Etrain 11 Series: District One Recap

Etrain 11 Series Results Available via LXV+

Team: http://lxvplus.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-etrain-11-series-district-one.html?m=1

Individual: http://lxvplus.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-etrain-11-racing-series-district_56.html?m=1

We knew coming in that it would be an intense battle out at Lehigh in the first qualifying event of the Etrain 11 Series. A total of 243 runners entered the District One race and 27 teams were scored in a quest to qualify for the State Championship event coming later this summer.

The favorites coming in were the boys from West Chester Henderson, who had qualified three different units for Monday’s qualifying event. However, after the first mile, Henderson was buried back in the field at 10^th place in the overall standings. Instead, it was the national champions from Coatesville who were out to the early lead. Kyle Dawson, Class of 2007, led the race through the mile in 4:41 followed closely by Rusty Kujdych from Neshaminy (’18) and Mark Dennin of Boyertown (’08). The Men in Black had four runners in the top 40 overall and clocked 88 points through the first five minutes.

Also asserting themselves as potential qualifiers in the early stages of the race were North Penn, DT West and Hatboro Horsham. These three teams sat within four points of one another. The Knights of North Penn showed the deepest contingent through the mile with all seven runners in the top 50 team scorers.

As the race continued, Unionville’s Paul Springer (’07) began his climb up the field. Dawson still held the lead, but now he, Springer, Henderson’s Tony Russell (’14) and Boyertown’s Jason Weller (’07) were battling out front. Weller’s teammate, Mark Dennin, as well as Henderson’s Chris Aldrich (’08), were also challenging the top pack. With the emergence of Russell and Aldrich at the top of the field, Henderson’s chances of pulling out the victory were starting to look a lot better.

Racing up the standings behind them was Council Rock North who had Chris Campbell (’11) in the top group now, striding forward and holding his own as a low stick. However, CRN still needed the back half of their pack to make up ground a bit if they were going to get into the state qualifying mix.

In the final stages of the race, Paul Springer asserted himself as the class of the field and exploded through the last down hill. Russell of Henderson was the only one to cover the move, but ultimately he could not match Springer’s tenacious finishing sprint. Weller managed to nip Russell just before the line, giving the Class of 2007 the top two finishers in the race.

Meanwhile, CB East’s Jake Brophy (’16) threw down an explosive kick, surging ahead of some 7 runners in the last quarter mile of the race to take 4^th overall in a sub 15 minute clocking. Aldrich and Kyle Dawson rounded out the top 6 finishers, all of which were under 15 minutes. Brophy’s kick turned plenty of heads, but so too did the final mile from Upper Moreland’s Drew Magaha (’12) who moved up to 9^th overall with a time of 15:04. Magaha was the first finisher who was not a part of the team competition.

After the runners crossed the line, with 45 different runners cracking 15 minutes and 30 seconds, there was a wait for the team competition results to be tallied. Only the top five programs would be guaranteed a spot in the State Championship, although up to five additional squads could be selected through a wild card process.

Henderson was announced as the champions with 80 points, led by their two sub 15 minute runners. They also had Reiny Barchet (’14) and Will Kellar (’10) finish in the top 25 overall, the only team with at least three such finishers in that group. But Chris Ferry (’07), who made up some 70 team spots over the final mile, was perhaps the biggest swing runner for West Chester. He finished in 38^th overall.

North Penn, who won back to back District Championships in 2007 and 2008, held on for second place with their own deep unit. Brad Miles (’10) led the way with a 15:01 7^th place finish and then the Knights packed in three other runners under 15:30. They left a little too much space between their #5 and Henderson’s to steal victory, but ultimately a 71 point gap between the top two schools would be tough to overcome.

DT West and CR North were locked in a tight battle down the stretch of this race. Jaxson Hoey (’16) led the charge for West, the 2015 Northeast Regional Champions, with a 10^th place finish, but Chris Campbell and Ross Wilson (’14) were just behind. CR North made up some ground in the #5 spot behind Tim Haas (’17), but ultimately a big run from Quinn Devlin (’12) swung this race in West’s favor. The final tally was 170 to 176.

That left the battle for the 5^th and final spot up for grabs. Although CB West, Unionville and Lower Merion put up valiant efforts (Lower Merion jumped from 20^th at the mile up to 9^th in the final standings), the last spot came down to Coatesville and Hatboro Horsham. While Coatesville trotted out the exact same team that won them nationals in 2006, Horsham had runners from 7 different classes (although 3 of them were named “Hibbs”). Although Hatboro gave the Raiders everything they could handle, Coatesville managed to be just a bit better at four of the top five positions with Jason Leonard (’07) and Sean Ward (’07) each defeating their closest Horsham competitors by less than a second. The final tally left Coatesville with 185 points to Horsham’s 199.

Speculation says that Horsham will have good odds at advancing to the championships from their 6^th position through Wild Card selection, but even if they don’t they will still be well represented. Out of the 25 individual qualifiers, Horsham is currently slated to get three of those spots thanks to Casey Comber (’15), Sam Hibbs (’12) and Conner Quinn (’13). Keep an eye out for Quinn who was 36^th at Districts but was the 2011 XC State Champion on the Hershey course he will be traveling to later this year.

Quinn joins a slew of state champions currently slated to get at large spots to the state championship including Weller (2^nd), Brophy (4^th), Dennin (8^th), and Jimmy Tarsnane (’09, 16^th). Quinn actually finished quite close to the bubble as he was just 2 seconds ahead of Great Valley’s Ned Willig (’12) who took 41^st overall. Willig edged out Connor Harriman of Pennsbury (’13) to get the last qualifier by less than a second. Harriman will hope to be a part of the 25 at large selections in the Wild Card round. His odds are very good for advancing as he will be first in line to get bumped in if Horsham is accepted or, even if they are not, he would be a smart choice for an individual wild card out of arguably the state’s toughest qualifier. Harriman finished in the top 10 at the state championships in both 2011 and 2012.

West Chester Henderson’s “B” squad finished in 10^th overall and technically has a shot to qualify as a wild card team. If they don’t, I’d expect Alex Knapp (’15) and Spencer Smucker (’18) to move onto the varsity squad for states. They led the “B” squad with 48^th and 51^st overall finishes.