etrain11: the aftermath

16. Indiana Hoosiers

Flotrack’s #16: Furman Paladins
Flotrack's Ranking of Indiana: 17th
Coach: Ron Helmer

Notable Departures: Rorey Hunter, Owen Skeete

Notable Additions: Ben Veatch

Projected Scoring Five: Matthew Schwartzer (SR) [ET#41], Jason Crist (SR), Kyle DuVall (JR), Ben Veatch (FR), Carl Smith (SR)

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It wasn't the exact spot, but Flotrack and I seem to be on the same page about what we can expect from the Hoosiers this season. They're a talented program and very deep, but will have to face the always competitive BIG 10 conference and Great Lakes region.

Just like Boise State, Indiana started off last fall with their best man (Schwartzer) sidelined for the rest of the season. The Princeton Inter-regional was the first stop for the Hoosiers as they began they're 2015 campaign and it would also be the place where they recorded a team title by defeating teams like Columbia and Virginia Tech. But what goes up, must come down. Indiana placed 16th at Wisconsin which didn't seem as promising as their victory at Princeton.

BIG 10's was just the same as the Hoosiers placed a respectable, but unexciting 4th place overall. The Hoosiers would need to go into Great Lakes and pull off a performance similar to 2014 if they wanted to make nationals. That, however, did not happen and Indiana went home after they finished 5th overall.

There's no doubt that Indiana is a good team. They have experienced and proven seniors that give the team a sense of comfort and reliability. But as last season showed, they needed to find a spark and bring back some excitement.

Luckily, Matthew Schwartzer is the long-awaited low-stick that will bring some excitement up-front to the Hoosiers. Assuming he can stay healthy, he'll be the reason Indiana goes from a good team to a great team.

Jason Crist, on the other-hand, will be an excellent number two man. He has put together some really solid races throughout his time at Indiana like his two top-10 finishes at BIG 10's and his 7:56 3k on the track. If he can simply repeat what he did last year, that should be good enough for the Hoosiers to get past teams like Michigan, Eastern Michigan, and maybe Michigan State.

Then there are others like Kyle DuVall who has shown us spurts of just how good he can be. He was 4th Princeton Inter-regional and then 25th at Great Lakes. He will have to be a bit more consistent in 2016, but his strong series of mile races this past winter and spring makes him primed for a more impactful cross country season.

But just like Andrew Jordan of Iowa State and Justin Janke of Washington State, incoming freshman Ben Veatch could be the x-factor that makes Indiana that much more dangerous. His two-mile PR of 8:50 leaves me wondering what kind of potential he holds. Young guys have seemed to do pretty well at Indiana, so this may a great time for Veatch to enter the program before so many of Indiana's top guys graduate.

The final scorer, however, is up for debate. Carl Smith seems like the easy choice as he has been in and out of the varsity scoring for the last year. However, I am a big fan of guys like Bryce Millar and Kyle Mau who are coming off of their redshirt freshman seasons. They seem to have plenty of talent that we just don't know about (Millar ran 14:12 this past spring) and I think we'll finally see it in the coming months.

Others in the mix for the fifth man spot could be Eric Claxton or Mark Chandler. Chandler boasts a PR of 13:59, but hasn't always been to crazy during cross country. Claxton, on the other hand, doesn't quite have the flashy PR's, but he is always super consistent. Whatever the case may be, Indiana has an array of depth to back them up.

Whether it's the new guys entering the program that are hungry to prove themselves, or the experienced juniors or seniors readying themselves for one last effort to make nationals, this team is primed for something special. The Hoosiers may not have Rorey Hunter and Owen Skeete, but they get their ace back and have enough support to make this team a true contender to qualify for the big dance in Terre Haute.

2016 Etrain Team Power Rankings: #17 Washington State Cougars

17. Washington State Cougars

Flotrack’s #17: Indiana Hoosiers
Flotrack's Ranking of Washington State: 24th
Coach: Wayne Phipps

Notable Departures: N/A

Notable Additions: Justin Janke

Projected Scoring Five: Michael Williams (JR) [ET#48], John Whelan (SR), Sam Levora (JR), Chandler Teigen (SO), Justin Janke (FR)

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For years now, Washington State has been left in the shadows of an elite and deep West region. They may not be up in the rankings with the likes of Oregon or Stanford, but they still bring plenty of talent to the table and should be able to put together a very solid squad in 2016.

