Foundation Recap: An Instant Reaction

Hershey is one of the trickiest courses around. As Matt Burke once said, it takes a couple tries at it to get it right. Even if you are a seasoned veteran, bad days can happen. Fluke circumstances like a nail in a shoe or a bizarre injury can swing results. Ultimately, it’s often a reminder of the importance of having #6 and #7 guys who are ready to step up and fill a roll. And it’s also a reason that anyone who struggles on the course should keep their head high and not beat themselves up about it. With all that out of the way, let’s get right into recapping the action from the three foundation races.

A Race (AKA White Race)

The reigning state champions (and #1 ranked team in their classification) Winchester Thurston got a good look at their toughest competition of the year at the Foundation Invitational. Penns Valley, the D6 powerhouse, went from strong squad to title contender as soon we saw freshmen Colton Sands and Brendan Colwell in action at Big Valley. The two 9^th graders are still motoring around the trails in late September as they each placed in the top 10 overall (7^th and 9^th). Combine their results with Chris Colwell (6^th) and that gave Penns Valley an excellent top 3 that rivals some of the championship level squads of year’s past (Forsythe-Littmann-Hay, Behney-Leslie-Gabig, etc.).

But what really intrigued me about this team even before the meet went down was the 4-5 punch they had. Sam Gray has had a breakthrough in his senior season and joined Mark Bierly (a near state medalist in 2016) as a top performer. They were both top 20 in this race to round out a big day for the Penns. Overall, Penns Valley had 5 guys in the club house before WT’s #4 (and everyone else’s #3). That’s a shake-up at the top of the charts for sure.

However, Winchester Thurston will not go quietly. They have the big time top 3 rolling again, including individual champ Tristan Forsythe. Forsythe looked like he was absolutely cruising at the race’s end and he’s a low stick that nobody else can match. Routledge has been impressive so far, making a big jump as a varsity contender. Meanwhile, WT has their own freshmen on the rise in Patrick Malone and Ben Bermann. Heintzleman, the #6 this weekend, is an x-factor who could jump into the scorers and contribute (Top 50 in the state last fall). All that said, those 37 points are going to be tough to make up with some big improvements or a slip up from one of PV’s top 5 (two freshman in the top 3 could open the door for that).

Jenkintown rounds out the top 3 teams from this meet. The District One power came into the season with high hopes and acquitted themselves well on the big stage. Jack Miller proved his top finish as a sophomore last fall was no fluke. He was 3^rd overall on race day. Patrick Wagner is having a nice start to his season, running within striking distance of last year’s state medalist Josh Jackson. Meanwhile another freshman, Luke Miller, has added a level of depth to Jenkintown’s scoring.

In other team news, St. Joesph’s Catholic made a strong case for the 2^nd state spot in D6 A with a 4^th place finish. The team was led by 4 sophomores (4!) including Carter Kauffmann, an up and coming runner who placed top 10 in this meet. I like his potential to rise through the ranks this season because I think D6 A is going to be loaded. That should allow all the individuals from this district to push themselves to no heights, similar to the D3 AAA scene last year.

York Catholic doubled down on their D3 prowess from last week, Clarion Area showed a nice pack of deep runners as they try to sneak a state spot of D9 and D11’s Mahanoy had a solid debut as well.

Now let’s talk individuals. We already mentioned a few of the top guys. Forsythe looked excellent, opening up an 8 second lead the first half of the race and essentially holding it the rest of the way. His final time wasn’t jaw dropping (16:38), but it seemed like he was just focused on getting the 1 next to his name in team scoring.

Holy Cross’s sophomore Andrew Healey will be one of the big movers in the rankings this week. He took 2^nd place overall in a strong 16:44. That’s a big time run from one of the most talented youngsters in this classification (there’s a lot of A guys that are awesome in the 9^th-10^th years). I really liked Healey’s potential to shine this year and I think he has potential to really rise to the moment. After Forsythe, I think the A race is really up for grabs. Healey and 3^rd place finisher Miller are in that next level tier without a doubt.

Two other guys I like from this group are Andrew Stanley and Garrett Babulitz. Now Baublitz was in AA last year as part of Juniata’s team, but if he’s in A this go around the sub 4:20 miler is an x-factor in any close finish. Stanley is a proven stud at 3200 meters and is also from D6 with Babulitz. These guys were 4^th and 5^th in the race and both have track credentials that are off the charts. But XC is often different so it’s good to see them near the front of this field, especially on a tricky course like Hershey.

A few other names that I thought deserved a mention include 11^th place finisher Hunter Armstrong (putting together a consistent season of solid results so far), 18^th place finisher Adler Brininger (an up and coming youngster from a strong district in D3) and 25^th place finisher Adam Soriano (a gutsy runner out of D11 who will hope to be in the district champion mix this year).

