50. Patrick Anderson, So Mount
Lebanon (7 AAA)
49. Brett Brady, Sr Butler (7 AAA)
Currently,
spots 48 through 54 on my rankings belong to the WPIAL. These two guys got the nods
for the list although there are others in the just missing category you can
make a case for. Patrick Anderson was bested by teammate Bryce Brandenstein
this weekend, but this was Bryce’s first finish of the year in a major invite,
so he has to bolster his resume a bit more to get a spot. As for Brady, I was
pretty impressed with his performance at Boardman so he got the nod over Sam
Gatti (who also has just one major invite performance). I’m starting to think
Brady is going to be a medalist in AAA this season which means 49 may end up
way too low when all is said and done.
48.
Christian Fitch, So Fox Chapel (7 AAA)
47. Josh Lewis, Jr North East (10
A)
This
kid has had a killer start to the season. There are some guys who jumped up the
list in the early weeks of the year (Tyler Wirth, Alex Ermold, among others)
that were on my radar entering the season. Not Lewis. North East is a good
program that can develop talent, but I didn’t see Lewis exploding onto the
scene the way he has so far. He’s mixed it up with quality AAA guys and
seemingly improved every race so far this year.
46. Christian Groff, Sr Hempfield
(3 AAA)
We
finally got to see some of the top D3 names in action with allowed guys like
Groff to get back onto the list for the first time since the preseason. Groff
was the #1 man on a very good Hempfield squad this past weekend and boasts sub
16 credentials. Lots to like about Groff’s background from his team, to his
family name to his results on the track and trails.
45.
LeShawn Huff, Sr New Castle (7 AA)
44.
Nate Price, Jr General McLane (10 AA)
43.
Alex Ermold, Jr Governor Mifflin (3 AAA)
42.
Jacob McKenna, Sr Spring Ford (1 AAA)
41. Tavonne Davis, Sr Allderdice (8
AAA)
40.
Owen Isham, Jr State College (6 AAA)
39.
Mark Brown, Jr Greensburg Salem (7 AA)
38.
David Endres, Jr CB East (1 AAA)
37.
Bryce Ohl, Sr York Suburban (3 AA)
36.
Carlos Shultz, So Conestoga (1 AAA)
35. Ethan Hermann, Sr Allderdice (8
AAA)
34. Peter Borger, Sr Malvern Prep
(Independent)
33. Evan Dorenkamp, Jr Manheim
Township (3 AAA)
32. Elias Lindgren, Sr Episcopal
(Independent)
31. Jeffrey Love, Jr George School
(Independent)
The
Independent League really started to heat up this past weekend. Love still gets
the nod as top returner status (and he’s undefeated the last two weekends), but
I really like Lindgren’s race this past weekend. I was high on Elias and the
rest of the Episcopal squad after a great track season where they did a strong
job in the relays. Now Lindgren opens up with a big win in the 16:30s at
Briarwood under tough conditions. I’m excited to see the big three of
Love-Lindgren-Borger match up again. Also wouldn’t be surprised if at least one
GFS runners finds his way into that mix before all is said and done.
30. Jared Giannascoli, Sr Lower
Dauphin (3 AAA)
29. Jake Underwood, Sr Wilson (3
AAA)
28. Ryan Stravaggi, Jr Harbor Creek
(10 AA)
27. Brendan Miller, Sr Upper
Dauphin (3 A)
26.
Seth Ketler, Jr Seneca Valley (7 AAA)
25.
Tyler Leeser, Sr Milton (4 AA)
24. Evan Addison, Sr LaSalle (12
AAA)
23.
Czar Tarr, Sr Chartiers Valley (7 AAA)
22.
Jack Wisner, Jr Carlisle (3 AAA)
21. Evan Kreider, Jr Cocalico (3
AAA)
It was
tough figuring out just where to place this kid after Kreider absolutely rolled
through the competition at Big Spring. He probably should be even higher than
21 considering he has asserted himself as arguably the best runner in a
district that took the top 4 spots in the state last fall. Then again, all of
those top 4 guys are gone as are other D3 medalists like Nick Norton and Colton
Cassel. I’m excited for the big meets like Foundation and Carlisle to sort out
just how good this district is and, therefore, where Evan deserves to be ranked.
Ironically, those races may not even include Kreider (not sure where Cocalico
usually goes).