However, the thought of the Cougars making nationals last year didn't seem all that likely. Things started off slowly last year for WSU as their first major meet (Washington Invite) ended with them placing 8th overall out of 11 teams. Luckily, we saw some very nice improvements from John Whelan and Michael Williams at Pre-Nats which propelled the team to place a 13th place finish. The return to the West region, however, was not friendly to Washington State as they placed 6th out of 9 teams at PAC-12's. The Cougars just couldn't get past the powerhouses that made up the West region.

As regionals approached, many people were wondering just how many teams would come out of the West and qualify for nationals. Washington State was left out of the discussion and that would prove to be a big mistake. A tactical race played into their favor, and the Cougars surprised everyone with a 4th place team finish. The 2nd and 3rd place finishes from Williams and Whelan allowed WSU to out match teams like Boise State and UCLA.

Although they had impressed us at regionals, the Cougars youth caught up to them at NCAA's. The pressure on four freshmen to compete on the nations biggest stage may have been a little overbearing and it resulted in WSU placing 26th overall.

Yes, Washington State did have their up's and down's last year. But their youth was arguably their biggest weakness. Now, those four rising sophomores all have experience on the national stage and should be motived by the fact that they could return to the same meet again. We saw just how good Michael Williams was last fall during his sophomore year, so it should be very exciting to see which of those four can step up and provide more fire-power up front. It's not a matter of if they'll improve, it's a matter of how much.

I also like the potential for incoming freshman Justin Janke. A PR of 8:55 in the 3200 could allow him to have an immediate impact on a WSU team that is happy to bring him in and mold a young talent. With Williams and Whelan at the helm, they should be able to teach Janke pretty quickly.

Two strong challengers up-front, a star recruit, and a young but experienced pack of sophomores with untapped potential makes the Cougars very dangerous. However, those sophomores I just mentioned will still be pretty new and will have plenty of pressure on them. The fate of this team will be decided by how well that group of four steps up.

Of course, the last time this much pressure was put onto a pack sophomores, they won a national championship (Syracuse had three sophomores in their top five during last year's title run). The Cougars may not win a national title, but they are not to be underestimated either.

Team Titles Revisited: 2009

2009 State Championships

by Jarrett Felix

After back to back titles for the Knights of North Penn, it looked like the torch would finally pass in 2009. North Penn returned their top 2 runners, but lost #3-6. Meanwhile, a program with a pair of back-to-back titles on its resume in West Chester Henderson, returned their entire top 7 from a 7^th place team in 2008. That included Will Kellar who was 2^nd at states as a junior and PA’s #1 returner. With a returning roster of that caliber, it was hard to leave Henderson off the top of the list.

That being said, the boys from LaSalle were an interesting contender in their own right. The Explorers had joined the PIAA a year earlier and immediately made their presence felt. They upset North Allegheny and a slew of District One powerhouses to grab the silvers in Hershey. They had a brilliant 24 second spread, the tightest of the field, and showcased just how dangerous the PCL was at peaking at the right time. LaSalle returned five of their top 7 including #1, #3 and #4.

After North Allegheny’s recent success on the state level, the WPIAL was beginning to be seen as a much bigger threat in the team title landscape than they had been in the half decade prior. Milesplit’s preseason rankings put two District 7 teams in the top 10 overall. The top school? That honor belonged to North Hills who returned 4 runners with the potential to place in at least the top 50 of the state. Rising juniors Joe Kush and Juris Silenieks had each placed in the top 50 of the state as a freshman and had the talent to make noise after a somewhat disappointing sophomore campaign.

But when the season began, a completely new school was the first team to really make a dent in the rankings. The boys from Altoona in District 6 had placed 13^th at states in 2008. Their District, District 6, had had little to no impact on the state title scene, both individually and team wise for quite some time. Programs like State College and Altoona were historically great, but had been buried in the standings behind D1, D3 and D7. However, Altoona, with a core led by sophomore state medalist Wade Endress, pulled out victories at Big Valley and Slippery Rock (they won this invite 36 to 118) and put the rest of Pennsylvania on notice.

