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Briarwood

Championship

Rusty Kujdych picked up a big statement victory as the Neshaminy senior rolled to the win on a hot day at Belmont Plateau. Kujdych covered the hilly course in 15:51, a time that slotted him 28 seconds ahead of his next closest competitor (who, by the way, was ranked #3 in the state going into the weekend). For Rusty, this is a big improvement on last year’s time (16:16 for 3^rd) and one of the fastest we’ve seen in recent history on the course, especially given the conditions. With two straight sub 16s at top invites, Kujdych may have a case for the #1 spot in the top 50 rankings.

As for 2^nd place finisher Ryan Campbell, he ran 16:47 a year ago, meaning he cut nearly 30 seconds off his mark from the previous year.  That’s a good place to start for a guy who was 7^th in the state last fall as a junior. Of course the bigger storyline was Campbell’s teammates. Ethan Koza dropped a 16:22 in his first invite of the season, making him a name to watch for perhaps a top 10 finish in the state meet. Koza and Campbell both didn’t race for North last weekend and we can see the impact they have on the team’s performance. On the flip side, Sam Early did not finish the race for North this time around and so North was missing perhaps a top 10 finisher in the field (Kevin Ehrgott turned in another strong performance at 8^th overall). Ultimately, that swung the tide as LaSalle’s superior depth got to the line first against CR North and took the title 75 to 113.

It looks like CR North did not have Matt Mullen on the varsity squad this weekend. He could have been a piece to add to their top 5 as he was a scorer at Mill Street and a top 7 guy on the state title team. This marks two straight weeks that North was missing arguably two of their best five guys in the final standings. We saw Lebo survive without one of their big guns (Brandenstein) because of that depth and next man up ability. Even if North can survive a bit of a drop off after the #4, it at least keeps things very interesting in the championship races. I think North is obviously a bit like Carlisle last season, but also reminds me a bit of the 2014 Henderson team. They had 4 studs on that squad and nearly stole the district title from Conestoga. However, at states one of their top 4 had a fall and things spiraled as they didn’t have the pieces to cover the loss completely (still a top 10 team in the state though was Henderson).

Personally, I’m just glad North and Kujdych are giving us plenty to talk about. There’s a lot up in the air in AAA right now.

Have to give props to LaSalle for going out and taking care of business on Belmont’s course. The Explorers lost a lot of pieces from last year’s squad. That team couldn’t quite keep it together for a podium finish at states as they had a near worst case scenario on race day. However, this is a resilient program that, apparently, has comeback just as competitive as last year despite a hard hit from graduation. Addison is a great leader and low stick and Twomey and Maher have clearly had a good summer. Those two sophomores were prodigies as varsity members on a deep team last year. Should be fun to watch them race this season.

As was discussed by some of our excellent commenters, Twin Valley is a sneaky good team. They didn’t have their best day at Briarwood, but they still were 3^rd with just 145 points. As was mentioned, they’ve got a great top 4 that is very tightly packed (Schlegel can run with that top group) and Hill is a speed guy with upside. Considering that District 3 looks like it will be wild this year (we’ll get to that) Twin Valley has to be taken seriously. I’m basically just stealing what one of the commenters said (it was anonymous so can’t recognize you by name), but it was too good not to repeat.

Challenger

The Championship race was obviously great, but did you catch some of the times in the Challenger race? Elias Lindgren and Peter Borger of the Independent League went 1-3 in a quick race, producing 2 of the fastest times of the day for PA runners (16:35 and 16:43). I thought both of these guys were among the top contenders for a title in the Independent League and in their first big invite, they proved why. I thought Lindgren had a monster track season and I was hoping that would translate to a breakthrough on the grass. Through one race, that’s definitely been true. Look for these two to continue to battle moving forward. With Love and the GFS boys in there, things will only continue to heat up.

A really nice run out of Jason Cornelison of Cheltenham earned the junior a 4^th place finish and a quick time of 16:47. Cheltenham has really changed their reputation in the past few years, becoming a strong distance program (they used to be a 4x4 powerhouse). Will Griffen set the stage last year with a top 50 XC finish and a sub 16 (plus a sub 9:10 3200). Now junior Cornelison is off to a blazing start. I believe he may have also picked up a win against Wissahickon’s Ben Hoyer (a super talented runner just outside my top 50) in a dual meet earlier this month.

Ben Bloser Invite (Big Spring)

Two years ago, Evan Kreider of Cocalico was 29^th in the District as just a freshman. He actually defeated Jack Winser of Carlise in that match up, although Wisner ended up becoming the number one freshman in the state just a week later. Evan Kreider, Mike Morris of Hershey and Jack Wisner ended up being the top 3 in the freshman class at states, all district 3 runners. So naturally, we expected big things from this trio in the coming year. However, Kreider missed last postseason and didn’t race for Cocalico, allowing him to slip back out of our minds as he entered that pivotal junior season.

Well Kreider didn’t wait long to reacquaint himself with the state’s elite. The junior rolled to the fastest time of the day with a 16:11, taking down a slew of top 50 types in the process. His time wasn’t quite as fast as we’ve seen with Nate Henderson in the past, but it’s a little unfair to compare a junior coming back to XC for the first time in a while to a Footlocker Finalist. This victory likely catapults Kreider into my top 25 or so in the rankings. Heck, he may even get top 20 as its hard to argue he is not a top 3 District 3 guy right now. Can he win the district title back on this course later this fall? Definitely. But I do think the guys around him will be hungry for a rematch.

