The Big Question

After every state championship ends, people will almost immediately start to ask “who’s next?” Typically, it’s an open discussion. Fans have teams they are passionate about, but the speculation is far from definitive. In the summer of 2012, there was no such thing as speculation. There was no open discussion. There was only Henderson vs. O’Hara.

By the end of the 2011 Cross Country season, O’Hara had established itself as a state power. They had been third at Hershey in 2010, only a few points behind Henderson, and then had missed out on state gold in 2011 by less than a second. Entering the 2012 season, they were bringing back four of their top five runners while also adding a state-qualifying transfer in Garnet Valley’s Nick Smart. 

After losing states on a sixth man tie-breaker, the concern for O’Hara would undoubtedly be depth. They had placed 4 runners in the top 50 at Hershey, but due to sickness and injury, they didn’t have the 5^th man they needed to close the deal. Smart would be looked at as a key rotation player, but breakout track star Jim Belfatto also was in the mix. He was O’Hara’s top JV runner at the PCL Championships and ran PRs of 1:57 and 4:30 in the spring.

While it’s hard to top O’Hara’s 2011 heartbreak, the van ride home for Henderson couldn’t have felt much better. After dominating the District 1 championships over North Penn, the talented squad finished a distant 5^th at the state championships. Sophomores Tony Russell and Sam Haugh had beaten all the runners from North Penn at Lehigh, but on the Hershey hills their front-running didn’t measure up.

But Henderson was returning their top 4 from the district championship, a meet where they were led by 3 sophomores. Plus, they were adding back Reiny Barchet who, while a freshman on Henderson’s 2010 team, was the best 9^th grader in the district. During the 2012 track season, he showed that he still hadn’t lost a step – running 9:28 for 3200 and placing as the top sophomore at District 1. Plus Henderson had their own track x-factor in AJ Chaborek. The rising senior had run 1:54 for 800 and 9:40 for 3200, speaking to his incredible range and his potential to shine in XC. There was a long list of potential stars on the Henderson roster. The question surrounding the Warriors was whether their core was experienced enough to run clutch on the big stage.

What many Henderson supporters pointed to was the sophomore to junior jump. It’s been a popular concept surrounding the high school running conversation throughout the decade and essentially hypothesizes that, generally speaking, a runners biggest improvement comes from their sophomore to junior season. It makes sense in a lot of ways. If you think about it physically from a maturity standpoint, physiologically from a training perspective, mentally from an experience perspective. And the numbers bear it out as well. If you compare the number of sophomore state medalists to junior/senior state medalists the difference is astronomical.

The merits of the sophomore to junior jump were on display from the jump. Tony Russell, the top sophomore in District 1 in 2011, charged out the gates looking the fittest he’d ever been. In the opening meet of the season, Russell ran 15:41 on the hilly Belmont Plateau to essentially tie for first at the Briarwood Invtitational against pre-season #2 and defending AA state champion Brendan Shearn. With O’Hara’s Dan Savage already having posted a top 5 finish in the state, the emergence of Russell was a real game changer in the Henderson-O’Hara debate.

Also a real game changer: the two teams actually raced each other. In 2010 and 2011, Henderson had played their cards very close to the vest and didn’t race a Pennsylvania Invitational for essentially the entire season. But in 2012, Henderson went to the Briarwood Invite to take on the reigning PCL Champions from O’Hara in their opponents backyard.

Running on the familiar course layout, O’Hara overcame the strong front running of Tony Russell by taking 4^th, 5^th and 6^th in the overall standings. In an interesting twist, sophomore Kevin James was O’Hara’s #1 runner and Ernie Pitone actually game in as their #2. Then their prior year #1 Dan Savage. The three finished with 4 seconds of one another and the times were all very fast (under 16:08).

The statement from the top 3 was enough to lock up victory, but O’Hara’s 4-5-6 also came to play. Chris Pastore was 12^th in 16:22, Jim Belatto was 14^th in 16:35 and Matt Hayes was 16^th in 16:38. Only Reiny Barchet (10^th) broke up the O’Hara pack. In the end, the final score for the meet was 36 to 92 as O’Hara ran away from Henderson for the statement victory.

Although this had to be confidence building for O’Hara, Henderson didn’t let it get to them. The score would have been closer if their #3 man Bobby Rimkis (who was DQed in a battle to the line with Pastore), had finished the race. The team was also missing junior Sam Haugh who had been the team’s #2 runner in Barchet’s absence the prior year. Haugh was out with an injury, but there was hope he’d be back for the post season. All the same, the much talked about depth for Henderson was not on full display as O’Hara proved to be the deeper team in mid-September.