Meanwhile, the WPIAL was providing its own shake up in the rankings. Preseason favorites North Hills took 5-7-9 at RWB, but looked to be missing the firepower at 4-5 to be state title contenders and, therefore, had to settle for 6^th overall in their first invite. The other preseason ranked team, North Allegheny, looked stronger at RWB. Their top two returners, Ryan Gil and Eric Balaban, looked confident and capable with 3^rd and 13^th place finishes in their opener. The pack showed some potential as well with five runners in the top 30 overall. But NA finished just 2^nd in the team standings. The top team was Baldwin who, after graduating one of their biggest stars in TJ Hobart, proved they still had some talent on the roster. They scored 78 points and placed four runners under 16:30 to take the victory.

A week later LaSalle made their team debut at the Briarwood Invitational. Here, they defeated the defending state champions in North Penn by almost 100 points and finished second overall behind West Windsor of New Jersey (who got a 1-2 finish from Joe and Jim Rosa) by just 6 points. LaSalle’s top 3 runners finished 7^th, 9^th and 10^th overall. For the moment, Henderson stuck to some short relay invitationals, opening the door from some intense debate on whether they were still the favorites for the state title.

Compounding the discussion was a dream match-up scheduled for the Carlisle Invitational. Lasalle (PTXC #2), Altoona (PTXC #3), Cumberland Valley (#6), North Penn (#7), Hatboro Horsham and North Allegheny (T-#8) were all scheduled to compete at the September 26^th Invitational to sort out the #1 contender position. On race day, conditions were excellent and the pace was fast. North Penn’s Brad Miles ran 15:20 to defeat Rad Gunzenhauser of Mt Lebanon. It was a brilliantly fast performance and helped lead an unprecedented 8 runners under 16 minutes. Miles performance along with fellow front runner Sam Bernitt was enough to help propel North Penn to a solid 7^th place finish but they were almost 200 points out of the action out front.

LaSalle made a big statement victory scoring 89 points with a 16:20 average for their top 5 runners. They placed 3 in the top 15 scorers and their entire top 7 finished in the top 42 team scorers. Only North Allegheny got their 4^th runner in before LaSalle’s 7^th. The battle for second was much closer with 3 teams separated by just 29 points. Altoona (140) proved their early season invitational wins were no fluke as they defeated North Allegheny (151) and Cumberland Valley (169). Altoona had three runners in the top 16 scorers with Wade Endress, Chris Fischer and Mike Harf. Two of their top returners from 2008, Jordan Liberman and Tyler Lidwell, didn’t even compete that day. Altoona was definitely for real.

If Henderson was intimidated by the strong performances at Carlisle, they certainly didn’t show it in their next invite. They put together a strong 6^th place showing at the Manhattan Invitational and beat the LaSalle explorers by 62 points over the 4k distance. In fact, the next closest PIAA team behind Henderson was defending state champs Norht Penn, who finished 37 points ahead of LaSalle after losing by nearly 200 at Carlisle. The difference? Manhattan was a large race with a ton of talent at the front. LaSalle’s top runner finished just 38^th in team scoring so, despite the fact that they had a 16 second spread, they couldn’t overcome the 2-5 finish from North Penn’s Miles and Bernitt. So despite their dominant showing at Carlisle, PTXC dropped LaSalle all the way down to 9^th in the state rankings.

The ever changing state landscape continued to shuffle as the PA teams entered the championship season. Henderson won their league title with 31 points, but Unionville hung tough behind them with an impressive 46 points. Matt Fischer, the 4:20 miler who had been injured most of the summer, was showing signs that he was returning to form and junior Glenn Burkhardt was one of the state’s breakout stars. At Tri States, North Allegheny avenged their early season loss to Baldwin and eeked out a 66 to 78 victory. Ryan Gil won the individual title with a 15:38 and helped pull his teammates along nicely: they placed 4 in the top 16 overall. Baldwin, who had 4 in the top 20, had to settle for the silvers despite a terrific performance. In third place was North Hills. They also placed 4 in the top 20, but their #5 runner finished 118^th overall and pushed them back to 148 points in total.

Shortly thereafter, Altoona scored just 16 points at the District 6 Championships for nearly a perfect score. LaSalle scored 33 points at District 12 after scoring 31 at PCLs with just a 17 second spread. And District 3’s Conrad Weiser won a second straight district title with just 69 points and 3 in the top 10. After Henderson and NA won their districts (with North Penn and Baldwin each claiming second), all the favorites were through to states and everyone looked like they were peaking at the right time.

