The Etrain 11 Series XC Finale Preview

Note: Everything is now officially loaded for an 8 o'clock start time on the Etrain 11 XC Series Finale (State Championship). This Thursday night, if you click on right at 8 o'clock, there should be a live radio broadcast link. That will line up with the live results on lxvplus.blogspot.com if you start your radio broadcast right at 8. You can then experience the race as if it is happening live! I think it will hopefully sync up well and be a fun way to enjoy this fictional race. Just make sure you are on time!

Box Assignments for Etrain 11 Series XC State Championships
Full List of Qualifiers for Etrain 11 Series XC State Championships

Individual Preview

The individual match-up is sure to be an exciting one as we look ahead to the All 11 state championship race. Runners from a variety of eras in PA running will converge on the Hershey Parkview course to test their skills on this difficult, hilly terrain. A few of the top athletes have never contested this particular lay out before, including the top two finishers from the District One championships in Paul Springer and Jason Weller. District Three Champion Noah Affolder has also never seen this particular version of the course. We will see if that has any sort of negative effect on these athletes on race day.

Noah Affolder of Carlisle had the largest victory of any athlete during the district qualifying round and comes in as the favorite for the individual title. Noah is one of a select group of state and regional champions who has competed for Pennsylvania. The other two, Brad Miles and Tony Russell were just 7^th and 3^rd respectively at their district championships at Lehigh.

The top District One athletes are expecting to give Noah a real challenge. From this field, a whopping seven different state champions qualified for Hershey. Paul Springer led the way with his 14:46 course record clocking, but his old rival Jason Weller is lurking, ready to defeat him in the clutch yet again. Tony Russell (3^rd 14:54), Jake Brophy (4^th 14:56) and Brad Miles (7^th 15:01) have all held records on this particular Hershey lay out and shouldn’t be counted out in their title quest.

Outside of Districts One and Three, the top spot was very tightly contested. Out at Coopers Lake, Ryan Gil barely survived against Zach Hebda by one second for the district title. Gil moved from 10^th to first over the final mile, showcasing a great finishing kick and bringing home the title. Meanwhile, at Belmont Plateau, it was a surprise winner in Jaxson Hoey of Malvern Prep. He upset the favorite Dustin Wilson of Chesnut Hill Academy with a big finishing kick for gold. Wilson had to settle for silver two seconds back. No one else was in the picture on the final straightaway. Finally, in the last qualifier, Lake Lehman’s Dominic Hockenbury held off a late charge from Colin Abert and Wade Endress to clinch a district title for himself. Also in the top pack was Griffin Molino of South Willaimsport, who finished 4^th overall.

Team Preview

15 teams clinched automatic qualifying spots before the final 5 teams were added via fan voting. Seneca Valley received the most votes and, therefore, pushed in teams from Pittsburgh Central Catholic and North Allegheny “B”. Also qualifying via the voting process were LaSalle and Hatboro Horsham. Other teams had more votes, but were too far down the standings to make it as there were not enough open spots to push in the teams ahead of them.

With the field set, we should have an exciting match-up between powerhouse programs. In District One, West Chester Henderson rolled to the championship with just 80 points. That helped them defeat the other four automatic qualifying teams by over 70 points. Those teams each had won a state championship in the past 11 seasons, including North Penn who won three times and finished in second. Henderson has Tony Russell leading the charge, but is also expected to get big contributions from Chris Aldrich and Will Kellar, who placed 2^nd at states in back to back seasons.

Equally and perhaps even surpassing the Henderson dominance was that of Carlisle. The Herd scored just 30 points at their qualifier meet, led by a 1-2-3 finish in team scoring. Carlisle put 5 runners in the top 20 overall and rolled to the victory over Lower Dauphin and Cumberland Valley.

One of the tightest battles we saw was a three-team race at Belmont Plateau as GFS, O’Hara and LaSalle fought it out tooth and nail for the pair of automatic qualifying spots. It was a close race, but ultimately GFS took the victory by just 16 points over O’Hara. Nick Dahl picked up a big haul in 8^th place, finishing ahead of any other team’s #2. LaSalle qualified four individuals to the championship before being pushed in through fan voting.

