The Big Question ... Answered?

After fighting all the way to the finish line, O’Hara’s bid for a state championship season had once again ended in heartbreak. They and Henderson shook hands, congratulated one another and raised their respective trophies. Then, it was back to training.

There was a long three-week stretch ahead of both teams. The Nike Northeast Regional was not until the end of November and both teams were going to need to regroup mentally and physically if they were going to grab a qualifying spot to Nationals in Oregon. O’Hara was pelted with talk of being “chokers” who could not rise to the occasion. Henderson, on the other hand, had accomplished their ultimate goal and were being praised for it. Each of these factors can be dangerous in their own ways. But often times the good runners will turn anything into motivation.

As these two teams revamped their training through November, another state champion was figuring out how to best peak for Wappinger Falls. Rob Hewitt, coach of Independent League Champs Germantown Friends, spoke with Coach Kelly at Henderson about the need to keep their athletes competitively sharp in the long lay-off between the state meet and the regional. Ultimately, they decided on a 3200 time trial at Henderson high school at roughly the half way point between the two big races. To make things even more interesting, Kelly called up O’Hara coach Tom Kennedy to see if his guys would want to participate.

Kennedy spoke to his team and apparently there were some reservations about quickly turning around and matching up with Henderson again. The wounds from states were still raw. However, O’Hara saw this as a great opportunity to get in a quality race against great competition. So on November 14, a seemingly random Wednesday night, O’Hara and Henderson began their next battle.

It’s not a controversial opinion to say that Track and Cross Country are very different animals, but fans of the Henderson v. O’Hara rivalry were eager for whatever the next chapter was in this story. No one was ready for the tale to end in Hershey. On race day, Tony Russell and Reiny Barchet went to the front along with Germantown Friend’s stand outs Sami Aziz and Lyle Wistar. They settled in behind Henderson’s pace maker and charged out for a fast time.

Side note: Penntrack put together a really nice race video for this meet (you can access it without an account). Its fun to watch, especially if you like Smashing Pumpkins.

In the second half of the race, Tony Russell took over. Oozing with confidence after his impressive final mile at the state championships, Russell continued to push the pace and dropped everyone but Aziz. Barchet was next in the Henderson-O’Hara standings and then the O’Hara pack was rolling in. O’Hara’s top three had been visible at the front of many races, but this time they were a pack of four. Jim Belfatto, excited about the opportunity to get back on the track, was tucked in with Savage and James and looking very smooth.

On the final lap, Russell and Aziz battled hard, but ultimately it was Sami Aziz who sprinted home as the meet champion. The Independent League gold medalist had heard the hype about Russell, but was up for the challenge, blasting a shiny new PR of 9:14.7. Although Russell didn’t take gold, his silver came with a giant breakthrough at the 3200 distance. He clocked 9:16.3.

There was a sprint battle to the finish behind them. Reiny Barchet was able to hold on for third place, but just a half second behind him was O’Hara’s #1 runner. It wasn’t Savage or James or Pitone. It was their 4^th different #1 runner that season: Jim Belfatto. Belfatto stopped the clock at 9:22.1 which was not only a massive PR but, improbably, a school record for the 3200. Savage, James and Pitone all came through close behind and ahead of Henderson’s 3-4 Eric Stratman and Seamus Collins (who can be seen high-fiving as they cross the finish line). Chris Pastore finished in 11^th overall, wrapping up the sub 9:40 performers.

In dual meet scoring, the final standings were Henderson 28, O’Hara 27. If you counted the GFS guys in the results, the final standings were Henderson 36, O’Hara 36. Another tie! Only this time, O’Hara would have taken it on the 6^th man tie breaker as Matt Hayes bested Ricky Waltz to the finish line. Once again, these teams were as close as close gets.

Despite their pre-race reservations, the O’Hara boys left the meet feeling great about the decision to compete. They had a little bit of their swagger back. Henderson still had plenty of reason to be confident as well. Their results were peppered with PRs and they had a monster front runner in Tony Russell. In a large, highly competitive meet like NXR that could be a deciding factor. However, conspicuously absent from the 3200 duel was one of the heroes from Hershey – junior Sam Haugh. Haugh had apparently badly injured his hand and he would be unavailable for the Nike meet. That left a hole in their top 5 that somebody would need to fill.