20. Ethan Koza, Sr CR North (1 AAA)
As of
this latest edition of the rankings, Koza has moved to 13th among
AAA runners. If the state meet actually ended up finishing exactly like my
rankings, that would give North two guys in the top 15 in the state. Although
this program has been good, I don’t think they’ve had a 1-2 punch that good in
the last decade plus. Koza was a bit of a jack of all trades during the track
season and, after coming within seconds of knocking off a top 5 guy in the
state, it seems like there is little this kid can’t do.
19.
Quinn Serfass, Sr Loyalsock (4 AA)
18.
Jonah Powell, Jr Grove City (10 AA)
17. Sam
Owori, Jr Seneca Valley (7 AAA)
16.
Jack Zardecki, Sr Dallas (2 AA)
15. Joe
Cullen, Sr Wyomissing (3 AA)
14. Dan McGoey, So North Allegheny
(7 AAA)
13.
Tyler Wirth, Jr Wallenpaupack (2 AAA)
12.
Morgan Cupp, Sr Mechanicsburg (3 AAA)
11.
Mitchell Etter, Sr State College (6 AAA)
10. Sam
Snodgrass, Sr South Fayette (7 AA)
9.
Avery Lederer, Sr Penncrest (1 AAA)
8.
Isaac Davis, Sr Jersey Shore (4 AA)
7. Liam
Conway, Sr Owen J Roberts (1 AAA)
6. Josh
Hoey, Sr Bishop Shanahan (1 AAA)
5.
Spencer Smucker, Sr Henderson (1 AAA)
4. Ryan Campbell, Sr CR North (1
AAA)
3.
Tristan Forsythe, Sr Winchester Thurston (7 A)
2. Noah
Beveridge, Sr Butler (7 AAA)
1. Rusty Kujdych, Sr Neshaminy (1
AAA)
The
back and forth battle for the #1 spot in the state swings back to Kujdych this
weekend after he picks up another major win. Beveridge, unfortunately, was a
DNF this weekend so he didn’t end up mounting a counter strike. Neither of
these teams was present at Foundation or Carlisle last year, so this may be the
way it stays even next week. Should be exciting to have these two continue to
jockey for position. That’s already two switches at the top. Not sure we had
any the past two years with Affolder and Brophy leading the way.
Carlos Schultz (36) no longer runs for Conestoga. He transferred to Phoenixville.
ReplyDeleteAnyone know how many of these guys are going to Foundation? With Carlisle being pushed back a week, theres gotta be a ton of teams who go to Hershey this year.
ReplyDeleteSeneca Valley is going.
ReplyDeleteThese are some of the top AAA boys team at Foundation. It's a pretty good field, but I wouldn't say it's any better than previous years. On the girls' side, Penntrack's top 8 teams in the state are all racing there which will be pretty incredible to see. Imagine if something like that were to happen on the boys' side.
ReplyDelete#2 Mount Lebanon
#3 Seneca Valley
#7 State College
#9 Boyertown
North Allegheny, Central Bucks East, Spring Ford, OJR, Stroudsburg, Taylor Allderdice, West Chester East, Wissahickon, Southern Lehigh
Don't see anybody beating Cupp in D3.
ReplyDeleteMost of the top 10 haven't really done anything yet.
ReplyDeletehttp://dailyorange.com/2017/09/kevin-james-hoping-to-breakout-and-help-syracuse-toward-a-national-title/
ReplyDeleteThis guy is honestly one of my favorite runners ever. Glad to see that he is still running well. He was a friggin beast back in the day.
Foundation is the second best invite of the year, Paul Short is #1. A week from now we'll have a much better picture of who's for real.
ReplyDeleteCarlisle is better. Yes the times are fast but it's a certified course. Throw out the Paul Short times because nobody comes close to them at States.
DeleteA Mt Lebo win tomorrow at Foundation would be bigger than a CRN win at their own invite. There could be a new #1 come Monday.
ReplyDeleteSV beat Mt Lebo and so did Boyertown, Springford almost beat them too. CRN won their invite but not real impressive and Schultz crushed the field. Unionville smoked WCH in a bit of a surprise. The top 10 is all over the place.
DeleteAgreed. There's just not a dominant team this year. IMO, whoever wins it would really be like a 3rd place team most years.
DeleteHow bout the unofficial merged results? Penns Valley (A team) beats NA (one of the best AAA programs in state history). That's pretty wild.
There's weirdness going on, some of these teams don't run their top guys, like DTW, CRN, WCH and Shanahan only race a few, it's like some of the others do their own thing.
