The Regional Recap

By Jarrett Felix

Footlocker Northeast

When the Affolder boys arrived at Carlisle High School, most understood the state was receiving a pair of transformative talents. But did anyone predict that they would be quite this good? Let me break it down. First, there’s the obvious fact that the Affolders run fast. This season, Noah dropped PA course records left and right, most notably a 14:47 at the Carlisle Invitational. But these fast performances also brought out the best in their competition. District 3, who had struggled at the state meet prior to this season, took the first 4 spots overall and a record number of medalists overall. At regionals, PA sent a total of 5 runners to nationals (4 of which attend PA high schools) and had 11 top 25 finishes! That’s unprecedented stuff. And I probably don’t even need to mention the fact that Carlisle High School finished 2^nd in the state with two of the most improved finishers in a year over year comparison on the Hershey hills in their corner in Isaac Kole (30^th at Regionals) and Jack Wisner.

Noah and Sam Affolder put the exclamation point on this run with a 1-2 finish at the Footlocker Regional Championship. Noah was the defending champion and, once again, was able to cruise away from the field for an easy victory. He actually ran slower than he did a year ago without someone like Jake Brophy or Connor Lundy there to give chase. The big test for him will come at Nationals as he chases PA’s best finish in Footlocker History and a National Championship.

As for Sam, he made some serious history this weekend. I don’t believe PA has ever had a sophomore qualify for Footlocker Nationals. In the past 11 years, we haven’t even had a sophomore who has cracked the top 20 in the region. But Sam Affolder not only qualified, he also finished 2^nd overall in the region. Sam joins Mark Dennin (2^nd), Brad Miles (1^st), Jake Brophy (2^nd) and his brother Noah (1^st) on the short list of Footlocker Regional top finishers over the past 11 seasons. Those other four guys were all state champions. Having a two-time regional champion living in the same house as you may have been helpful for this extra month of training.

Our other PA qualifiers were incredibly well deserved as state silver medalists Zach Skolnekovich (8^th) and Nate Henderson (9^th) both qualified for the Footlocker Finals in San Diego. Dalton Hengst (5^th) is a PA resident but runs in the state of Maryland. He was the state’s 5^th qualifier and clinched a blowout win for PA at the regional meet. If you count Hengst and Phillip Wood (PA resident, NJ school) than PA has now had 25 Footlocker Qualifiers in the past 11 seasons. That’s an average of 2 per season prior to this year and suddenly 5 in 2016. Pretty amazing.

From the sounds of things, the PA squad really ran a smart race. They were poised and disciplined at the start and worked their way through an overeager field. Henderson mentioned in his interview post race that he learned a lot from this run a year earlier at the regional meet, showing the value of a little extra practice and experience. He’s also been recovering from some sickness. I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see him post a really strong mark out in San Diego. I think a fast pace could suit him and his strength running, plus a little extra recovery time from his illness will make him fresh and ready to go.

Nate bolsters an already impressive resume with this Footlocker ticket. He’s quickly climbing the PA All-Decade list from a year ago. He’s got a three-year stretch of 13^th-5^th-2^nd at States, a sub 15 at Carlisle, Sub 16s on the new and old Hershey lay out and now a sub 15:50 Footlocker Ticket at VCP.

As for Skolnekovich, his result may have been most surprising to me of the bunch. I thought these other three had a shot at nats, but I honestly thought Zach didn’t have his head in this one. He seemed pretty down after states and had never continued his season this long before. He easily could have shut it down. However, instead of being negative, he flipped things into a positive and used it to his advantage. He trained hard, ran a smart race and ultimately came away with a ticket to San Diego. It’s an awesome story to see unfold for a super talented guy. With this result, he becomes the second AA runner to qualify for Footlocker Nats in the past 11 seasons, joining Brendan Shearn from 2012. His time of 15:47 on this course also makes him the fastest WPIAL runner on this lay out in the past 11 years. Skolnekovich’s all-decade team resume includes two state silver medals, four total medals, a sub 16 on the old Hershey lay out, 3 district titles and now a Footlocker ticket.