The North Allegheny Tigers were impressive as well. They will send 14 runners to the state championships after a 1-4 finish at districts. Baldwin was second at this meet, surviving against the North Hills monster that took 3 of the top 6 spots. The top runner for North Allegheny’s “B” squad placed just 36^th overall, but the pack had a spread of just 8 seconds and that was enough to push them ahead.

Lastly, Altoona beat out a group of 30 teams at their qualifying meet to punch a ticket to states as a team. They were led by Wade Endress who was 2^nd in team scoring and 3^rd overall. Grove City had the superior 1-2 punch led by Jacob Kildoo and Dan Jaskowak, but had to settle for second as Altoona rolled through with a tight 2-6 group.

District Preview

The other exciting thing about this race is that all 12 districts and the independent league will send a team of qualifiers to compete. As a result, some runners from smaller districts received wild card selections to advance to Hershey. District One will be the favorite, but don’t count out District 3, who picked up three extra Footlocker Qualifiers in 2016. The WPIAL will send a great of their own, led by a contingent of Footlocker Finalists of their own. Some of the smaller districts will have an uphill battle, but state champions are all over the place on District 2 and District 4.

The Independent league athletes will have the toughest challenge. They’ve never run the Hershey course, but they have all the skills to take down the elites on the hills. Dustin Wilson, Max Kaulbach and Jaxson Hoey will lead their all-star team. 

The Etrain 11 XC Series Finale will begin at 8 o'clock on Thursday night. Gun time will be closer to 8:05-8:10. 

Catch all the action in the Etrain 11 XC Series Finale with a live radio broadcast and live results courtesy of runhigh.com on lxvplus.blogspot.com. Full 1 Mile, 2 Mile and 5k Standings will be presented on the site as the results become final.

The Etrain 11 Racing Series: Qualifying Meets

So, you might remember from a while back, The Etrain 11 Racing Series? Well, the qualifying meets have now officially be concluded. Missed the action? Check out LXV+ or use the following links:

D1: Individual, Team
D7: Individual, Team
D3: Individual, Team
D12/Independent: Individual, Team
All Others: Individual, Team

With those complete, we will be moving to the wild card selection process. First up, we have to decide which teams will be getting in via wildcard. There are 5 wild card team spots up for grabs and we will have a voting system, similar to that of the etrain oscars (trademark), to decide who gets those extra spots.

Check out this poll to cast your vote: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScd0FfbFsrrHNPJb2HP38ewr9COyxHJ-8rNMrlyHtVTSLp8zQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

Whoever gets the most votes automatically advances. Then we push in teams that finished ahead of them at their regional qualifying meet and then repeat the process.

If you don't see your team on their list, it's likely the case that A) They are an automatic qualifier for the state championship race or B) They did not place in the top 5 non automatic qualifiers within their regional meet and are, therefore, not able to advance. However, it is possible that I made a mistake, so definitely don't be shy about asking if you your team is missing. The list of automatic qualifiers are below for convenience:

Altoona	D6
Baldwin	D7
Carlisle	D3
Coatesville	D1
CR North	D1
Cumberland Valley	D3
DT West	D1
GFS	IND
Grove City	D10
Henderson	D1
Lower Dauphin	D3
North Allegheny	D7
North Hills	D7
North Penn	D1
O'Hara	D12

The Etrain 11 Racing Series: WPIAL Qualifying

If you are in to imaginary all-time races, we've got another meet in the series coming to you on Monday night. The live results will show up on LXV+. The race starts Monday night (the 17th) at 8 o'clock. So you can expect mile standings maybe around 8:10, two mile standings around 8:20 and final standings about 8:30 depending on how meet organizers handle things.

If you missed the District One qualifying action, that can be found here and here. The results have retroactively been slightly revised to include Ryan Campbell, moving CR North into 3rd place. This did not affect any of the state qualifiers.

