Chapter 15: Upper Dublin’s Hershey
Bars
The
success of the 2007 North Penn Cross Country team sort of came out of left
field. Although the school was large and the program had been successful on the
track, North Penn had been a relative non-factor on the state cross country
scene. In 2006, North Penn had been just 14th at Districts. They
returned their entire top five, but that top five included just two guys who
had placed in the top 100.
Yet over
the summer, the team made a huge leap forward. Zach Hoagland, the #2 runner on
the squad in 2006, made a jump from solid to elite. He went toe to toe with
State Medalist Chris Bodary in a record setting race at Belmont before coming
back a few weeks later to get another silver at the Carlisle Invitational.
Plus, the team added sophomore Brad Miles to the equation. He placed in the top
10 at both Briarwood and Carlisle in his first season of cross country and ran
ahead of Zack Montijo, the team’s star 4x8 anchor who had run 15:41 the
previous season. Hoagland, Miles and Montijo made up a formidable top three
that no other team in the state could match.
After
our runner-up finish to North Penn at Carlisle, we were determined to take
another shot at the Knights. We didn’t have to wait long as both teams would be
racing on the same course for the Suburban One Championships. Starting in 2007,
the sites of the three Suburban One League championships were merged at Lehigh
University and each of three leagues would race one after the other. We won our
league with 24 points, led by Mike Palmisano’s latest sub-16 run. Our team was
feeling pretty good about the performance until we witnessed North Penn’s 19
point score. Led by a 15:40 from Zack Montijo.
Montjio’s
season to date had been average, but he exploded to the top of the standings on
the Lehigh course and pulled his #2 and #3 runners under 16 minutes with him.
At the award ceremony, Montijo accepted his first place medal by throwing up
the Jay-Z Dynasty Diamond and then breaking it dramatically over his knee[1]. That was the motivation
for us at practice the next week.
Based
on the merged results from Leagues, our times put us about 22 points back of
North Penn. If we could make up a bit of ground with our #5 runner, we would be
right there with them. The other wild card was Hoagland. He was North Penn’s #3
runner for the first time after a near spotless start. Maybe that could be
attacked as well.
As for
me, I still didn’t figure in much to the varsity equation, but I had made some
big leaps within the pecking order. At the Suburban One Junior Varsity race, I
had my best race of the year, clocking an 18:16 PR for 5k, running as our
team’s top sophomore and placing 27th overall. That was good enough
for a JV medal. In addition, our team was given 11 gold medals as a prize for
our league title. Since our coach had no interest in keeping medals for
himself, he handed all 11 out to his runners. I was the #11 guy for our squad
so I had the honor of receiving the last one. I’ll always remember that medal.
It was a large, gold, legit looking piece of metal on a string and I loved it
so much I probably slept with it that night.
A week
later, we were back at Lehigh for another race. I had my eyes set on the 18-minute
barrier while my varsity teammates had their eyes set on the district
championship. Our varsity squad would have the first chance as they stormed out
the gate through a blazing fast opening mile. The leaders took things through
in 4:43, with Wissahickon’s Nick Crits in front. Our Upper Dublin pack had five
runners through the mile under 5 minutes, which seemed absurdly fast. But
looking at the results, North Penn was even faster. They had 7 guys under 5
minutes at the first split and a 48-point advantage in the standings.
To our
surprise, North Penn only expanded their lead over the second half of the
course. The Knights scored 92 points to our 170 in the runner-up position.
Although we had three guys break the magical 16-minute barrier, North Penn had
one-upped us with four. To make things even crazier, North Penn’s sophomore
sensation Brad Miles had finished as the team’s #1 runner with a time of 15
minutes and 24 seconds! That was good enough for fourth overall. I was
absolutely floored by the fact that this kid was my age and running three minutes faster.
Not
long after, it was my turn. Unlike my varsity teammates, who had earned a
ticket to states with their second place performance, the District meet would
be my final cross country race as a sophomore. After my strong showing at
leagues, I set my sights on one of our seniors, Derek Cruice, who I had been
close to the previous week. I had followed Cruice through the mile in a blazing
fast 5:29 the previous week and hung on to a PR, so I set my sights on trying
to do it again[2].
