ben Littman tried to go with him and help WT get a 1-2 finish like they had done so many races before, but a pack lurked behind them.

As they went into the loop, it looked to me like Forsythe had a big enough edge to take gold. However, that new loop is a lot longer than I thought. As the fans waited to see who would come up Poop-Out hill first, a small group of fans erupted into furious cheers right around the final turn. Coming into view was Noah Curtin of Mercyhurst Prep as he sprinted home toward the finish line. He was followed not too long after by 1:53 800m runner Donovan Myers who trusted his kick to bring him home. Forsythe hung on well for third.

One of the biggest movers in the second half of the race was Zachary Wortman of Elk County Catholic. The district nine runner up went from 5:11 at the mile (18 seconds off the lead) to 7^th place overall, 23 seconds off first and 5 seconds off fifth. Wortman was one of just four medalists to go through the first mile over 5:10. The others were Caleb Sneller (25^th), Harrison Keenan (23^rd) and Christian Tanner (22^nd). Tanner, just a sophomore from Smethport, went out in 5:26 through the mile and came roaring all the way back into the medals alongside fellow sophomore Darion Gregory (29^th).

In the team standings, Winchester Thurston continued to roll. They had three state medalists for the second straight year with Forsythe and Littman in the top 6 overall and Shaun Hay placing 16^th. Their fourth and fifth runners also cracked the top 50 overall, clinching the victory for Winchester Thurston with a tiny 62 points. No one else ended up in the double digits.

Elk County Catholic, who was 4^th at the mile, finished second overall. But Seneca really gave them a run for their money. I was very impressed with the run by Seneca, especially their 3^rd and 4^th runners, Adam Hanes and Robert Stepnowski. They hung tough with a strong pack for Elk CC, but ultimately finished 5 points off the podium.

Northeast Bradford finished 4^th and Montrose of District 2 finished 5^th. Casey Ellis and Garret Smith provided a nice 1-2 punch for NEB while sophomore Zak Smith stepped up with a top 50 finish. Montrose had huge days from the Brewer brothers, Owen finished as the team’s #1 runner and in the medals after he was the team’s 3^rd man at districts. His younger brother, sophomore Max Brewer, finished as the team’s #4. Unfortunately, the team didn’t have as tight of a spread between their top 3 runners as they did at districts. If they had a perfect day with three guys around Brewer, they likely would have been the second place team. However, at states, it’s really hard to have a perfect day. Still awesome to post a top 5 team in the state.

Quick Thoughts

1.      Noah Curtin has one heck of a clutch gene. To be honest, his season to date in 2016 had been pretty lackluster. At districts, Connor Walsh, Donovan and Phoenix Myers and Zac Tingley all bested him quite convincingly just a week ago. Guys like Zach Wortman had beaten him at the McQuaid Invitational. But on race day, he went out hard, put himself in the mix and then, when the pressure was on, he threw down an awesome kick and got the victory. The guys he outkicked? A 1:53 800m runner, a low 4:20s miler with two track state medals, and a 48 second 400m runner! Congrats to Noah on an awesome race and well deserved state championship.

2.      District 1 had a big meet. The D1 boys really impressed me in this one. Tim Kennel finished 8^th overall and will be the #2 returner for next year’s state meet. Then, in 11^th, Jenkintown’s Jack Miller finished as the top sophomore overall. He and Joshua Jackson (24^th overall in a big race) helped lead Jenkintown to a fantastic 6^th place finish in the team standings.

3.      The District 3 craziness continues. Just a week after we saw some big upsets at D3 individually, Morgan Morrison stepped up to become the surprise #1 finisher with a 12^th place overall finish. Morrison was 4^th at districts with a 17:01, but ran 16:58 on the Hershey course, one of the only runners across all divisions in D3, to run faster at Hershey. Caleb Sneller and Ian Gabig also clocked top 30 finishes for District 3.

4.      West Middlesex was no fluke. The District 10 runner ups surprised me when they beat Mercyhurst Prep for the second spot and then they did it again at states with a 7^th place team finish at 196 points. Freshman Luke Mantzell and Senior Jacob Unverdorben led the way with top 50 finishes. District 10 had a big individual day with three top five finishers, but their teams (3^rd and 7^th) also really held their own as well.

5.      Freshman step up and handle the pressure. I’m always impressed when the young guys handle the big stage. It’s really hard for even the most experienced seniors  The top freshman was Ben Hoffman from Elk County Catholic who finished 27^th overall. Hoffman finished as ECC’s #2 and his efforts over the final mile, coupled with freshman teammate Isaac Wortman (54^th overall) were a huge part of why Elk County was able to hold off Seneca for second overall.  A total of 7 freshmen finished in the top 55 overall, including three from the top 2 teams overall.

#DerailTheTrain

As usual, we had plenty of performances that proved my predictions very wrong. But I’ll try to acknowledge some of the big step up performances from this meet who made me look silly. Obviously Noah Curtin of Mercyhurst Prep had a huge day. I picked him for 10^th overall and he finished 1^st so that’s about as derailing as you can get. Also coming through was Ben Heim of Washington. I picked him to finish outside of the medals, but the 1:55 half miler ran a very smart race to finish 9^th overall in the state. This came a week after he was 10^th at the District Championships. The district 6 runners stepped it up as well. Led by Chris Colwell in 21^st, District 6 placed five runners in the top 50 overall. Also a quick shout out to District champions Kamil Jihad (44^th, D12) and Wayne Reilly (46^th, D11) who impressed me a lot with top 50 finishes. Both guys come back next year.