Etrain 11 Series: District One Recap

Etrain 11 Series Results Available via LXV+

Team: http://lxvplus.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-etrain-11-series-district-one.html?m=1

Individual: http://lxvplus.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-etrain-11-racing-series-district_56.html?m=1

We knew coming in that it would be an intense battle out at Lehigh in the first qualifying event of the Etrain 11 Series. A total of 243 runners entered the District One race and 27 teams were scored in a quest to qualify for the State Championship event coming later this summer.

The favorites coming in were the boys from West Chester Henderson, who had qualified three different units for Monday’s qualifying event. However, after the first mile, Henderson was buried back in the field at 10^th place in the overall standings. Instead, it was the national champions from Coatesville who were out to the early lead. Kyle Dawson, Class of 2007, led the race through the mile in 4:41 followed closely by Rusty Kujdych from Neshaminy (’18) and Mark Dennin of Boyertown (’08). The Men in Black had four runners in the top 40 overall and clocked 88 points through the first five minutes.

Also asserting themselves as potential qualifiers in the early stages of the race were North Penn, DT West and Hatboro Horsham. These three teams sat within four points of one another. The Knights of North Penn showed the deepest contingent through the mile with all seven runners in the top 50 team scorers.

As the race continued, Unionville’s Paul Springer (’07) began his climb up the field. Dawson still held the lead, but now he, Springer, Henderson’s Tony Russell (’14) and Boyertown’s Jason Weller (’07) were battling out front. Weller’s teammate, Mark Dennin, as well as Henderson’s Chris Aldrich (’08), were also challenging the top pack. With the emergence of Russell and Aldrich at the top of the field, Henderson’s chances of pulling out the victory were starting to look a lot better.

Racing up the standings behind them was Council Rock North who had Chris Campbell (’11) in the top group now, striding forward and holding his own as a low stick. However, CRN still needed the back half of their pack to make up ground a bit if they were going to get into the state qualifying mix.

In the final stages of the race, Paul Springer asserted himself as the class of the field and exploded through the last down hill. Russell of Henderson was the only one to cover the move, but ultimately he could not match Springer’s tenacious finishing sprint. Weller managed to nip Russell just before the line, giving the Class of 2007 the top two finishers in the race.

Meanwhile, CB East’s Jake Brophy (’16) threw down an explosive kick, surging ahead of some 7 runners in the last quarter mile of the race to take 4^th overall in a sub 15 minute clocking. Aldrich and Kyle Dawson rounded out the top 6 finishers, all of which were under 15 minutes. Brophy’s kick turned plenty of heads, but so too did the final mile from Upper Moreland’s Drew Magaha (’12) who moved up to 9^th overall with a time of 15:04. Magaha was the first finisher who was not a part of the team competition.

After the runners crossed the line, with 45 different runners cracking 15 minutes and 30 seconds, there was a wait for the team competition results to be tallied. Only the top five programs would be guaranteed a spot in the State Championship, although up to five additional squads could be selected through a wild card process.

Henderson was announced as the champions with 80 points, led by their two sub 15 minute runners. They also had Reiny Barchet (’14) and Will Kellar (’10) finish in the top 25 overall, the only team with at least three such finishers in that group. But Chris Ferry (’07), who made up some 70 team spots over the final mile, was perhaps the biggest swing runner for West Chester. He finished in 38^th overall.

North Penn, who won back to back District Championships in 2007 and 2008, held on for second place with their own deep unit. Brad Miles (’10) led the way with a 15:01 7^th place finish and then the Knights packed in three other runners under 15:30. They left a little too much space between their #5 and Henderson’s to steal victory, but ultimately a 71 point gap between the top two schools would be tough to overcome.

DT West and CR North were locked in a tight battle down the stretch of this race. Jaxson Hoey (’16) led the charge for West, the 2015 Northeast Regional Champions, with a 10^th place finish, but Chris Campbell and Ross Wilson (’14) were just behind. CR North made up some ground in the #5 spot behind Tim Haas (’17), but ultimately a big run from Quinn Devlin (’12) swung this race in West’s favor. The final tally was 170 to 176.