Jake Underwood of Wilson, Evan Dorenkamp of Manheim Township and Christian Groff of Hempfield were the next 3 PA boys across the line. Each of these three guys were in my preseason Top 50 rankings and I thought all could be factors in a wide open District 3 this year. They didn’t disappoint with strong results and nice times under the conditions. Groff led his Hempfield team to the title. The 2014 and 2015 district champs were surprise misses from states last year despite three state qualifiers (including Groff and 14^th place finisher in this race Max Lessans). This year, they’ve come out of the blocks as easily the most complete team of the bunch. They had the best pack of anybody to pair with solid front running from Groff, Lessans and Ryan Farmer. I like this team thus far, but I do expect some teams to rise and challenge them as they figure out the back half of their varsity. Carlisle and Twin Valley should figure into the mix the next time all these schools are here as well.

Manheim Township was the surprise second place squad. This was an up and coming team that I recognized in my district by district breakdown. As suspected, Ian Miller was back in the line up for MT and that made a huge difference. The junior is a big talent and was in the top 15 finishers this weekend thanks to his sub 17 performance. Miller and Dorenkamp make a nice 1-2, plus the team had a freshman who stepped up and posted a sub 18 in Drew Sassaman. I still think this team has room to grow as a couple of their top returners were MIA this weekend. If they get those guys back to help bolster the depth alongside their front running, Manheim Township could be a state qualifier.

The always dangerous Lower Dauphin Falcons were one piece away from mixing it up at the front as well. With 200 points, LD took 3^rd place overall. If I’m a betting man, I’m buying up stock in Mark Walsh. The sophomore was Lower Dauphin’s #1 runner in this meet and placed in the top 10 overall. He looked really strong and is in a program that can really develop young talent. It wasn’t that long ago that they had sophomore Jeff Groh winning the district title. Plus, I expect Jared Ginnascoli, a state medalist last year, to bounce back and push Walsh for the #1 spot in the future. If those two can work together, they can shoot up the standings. They will have to bolster the back half of the varsity team, but Hunter Lohmann has an 18:19 Milesplit PR to his name and he can improve as the team’s #5. We will hear more from this squad before all is said and done.

Interesting to see the name Noah Martin in the top 10 overall. Now running for Warwick, I believe Noah is a transfer from Veritas Academy. He was 7^th as a sophomore in the A championships last year, but posted a big breakthrough in 16:39 in his first big race at Warwick. Looks like this kid has really adapted to the new training and the success speaks for itself. Keep an eye out for Martin as a breakout star this fall.

AA/A

Speaking of A stars, reigning district champion Brendan Miller started off his fall season with a bang. He rolled to an easy victory, using a conservative strategy at the start that we didn’t see much from him last year. Miller is a real go-getter who isn’t afraid to attack the pace. It’s helped him (like outdoor states in the 3200) and hurt him (like last fall’s state championship in XC), but this year’s Miller already seems more poised and comfortable as a star. That’s an excellent sign for a guy who wants to pull the upset over Tristan Forsythe at A states this coming November. I’d like to see Brendan head to head against some of the AAA guys from this weekend (could he have won the whole race?) or against some of the top A names. I hope he gets in a few races where he is pushed to limits or gets beat to help prep him a bit for the tough competition of states. That’s what I think might help, especially since Miller doesn’t even race teammates in practice, but the kid could also get a big confidence boost from running undefeated and use that to win the state title. Only time will tell.

How about the story out of Lancaster Mennonite? This program was 27^th out of 27 teams last year in D3 AA with no one under 19 minutes and no one in the top 100 scorers. They graduated their top runner and didn’t exactly leave behind a dynasty. But it looks like these kids have gone to work and came to play in 2017. Newcomers Jordan Horst and Nathan Yoder joined returner Abenezear Abebe to roll through the AA portion of this race and take the top 3 AA spots. That was good enough for 2-3-4 overall. Abebe beat his district time from a year ago by roughly 3 minutes!

Thanks to that big three, Lancaster Mennonite was a surprise third place finisher in the AA team race with 163 points. The winners were, less surprisingly, Milton Hershey, who used a spread of less than 60 seconds from 1-6 to get the job done. Milton Hershey has become a consistent force in the team race behind York Suburban and seems poised to punch another ticket to states. Lancaster Mennonite will need to find a bit more firepower at the 4-5 to topple Hershey, but for right now I think we have to simply appreciate the strides they have made to get to this point where they are 2^nd in the invite.

The A team race also belonged to an upstart power. York Catholic, who was 5^th out of 8 teams in D3 last year, posted the victory with an impressive total of 52. They defeated St Joe’s from D6 as well as district rivals Delone Catholic and Tulpehocken. Those last two schools, along with Camp Hill, will likely combine for the 2 state qualifying teams that will come from this district. It was a big day for York Catholic, but I think they have even more room to grow. Evan Schlossler is a real stand out front runner and Christian Gervasi, their #4 this weekend, was 7^th at districts last year. Ryan Corbitt has made a big jump and was the main reason these guys left with the trophy. Adding freshman Joseph Rizzuto as an instant top 5 contributor doesn’t hurt either.