Both teams went separate ways to close out the month of September, each toeing the line in one of the most prestigious mid-season check points. O’Hara’s encore came first as they traveled to the Hershey course for the Foundation Invite. The boys rolled again, scoring just 40 points against the 41 team field and posted a 30 second spread. Kevin James was once again the top dog for O’Hara, placing 3^rd overall with Savage one spot behind in 4^th. The squad posted 6 to 15 finishers, again showing that they had the depth to survive a bad day unlike the prior year.

Meanwhile, Henderson traveled to Carlisle where all eyes would be on rising phenome Tony Russell as he took on the state’s top sophomore from 2011, Brent Kennedy out of Kiski in D7. But the race didn’t pan out as expected. Russell not only finished well off the front in 9^th, but his fellow junior Reiny Barchet actually crossed the line first for the Warriors. Barchet took 3^rd overall in 15:50, a breakthrough that helped Henderson hold off NJ Power Don Bosco Prep 60 to 73. Henderson posted 3 top 16 finishes in the deep meet, helped by a massive breakthrough from sophomore Alex Knapp, finishing as the team’s #4 runner just 3 seconds behind Rimkis.

During that same weekend, O’Hara also wanted to test themselves against out of state competition. They traveled to Great American for the second straight season, this time placing in 3^rd place overall. Christian Brothers Academy, the best team in the Northest Region, won the meet handily with 60 points. O’Hara finished at 161, helped by 3 top 20 finishes. Dan Savage finished as the team’s #1 runner in the meet and looked to be rounding into form as O’Hara’s familiar front-runner. A week later, Savage finished #1 at DELCO with a blazing 15:47. His teammates took the next 3 spots as Chris Pastore had his best race of the season. The team finished with 19 points.

Henderson had their chance against Christian Brothers at the Manhattan Invitational on October 13. The Henderson boys were defeated by a similar margin as CBA won the meet with 94 points and Henderson grabbed the silver medals with 200 points. Tony Russell was back to his old self, beating all of the CBA runners with a 4^th overall finish in the champions race. His time was 12:24.7, one of the fastest in state history. One thing was clear: when Russell was on his “A” game, he was developing into an all-time great.

But the Henderson depth was still a bit of a question mark. Reiny Barchet dropped a sub 13 minute time on the 4k layout, but no one else in the “H” jersey finished within 45 seconds of their front-man. Bobby Rimkis, Eric Stratman and Seamus Collins rounded out the scoring 5. The good news was Sam Haugh was back in the line-up and finished just behind Stratman and Collins as the team’s #6. If he continued to improve with extra race experience, Henderson would add a valuable piece to their pack.

While Henderson and O’Hara hadn’t gone head to head in over a month, the team’s match-ups against CBA seemed to indicate the gap was shrinking as the squads headed into championship season. At Ches-monts, here Henderson beat future state qualifiers West Chester East 45 to 75, you could start to see that Henderson was playing the long game. Bobby Rimkis, the team’s usual #3 man, and Seamus Collins, a key cog in the team’s success the past two seasons, both sat out of Ches-monts. Eric Stratman and Sam Haugh stepped up into the 3-4 spots admirably and Alex Knapp closed out the victory in 17^th. The familiar presence of Barchet and Russell combined for a 1-2 finish.

Meanwhile, O’Hara held nothing back at PCLs. The Philly Catholic League title is incredibly important to the team’s in that league and O’Hara knew they had a chance to post one of the lowest scores in meet history. Savage got his revenge on the Belmont course where he was twice denied gold in 2011 by dropping a 15:56 and winning the meet. Ernie Pitone and Kevin James were 2^nd and 3^rd to complete a sweep over defending champ Tom Coyle (coming back from injury). Then, Matt Hayes, Chris Pastore and Jim Belfatto took spots 5 through 7 over 800 standout Andrew Stone. The final tally for O’Hara was 17 points with 6 of the top 7 overall spots in the meet and a 16:13 average time. It was a truly historic performance in a truly historic conference.

That meet seemingly cemented O’Hara as state favorites and they were able to put things in a bit more cruise control at districts. They still managed 6 of the top 7 spots against a very good LaSalle team, but Savage was the team’s 3^rd man across the line and Pitone was their 5.