But
this time, the pace was harder. I went out in 5:30, just behind Cruice, but I
had some sophomore company. My old rivals, Brian Lee and Ryan Desch had decided
to match my hard early pace rather than spot me the roughly 10 second cushion
they had given a week earlier. And their presence had rattled me. I fought them
off as long as I could, pushing the pace in the early going, but just as Brian
had in the mile the previous spring, he pulled away from me over the final
third of the race. Ultimately, he finished the race by breaking 18 minutes, the
barrier I had been cycling through my mind all week.
With
about 400 meters to go, Ryan came by me as well and kicked away. I had nothing
left physically or mentally and he too dropped a sizable PR, dipping to 18:08
and moving ahead of my best time of the season. My official time was 18:14. In
an eerily similar result to my previous track season, two classmates had come
by me in my last race, just when I had thought I was best in my grade and set
my sides on a big time barrier. I couldn’t help but feel a little defeated,
even while snagging a personal best[3].
Of
course, after districts, I wasn’t the only one feeling defeated. Once North
Penn had laid the smack down on us at Lehigh, our team goals changed and our
fire depleted. We still talked a big game and we were super excited about the
chance to get on the medal stand if we finished second in the state behind
North Penn. But we were a varsity team that was led by its juniors and the
complacency that accompanies “next year is our year” was in full force.
We made
our debut on the Hershey hills a week later, hoping to attack the state meet
and get the silvers. Through the first mile, everything was going according to
plan. We were second in the standings behind North Penn and were running well.
North Penn held just a 13-point lead on us. But over the second stage of the
race, while North Penn held their ground, we lost ours. Everyone on our team
went backwards in the standings and our lead runner Mike Palmisano just barely
held on to a medal. Really only our senior Pat McLaughlin had a strong race,
breaking into the top 40 finishers.
When
the points were tallied, North Penn was unsurprisingly the champion. Despite an
off day from Brian Quintrell, Tim Stauring had stepped up big time as a #4
runner. With Montijo (6th), Miles (10th) and Hoagland (24th)
all earning state medals, the state title was clinched with 90 total points.
But the Upper Dublin Cardinals? They were a surprising 5th overall.
Seneca Valley was 4th, North Allegheny was 3rd and the
defending champions from Coatesville were 2nd.
I think
the Coatesville thing was what really got us because we had defeated them every
step of the way prior to the state championships. But you have to commend their
guys. Andrew Mahoney finished 16th at states after finishing outside
the top 20 at districts while sophomore Billy Hackmeister and junior Brian Wolf
ran out of their gourds to finish 57th and 59th overall
as the team’s #3-4. That still amazes me to this day.
The
Coatesville silver medal performance was a big lesson for me on the value of
culture and tradition. Coatesville had lost their entire top five from their
national championship squad. As far as many were concerned, they had lost
everyone who mattered to their success. But their 6-7 runners were back. Many
of their JV runners were back. And they understood the legacy that Coatesville
had to uphold as a program. At the 2007 State Meet, they certainly did not
disappoint[4].
[1] This immediately became a common
celebration among the UDXC runners. Anchor the slow heat of the 4x4 to victory,
throw up the diamond. Finish a stride, throw up the diamond. Puke after a race,
throw up the diamond.
[2] Yes, that’s 5:29. My PR at the time
was 5:12 and I was going through the mile in 5:29 while finishing with an
average mile time of 5:53. Why did I think this was logical at the time? Oh,
High School.
[3] In case you became really invested
in my other classmates I’ve mentioned, my friend Todd had his best race of the
year at Leagues as well. He ran 18:44 and finished just one second behind
Desch. Ian McGrath had a big day at Leagues, breaking 6 minutes through his
opening mile and then clocking a 19:57 final time. He dropped his PR to 19:34
at districts. Matt Tanzer and Jack Mao, the other members of our original four,
ran 19:33 and 19:58 at districts. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Tanzer, who was a certified
math genius, was the smartest pacer out of all of us. He ran a 6:17 first mile
at districts and finished with a 6:18 average pace. But the winner of best race of the
day had to be newcomer Eric Lau who ran a huge PR of 19:27 at districts after
running just 20:38 at leagues.
[4] What’s interesting to me is that
Coatesville hasn’t made it back to the state meet since 2007. After that huge
silver medal performance they brought back three of their top four and, knowing
what they accomplished a year earlier, it seemed foolish to underestimate them
again. However, they were outside the mix in 2008 and haven’t re-entered the
conversation in the near decade since.
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