The Etrain 11: Cross Country Edition

by Jarrett Felix

On its surface, Cross Country appears to be an individual sport. But for those who have battled together through the cold, the hills, the wind and the pain, we know better. As we were reminded in a variety of ways over the years, winning a cross country race comes down to five, sometimes six, scorers. Everyone needs to work together to move up the standings.

In 2009, I was a part of an Upper Dublin team that finished 10^th in the district. We were the top team that didn’t have any individual state qualifiers. It doesn’t sound like much, but for us, it was an amazing achievement. Together, as a unit, our five to six guys raced hard for one another and we beat a lot of teams that were carried by one or two front-runners. That may not meet some people’s definition of success. But every team does and should have a different definition.

In 2013 West Chester Rustin finished the district championships in 30^th place. It was a young team, returning their entire top six, but they were buried in the loaded district one. A year later, they finished 9^th in the district, cutting their previous year’s point total by over 50%. After a steady stream of talented graduates including Jack Carmody, Jimmy Cook and Spencer Vogt, the 2016 West Chester Rustin Cross Country team probably wasn’t atop many fans pre-season projections. But West Chester Rustin competed valiantly and consistently during the regular season. And their reward was a historic victory at the Ches-mont Championships.

That set up Rustin as sleeper picks for the District One Championships. The 5^th spot to states seemed up for grabs and the Rustin boys went after it from the start. Unfortunately, Rustin came up short of their goal with a 13th place finish. Adding to the disappointment was the fact that Rustin ended up without a single individual state qualifier as their top runner, Brandon Hontz, finished 46^th.

As a result, the 2016 West Chester Rustin boys are the winners of this year’s “2009 Upper Dublin Memorial Award”. It hurts to miss out on the state meet, but it doesn’t take away from the team’s incredible season. Even on a day that wasn’t quite their best, Rustin still beat out a ton of teams from the district thanks to their pack’s ability to step up and work as a unit. Brandon Hontz led the team in 2016 with some key invitational wins, a runner up finish at Ches-monts and a 46^th place finish at the District Championships. The team’s #2 runner Ryan Demis improved by 59 seconds from his time just a year earlier, running 16:25. Edward Harpstead and Colbe Clark both broke 16:50 on District Friday, a huge drop for both runners on the previous season. Those four seniors catapulted Rustin 10 spots up the District standings from a year previously and put the team in position to do some special things.

I hope that their definition of success remembers this team fondly. They have a lot to be proud of.

On its surface, Cross Country appears to be an individual sport. But we know better. We battle as a team out on the course. When one guy falls down, another guy steps in to help pick him up. Not every day is perfect. But the best teams are resilient. The best teams make Cross Country more than an individual sport. They literally feed off one another.

At the State Championships in Hershey, we saw some of those teams in action. LaSalle High School was one of the early sleeper picks to make noise at states. They had run very well at the Foundation Invitational and they were coming off back to back victories on the hilly Belmont Plateau course. On race day, they went out hard and chased their dreams. At the mile they were in second place and they held tight to their position through two miles, running in 3^rd place overall.

Unfortunately, the team wasn’t able to finish in the medals. One of their top runners, district champion Evan Addison, had to drop out before the finish and the team’s usual #2 runner, Stephen Paul finished farther back than he may have hoped as well. For most programs, even a tiny slip from their top two runners would potentially bury their cause, but LaSalle is a unit. When one runner slips back, the others step up. The boys stepped up as Brendan Price and Quinn O’Neill finished 55^th and 58^th overall with freshman Vincent Twomey handling the pressure superbly with a 70^th place finish.

As seems to be all too common of a story in recent history, the LaSalle boys had the tightest spread in the AAA state championships, positing just a 16 second spread between their #1 and #5 runners. In the final standings, they were 5^th overall, just 2 points back from 4^th place. It’s the second straight year LaSalle has finished in the top 5 in the state and neither of those years did they post a top 35 finisher. In fact, this year LaSalle became the first team this decade to finish in the top 5 at AAA states without a single finisher in the top 50 runners overall.

As we were reminded in a variety of ways over the years, winning a cross country race comes down to five, sometimes six, scorers. Everyone needs to work together to move up the standings. And LaSalle seems to be the king of this.

On its surface, Cross Country appears to be an individual sport. But for those who have battled together through the cold, the hills, the wind and the pain, we know better. The key word there is, naturally, “battled”. Cross Country is a fight. When I say blood, sweat and tears, I literally mean blood, sweat and tears. I’ve seen them all in the aftermath of a race.

For Alex Tomasko of Mechanicsburg, this battle got very real very quick. He raced the state championship with a what appeared to be a giant nail in his shoe. Tomasko was one of the top runners in the state this year. He placed in the top 10 at the loaded District 3 Championships and ran under 15:40 at the Paul Short Invitational. Tomasko is also a very talented track runner who ran excellent marks in the 3200 and the 1600.

So when this nail came across his path, it would have been easy for him to quit. To drop out of the race and prepare for track season. He had a built in excuse ready to go. But Tomasko didn’t quit. He pressed on over the grueling hills, even knowing the odds were stacked against him. The Mechanicsburg boys had pulled off a rare accomplishment in their program’s history: they qualified as a team for the state championships. And they had a pretty good shot at making noise if their top runners could continue to excel.

Tomasko crossed the line in 112th place, a performance many would be thrilled with but one that was likely disappointing for the medal hopeful. But his finish helped Mechanicsburg finish 11th in the state. If he had dropped out, the team would have dropped back to about 16th place overall. Instead, the team bested some experienced, big name programs and made a powerful impression among the state's elite.

Cross Country is a team sport. But there’s a reason it looks like an individual one. Because each runner has to make an individual, independent choice about what is important to them. Do they want to run for their own ambition or lay everything on the line for something greater? For Alex Tomasko and many others this season, that choice was an easy one.