Blue Race

If you had your money on fastest time of the day belonging to Isaac Davis than big props to you. The AA runner stormed to his second straight title at this meet with a 16:01! Keep in mind that time would have made you state champion in AA last year and (spoiler alert) was faster than PA #1 Rusty Kujdych’s mark in the AAA Gold Race by 13 seconds.

Davis covered the first section of the course in a blistering 7:43. That’s about 10 seconds faster than anybody ran the first half last year. That gave him a 20 second lead going into the back half of the course and he held that advantage and opened up the second half, with a final margin of victory at 37 seconds. The Jersey Shore senior establishes himself as the favorite for states in a big way defeating his chief rival Sam Snodgrass of South Fayette. Snodgrass and Davis have been tops in their class since their sophomore seasons and Snodgrass has been doggedly pursuing Isaac’s shadow since then.

Snodgrass’s 16:38 is faster than he ran a year ago and his finish is 4 spots better than his 6^th last year. I’d say his result was very solid even if he ended up losing at the hands of Davis. I certainly wouldn’t feel comfortable handing over the title to either of these guys just yet. A lot can still happen. But today, they were the clear #1 and #2 with no one else within 15 seconds of Snodgrass.

Some other individual notes for ya. Clay Kismal is having a nice start to his senior season. The Crestwood runner was awesome at Cliff Robbins and now adds a top 7 finish in this deep field of medal contenders. District 2 has a knack for turning out studs and he was, surprisingly, the #1 guy in the district for this race. Shout out to Clay. Anthony Harper, a preseason Top 50 runner, also made a big statement with a 4^th place finish. This is a strong bounce back race for the Bonner senior who has had 3 of his best ever races on this course. That’s a good sign looking ahead to states. A little deeper down the list, Big Spring’s Ishmael Kirkwood dropped a strong 16^th place finish. I don’t remember seeing him in the results from his home invite, but he was one of the top non-YS D3 guys in this meet and held his own in a talented field.

But now we have to move to the team talk. With no Dallas on the start line, York Suburban took care of business against a solid group of up and comers. YS takes home yet another Foundation title, but I think this meet won’t mean much as the goal for this squad centers around their next appearance at Hershey. Bryce Ohl led the way with a 3^rd place finish. He’s a poised runner who trusts himself in the second half of a race. That strategy paid off last fall with a top 10 finish at states. Junior Jarrett Raudensky is going to be an important cog in the YS equation this year and he looked excellent with a top 10 mark. Andrew Paskey had a big day, stepping up as the team’s #5. He’s the new scorer in the equation and will be needed to bring home the title. This team looked strong, but didn’t blow me out of the water. Both this team and Dallas aren’t invincible, but it remains to be scene which program has the best shot at knocking off these dynasties. I’d still like to see Wyomissing once along with the D10 gang again. Heck, maybe New Castle can make a run.

Indiana Area takes the 2^nd spot in perhaps their best performance of the season. This pack driven squad only had six finishers, but still held off a monster 1-2-3 from district rivals Greensburg Salem. I expect these two squads to be jockeying the rest of the way (along with New Castle and South Fayette who was 6^th today) and the WPIAL is going to have a war on their hands to decide the champ and the state qualifying spots. This sophomore Kendall Branan has a lot of heart, taking 12^th place overall and gunning out in 4^th place through halfway. Joey Bujdos also wasn’t afraid to mix it up at the front of the field. If Brannan can continue to gain strength and hold on to become a top 20 guy (continuing Lenze’s legacy) than Indiana is looking good. Plus, I still think there are some returners from this roster we haven’t seen yet. Their best may be still to come.

Greensburg Salem is off to a great start this year. They could have really tumbled out of contention after losing some key seniors and coming off a disappointment at last year’s state meet. However, they’ve come back just as strong as ever this year. Noah Calisti had a great race as the #4 and freshman Quinton Gatons handled himself quite well on the Hershey hills for the first time. If Gatons can continue to improve and round out the line up, Greensburg Salem will be dangerous with that impressive top 3.

Rounding out the team talk, Holy Redeemer takes 4^th overall thanks in part to a big day from Bryce Zapusek. They have the potential to be a strong team, especially if someone emerges as a big time #2 runner. After Zapusek they had nobody in the top 40 scorers, but they have more than one runner with the talent to shrink that gap. District 4 is going to be wild. Despite the fact that we didn’t see two of the best teams the district has to offer, they still accounted for 4 top 10 teams. Warrior Run led the way in 5^th with two freshmen in their scoring five as well as a sophomore at the #1 spot (Damein Moser).

The AAA Gold Race is still to come. Have to get a run in ...