40. Andrew Stanley, Sr Southern
Huntington (6 A)
Southern
Huntington isn’t exactly a hotbed for cross country discussion on this blog.
But Andrew Stanley put this school on the map during the stretch run of his
2017 outdoor season. After starting the season with marks of 4:50 and 10:27,
Stanley rolled all the way down to 4:29 and 9:47 at his district championship
meet. But Stanley wasn’t finished yet. At the state championships, the junior unlocked
a 9:29.06 PR in the 3200, running a gutsy front-running style race and holding
on.
In
Cross Country, Stanley didn’t quite hit the same heights he did during track,
but he still had a good amount of success. He finished 3rd at his
district championships and then 36th at the state championships (a
second straight top 40 finish).
After Tristan Forsythe, the A state landscape
is fairly wide open. 15 of the top 20 finishers from a year ago have graduated.
And no returners who finished ahead of Stanley at states ran a faster 3200 time
than his 9:29. That’s a great sign and, although track is not necessarily the
same beast as cross country, I like Stanley’s odds at putting together a big
season in the small school ranks.
39. Kyle Burke, Abington Heights (2
AAA)
A year
ago, Abington Heights surprised me with an upset victory at the District 2 XC
Championships. The team was led by a fantastic 1-3 finish from juniors Kyle
Burke and Dan Uhranowsky. On the
track, this pair only got better as they rolled to big PRs seemingly around
every turn. Burke dropped down to 4:20 for 1600 and just missed a spot in the state
finals. Uhranowsky was a 4:22/1:58 performer.
Burke
gets the nod on his list for his multiple district championships. He was the
champ last fall in XC and he also won the 1600 title on the track, defeating Tyler Wirth. Burke seems to be gaining
a lot of momentum and confidence. During his XC, he struggled at states,
finishing 144th, but this past track season he welcomed the
challenge and raced to a PR. Having a great training partner in Uhranowsky, who
has the potential to be just as strong, should bring out the best in him as
well.
38. Cameron Binda, Jr Greensburg
Salem (3 AA)
Greensburg
Salem had a big breakthrough in 2016. The WPIAL XC Champions took down a loaded
field and set themselves up to make a run at the state title in Hershey against
a pair of very good teams in Dallas and York Suburban. Although they ultimately
came up short, the team still left with a ton of confidence, which carried into
the track season where GS ran 7:51.29 in the 4x8.
One of
the key cogs in that equation was sophomore Cameron Binda. Cameron produced a
sub 2 minute 800 split and dropped new PRs of 4:22 and 9:37 on the track. Those
last two were the fastest on the team. Binda was solid during the cross country
season as well, consistently finishing as a top three runner along with fellow
sophomore Mark Brown and now
graduated senior Frankie King. Binda’s
best performance of the year came at the WPIAL championships, where he placed 6th
overall in AA. A week later, he added a 26th place finish in the
state, a second straight top 40 finish at states before his junior year even
started.
Binda’s
fastest 5k mark actually comes from his freshman season, where he placed 6th
at WCCs with a 16:21. During his sophomore season, Binda got off to a bit
slower of a start as King and Brown stole the early headlines. However, by the
end of 2017 Binda was doing a terrific job across a wide spectrum of events. If
he comes into this next fall with that same momentum, he’s going to be tough to
stop.
37. Ryan Stravaggi, Jr Harbor Creek
(10 AA)
There
are few runners who can claim to be district champions and state medalists. And
an even smaller contingent that have accomplished all that before they’ve even
started their junior season. But Ryan Stravaggi completed that feat last year
when, after winning the District 10 AA title as a freshman, he grabbed 20th
spot at states as a sophomore.
District
10 is no joke. It’s filled with quality programs like Grove City and it’s got a
ton of young talent. Last year, 8 of the top 10 finishers from the AA district
championships were returners, including 5 sophomores and a freshman. That doesn’t
even count super soph Jonah Powell,
who medaled at states as a freshman but was a surprise miss at districts. A lot
of those returners went on to grab medals at states including Stravaggi, his
teammates Aiden Weber and Christian Babo, and General McLane’s Erik Andrzejewski.
Stravaggi
has proven he might be the best out of all of these guys. He has a great
training group and he has proven he can rise to the occasion at districts and
states. He made solid improvements on the track this year as well, dropping his
1600 best to 4:26 and taking second at his district meet. Last XC season, he
was 2nd at Slippery Rock, 5th at Sharpsville, and 3rd
at the Harbor Creek Invite. I expect him to continue to be at the front of these
top fields and, as he makes that pivotal sophomore to junior jump, he could
start hanging up some golds in his trophy case.
36. Elias Lindgren, Sr Episcopal
Academy (Independent)
With Nick Dahl now graduating for the Ivy
League, the top spot in the Independent League seems up for grabs. Episcopal
was a program that really impressed this past track season, taking their
talents all the way to the national championships in the DMR where they clocked
a season best 10:32.
Leading
the way for this squad was Elias Lindgren, a breakout performer and Oscar
nominee in 2017. Lindgren held his own in the always loaded Delco league and
dropped times of 9:27 and 4:24 at the championship meet. Lindgren also earned a
pair of silver medals at the Independent League state championships on the track,
losing to Owen Ritz and budding
independent league rival Peter Borger
in the 1600 and 3200 respectively.