Henderson was probably the favorite coming in, but arguments were made for LaSalle to pull off the upset. Personally, LaSalle was my pick coming into Hershey (they were ranked #6 in the PTXC rankings prior to states, #5 out of PIAA teams). I thought their pack would be enough to get the job done and usurp Henderson in a tight race. But they would need a strong day from returning state medalist Tommy O’Kane. He was 25^th in the state in 2008, but injuries had led to an up and down stretch run to his season to date. The sleeper team? Might have been North Hills. They had placed 4 in the top 20 at WPIALs including #3, 4 and 5. If their 5^th could have a decent day in a smaller race (big if I suppose), they would be right in the mix.

The race tipped off on November 7^th and the first mile was about as wild as you would have expected. No team was under 100 points at the mile. The leaders were Altoona with 122 points, but they held just a 23-point advantage and all the big name schools were right with them. 7 teams sat under 190 points including the defending state champs in North Penn. Baldwin, LaSalle, Henderson and North Allegheny were teams 2-5. LaSalle had the best pack, while North Allegheny had just one runner in the top 38 scorers.

At the two mile mark, the picture was, in some ways, clearer. North Penn and Conrad Weiser had fallen out of contention after ambitious first miles. Now just 5 teams resides under 200 points. But it was incredibly tight. LaSalle had the lead with 131 points, but Altoona was just 3 points back, NA was 8 points back and Henderson was 9 back. Baldwin was in 5^th and still had a shot to close the gap, sitting with 158 points. Unionville had climbed from 12^th to 6^th and was closing down, but they were likely to run out of real estate.

LaSalle had just one runner in the top 30 overall, but their scoring 5 was separated by just 14 seconds. Altoona could boast two runners in the top 11 overall and had three in the top 24 of team scoring. All they needed was a close from their 5^th spot. They had sophomores at #4 and #5 including the extremely talented Korey Replogle. If either of the sophomores stepped up, they could erase the 3-point disadvantage.

For North Allegheny, Henderson and Baldwin, although the deficit was small, the path to victory was not easy. They would have to jump at least two teams and make big moves at the 3, 4 and 5 spots to get back in contention. Henderson had just two runners in the top 60 overall and NA had just one in the top 45.

Over the final mile, each team battled tooth and nail for every point. As the runners filtered through the shoot, fans frantically tried to count places. LaSalle’s pack stayed tight all the way through to the finish as they kept just a 15 second spread. No one else in the top 10 teams was under 53 seconds. It seemed for a moment that may have been enough. But it wasn’t. When the points were tallied, it was revealed that LaSalle finished 3^rd overall in the team standings and was just off the podium. They had 137 points and were jumped by two teams who had 128 and 119.

Altoona, who had been in the mix for the title throughout, was not one of those teams. They crossed with 141 total points. Although their talented sophomores Reade and Replogle made some moves through the field on the final mile, Senior Mike Harf struggled back to the #6 spot. Wade Endress also slipped a couple points back after being in the top 10 for much of the race.

The big movers were Henderson and North Allegheny. Senior Luke Badaczewski of the Tigers had been running in the #2 spot for much of the race. He wasn’t typically in this spot, but he ran a gutsy race to try and help his team reach the podium. Luke faded just a bit on the last mile, but he pulled plenty of teammates with him. Eric Balaban, a varsity member of the team’s national qualifying squad from a year earlier, moved from 54^th to 38^th in the final mile and dragged Jay Cadwallader to 44^th and Mike Smolinski to 33^rd. With a low stick out front in Gil who scored just 2 team points, 20 less than LaSalle’s #1, NA was able to stun their way to the silver. It was their best finish of the past 3 seasons for perhaps their least critically acclaimed team.

That meant Henderson ended up with the title. They went from 140 to 119 over the final mile and jumped 3 excellent teams to get the gold. It was a truly incredibly race. Senior and #2 runner Achraf Khattabi actually faded ever so slightly over the final mile, but Henderson’s #3, 4 and 5 had one of the best finishes of any team in the history of the state championship. Stash Grab, Austin Stecklair and Bryan Andrews were all right next to each other at two miles, sitting at 63^rd, 64^th, and 65^th. With the pressure on, Andrews moved to 43^rd overall, Grab to 46^th and Stecklair to 59^th which was just enough to defeat their rivals.

And get this. Andrews finished less than a second ahead of Cadwallader for NA. Grab finished 5 seconds ahead of Smolinski and Stecklair finished just one second ahead of Badaczewski. Those were critical passes against an important jersey.