That left the battle for the 5^th and final spot up for grabs. Although CB West, Unionville and Lower Merion put up valiant efforts (Lower Merion jumped from 20^th at the mile up to 9^th in the final standings), the last spot came down to Coatesville and Hatboro Horsham. While Coatesville trotted out the exact same team that won them nationals in 2006, Horsham had runners from 7 different classes (although 3 of them were named “Hibbs”). Although Hatboro gave the Raiders everything they could handle, Coatesville managed to be just a bit better at four of the top five positions with Jason Leonard (’07) and Sean Ward (’07) each defeating their closest Horsham competitors by less than a second. The final tally left Coatesville with 185 points to Horsham’s 199.

Speculation says that Horsham will have good odds at advancing to the championships from their 6^th position through Wild Card selection, but even if they don’t they will still be well represented. Out of the 25 individual qualifiers, Horsham is currently slated to get three of those spots thanks to Casey Comber (’15), Sam Hibbs (’12) and Conner Quinn (’13). Keep an eye out for Quinn who was 36^th at Districts but was the 2011 XC State Champion on the Hershey course he will be traveling to later this year.

Quinn joins a slew of state champions currently slated to get at large spots to the state championship including Weller (2^nd), Brophy (4^th), Dennin (8^th), and Jimmy Tarsnane (’09, 16^th). Quinn actually finished quite close to the bubble as he was just 2 seconds ahead of Great Valley’s Ned Willig (’12) who took 41^st overall. Willig edged out Connor Harriman of Pennsbury (’13) to get the last qualifier by less than a second. Harriman will hope to be a part of the 25 at large selections in the Wild Card round. His odds are very good for advancing as he will be first in line to get bumped in if Horsham is accepted or, even if they are not, he would be a smart choice for an individual wild card out of arguably the state’s toughest qualifier. Harriman finished in the top 10 at the state championships in both 2011 and 2012.

West Chester Henderson’s “B” squad finished in 10^th overall and technically has a shot to qualify as a wild card team. If they don’t, I’d expect Alex Knapp (’15) and Spencer Smucker (’18) to move onto the varsity squad for states. They led the “B” squad with 48^th and 51^st overall finishes. 

The Etrain 11 Racing Series: Cross Country

As a reminder: http://therealtrain.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-etrain-11-racing-series.html

All-Time 11-Year Races: Cross Country

Regional Qualifying Meet #1 – 4/10

Regional Qualifying Meet #2 – 4/17

Regional Qualifying Meet #3 – 4/24

Regional Qualifying Meet #4 – 5/1

Regional Qualifying Meet #5 – 5/8

XC Championships - TBD

Regional Qualifying

District One – Lehigh University

Invited Teams

Over the 11 year period, these teams either qualified for states out of AAA or won a state championship in a small school classification

CB West

Coatesville

Conestoga

CR North

DT West

WC East

Great Valley

WC Henderson

HG Prep

Horsham

Lower Merion

North Penn

Penncrest

Pennsbury

Perk Valley

Pottsgrove*

Strath Haven

Upper Dublin

Additional teams will be accepted upon request

Invited Individuals

All Top 20 AAA District One Finishers or AA/A Individual Champions

Additional individuals will be accepted upon request

__________________________________________________________________________

District Three – Carlisle High School

Invited Teams

Over the 11 year period, these teams either qualified for states out of AAA or won a state championship in a small school classification

Camp Hill*

Carlisle

Cedar Cliff

Cedar Crest

Chambersburg

Conrad Weiser

Cumberland Valley

Dallastown

Exeter

Governor Mifflin

Hempfield

Hershey

Lower Dauphin

Manheim Central

Manheim Township

Mechanicsburg

Red Land

Red Lion

Twin Valley

Wilson

York Suburban*

Additional teams will ae accepted upon request

Invited Individuals

All Top 15 AAA District Three Finishers or AA/A Individual Champions

Additional individuals will be accepted upon request

__________________________________________________________________________

WPIAL – Coopers Lake (Includes D7 & D8)