The guys descended on Wappinger Falls Saturday November 24. Based on the national rankings, the Northeast Region had a good chance at sending 3 teams to Nationals. However, only two teams were guaranteed a spot. And Christian Brothers Academy was a close to a guarantee for one of those spots as you get in Cross Country. Both Henderson and O’Hara had seen CBA up close and the NJ power had stormed ahead of each by some 200 points. The more interesting New Jersey school for the PA hopefuls was Don Bosco who could be a real party crasher if things unfolded right.

 If Henderson or O’Hara was afraid of CBA, they certainly didn’t show it at the start of the race. CBA’s top 3 runners had been dominant compared to the PA teams in their first two match-ups, but through the halfway split of the regional race, you would never have been able to tell. Based on 2.5K splits, all three teams top 3 runners were nearly dead even. Meanwhile, O’Hara and Henderson’s 4-5 runners were both starting more aggressive. The boys from Henderson particularly so as they stormed out to the overall lead in the team standings, followed closely by O’Hara. PA was taking it to the New Jersey super power.

In the second half of the race, CBA began to counter punch. Tom Rooney and Josh Kruppa were beginning to move back up the field to join their lead three, all of whom were holding ground or advancing. Meanwhile, O’Hara and Henderson both had pieces that were slipping slightly. Kevin James for O’Hara and Bobby Rimkis for Henderson were both feeling fatigued. It became clear that CBA would have enough to win the race, but who would take that coveted second spot?

At the front of the field, Henderson needed every point they could get from Tony Russell. And with yet another signature final mile, Russell delivered just that. Tony became the regional champion and, regardless of how his teammates finished behind him, locked up a spot at the National Championships. But the x-factor for Henderson was Reiny Barchet. Although two O’Hara runners had bested Barchet at states, he came to Regional with a lot more pop. The junior sprinted furiously over the final stretch and outkicked a pack of runners, including CBA’s top dog Jack Boyle, to bring home 2^nd place overall. A 1-2 finish for Henderson in the Northeast Regional!

O’Hara never stopped battling behind them. Kevin James was joined by his teammates Dan Savage and Ernie Pitone and together they worked together to get to the finish line. James hung right on Savage’s shoulder through the chute as the boys took 11^th and 12^th in the team standings. Pitone was not far behind in 14^th. Only O’Hara and CBA had three in the clubhouse that quickly. Still, there was plenty of ground O’Hara still needed to make up on Henderson.

But there was a wait for the Henderson pack. Rimkis was fading and someone needed to step up and take over as the team’s #3 runner if they were going to catch O’Hara. The hero of the day was none other than sophomore Alex Knapp. Knapp, who had been a non-factor at the 3200 race, came powering home over the final half of the race and picked up critical ground to finish 24^th in the team standings, sneaking ahead of O’Hara’s #4 runner and keeping his team in the hunt. Knapp was the team’s 7^th man at states, the only one who didn’t factor into the team scoring. But without Knapp, Henderson may have been sitting home during nationals weekend.

With Knapp stepping up, O’Hara needed their own hero to counter. For them it was Jim Belfatto. Fresh off his school record in the 3200, Belfatto stepped up and kicked right beside his teammate Chris Pastore. Both O’Hara boys managed to finish ahead of Henderson’s Bobby Rimkis. Pastore finished as the quickest #5 runner in the entire meet, even ahead of CBA’s Josh Kruppa. The question was, would that be enough to overcome Henderson’s impressive 1-2 finish?

Eric Stratman stepped up for Henderson, once again speaking to their depth, as the #6 man from states became the #5 at regionals ahead of Seamus Collins. Stratman’s 39^th place finish was not quite enough to catch O’Hara in the final standings, but it did keep things incredibly close. The final score was O’Hara 90 and Henderson 95 in 2^nd and 3^rd positions. The fact that the margin was once again so razor thin seemed to all but guarantee that two teams from Pennsylvania would be heading to Nationals. And, oh by the way, both PA teams finished much closer to the super power CBA. Their winning total was only 73 points.