Baldwin and Unionville finished 5^th and 6^th, both scoring under 200 points. With 6 teams under 200 and such a tight finish throughout the race, the 2009 state championship was one of the deepest in state history. And the results are quite shocking. LaSalle, who had their entire top 5 in the top 54 overall finishers is perhaps the only team in recent history to place 5 in the top 54 and finish completely off the podium. The fact that the field was so deep likely hurt them most of all. In 2009, Brendan Stone finished 54^th overall and was the 34^th team scorer. In 2010, Matt Groff was 58^th overall and was the 30^th team scorer. It doesn’t sound like much, but it adds up quickly, especially in a tight race. If you compare 2009 to 2010, LaSalle’s performance was worth about 115 points in 2010 just from the difference in team scoring vs. overall scoring. Plus, they didn’t have a front runner. North Hills finished with 3 in front of their #1 meaning they would have lost to NH in a typical dual meet format even though NH finished well back of them in the team standings (NH finished 8^th with 263 points, 149 of which came from their #5 and 81 came from their #4).

Ironically the 2009 LaSalle and North Hills squads are two of the most fascinating teams of the past decade. To me at least. When you look at the results of the race at a glance, it’s crazy to me that the school’s finished in the order they did. Until I add up the numbers and see for myself. It’s pretty incredible.

Of course, perhaps the craziest thing about the 2009 State Championship is that the best team was not there. In 2009, Germantown Friends was PA’s best school. However, they were not in the PIAA and did not participate in the state championships at Hershey. They did however, defeat essentially all of PA’s best squads at the NXNE Regional championships and finish 2^nd overall in the region, qualifying for the National Championships. GFS also defeated Henderson (by 5 points), LaSalle and North Penn at the Manhattan Invitational and controlled the #1 spot in the PTXC rankings for most of the 2009 season.

Although they dominated the independent league (five in the top 9 overall), we didn’t get to see them at their peak vs. most other squad’s peak (Henderson was the top PIAA school in 8^th, followed by Altoona in 10^th, LaSalle in 11^th and Baldwin in 14^th). We got robbed I’m afraid. And so we will remember Henderson as the 2009 state champions instead of GFS. If only we had a meet of champs of some kind …

Small final ammendum here. The fall of 2009 was my senior season in high school so I knew a lot of these guys pretty well. I ran with many of the LaSalle guys in my St. Alphonsus days (well sort of, they were all way faster than me) so I probably had a soft spot for that squad. I ended up playing volleyball with some of the LaSalle guys and some of the North Penn guys over the summer. Miles was just as good at volleyball as running.

The 2009 state meet is one of just three XC state meets I’ve attended and we left before the final team standings were calculated. I actually left the meet assuming LaSalle had won.

2016 Etrain Team Power Rankings: #18 Boise State Broncos

18. Boise State Broncos

Flotrack’s #18: Oklahoma Sooners
Flotrack's Ranking of Boise State: 19th
Coach: Corey Ihmels

Notable Departures: Elijah Armstrong (mission trip)

Notable Additions: Albert Meier (transfer via Butler Community College)

Projected Scoring Five: Michael Vennard (JR) [ET#32], Andrew Rafla (SO) [ET#40], Yusuke Uchikoshi (JR), Louis McAfee (JR), Chandler Austin (SO)

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What an exciting year it should be for the men in blue. Boise State showed what they could do last year with a slew of young guys and no Andrew Rafla. To finish 16th in the nation when most people thought they wouldn't even make nationals is a pretty outstanding accomplishment.

As mentioned above, Boise State started last fall one step behind everyone else when their number one man (Andrew Rafla) sustained an injury and would be kept out for the rest of the season. That, of course, did not matter thanks to Michael Vennard.

Things started off slow and unexciting at Roy Griak when the Broncos placed 6th overall despite Vennard's 3rd place finish. Things got a little better at Wisconsin when Boise State placed 11th among an elite group of teams and showed that they didn't need Rafla to run with some of the top programs. Boise State stayed consistent throughout the post-season as they were 3rd in the Mountain West conference (three points behind CSU, seven points behind Air Force) and an excellent 5th place at West regionals. By that point, Boise State had wracked up enough points in the Kolas Calculator to get a bid to nationals where they would eventually finish 16th overall.