In the always loaded District 1, Henderson would, in theory, have to put a bit more into the race if they were going to leave with a set of gold medals. Yet it turned out that Henderson was more than ready for the challenge. With Tony Russell once again locked in, Henderson took 1^st individually and 1^st as a team. Russell’s time of 15:11 was faster than the prior two district champs and 4 Henderson runners broke 16 minutes. They posted a score of 67 points to easily knock off a strong CR North contingent.   

But once again, what was most notable was who was not racing. Henderson held Sam Haugh, Eric Stratman and Alex Knapp (the 3-4-5 from leagues) out of the District championship. If any one of those guys had raced and finished with Collins, they would have posted 5 performances under 16 minutes and scored close to 50 points. An already historic day would have become even more impressive.

Entering states, Henderson was really tricky to read. They were coming back to Hershey course which most had only raced once on which very few had really proven they could handle the hills and the pressure. Yet it was clear that this team was vastly improved from the year before. They averaged 16:06 at Districts in 2011 and 15:41 at Districts in 2012. Plus, you had this weird feeling that once Henderson put all their cards on the table at states (after saving guys the previous two weeks), they were going to go up another level.

O’Hara entered the state meet with a much different aura. This team had raced essentially the same scorers every week. They were deeper through six guys than they were the year before. That much was definitely clear. Plus, they had those three seniors leading the way. Dan Savage, Ernie Pitone and Chris Pastore had all been on the varsity team that lost on the tie-breaker at states in 2011. They had all spent an entire year thinking about the heartbreak of that moment. Now, they were staring down their most formidable opponent of the two year stretch, trying to avoid the same fate.

It was very clear that Henderson wanted to win this meet and had the talent to do so, but I kept thinking back to those three senior leaders. I didn’t expect Henderson to fold up in the same way they had the season before, but I did think, at some subconscious level, the juniors could have the thought “there’s always next year”, looking ahead to a group of seniors that would be the best since 2006’s national champions from Coatesville. It’s hard to really feel like there’s no time like the present until there is no more future.

Finally, on the morning of November 3^rd, 2012, the debate would come to an end. For the first time in meet history, there were six races on State Championship Saturday. That meant there were five races worth of pressure-filled, anxious moments before the gun finally sounded.

As expected, the O’Hara boys got out hard. Dan Savage was in second place at the mile, leading the chase pack behind the bold front-running of sophomore Colin Abert. Kevin James was in 9^th and Ernie Pitone was in 13^th. All three guys were in front of Henderson’s first runner, Tony Russell, who had settled into the middle of the lead pack. Reiny Barchet and Henderson’s lone senior Bobby Rimkis were in 25^th and 26^th. The standings at the one mile were O’Hara 46-Henderson 71. Both teams were in the lead two positions.

As the race progressed to two miles, Russell started to inch up the field. He was in 9^th place at the two mile mark, less than a second ahead of the three-person O’Hara pack of James, Savage and Pitone. Reiny Barchet was in 16^th place and Rimkis was holding tight to 25^th. It was a six-point advantage for O’Hara through the first three.

Behind them, the battles were still tight. Chris Pastore was in 36th place, one second ahead of Henderson’s Sam Haugh. Meanwhile both Seamus Collins and Eric Stratman were ahead of O’Hara fifth man Jim Belfatto, all with identical two mile times of 10:29. The standings at two miles had closed. O’Hara still led, by the margin was down to just 4 as the standings read 68-72.

The battle continued to rage over the final mile. Both sides were incredibly hungry as the left the Aloha hills and began to surge ahead for poop-out. They approached the final hill with many competitors from the two rival teams running side by side. But running all alone was Tony Russell. Henderson’s #1 man had absolutely crushed the final mile and stormed away from everyone to not only win the state championship, but to break the course record with a time of 15:45. One in the clubhouse for Henderson.

At the bottom of poop-out hill, I estimated the standings for both teams. Henderson had made moves, helped by Sam Haugh and Seamus Collins surging through the pack into the top 40. They now had 67 points. O’Hara was trailing, sitting with 69 points. Their top three was still ahead of Henderson’s, but Pastore and Belfatto needed to draw even with Henderson’s 4-5 if they were to have a shot.

Coming off the hill, the finishing stretch was absolutely wild. The noise was deafening and it was hard to keep track of anything that was happening. Savage was slipping a bit, but Ernie Pitone rose to the moment. He pulled his teammate home and, for the first time, finished as O’Hara’s #1 runner. It was a clutch finish by Pitone and gave his squad two finishers in the top 10 overall.

