State Championship Recaps: A Boys

The first boys championship of the day featured two clear favorites, both of which had pre-race concerns. For individual favorite Tristan Forsythe, it was the ghosts of state meet past. He led the race through two miles a year ago, but couldn’t hold on to the finish. For Penns Valley, the concern lay with the two freshmen who would likely be pivotal pieces of the top five. By the end of the race, both of these concerns proved to be overhyped.

Forsythe cruised in the early going, settled in to a large pack at about 5 minutes through the mile. He sat comfortably in the pack until it was time to make his move, going up the hill towards two miles. If he had any doubts about his strategy, they weren’t evident as he calmly took control of the race. His closest challenger at the time, Upper Dauphin’s Brenden Miller, was unable to cover the move and ultimately Forsythe was able to break the tape with a 15 second margin of victory.

Meanwhile, the Penns Valley freshmen looked like veterans on the Hershey hills. PV packed it up in the early stages of the race, sitting back just a bit off the lead. Then, over the second half of the race, the boys closed quickly and ran down many other top runners, putting away any doubts about their gold medal status. Colton Sands and Brendan Colwell both finished in the medals as freshmen. Sands was 10^th overall in a time of 16:48. Meanwhile, Chris Colwell and Sam Gray also busted into the medals at 15^th and 24^th. That was more than enough to slam the door on the competition.

You can make a strong argument that this Penns Valley team is the best we’ve ever seen in A. They didn’t end up beating Saegertown’s record low from 2013, but they faced a much tougher team title landscape than Saegertown did. I was certainly impressed by the freshmen stepping up, but one of the most underrated performances from PV was 6^th man Charlie Romig. At about the two mile mark, I thought there was a chance Penns Valley could slip up as their #5, Mark Bierly, was slipping a bit off the pace from the front four. But Romig, in his best performance of the season, stepped up and helped push Bierly through to the finish line. He would have been a more than capable #5 in his own right at 51^st overall.

In the end, the battle for second ended up being the race of the day. At the 2 mile mark, Elk County Catholic was sitting in 5^th place overall. But the 2016 state runner-ups came to play over the final mile and stormed through the course to pass Jenkintown, Montrose and Winchester Thurston en route to the finish. Ben Hoffman led the way with an 8^th place finish after hitting the mile in 34^th. His teammate Logan Hoffman was just one spot out of the individual medals. Isaac Wortman, Matt Dippold and Jacob Carnovale rounded out a top 5 that all finished in the top 52 overall. The front running for this squad was solid, but ultimately it was their depth that kept in them in the medals for a second straight year.

I have to give credit to Montrose for putting together a strong race. A year ago, I think they felt the pressure of the moment, but this year they handled themselves very well. Their 1-2 punch came to play big time. Brandon Curley and Liam Mead, who both had disappointing finishes at states last year, really came to play this year and finished 5^th and 6^th overall. I thought Curley would be a factor (he was the district champ and has been around my top 50 rankings all season), but I didn’t see this breakthrough coming from Mead. He threw down an awesome performance and is now a top 3 returner for next year’s state meet. His Montrose team will also return top 40 finisher Colin Spellman and scorers Max Brewer and Eric Bixby.

A few other key team notes to hit on. Seneca had a big day from their #2-3 of Jake Schneider and Robert Stepnowski. They pushed all the way to 6^th in the final standings thanks to these two runners coming up big. Schneider and #1 runner Brock Smith will lead the Seneca squad next year. Mount Caramel was the first team in the standings without a top 20 team finisher. They posted 231 points and took 9^th in the state. That’s not too shabby for a team that entered this season as underdogs just to qualify for Hershey. Derek Lawler, just a freshman, came up huge with the team’s lone Top 50 finish.

Now let’s talk individuals. For Forsythe, this is obviously a big win. He cruised to victory yet again and has been relatively unchallenged in most of his races. That will make him an interesting darkhorse at whichever regional meet he pursues. That being said, you have to give credit to Brenden Miller. The Upper Dauphin senior really struggled over the last mile at Hershey last year. This year, he pushed hard to give everything he had to beat Forsythe and it looked like he might slip on the last loop again. Yet Miller powered all the way through for a strong second place showing. Overall, Miller has been quite the inspiration (there’s a great story on penntrack that was linked in a comment somewhere on here) and I think he could potentially have big success in college.

Jack Miller of Jenkintown ends up as our #1 returner. He leads a nice contingent of Jenkintown youngsters that will be sophomores next year, including top 50 finisher Luke Miller. Jack ended up just 1 second back of Brenden and made a nice push on the homestretch to try and catch him. Sophomore Andrew Healey of Holy Cross, who has raced side by side with Miller at three major invites in a row, will be the #2 returner. Healey leads a nice crew of sophomores that, along with Ben Hoffman, include a group of Adam Hessler from Freedom, Hunter Armstrong of Marion Center (16^th after running a solid portion of the race in the top 10), Noah Bernarding, Luke Mantzell and Carter Kauffman. Those guys were all medalists this year.

Some of the big “bracket busters” from this weekend included Kamil Jihad of Neumann Goretti. I did not see this coming out of Jihad. He was a top 50 finisher at states last year, but the 800 specialist never struck me as a true distance runner. He was the runner up at his district meet after winning it the previous season. But Jihad brought his “A” game to states. He put himself in medal position early and held on through to the finish. He put on an awesome kick off the final hill and really looked strong coming home. Remember, this guy is a 1:52 800 runner who also specializes in the quarter. Great range from this kid.

The Elk Lake duo of Peyton Jones and Cody Oswald both placed in the top 30 overall. Jones got Elk Lake back on the medal stand for the first time in a couple years. That was a long overdue achievement for this historically strong program. I’m not sure if Peyton is related to former two-time state silver medalist Luke Jones (also of Elk Lake), but if so this kid could be a name to watch looking ahead. Jones has made a nice name for himself in his own right and should have plenty of company to push himself next year as Healey and Mead are in his district and two of the top 3 returners in the state.

A few other shout outs go to the Cambridge Spring boys (nearly two top 50 performances from some borderline state qualifiers), Gordon Pollock (posts an 11^th place finish to cap off a really strong season in the shadow of his state champion teammate and a great 4 year career progression) and Zach Gould (another medalist I didn’t see coming). Lots of young guys coming back next year including a nice crop of freshmen and sophomores. This could be an interesting race in 2018.