Team State Champions: What Does It Take?

As we look ahead to 2014, the state landscape is still being molded and taking shape, which leaves the door open for sleepers to emerge and take a hold on the race for gold in November. But what kind of pieces do you need to have to become a state championship team? For staters it helps to run for Henderson, north allegheny or north penn who have combined for all the state championships since 2007 and a lot of the runner up finishes as well. Ohara recently has made a name for themselves with 4 straight top 3 finishes but no titles. Lasalle before them was quite impressive with a pair of top 3 finishes of their own. In fact since the pcl joined the piaa, they have had a team in the top 3 every year at states (just haven't been able to get the gold). But yeah they should probably only send one aaa team, that seems pretty fair.

There is no sure fire recepie for being a state championship squad. Conventional wisdom is you need a big name front runner in the top 10. That holds true for the most part. The top finisher in team scoring has led his team to a title 5 times since 2006 with Dawson, montijo, Gil and Russell twice achieving the feat (notice I said team scoring as montijo was 6th in that race but 1st in team points). But it doesn't mean you can't win with a tight pack. Macauley was 17th overall and his north penn squad still toppled ohara in 2011.

Spread is important as well and people race about it but some super small spreads (like lasalle in 2009) have sometimes failed to get the job done. You need about 4 to 5 guys in the top 50 with 2 to 3 medalists. The medalist counts since 2006 go 3, 3, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, and 5 from the national champs (5 in the top 18 overall that year!). Nobody has had more than 3 besides cville possibly in state history I'd have to check the books.

And if you have the most medalists it's tough to stop you. That's why crn was able to sneak up and knock na down to 4th two years back, they had basically 3 medalists and Zemet was just the 1 for na. Na was much deeper through 5 guys but it didn't matter because the race had been decided out front.

Ohara had 3 in 2012, the same as Henderson, when they were barely beat out. They also had 2 to north penns 1 in 2011, including two in the top 11, but they were again barely beat out. I think Ohara was the best team that year in the state, but hey they didn't get the gold so I guess it's hard to argue. You can win without having the most medalists.

Some other fun facts about medalists while we are talking about it. Henderson had 3 guys in the top 13 at states and had to settle for second in 2006. They basically had the equivalent of the north hills monster out front and then will Kellar (as a freshman admittedly) and still barely fought off haven for 2nd. That's how good a year 2006 was. And oh yeah speaking of north hills they had 3 in the top 11 in the state (and top 13 or so in the region) and couldn't even get a team to qualify. Holy moly. Hatboro horsham might have the most medalists for a team that's never podiumed in recent years. Comber, Quinn, hibbs, hibbs (not hibbs though), and topper all grabbed medals. I think they have had a medalist every year since 2006 besides 2008.

Teams with medalists every year since 06: Henderson, north allegheny, and uh ... Yeah I think that's it off the top of my head. Keep in mind only district 1,3 and 7 have had a medalist every year since 2006 so that's saying something. I didn't thoroughly check that though so I could be wrong but I think d2 missed in 2007, d11 missed in 2007, d12 did before the pcl days, and d6 did in 06 and 07 (basically all the years before wade endress came along and made those guys very relevant again. That dudes impact I think goes underrated sometimes which is why I ranked him so high on my list.)

Really I think depth is awesome and very valuable, but somewhat overrated at the state meet. Henderson was super deep and it was very important to their title hopes. 6th man tie breakers ended up being a factor two years in a row. I get that. Henderson had something like 12 guys in the top 50 over the last two years. Coatesville didn't even do that back in their legendary 06 season. Henderson also had 7 guys sub 16. A mark that you can't put the asterix next to like you can for the top 50 spot (the 2012 and 2013 Henderson teams were competing at a time where the three class system slightly decreases the competition. Gosh I dislike the three class system I'm sorry)

But really I think you need a big 3. I can't name the #5 guys on most teams that won titles and really I struggle with some of the 4s. But the best teams usually have 3 guys that you lean on to get you the title. The teams with better depth do better at the national meets. Think 2008 north allegheny. One medalist and that was 20th place. But at nats they were 12th. Even Ohara who battles tough with 2 in the top 11 but no super power to compete with Russell and Barchet used their depth to get 5th at nats. Those teams all never got a state gold even if they got revenge.

North penn was the king of the big three. Montijo Hoagland and miles in 07 were very good as a trio. Then it was miles Bernitt and Quintrell. Then Macauley Davis and Trimble. Heck in 2012 Henderson needed a big day from rimkis to get Barchet moving and get a title. He had a huge day to run with k James and that's a big part of why they won the title. I already mentioned the big three of crn and it was a big three for Ohara this year that kept them in the top 3 teams when the dust cleared. Henderson had the title on lock this year but knapp emerging into a top 20 guy really clinched the thing.

So which team has the best top 3 this year? Cuz that's who I think will win themselves a state title.