Considering we had a national championship squad it's tough not to put the boys from Coatesville up at the number one spot. Back in 2006 they took down a national championship for themselves at the NTN championships (precursor to the NXN championships). Coatesville had an impressive scoring 5, putting 5 in the top 25 in the state for AAA during a fairly competitive year (3, 6, 8, 12, 18). At Districts that year they had 5 guys under 15:50 as well. Kyle Dawson was a very strong front runner and right behind him a group of Panulla, Owen Dawson, Sean Ward and Jason Leonard rounded out the top 5 for this group. It was a remarkable team to see during my first ever year of cross country.
Besides this squad you can make arguments for a lot of other teams for #2. Last year's Henderson and O'Hara squads were phenomenal squads. O'Hara took 5th at Nationals, but Henderson beat them at states. And if you are talking Henderson last year, you have to mention Henderson this year, another very strong squad that ended up being quite similar to the previous years team.
And what about the other heartbreak O'Hara team from 2011? Where do they stack up even though North Penn managed to upset them at the state championships? North Penn has racked up 3 state titles while I've been following the game, tying them with Henderson for the most titles, but they never sent a squad to the national championships.
GFS and NA each did so. NA had a team finish 12th back in 2008 behind sophomore Ryan Gil and tight pack. GFS did it with Gus McKenzie leading the way for a surprising upset squad with the Watermans. But perhaps GFS's best team was the squad led by Max Kaulbach back in 2007. That squad was maybe a 5 guy away from nats and they didn't have quite their best day at regionals as well.
And how about Strath Haven and Henderson from back in the Coatesville year? Both those teams may have been state champs in another year had they not ran into the juggernaut of Coatesville.
Overall, it seems Henderson this past year would get the nod for #2 with 7 guys under 16 minutes at Lehigh and a nice, dominating finish at the state championships. They took 1, 6, 18, 30, and 37. Although they didn't have the out of state success of O'Hara a year ago, I value the dominating performance this year enough.
O'Hara's 5th place national squad is #3 for me. There finish to close out the year really showed how strong they could be, although states didn't go perfectly, they still had 3 medalists with 5 in the top 50 at states and came within one tiny step of winning a state title.
During this period I've been watching I've noticed that most years there are 4 teams that cycle around going after the title. North Penn (3 titles, including arguably the greatest upset of the new millennium), Henderson (3 titles of their own, two more runner ups and two trips out to Oregon), NA (Only the one state title, but some really fantastic teams that had some really bad luck at states, including the 2008 squad that made it to Portland), and lastly the best PCL team (LaSalle and/or O'Hara has been in the conversation for state title just about every year since joining the PIAA, but has yet to get to the title).
Then of course GFS would be just on the edge looking in, hard to tell just how good they have been because they haven't raced at the PIAA state championships. Malvern Prep is a team quickly on the rise to look out for as well.
I mean you look at the teams in recent years who have lost state championships you have O'Hara three times with a combined 12 in the top 50 and 8 in the top 30. They have had the 11th place finisher at states 3 times in a row I think?
Then you have NA's squad this year which had 5 guys in the top 45 with a very tight spread. The NA team that made it to NXN didn't win either, nor did any of the LaSalle teams that had spreads that were better than my 200 PR.
Props to the CRN boys. They had some very good teams over the years but never quite had the team that was going to take down a title (while I've been around at least). They have turned out a slew of great individual runners and have made it to the state championships every single year that I have been following, but I believe their highest finish was their 3rd place last year when they upset NA.
Let me know what you think if you're out there.
In the past 10 years looking only at the winning team and the runner up, every team has had multiple championship or runner up runs except West Chester East (2005) and Cedar Cliff (2004), Manheim Township (2005 runner-up) LaSalle (2008 runner-up).
ReplyDeleteCoatesville (2004 runner-up, 2006, 2007 runner-up)
Henderson (2006 runner-up, 2009, 2012, 2013)
North Penn (2007, 2008, 2011)
North Allegheny(2009 runner-up, 2010, 2013 runner-up)
Cardinal O'Hara (2011 runner-up, 2012 runner-up)
Really only 5 teams have dominated the coveted top 2 spots as of the past decade, and only 4 of 20 times has a team emerged for a one-time shot at the title. Teams like CRN, LaSalle, and Cumberland Valley always seem to make repeat appearances.
District 1 also manages to get all its teams (whether 5 or 6) in the top 10 in the state 8 out of 10 times. In the past 10 years District 1 has always had a team in the top 2, and has had the winning team 8 times. District 3 and District 7 have one winner a piece.
Top teams are top teams. They stay that way because of consistent and quality coaching, an excellent running culture at the school (fueled no doubt by victory), and a huge pool of students to select talent from. Top athletes, once found, train together and encourage each other to get better. Coaches and athletes learn from each other and grow from their experience of performing at that high caliber of competition.
Success breeds success, and we will continue to see the same teams for a long time to come. That doesn't make the sport any less interesting, and it certainly doesn't mean teams won't rise from the woodwork to win. It only makes the underdogs that much better.