State Championship Recaps: AA Boys

I think one of the trickiest things about being a cross country fan is the fact that you can’t immediately tell who won the team race while you are watching. I mean you can certainly guess and sometimes it’s fairly obvious, but while watching the state championships at Hershey this past weekend, I had no idea who was our AA team champion until my fourth refresh of the runhigh results page.

At the mile, the Dallas boys got out hard and put themselves in a strong position. But what was striking was the front running of Harbor Creek. The HC boys had three runners in the top 10 overall. That was pretty wild front running and really gave this team an edge against the pack driven squads they were competing against. Seeing those two teams out so well made me focus on them for the next few miles, but I knew Wyomissing and York Suburban would be lurking.

Trying to keep rough track of all 4 teams was brutal and I couldn’t quite wrap my head around how many of each jersey passed me by. At the finish, I was surrounded by supporters from different squads. Dallas and York Suburban fans were keeping track of runners from each of those teams and comparing them to Harbor Creek and Wyomissing. Meanwhile, I was trying to subtly eavesdrop on both conversations while still counting runners for myself to try and have something to write in this recap.

Ultimately, when I finished watching I felt like Wyomissing might have taken it. They seemed to have the most guys flying by me on the corner of the straightaway. That being said, I had completely lost track of York Suburban and didn’t even notice that Raudensky had joined Ohl in the top 10.

The final standings ended up being even closer than I had previously suspected: 105-107-111. A few seconds here or there and the title swings. For Wyomissing, they proved they had the best pack in the state. I was worried about their potential inexperience in the clutch, but the squad came to play. They had to be feeling pretty confident after their district championship and perhaps they were fueled by a lack of respect from certain people on this site. Regardless, the team posted a 29 second spread with 5 in the top 50 overall. Harbor Creek had 3 guys in front of their #1 which, in dual meet scoring, would mean the race was already over. But in a big time XC invitational, every scoring spot is meaningful. Josh Diehl had a great race in 39^th and Thomas Foster, one of the potential scorers I was most skeptical of in my predictions, came through with a clutch 46^th place finish to really bring this thing home.

For York Suburban, they don’t have much to hang their head about. For the fourth straight year, they were in the hunt for a state championship on the final mile of states. That’s a pretty difficult task. Tanner Haynes had an excellent race to step up as the team’s #4 runner. He wasn’t a scorer for this team at times this year, but he stepped up when the pressure was on. Raudensky pulled out his first state medal and Bryce Ohl was 2^nd overall and #1 in team scoring. You can’t ask for much more than that. Ohl’s individual result was very impressive. He was top 10 last year, but that came mostly in the second half of the race, picking people off. This time around, he went to the front pack early and looked very strong over the final mile, running 5:51 for the 1.1 (the fastest split of any runner in the race it appears).

Harbor Creek left with three runners in the medals and 4 guys in the top 50 for a second straight season. Nate Dougan came on super strong in the last meets of the season and is a big reason why this team was able to finish as high as they did at districts and states. District 10 on the whole posted 6 of the top 17 overall finishers, three of which came from Harbor Creek and two of which came from General McLane. And, oh by the way, six of them will be back next year including the #1, #2, #3 and #4 overall returners in the AA classification!

Grove City returns to the top 5 after a year away, led by a huge bounce back day from Jonah Powell. Powell was third overall with a time of 16:18. Dallas posted 2 medalists and 4 top 50 guys to cap off a crazy strong stretch of running for this program. They didn’t leave Hershey with state gold, but they went for it and really stuck their nose in it in the early going. You have to respect the heart and determination that went into their run. Congrats to the class of 2018 at Dallas on a truly memorable three year stretch.

Other props in the team department go to Loyalsock and Greensburg Salem. Loyalsock had a phenomenal showing from their top 3. We knew about Quinn Serfass (4^th overall), but his teammates Ryan Sullivan and Alejandro Quintana were the keys to this team’s surprising 6^th place finish. Sullivan broke into the last medal spot and Quintana raced to 30^th overall, just outside medal position and #3 among sophomores in the race. District 4 in general overachieved relative to my expectations. Milton also cracked the top 10 with one of the tightest packs in the field. Tyler Leeser stepped up to be the #1 runner and a top 50 finisher after being the #5 at districts. Some serious hard out of Leeser down the stretch of 2017.

