Red, White and Blue Preview

by Evan Hatton

Red, White and Blue: Western Pennsylvania’s blazing fast, early season invitational.  The race consistently produces times in the low 15:30s or faster, with the slowest winning time ever being 15:54, by David Adley in 2007.  Popularity of the race has grown as well over the past few years, attracting top teams from West Virginia and Ohio.  This year, however, construction on the original course is cause for a few minor changes.  The start now takes place on a hillside, and starting position could play a huge role in how the race turns out.  Getting out hard will be imperative as the course bottlenecks considerably sooner than it did in the past.  In addition to the start, the finish of the race is now much closer to the top of the final hill, giving athletes considerably less time to pick up momentum to the finish.  I’ve heard from some kids who have previewed the course that it shouldn’t be that much slower than previous years, but the winning time certainly will not be 15:20 or so, as it always has been.

Well, on to the team picture.  North Allegheny has won this race every year since 2005, with the exception of 2011 when Mt. Lebanon took the team title.  North Allegheny once again looks very strong.  At a scrimmage on September 2, they scored 18 points to beat out Central Catholic (49), Baldwin (72) and Ringgold (112).  Marc Migliozzi led the charge for the tigers crossing the line at Mingo Park in 16:21 with Jacob Greco and Sam Blechman rounding out the top 3 in 16:38 and 16:44 respectively.  NA’s projected low stick, Jacob Stupak, who ran 4:18 for 1600 this past spring did not compete.  I’m not going to think much of this at the moment because it was just a scrimmage and certainly expect him to show up on Saturday.  Opposite North Allegheny, Mt. Lebanon had a strong showing on the grueling Cal U course at the Marty Uher Invitational, placing 5 in the top 11.  Todd Gunzenhauser had a rough race over the final mile and faded from 1st to 5th to finish as Lebo’s third man behind Ian Harris and sophomore standout Bryce Brandenstein.  I’m not too worried about Gunz going into this, he’s a gutsy racer and isn’t afraid to get out hard.  Upper Saint Clair had a surprisingly nice team race at Cal U as well, placing 3 in the top 15, with Bennett Sneath and Michael Stemmler taking the 7 and 8 spots.  Finally, we have the defending A champions, Winchester Thurston.  WT returns all but Landin Delaney.  With Will Loevner mixing it up in front coupled with Littman, Forsythe and Hay fighting for places in the mid teens, it’s not extremely out of the question to say that Winchester Thurston is a sleeper for team gold.

I’ve already touched upon a few individuals, mainly Stupak, Gunzenhauser and Loevner, but there are certainly other guys who have a shot at the victory.  I know there’s probably some excitement around Dom Perretta, but Beaver Falls is not on the confirmed teams list.  With registration closed for the race, that leads me to believe that he will not be running this weekend.  It’s a bummer, but he’s always gotten late starts to his season, so I don’t doubt that we’ll see him in a few weeks.  Mike Kolor of Seneca Valley has proven himself to be one of the best runners in the state.  Kolor ran under 4:15 on four separate occasions last year (including full miles) and has a state medal in cross under his belt.  His raw speed should be too much for anyone to match on this course.  Nick Wolk of Peters Township is my sleeper for the individual title.  He might not have the cross country cred that a few of these guys have, he’s run 16:14 as well as 4:22 on the track.  However, he did go 15:32 on the road this past weekend.  That’s big.  Like, really big.  He’s clearly in very good shape and Red, White and Blue is about as close as you can get to road times without being on the road.  Griffin Mackey is fresh off of a 15:48 down in Texas and I’m assuming that he’ll be back for this meet.  He might be the most ridiculously fearless runner I’ve ever seen, I’ve never seen anybody take races out as hard as he does, and it is very possible that he can run the legs out of Kolor early on to hang on for the win.  Zach Skolnekovich of Quaker Valley didn’t make as much noise as I thought he would during track, but I can’t count out a kid with a state medal in cross.  My final individual spotlight goes to Casey Conboy of Baldwin.  He dropped a 9:32 on the track last spring as just a sophomore and certainly still has room to improve.  The only thing that worries me about Conboy is the graduation of his training partner Dennis Doyle.

On the team side of things, I think North Allegheny takes it.  Is this maybe because I don’t want to jinx my boys back home?…perhaps.  Regardless, the Tigers are a great team this year and if Stupak gets thrown back into the equation they’ll be even better.  Mt. Lebanon should take 2nd again, it’ll be close though.  They have an awesome top 4 with Gunz, Harris, Brandenstein and Kalapos, but their top 5 could be juggled between several kids this year and that lack of consistency worries me a tiny bit.  Winchester Thurston is going to be crazy good this year, we’ll just leave it at that.  The boys at Norwin could surprise as well.  This is a real big gamble pick for me.  They had a nice showing at the Gateway Invitational last weekend to get the win over Baldwin.  I was proved wrong by them on the track this year and the amount of speed they have will be very beneficial for them on this course.  I think the team picture plays out like this:

1. North Allegheny
2. Mt. Lebanon
3. Winchester Thurston
4. Grove City
5. Norwin

Individually, I’m going to give the win to Nick Wolk.  I like underdogs.  Kolor’s speed will help him as well.  Gunzenhauser’s track credentials will help him on the flat trails around Schenley Park.  Ultimately, my top 15 individuals are:

1. Nick Wolk, Peters Township
2. Griffin Mackey, Sewickley Academy
3. Mike Kolor, Seneca Valley
4. Todd Gunzenhauser, Mt. Lebanon
5. Jacob Stupak, North Allegheny
6. Will Loevner, Winchester Thurston
7. Zach Skolnekovich, Quaker Valley
8. Marc Migliozzi, North Allegheny
9. Ian Harris, Mt. Lebanon
10. Casey Conboy, Baldwin
11. Tristan Forsythe, Winchester Thurston
12. Amadou Diallo, Taylor Allderdice
13. Bryce Brandenstein, Mt. Lebanon
14. Tyler Laughery, Norwin
15. Logan Caruso, Bradford Area