It was an exciting to think of just how good the Boise State Broncos would be in 2016 with all of their young stars returning...well, almost all of them. Unfortunately, the biggest reason why Boise State isn't better in the rankings is because their top finisher at NCAA's (Elijah Armstrong) will be going on a mission trip this year. That's a huge hit for a team that could've potentially had another low-stick to compliment Vennard and Rafla.

But when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade and that is exactly what Boise State has done in the past. According to Flotrack, the Broncos will bring in Japanese star Yusuke Uchikoshi who signed with Boise State last winter. After bouncing around a few places, Uchikoshi will have junior eligibility and a 13:59 PR from high school to work with. How good he ends up being on the grass is hard to tell, but his talent is for real with a PR like that.

There is little to no doubt that Vennard and Rafla will cause havoc with other low-sticks around the nation, but what about the other scorers? The last two scorers could certainly change as Boise State has a nice cushion of depth thanks to their young talent coming off of their redshirt seasons. However, I would guess that Louis McAfee and sophomore Chandler Austin will return to Boise State as consistent scorers once more. McAfee is maybe the most underrated of this bunch as he was top 40 at Wisconsin and top 30 at the West region last fall. Austin and McAfee will provide reliable and consistent support for their aces battling up-front.

So why only 18th for Broncos? Right now, I don't know what Uchikoshi is capable of doing during cross country and he is probably the biggest decider of whether or not this team ends up as a contender or a bust. I also don't love that they lost Elijah Armstrong for the season. It's a big sting even with Rafla returning.

That said, Rafla's return does give Boise State plenty of upside. They've got a lethal 1-2 punch, an x-factor in Uchikoshi, experienced and proven runners at the four and five positions, and plenty of young depth for insurance.

But the best part? Their entire top five, as well as Elijah Armstrong, will return next year.

Team Titles Revisited: 2010

2010 State Championships

By Jarrett Felix

Heading into the fall of 2010, the buzz was that this would finally be North Allegheny’s year. The previous three seasons they had finished 3^rd, 3^rd and 2^nd. In 2007, Penntrack crowned them as the up and coming contender from the west in their preseason preview. In 2008, they were surprise qualifiers for the NXN championships in Portland and finished 12^th out west in a truly impressive display of pack running. That was perhaps their best team of the decade, but states had proven to be their Achilles heel. However, 2009 had marked a turning point. The NA tigers, who had lost 3 important members of their scoring five, surprised at states, placing 2^nd overall and finishing just 9 points behind of WC Henderson.

But the Tigers were returning just three members of their varsity seven and just one member of their top five. That #1 was Footlocker Finalist Ryan Gil (so they were off to a good start), but other than reputation there wasn’t much to get them moved up the rankings. So why was there buzz? Because North Allegheny had added Meadville’s state medalist, rising junior Logan Steiner, to the roster thanks to the family’s move over the summer. With two returning medalists and a hungry group of JV runners (with a good coach to utilizing their talents), NA had weapons to make a run at gold again.

The other thing that NA had going for it was that the team’s closest to them in 2009 weren’t returning anything particularly jaw dropping. Although that didn’t stop people from talking about teams like Henderson (returned 4 of 7, 2 of their top 5), LaSalle (3 of 7, 2 of 5), Altoona (4 of 7, 3 of 5), and Baldwin (4 of 7, 3 of 5). In fact, Altoona, led by super star Wade Endress, earned the #1 spot in Penntrack’s preseason rankings. And when they opened up the season with a win at PTXC’s own Invite, that only supported the claim.

North Allegheny opened up their season, as they usually do, at the very fast Red, White and Blue Invitational. Any doubts of their depth were quickly put to rest as NA placed all 7 of their runners under 16:30 and in the top 25 overall. In combined results. That’s top 25 out of 505 runners. Ironically, the team’s weakness at this meet was arguably their front running. Ryan Gil finished a surprising 4^th overall and looked, unbelievably, human. It was the debut of the North Hills monster (Zach Hebda, Joe Kush and Juris Silenieks) and foreshadowing for the dominant individual forces that season.

After RWB, NA continued to impress, but PTXC help strong on their #1 ranked team, Altoona and kept the Tigers in the #2 spot. The team’s would have a chance to settle things on the course when they met at the prestigious Carlisle Invitational on September 25^th. It would also be a chance to see a Gil once again battle top competition in Wade Endress.