DeleteWOW Carlos Schultz goes sub 16 minutes on CRN's course as a sophomore! (15:59 for the win). Going sub-16 on this course is almost a guarantee of a top 10 finish in District 1 and a medal at the state meet based on previous results. He is the first sophomore i could find that broken 16 minutes on this course (which includes 3 FL finalists).
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say that Schultz simple got the win. He dominated a very strong field: Beating (ET #12) Morgan Cupp by 9 seconds, (ET #20) Ethan Koza by 17 seconds, and (ET #4) Ryan Campbell by 31 seconds. I think that this race might boost Schultz into the the ETrain top 10! A very solid result from Morgan Cupp, but i did expect him to break 16 minutes on this layout. Still, a second place finish here is very solid.
Last year this was Campbell's best regular season meet, running 15:59, but this week he struggled. Koza showed that Etrain was right, just about anything is possible, as he takes down teammate Ryan Campbell. Koza was North's incredibly solid 5th man last year, but this year he has stepped up big time with Earley having a tough start to his season. Koza's time is right where medalist Bryan Keller was last season. Ehrgott tied Koza's time from last season at 16:44, but Ehrgott finishes at North's 3rd runner this year, while Koza was CRN's 5th runner last season. Earley continues to struggle this september as he finishes in 10th overall with a time of 17:02. I wonder if he had an injury this summer or it is due to a lack of training? Either way if CRN wants to be a top 3 team in the state both Earley and Campbell are going to have to get back on their game. Both runners were ~30 seconds faster at this meet last year. I'm getting pretty worried that these guys may be over-training to secure another state title and it's hindering them.
On slightly good news for CRN they saw a nice step-up race from sophomore Jon Davis who ran 17:38 as their 5th man and Matt Mullen finishes for the first time this season in 18:07.
Now i'm not sure exactly how the results (individually) played out at Foundation, but i'm SHOCKED with these results. Seneca Valley takes the win with a score of 103 but with just an average of 17:06! (they were 17:07 avg. last season); Boyertown takes 2nd place in 135 with an average of 17:16; Mount Lebanon is 3rd with 148 points and an average of 17:20; and Spring Ford in a close 4th with 153 points and an average of 17:22.
Rusty takes the win unchallenged in 16:09 so perhaps the race just got out a bit slower than last year when Ryan James, McMenamin, Conway, and Feffer pushed the pace to which ended in James breaking 16 minutes. Rusty is absolutely dominant right now. I'm surprised by these slower times today, especially with now nice the course looked in the preview. Was it really hot or rain recently in Hershey?
What does this do to the rankings? Because yes CRN did not look like a title team today at their home invitational, but I'm not sure that Seneca Valley impressed me with the way they won this race today either. And what to make of Mt. Lebanon? According to the result sheet up on PennTrack's twitter page @PennTrackXC nobody DNF'd from any of the top 4 squads. My goodness i'm baffled! But it's making for an exciting October and November :)
also how about Ben Hoyer proving he's no joke?? i was certainly discounting him despite his two top 2 finishes this season (2nd to Josh Hoey). But looking like the real deal.
ReplyDelete20. Sam Owori, Jr Seneca Valley (7 AAA)
19. Jack Zardecki, Sr Dallas (2 AA)
18. Joe Cullen, Sr Wyomissing (3 AA)
17. Ben Hoyer, Sr Wissahickon (1 AAA)
16. Ryan Campbell, Sr CR North (1 AAA)
15. Ethan Koza, Sr CR North (1 AAA)
14. Mitchell Etter, Sr State College (6 AAA)
13. Tyler Wirth, Jr Wallenpaupack (2 AAA)
12. Morgan Cupp, Sr Mechanicsburg (3 AAA)
11. Liam Conway, Sr Owen J Roberts (1 AAA)
10. Dan McGoey, So (North Allegheny, 7 AAA)
9. Carlos Schultz, So (Phoenixville 1 AAA)
8. Sam Snodgrass, Sr South Fayette (7 AA)
7. Avery Lederer, Sr Penncrest (1 AAA)
6. Josh Hoey, Sr Bishop Shanahan (1 AAA)
5. Spencer Smucker, Sr Henderson (1 AAA)
4. Isaac Davis, Sr Jersey Shore (4 AA)
3. Tristan Forsythe, Sr Winchester Thurston (7 A)
2. Noah Beveridge, Sr Butler (7 AAA)
1. Rusty Kujdych, Sr Neshaminy (1 AAA)