Meanwhile, Greensburg Salem had their own big three that included two medalists in Mark Brown and Cameron Binda as well as 34^th place finisher Dylan Binda. GS finished as the #1 WPIAL team a little over a week after they took the 3^rd spot at districts. That’s two years in a row the #3 WPIAL team has been #1 at states. Greensburg Salem brings everybody back next year. Of course, Indiana Area and New Castle will both bring back a strong contingent as well. Indiana’s Kendall Branan was perhaps the biggest breakthrough star in the WPIAL the past two weeks. The sophomore finished 11^th at the state championships, moving from 18^th at the two mile to catch back up for 11^th. He was just 4 seconds away from the top sophomore spot, held by Garrett Baublitz of Juniata (he took 9^th overall).

Let’s jump to individuals now. Isaac Davis took command of this one from the start and rolled through the course en route to a 15:56. When you incorporate his 20 second margin of victory with that blazing time, Davis might have been the most impressive individual performer of the meet (although I think Rusty earned that spot). Davis was out in 4:41 and already opened up a 8 second lead by the mile. By two miles that was up to 23 seconds. It’s going to be very interesting to see if Davis runs Footlocker. If he goes, I’d have to imagine he’s a contender for a top 10 spot. He’s yet to be pushed this season and he’s rolled to some incredibly fast times. We saw a AA runner make Footlocker a year ago (Skolnekovich) so why not Davis this time around?

Although he likely didn’t have the finish he hoped for, you have to give credit to Sam Snodgrass. The South Fayette senior already had a couple state medals from the XC state meet, but this time out he was hoping for gold. Snodgrass was the only one to stay within striking distance of Davis’s blistering early pace and that left him a prime target for the chasers behind him. Although Snodgrass finished 21^st, he really went for it on race day and you have to respect that strategy. If he attends a national meet, he could have a big bounce back performance like his WPIAL ally Skolnekovich did a year ago. Or maybe he’s ready to turn to indoor track, where Snodgrass is one of the top returners in the mile (he medaled last winter).

As mentioned, the D10 boys will have quite the battle next year. These rivals will make up the top 4 returners at the state meet. Throw in two time top 20 finisher Erik Andrzejewski and you have an absolutely stacked district. Powell had the biggest day at states after arguably the worst day at districts. He showed some real grit to bounce back and nearly pulled out the silver. Price, the district champ, had his best ever state meet result after not medaling a season ago. He’s made a big jump and should be feeling confident heading into next year. He knows he’s beaten Powell in the past and could potentially knock him off in the race for gold next year. Meanwhile, Stravaggi and Weber are two teammates have learned a lot from one another over the years. They could push each other to a big result at states as well just as they did this year with two top 10 finishes.

District 3 had a pretty stand out day individually as well. They posted the top two teams so naturally they were going to have some front running, but some lesser known stars came to play as well. Ben Reisenweaver of Schuylkill Valley absolutely crushed the course, running a 16:46 for 18^th. He was 8^th at districts in a slower time. Gettysburg’s Luke Milhimes also jumped into the medals this weekend, adding yet another piece of hardware to Gettysburg’s high stack of awards.

But the D3 trio that impressed me most was that of Lancaster Mennonite. This school had 3 top 50 finishers, including two in the top 30. Logan Horst led the way for this squad with a state medal. I said this in the early season, but it bears repeating: last year Lancaster Mennonite was last in the District as a team. They had no top 100 finishers at their D3 championships. Abenezear Abebe, who took the 26^th spot at states (1 away from medaling) was 170^th at districts last fall with a time of 20:04. And that wasn’t a fluke-he was also over 20 minutes at the league championships. Now he was just 2 seconds away from a state medal. That’s quite the jump and definitely something worth celebrating.

District 6 had a nice year this year as well. After being relative non-factors at last year’s state meet, they had a top 10 finisher (Baublitz), and three other top 50 guys in Brett Pope, Zach Kohler and Ohm Vyas. Vyas and Kohler will return next year along with Baublitz who was the top soph in the field. Also have to give a shout out to John Koons and Ethan Bernstein. Both of these district rivals got to share the medal podium this weekend in 14^th and 15^th place overall. That capped off great seasons both athletes. Lastly, Van May of Bedford ends up the top freshman in AA. He took 27^th overall, just outside medal position. May was the #1 freshman by roughly 40 seconds over Matt Chaikowsky of Saucon Valley, Zach Buckner of Fairview and Dylan Throop of General McLane.