The Etrain 11 Series XC Finale Preview

Note: Everything is now officially loaded for an 8 o'clock start time on the Etrain 11 XC Series Finale (State Championship). This Thursday night, if you click on right at 8 o'clock, there should be a live radio broadcast link. That will line up with the live results on lxvplus.blogspot.com if you start your radio broadcast right at 8. You can then experience the race as if it is happening live! I think it will hopefully sync up well and be a fun way to enjoy this fictional race. Just make sure you are on time!

Box Assignments for Etrain 11 Series XC State Championships
Full List of Qualifiers for Etrain 11 Series XC State Championships

Individual Preview

The individual match-up is sure to be an exciting one as we look ahead to the All 11 state championship race. Runners from a variety of eras in PA running will converge on the Hershey Parkview course to test their skills on this difficult, hilly terrain. A few of the top athletes have never contested this particular lay out before, including the top two finishers from the District One championships in Paul Springer and Jason Weller. District Three Champion Noah Affolder has also never seen this particular version of the course. We will see if that has any sort of negative effect on these athletes on race day.

Noah Affolder of Carlisle had the largest victory of any athlete during the district qualifying round and comes in as the favorite for the individual title. Noah is one of a select group of state and regional champions who has competed for Pennsylvania. The other two, Brad Miles and Tony Russell were just 7^th and 3^rd respectively at their district championships at Lehigh.

The top District One athletes are expecting to give Noah a real challenge. From this field, a whopping seven different state champions qualified for Hershey. Paul Springer led the way with his 14:46 course record clocking, but his old rival Jason Weller is lurking, ready to defeat him in the clutch yet again. Tony Russell (3^rd 14:54), Jake Brophy (4^th 14:56) and Brad Miles (7^th 15:01) have all held records on this particular Hershey lay out and shouldn’t be counted out in their title quest.

Outside of Districts One and Three, the top spot was very tightly contested. Out at Coopers Lake, Ryan Gil barely survived against Zach Hebda by one second for the district title. Gil moved from 10^th to first over the final mile, showcasing a great finishing kick and bringing home the title. Meanwhile, at Belmont Plateau, it was a surprise winner in Jaxson Hoey of Malvern Prep. He upset the favorite Dustin Wilson of Chesnut Hill Academy with a big finishing kick for gold. Wilson had to settle for silver two seconds back. No one else was in the picture on the final straightaway. Finally, in the last qualifier, Lake Lehman’s Dominic Hockenbury held off a late charge from Colin Abert and Wade Endress to clinch a district title for himself. Also in the top pack was Griffin Molino of South Willaimsport, who finished 4^th overall.

Team Preview

15 teams clinched automatic qualifying spots before the final 5 teams were added via fan voting. Seneca Valley received the most votes and, therefore, pushed in teams from Pittsburgh Central Catholic and North Allegheny “B”. Also qualifying via the voting process were LaSalle and Hatboro Horsham. Other teams had more votes, but were too far down the standings to make it as there were not enough open spots to push in the teams ahead of them.

With the field set, we should have an exciting match-up between powerhouse programs. In District One, West Chester Henderson rolled to the championship with just 80 points. That helped them defeat the other four automatic qualifying teams by over 70 points. Those teams each had won a state championship in the past 11 seasons, including North Penn who won three times and finished in second. Henderson has Tony Russell leading the charge, but is also expected to get big contributions from Chris Aldrich and Will Kellar, who placed 2^nd at states in back to back seasons.

Equally and perhaps even surpassing the Henderson dominance was that of Carlisle. The Herd scored just 30 points at their qualifier meet, led by a 1-2-3 finish in team scoring. Carlisle put 5 runners in the top 20 overall and rolled to the victory over Lower Dauphin and Cumberland Valley.

One of the tightest battles we saw was a three-team race at Belmont Plateau as GFS, O’Hara and LaSalle fought it out tooth and nail for the pair of automatic qualifying spots. It was a close race, but ultimately GFS took the victory by just 16 points over O’Hara. Nick Dahl picked up a big haul in 8^th place, finishing ahead of any other team’s #2. LaSalle qualified four individuals to the championship before being pushed in through fan voting.

The North Allegheny Tigers were impressive as well. They will send 14 runners to the state championships after a 1-4 finish at districts. Baldwin was second at this meet, surviving against the North Hills monster that took 3 of the top 6 spots. The top runner for North Allegheny’s “B” squad placed just 36^th overall, but the pack had a spread of just 8 seconds and that was enough to push them ahead.

Lastly, Altoona beat out a group of 30 teams at their qualifying meet to punch a ticket to states as a team. They were led by Wade Endress who was 2^nd in team scoring and 3^rd overall. Grove City had the superior 1-2 punch led by Jacob Kildoo and Dan Jaskowak, but had to settle for second as Altoona rolled through with a tight 2-6 group.

District Preview

The other exciting thing about this race is that all 12 districts and the independent league will send a team of qualifiers to compete. As a result, some runners from smaller districts received wild card selections to advance to Hershey. District One will be the favorite, but don’t count out District 3, who picked up three extra Footlocker Qualifiers in 2016. The WPIAL will send a great of their own, led by a contingent of Footlocker Finalists of their own. Some of the smaller districts will have an uphill battle, but state champions are all over the place on District 2 and District 4.

The Independent league athletes will have the toughest challenge. They’ve never run the Hershey course, but they have all the skills to take down the elites on the hills. Dustin Wilson, Max Kaulbach and Jaxson Hoey will lead their all-star team. 

The Etrain 11 XC Series Finale will begin at 8 o'clock on Thursday night. Gun time will be closer to 8:05-8:10. 

Catch all the action in the Etrain 11 XC Series Finale with a live radio broadcast and live results courtesy of runhigh.com on lxvplus.blogspot.com. Full 1 Mile, 2 Mile and 5k Standings will be presented on the site as the results become final.