Lindgren
isn’t the most proven XC performer, but he’s had some glimpses of potential. He
was 8th at the independent league championships and 9th
at DELCOs last fall. He’s the #5 returner for independent states it what is
sure to be a hotly contested championship. One of those guys will be a breakout
star. My money, right now, is on Lindgren.
35. Peter Borger, Sr Malvern Prep
(Independent)
As
alluded to, the independent crop has a lot of budding stars. There’s Jeffrey Love who, as a sophomore,
finished 2nd at the Independent League State Championships (and also
clocked a sub 16 at William Tennent). There’s also GFS’s Colin Riley who was 4th at states and comes from a
powerhouse program (Riley ran 1:57 and 4:25 on the track). But I opted to
through Malvern Prep’s Peter Borger as the top guy on my list.
Borger
finished 3rd at last year’s independent state championships and then
followed up with great results on the track. He clocked a 9:08 indoors for 3k
and then added 4:26 and 9:39 times on the 400 meter loop. His biggest victory
came at independent states when he edged out Lindgren by a second for the 3200
title.
Borger
proved he could handle hills when he grabbed a second place finish at the
Briarwood Invitational in September, running 17 flat at Belmont. He was also second
at the very difficult Salesianum lay out, running 16:56. I think this kid has
the tools to run a great time at states next year and assert himself as the
state champion, but he won’t get anything easy from Love, Riley or Lindgren.
And, hey, maybe another runner is looming the shadows waiting to emerge as
Independent League champ.
I do
know this, whoever becomes the top dog in that league will likely shoot up this
list. Guys like Dahl, Sam Ritz, and Jaxson Hoey have been the best in
recent years and they’ve been top 10 rankers. Keep going back and you will
recognize names like Sami Aziz, Dustin Wilson, Gus McKenzie and Max
Kaulbach, all national caliber XC runners. So don’t sleep on the
independent league.
34. Andrew Sullivan, Sr Hershey (3
AAA)
In his
first appearance on the XC scene, Andrew Sullivan really broke out last year.
He started the year as the #1 runner on a strong Hershey team, taking 28th
at the PTXC Invitational. Then he made it clear he had arrived thanks to a
15:54 16th place finish at the Carlisle Invite, finishing among some
really impressive names. Then, Sullivan closed out the year with an 8th
at Mid Penns, 11th at Districts and a 50th at states in
his first appearance on the Hershey hills.
It’s
hard to not see big talent when you look at Sullivan. He has run 4:22 or faster
each of the past two track seasons and owns a PR of 9:35 in the 3200 from 2016.
Although he didn’t drop any big PRs on the track, Sullivan should really benefit
from an extra year of XC training under his belt, particularly on the state
hills. He still has an incredible core to train with as well as Hershey returns
accomplished rising junior Mike Morris
as well.
33. Matt Busche, Sr Franklin
Regional (7 AAA)
One of
the biggest surprises of this past track season was the boys of Franklin
Regional. This school dropped into the low 7:50s on more than one occasion thanks
in large part to 1:54 man Matt Busche. Busche capped off his outdoor season in
style, setting a PR for himself during his 4th race of the weekend
at the state finals. The strength he showcased while doubling could be a big
indicator of things to come for him on the trails.
Although
he proved to have a ton of speed on the track, Busche had some impressive
moments in XC. On the hilly Hershey course, Matt was 53rd overall at
states. He was also 13th in the WPIAL a week previously. He picked
up top 10 finishes at Slippery Rock and Sharpsville during the regular season
and learned a lot about top tier cross country running from teammate and WPIAL
champion Mark Provenzo.
Busche
grew a lot over the course of last season as a distance performer, finishing outside
the top 30 in his first two invites and advancing to a consistent front runner
by season’s end. But he still needs to make another jump on the trails to prove
he is worthy of a top 35 ranking. That being said, 1:54 speed is an x-factor
that few others in the state have in their back pocket for the end of a race.
32. Ethan Koza, Sr CR North (1 AAA)
By the
numbers, Koza is the #16 returner in AAA. He runs for a great program and will
have a dynamite core of training partners with returning state medalists in Sam Early and Ryan Campbell. It seems like a no brainer that Koza gets a marquee
spot on this list and you could make a very good argument he belongs even
higher than he’s slotted.
Koza
slipped into the background for much of this past year as others stole the
spotlight. He was the #5 man on his team at districts and states, despite
placing in the top 50 and running 16 flat. On the track, he was a relative
afterthought as well, having dropped times of 4:24 and 9:42, but being slotted
behind a slew of state qualifiers in other events.
The bottom
line is, Koza has been slept on for a long time. He’s even being slept on for
this list. Wouldn’t be surprised at all if this turns around and he becomes a
top 20 kinda guy by the end of season rankings.
31. Mitchell Etter, Sr State
College (6 AAA)
It’s
easy to think of State College as a track school, but this school quietly has
become an excellent cross country school. Not only that, SC also extended its
streak of having at least one different sub 9:35 runner to 4 straight years
this past track season when their secret weapon dropped a 9:27 at the Shippensburg
Invite.
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