After a nail-biting wait, it was revealed that Henderson would indeed be at the Nike National Championships in Oregon. With Henderson being bumped into the meet, that extended the individual qualifying list a bit further down, meaning PA’s Sami Aziz, the winner of the 3200 race between both times, would also be heading to nationals. PA was sending 15 boys to Nike Nationals and 4 to Footlocker for a total of 19 national qualifiers.

Now Nike Nationals had always been a little gimmicky. The course featured hay bales and short, man-made hills plus, most notably, some man-made mud. But in 2012, the course was at a new level of crazy. The natural Oregon weather combined with the artificial course conditions made the Nationals course an absolute slop show.

They say that a muddy race can be a great equalizer. Conditions make it harder to have all of your guys have their best day. But in my opinion, the conditions made it so that fast starting teams could benefit. In the mud, it was going to take a lot of work to move up late in the race. So if you could get out hard and find a way to hold your ground, you could have a big day.

As we had just seen at the Northeast Regional, our PA teams knew how to get out hard. The boys got out so hard in fact that through the opening 2k, Reiny Barchet was mixing it up for the lead at the National Championship. The Henderson junior had been second at the Northeast Regional and was hoping to carry that momentum with him in this race. Fearlessly, he went to the front and hung on as best he could with the lead group. In the end, Barchet finished in 21^st overall for the top spot in PA, edging out 4:01 miler Bernie Montoya and finishing 10^th in the team standings.

Surprisingly, his teammate Tony Russell was not with him. In his prior few races, Russell had run within himself at the start, using a powerful final mile to crush the field after their legs were already weak. His state championship close was a textbook example of this. However, the muddy and crowded conditions made it tough for Russell to use his well-honed strategy. The slop took many victims on this day and, unfortunately for Henderson, Tony Russell was one of them. Henderson finished a solid 15^th in the final standings.

That meant it was up to O’Hara to score a top 10 finish for Pennsylvania. Right from the start, O’Hara stuck their nose in the race. At the first split, they were in 5^th place. Now O’Hara had been out this hard before and struggled to finish the job. At states, they were leading over Henderson through 2/3 of the race, but ultimately were edged out. This time had to be different.

Every time they read off the team splits, O’Hara was holding tight to that 5^th position. At the finish, Dan Savage crossed first for the squad, named “Philadelphia”, with Ernie Pitone just behind him. Their final times were 18 flat and 18:02. Those times would have been scary to see before the race, but after actually traversing the course the times would prove to be quite impressive. O’Hara put their entire top 5 under 19 minutes, helped by yet another big day from Jim Belfatto (who had some nice face time in the NXN video) and that proved to be enough for O’Hara to hold their 5^th place finish at the National Championships. They finished just one spot behind CBA.

O’Hara’s 5^th place finish would prove to be the best national finish of any team in the decade. Savage and Ptione were 36^th and 39^th in the national file, two of PA’s better overall finishes in this meet. The disappointment of the state championship had not wilted this team. Instead it had provided the motivation they needed to finish the season on an incredibly strong note.

As these runners packed up their XC spikes (or probably through them out after that race), they could both be satisfied with what they had accomplished. O’Hara’s seniors had left the team with a lasting legacy and a piece of the history books. Their returners, James and Belfatto, would have incredible wisdom and experience to bring to the next generation. Meanwhile, Henderson was the state champions, returning 6 guys who were ready to try and win gold again. Bobby Rimkis could graduate knowing that, without him, his Henderson teammates would still be chasing that elusive gold. And his individual medal was an added bonus.

Yes, both sides could hold their high. The question O’Hara vs. Henderson did not seem important to them anymore. Each runner had used their opponents as motivation, as a reason to push that extra day in training, and as a way to get the most of themselves. From that perspective, it was really more O’Hara and Henderson.

Of course, the anonymous blog commenters could never be satisfied with such a cop-out of a concept. And, because of the final results of the season, some fans never let the debate rest. The lingering question as the 2012 calendar ended: what would you rather be 5^th at nationals or 1^st in the state?

From the perspective of a middling runner like myself, I gotta say I think they both sound pretty great.