On race day, Endress got the best of Gil, who finished 4^th in the meet once again. But Gil would have the last laugh as his Tiger squad earned a convincing victory. NA won the title by 47 points 114 to 161, thanks in part to a 44 point advantage at the #5 spot. Altoona’s top 4 all placed in the 30 in team scoring but their #5 was just 84^th. It was a confidence building statement win for the Tigers, but they had left this meet victoriously in the past and left Hershey without hardware. And little did they know that a short bus ride away, a new contender was emerging to challenge them.

The PCL joined the PIAA prior to the 2008 season and stole state medals from the Tigers behind a stunning silver medal performance form LaSalle. LaSalle had been a force on the PIAA scene since arriving, including a 3^rd place finish in 2009 and had developed a nice reputation as an XC powerhouse. The second best team in the PCL, at least based on their recent performances, had been St. Joe’s Prep. Prep had excelled as a top 10 team in the PIAA and produced a two time state medalist in Chris O’Sullivan. Few schools from outside the Catholic League even knew about Cardinal O’Hara.

In 2009, O’Hara placed 18^th at states after qualifying as a team by grabbing all 5 individual spots in District 12. In 2010, they returned a modest roster, but were well off my radar. I was stunned to see OH get a #7 Pre-Season ranking in the PTXC poll and then watched them climb to #5 before their first invitational. However, they immediately backed it up, finishing as the top PA team at the Briarwood Invitational and then heading to the PIAA Foundation meet on September 25^th. While 95% of the state was focused on the talent explosion at Carlisle (14 of the top 26 at AAA states ended up racing at this meet, as did the AA state champ), O’Hara traveled to the state course and absolutely dominated the competition, putting the rest of the state on notice. O’Hara scored just 39 points and defeated second place Dallas by 104! Chris Garrity led the way for O’Hara as the team’s only senior in the top 5, placing 4^th overall. For added fun, O’Hara had the individual champ in the JV race.

And things were about to get worse for North Allegheny. Their star runner and low stick, Ryan Gil, missed the Pittsburgh Central Catholic Invitational and then the Tri-State Championship meets. It was revealed that he was nursing a broken toe and his status for the rest of the season was questionable. At the Tri-State meet, even without Gil, North Allegheny was just barely able to hold off Altoona (96 to 97) but Altoona had made impressive strides at the #5 spot and were seeing big improvements from Junior Korey Replogle. However, Altoona was no longer the team to worry about.

Baldwin pulled off the upset, defeated North Allegheny 64 to 96. The 5^th place finishers from 2009, Baldwin put 4 runners in the top 13 and five in the top 23 thanks to freshman George Kelly. NA placed just three in the top 20. One of their key contributors, senior Joe Pane, also slipped from his impressive early season form and finished as the team’s #7 man. It seemed like the window for a North Allegheny title was closing quickly.

And to make matters worse, the defending champions, racing their league championships the same day, threw down the gauntlet at Ches-monts. Henderson, who hadn’t raced a major invitational on PA soil all season, scored just 25 points at the meet and defeated Great Valley, a top program in the district, by roughly 50 points. Their returners from the state championship squad, Austin Stecklair and Bryan Andrews, took 1-3 outdueling the highly touted duo of Devlin and Barnhill from DT West. Besides the West duo and Connor McLaughlin from Coatesville, Henderson accounted for the rest of the top 10.

At Districts, they doubled down on that performance. The reigning gold medalists won the District 1 title by 159 points. They won by over double the amount of points they actually scored (73). And District 1 was, of course, no slouch of a district. What was perhaps most impressive was the performance of freshman Reiny Barchet who finished 13^th in team scoring at the championships. It was one of the best freshman performances in the history of the district.

North Allegheny tried their best to counter at Coopers Lake. Gil returned to the lineup and, even banged up, was able to pull out yet another 4^th place finish. And boy would the Tigers need that. NA defeated Baldwin by just 6 points in the rematch, setting up a rubber match in Hershey. NA’s #2 Logan Steiner stepped up big time to grab 5^th overall and Tim Appman and Mike Meehan also added important top 20 finishes. The Tigers also showcased a bit more depth than their opponents from Baldwin who, although they matched up well through 5, did have a bit of a drop off from 5 to 6 (almost a minute). That could potentially play a factor at Hershey, especially since their #5 was a freshman.