From about 15^th through 27^th, the kicking was absolutely wild. CR North’s James Zingarini, a miler at heart, surged from a bubble position among the medals, into the top 20. Cumberland Valley’s Alec Kunzweiler used his superior 800 speed to get into the medals. Andrew Stone, another 800 specialist through down a big kick for LaSalle. All this was unfolding around Reiny Barchet, Kevin James and Bobby Rimkis. James Zingarini of CR North passed Barchet just before the line, taking one point away from Henderson. Kunzweiler sprinted ahead of James and held on, taking one away from O’Hara. Rimkis, the lone senior in Henderson’s armada, tore down the straightaway as fiercely as he could, delivering a clutch performance. He was just one second by O’Hara’s Kevin James and ahead of CR North’s Mac Emery. Through three runners, the score was O’Hara 22 – Henderson 27. The Warriors trailed, but they knew their biggest advantage was still finishing the course.

With the top 30 already in the clubhouse, the race was reaching the point where waves of guys were crossing the line every second. Hampton’s Brian Shields who had run about 4800 meters of the race in a medal position, came off poop-out hill completely pooped-out. He was fighting valiantly with the heart of a true cross country runner to make it to the finish line.

Haugh and Collins were the next jerseys expected in the clubhouse from the team title race. Pastore and Belfatto were trying desperately to shrink the gap. Coming toward the chute, there were familiar faces three across. Haugh-Collins-Pastore. All three guys were sprinting hard to the line knowing that this could be it. The championship could swing right here.

Lying in between them was the collapsed figure of Brian Shields. Pastore swung wide to avoid him, Collins began to run to Haugh, disrupting both of their cadences. They were all right on top of the finish. Each desperately leaning, the trio crossed the line at essentially the exact same time. It would be difficult to sort out and there were a multitude of points in play.

Henderson now had 5 in the clubhouse. Depending on how the Pastore-Collins-Haugh finish was sorted out, their final score would either be 68, 69, or 70. This meant O’Hara was sitting with 42, 43 or 44, still with one runner to go.

Ken Leidal of Downingtown West crossed the line two seconds after the madness ensued. He was team scorer number 23. The next spot went to Chris Cummings of West Chester East. That was team scorer number 24. As people still crunched the numbers, Jim Belfatto came sprinting into view, running stride for stride with West Chester East’s Eric Diestelow, chased by North Allegheny’s Cordon Luoco and Scott Seel. It was going to be tight, but ultimately Diestelow crossed first, then it was Belfatto in team scoring spot number 26.

So what did this mean? Depending on the result of the skirmish the final score was one of Henderson 68-O’Hara 70, Henderson 69-O’Hara 69, O’Hara 68-Henderson 70. It was going to be that close. And as Eric Stratman crossed in the 29^th team scoring position and Alex Knapp crossed in the 31^st, Henderson now had a 6^th and 7^th in the clubhouse meaning the tiebreaker would go to them if needed.

It was a long, arduous wait to find out the exact results of the state meet. Everyone knew it was incredibly close, regardless of the final number. Outside of eventual national champions Coatesville in 2006, no one in any boy’s classification had scored 70 or less points since 1996. Now there were two teams with the chance to do it. The team that did it in ‘96? Ironically, West Chester Henderson.

An explosion of noise from the Henderson faithful meant that the District One boys had done it. It was revealed that the battle to the line was scored Haugh-Pastore-Collins, meaning that Henderson had won on a 69-69 6^th man tiebreaker. The ultimate heartbreak had been created for the boys from O’Hara. Two incredible teams that were one blow of the wind away from being back to back state champions.

After North Penn won the title on a tie-breaker in 2011, Penntrack posted a recap stating that it had only happened two times before in the history of the state championship meet. Now it happened in back to back years to the same team. Over a two year stretch, O’Hara had 5 state medalists and 9 top 50 runners. They posted a score of 69 points at a state championship. It was truly an incredible team and one that will be remembered among the all-time greats.

But Henderson would be remembered as the state champions in 2012. That’s how the history books would always reflect it. And that would be the answer to the Henderson and O’Hara debate.

Or so we thought.

Part II will be out this coming Friday with new posts in-between … enjoy 2012 week!

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Dual Meet Scoring

Russell

Savage

Pitone (5)

Barchet (5)

James (10)

Rimkis (11)

Haugh (18)

Pastore (18)

Collins (27)

Belfatto (28)

Henderson 27, O’Hara 28

All Classifications Merged

O’Hara 90, Henderson 91

It was really that close and it really lived up to the hype. What an incredible group of runners.