Counting this year, we’ve had 53 PA high schoolers who have placed in the top 20 of the Footlocker Regional over the past 11 seasons. 8 of those came this year which I believe is a record amount, edging out the 7 we had in 2010. Nick Dahl and Connor McMenamin led the way for PA’s non qualifiers with 12^th and 13^th place finishes. Dahl, the two-time independent league champ, posted his best ever finish at a regional meet and exercised some VCP demons with his 15:54 mark. Meanwhile, McMenamin finished under 16 minutes with a time of 15:59, joining a group of now 31 PA runners with a sub 16 mark on the course over the past 11 seasons. Both runners have had terrific seasons with a lot of breakthroughs at some big meets and represented the state admirably on race day.

From AA, David Haines and Ben Bumgarner continued the successes for their classification by finishing 16^th and 17^th. It was a big statement for those who doubted the strength of the AA class this year and a great way to end the careers for these two seniors. Haines finish is particularly remarkable as he was 5^th at the AA state championship with a time that was just 34^th fastest in merged results. But those results proved to be at least a little flawed as Haines came out better than all but 5 of the runners with faster times from Hershey at the Regional championships.

Noah Beveridge, just as he was at the state meet, finishes as the top junior for the state of Pennsylvania. He took 21^st overall for the WPIAL and will be among the top 10 returners for next year’s big dance. His post season looks somewhat similar to what Nate Henderson did a year ago, finishing 5^th at states in a crowded battle for 4^th and then placing just outside the top 20 at regionals. Hopefully he can follow in Henderson’s footsteps with a Footlocker ticket in a year’s time. Ephrata’s Zach Lefever finished in 24^th, capping off an excellent season in his own right.

It’s worth noting that even if you give New York the Affolders and Maryland gets Dalton Hengst, then PA still ends up with the best overall score. And that’s just looking at each state’s top 7. If you expand it, our state ended up throwing down some serious depth. Isaac Kole of Carlisle was 30^th (that helped Carlisle rival the 9-11-13 finish of North Hills in 2010), Matt O’Neill of Norwin had a phenomenal race and finished 32^nd overall (outside the top 50 at states) and then just behind was Nick Norton and Matt Scarpill. All in all, PA produced 18 of the top 45 finishers including Hengst and the Affolders, 15 without them.

Nike Cross Northeast

Our state champions from CRN were in for a tough battle at the regional championships. The race for the top two spots would definitely be tough and, ultimately, the North boys came up just a few points short of Westport and CBA who scored 132 and 122 respectively compared to North’s 168. I thought this team held on pretty well for the extra few weeks of training, especially considering they had yet to contest this regional meet. This team has proven they can peak for the most important meet of the year, states, and it’s tricky to double peak or hold a peak this far out.

I thought they ran strong as a team and maybe needed a slightly tighter spread between for 2-4, but held their own well. I thought Haas had a very strong race, finishing 25^th overall. That’s not too far off the places that we saw from O’Hara and Henderson’s mid pack scorers when they made it to nationals. Ultimately, I’m sure North was hoping for a little more, but if you look at their marks from both Districts and States they are an all-time kind of team. Maybe I’ll have to do some all decade team rankings or something to sort out just how great.

Individually, there was plenty to celebrate. Although it appears he missed nationals by a slim margin, Ryan James led PA with a very impressive 8^th place finish. He joins a list of just 10 PA athletes to crack the top 8 at this regional meet and also holds two top 15 finishes in this meet which had only been done previously by Tony Russell (1^st-1^st), Kevin James (4^th-7^th), Brad Miles (6^th-7^th), Wade Endress (5^th-9^th) and Reece Ayers (13^th-13^th). Worth noting, Miles and Ayers did it during their sophomore and junior seasons and then raced at Footlocker for their senior campaigns.

Also impressing individually was 13^th place finisher Tristan Forsythe. While most of the top A runners decided to hang up their spikes, Forsythe pressed on the extra days and was rewarded with a terrific 13^th place finish as just a junior at the regional championships. He will be the #3 returner for this meet next year if he chooses to stick with Nike. Also among the top returners will be CRN’s Ryan Campbell, who placed a strong 17^th at the Regional championships.

In the team battle, DT West finished in 11^th overall with 410 points. They got a big lift from sophomore Payton Sewall who climbed all the way to the team’s #3 spot after being a non-scorer most of the year (somewhat like Alex Knapp did for Henderson in 2012). The team, which has placed well in both the state and the region the past three seasons, will face a big test next year as they graduate four of their top five runners.

Austin Maxwell of Kennett had a strong win in the Green Open race, running 17:09 to win by 6 seconds. Berwick’s Ty Fisher took 4^th overall in the same race.