Interesting side note: The North Hills Monster took 1-2-3 at the WPIAL Championships (after finishing 1-2-3 at Tri-States) and still finished just 12^th in the team standings. If their #4 and #5 runners had placed just 96^th and 97^th (about 17:49 on a fast day at Coopers) they would have qualified for states. Based on their runs at states, they would have needed two guys in the mid 17:20s at Hershey to win the state title, two guys in the high 17:30s to get second, and two guys under 18 to place top 5. Pretty wild.

Meanwhile, everyone again counted out the boys from O’Hara. They were pegged as maybe a top 5 team by more than one observer. But they entered the meet with confidence in themselves and dreams of upsetting one of the schools who had inhabited the top 5 a year ago and breaking up the party.

On November 6^th, the teams toed the line at Hershey to decide would be state champion. It was unclear how healthy the Tiger’s lead runner, Ryan Gil, would be. I had finished 4^th in all of his races so far after dominating the WPIAL landscape as a junior. Against the best runners in the state, I speculated he would struggle just to crack the top 10. And through the first mile, that was where he was, sitting in 17^th overall. His Tiger teammates were even farther back, as only Gil hit the first mile under 5 minutes. That meant North Allegheny was in 2^nd place overall. Henderson had the lead, with a roughly 60 point advantage over NA. Then Altoona and WPIAL rivals Mount Lebanon were in 2^nd and 3^rd. North Penn sat in 5^th and, surprisingly, Baldwin sat back in 6^th. They too had gotten out slow and their inexperienced freshman was back in 97^th for team scoring. Then, even farther back behind them, was Cardinal O’Hara who sat in just 10^th place overall with 252 points.

But on the Hershey course, ambition can sometimes be the enemy. The early efforts of the young North Penn team proved costly and they slipped back to 12^th overall by mile 2 (maybe next year). Mount Lebanon had slipped slightly, but were holding on admirably in 4^th. But North Allegheny knew what to do. They surged well over the second mile, thanks in large part to a big move from #2 runner Logan Steiner. He found his way up to 19^th overall after a 5:02 first mile. His second mile, over the aloha hills, was a 5:10. And Gil was hanging around up front. He was in 7^th but within striking distance of the lead. But Henderson still held the advantage. They had 131 points and their #4 runner was 7 seconds and 10 points ahead of NA’s #3. But the NA team was charging.

A year earlier at two miles, NA was ahead of Henderson by one point, but the Warriors ran them down. This year, the roles were to be reversed. The Tigers erased a 14 point deficit on the final mile thanks to a huge final mile from Junior Tim Appman and a clutch #5 run from sophomore Mike Meehan. And oh yeah, Ryan Gil won! Despite the fact that he had barely trained and been hampered in every major invite of the season, Gil pulled out the state title in thrilling fashion, stealing the race from 3 eventual national qualifiers and running 15:52.

Henderson held on quite well, but lost just enough ground at the #5 position to swing the title. They still ended up on the podium for a second straight season.

O’Hara closed like mad over the final mile and finished in 3^rd overall, just 14 points away from 2^nd. Chris Garrity earned an impressive 22^nd place state medal and the senior would set the tone for a generation of top 3 teams to follow. Baldwin finished in 4^th, making a nice final mile surge as well, including a strong finish from George Kelly and Altoona ended up 5^th. The teams scored 201 and 207 points respectively.

But here is perhaps the story of the meet and one that many people may not remember. Tunkhannock, a small relatively unknown school from District Two, scored 208 points and finished 6^th overall and just 7 points out of 4^th (and one point out of 5^th). District 2 rarely makes a dent in the AAA state meet and Tunkhannock barely defeated Dallas as their district meet (just 13 points up). They also finished 9^th at Carlisle (151 points back of Altoona) and finished 13^th at Paul Short, but at states they stepped up big time. Reece Ayers led the way with a top 10 finish and then Jake Seigel added a top 50 performance. David Novak’s 75^th overall finish as the team’s #3 was enough to get the team far enough up the field and escape the mad dash behind them (they beat Lebo by 4, Horsham by 9 and CRN by 20).

And so, after years of struggle, the North Allegheny Tigers pulled off the win in perhaps their most unlikely season to date. They had just two top 50 finishers in the race, the only time in the past decade a team has won without placing three in the top 50 (for AAA). For the first time in a long time the state team and individual titles belonged to the WPIAL.

The Roundhouse Episode XV

2016 Etrain Team Power Rankings: #19 Michigan State Spartans