Invited Teams

Over the 11 year period, these teams either qualified for states out of AAA or won a state championship in a small school classification

Baldwin

Butler

Canon McMillan

Fox Chapel

Kiski

Mount Lebanon

North Allegheny

North Hills

Pittsburgh Central Catholic

Plum

Quaker Valley*

Seneca Valley

Winchester Thurston*

Additional teams will be accepted upon request

Invited Individuals

All Top 15 AAA District Seven Finishers or AA/A Individual Champions

Additional individuals will be accepted upon request

__________________________________________________________________________

District 12 + Independent League – Belmont Plateau

Invited Teams

Over the 11 year period, these teams either qualified for states out of AAA or won a state championship in a small school classification. Also included are independent league championship winning schools.

Germantown Academy

Germantown Friends School

LaSalle

Malvern Prep

O’Hara

St. Joe’s Prep

Additional teams will be accepted upon request

Invited Individuals

All Top 5 AAA District Twelve & Independent League Finishers or AA/A Individual Champions

Additional individuals will be accepted upon request

__________________________________________________________________________

Miscellaneous Districts – Hershey Parkview Course ’08-’15 (District 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10 and 11)

Invited Teams

Over the 11 year period, these teams placed highly at the state championships and warranted subjective approval by the games administration for selection

Altoona

Dallas

Easton

Elk County Catholic

Elk Lake

Fairview

Freedom

Grove City

Lakeland

Mercyhurst Prep

Northeast Bradford

North East

North Pocono

Parkland

Saegertown

Scranton Prep

State College

Towanda

Tunkhannock

West Middlesex

Additional teams will be accepted upon request

Invited Individuals

Top finishers from the state championships across all classifications

Additional individuals will be accepted upon request

The Etrain 11 Racing Series

By Etrain11

In honor of 725k ...

It's now been 11 years since my freshman season and over that time I've seen and analyzed a variety of runners from around the state. So I thought it might be a cool idea to combine all these years of experience into a series of virtual races to determine who might win in an all-time virtual event.

So here's how it works. Teams are sorted by time traveling high schools. For example, take my alma mater Upper Dublin. If we were competing in a 4x8, we may take Mike Palmisano and Paul Reilly from the class of 2009, Sam Ellison from Class of 2010 and Andy Stewart from Class 2015 as they, at their best, would make the best theoretical relay. Anyone who attended a high school between 2007 and 2017 is eligible. Only high school performances will be considered.

Every team will make similar choices to maximize their talent, set their line up and order, and then have a fictional race. 

How do we decide how fast everyone will run in this fictional race? Well that's for me to decide and you to find out. The final times will be subjective, but no runner will run slower than what I understand to be their fastest high school time. If you are worried I don't know about a split or performance from your team, I suggest you comment or email to make sure I incorporate times correctly to give your school the best chance to win or place high. I'll help set each team's line ups so that they are the best they can be based on my own subjective rankings. 

The track events will begin this summer once the seasons' of our current athletes are in the books. But the competition on the trails is about to begin. With the 11th XC season in the books, we will be having a virtual state championship. 

To qualify for this championship, schools must qualify at their district meet. The district meets are happening at the following locations:

District One - Lehigh

District Three - Carlisle

District Seven - Coopers

District Twelve/Independent - Belmont

All Others - Hershey (2008-2015)

There will be automatic qualifying spots as determined by the series officials, but also wild card spots as voted by the fans of the site. 

If you want to make sure a team is included in the XC competition, comment and let me know. 

So be on the look out for all star teams from the past 11 seasons as they prepare for the XC championships. Class of 2007 through 2020 are eligible to participate. Looking forward to the event! Let me know if anything isn't clear in my description. Otherwise we'll talk again for the first races.

P.S. If you are curious about the track events, I'm current planning the following:

4x800

4x1600

DMR

4x400

SMR

4x3200

8x800

SDMR (16, 4, 8, 32)

Open 800

Open 1600

Open 3200