This Should Have Been Our First Clue

For much of the early part of the decade, there was a great debate over the fact that District 3’s district meet was run on the Hershey Parkview State Course. In AA the boys District 3 individual champion had gone on to win the state championship in Hershey four years in a row (2007 to 2010). So clearly, there was some advantage to having the opportunity to preview the course ahead of time. However, there were also some complaints from the AAA side. In 2007, District 3 champ and eventual Footlocker Finalist Vince McNally enter states as one of the co-favorites for the title, but had a truly rare off day and finished 18^th at states (his worst ever finish, even including his freshman season). A year later, Kyle Hurston, who had won at his prestigious home invitational, fell to the same 18^th spot at states after winning the district championship.

In 2009, it seemed like the curse may have been broken. Chuck Lockwood won Districts and went on to finish 4^th in the state with Logan Mohn, Michael Beegle and John Pope all joining him in the top 20 places overall. The top 4 at District’s all had success in their return trip to Hershey. Problem solved, right?

Well, a year later, things reverted back to chaos. And not just any chaos, but more chaos than ever before. In one of the fastest championships to date, Alex Galli smoked the Hershey hills to win the district championship in 16:20. Just behind him was fellow LL runner Matt Groff, whose silver medal performance helped his Hempfield squad claim the team title.

A week later at states, Galli ended up 45^th in the final standings, fading from a medal position at 2-miles. He was defeated by the district champion from D1 (4^th), D2 (6^th), D4 (29^th), D6 (2^nd), D7 (3^rd), D10 (5^th), D11 (8^th) and D12 (17^th). But Galli wasn’t alone in his struggles. D3 had only two medalists overall: Zack Greth (12^th) and Ed Schrom (24^th) who were the 3^rd and 7^th best guys at the district meet. In the team competition, D3’s best squad was Cumberland Valley, who placed 14^th out of 24 teams. Hempfield, the district champions the previous week, fell to 19^th which was the worst of the 5 teams the district sent.

Obviously, wacky things happen every year. Great runners have days where everything clicks and those lead to big successes, but those same great runners also have days where it seems nothing goes right. That could occur anywhere, regardless of course. But I’d be lying if after seeing this unfold, I wasn’t paying particular attention to the 2011 District 3 championship meet. Little did I know that this meet would end up the most unpredictable district championship of the decade.

But let’s back-up a moment. The landscape for District 3 entering the fall of 2011 was already a fuzzy picture. The top 9 runners from the D3 championships a year earlier had now graduated. State qualifying teams Hempfield, Cumberland Valley and Cedar Crest each lost their top 3 individuals to graduation as well and the other two qualifiers didn’t have a returning runner who had finished in the top 25 the prior year. So each mid-state invitational was a new chance for someone to prove themselves.

Things started at the PTXC Invite at Kutztown. Junior Evan Williams was the top runner from D3, taking 4^th overall, followed closely by Lower Dauphin’s Jeff Groh and Chambersburg Senior Nick Rotz. Williams had spent the prior year training with and learning from Logan Mohn, a former top 10 finisher at states in his own right. He seemed like a strong bet for a top 5 finish at the championships later that month. Groh had been 11^th in the D3 championships during his freshman season (#2 returner) and was an exciting prospect.

Adding to the fun, Governor Mifflin won the team section of PTXC over Chambersburg in a nail biter by a score of 69 to 73. Chambersburg, second the prior year at districts, had entered as the favorite, but the boys from GM had been able to surprise with narrow wins at 4 of the 5 spots.

Chambersburg and Nick Rotz would race again at the Ben Bloser Invite at Big Spring. Here, they were greeted by yet another up and coming contender in the individual race. Vinny Todaro won the meet on his home course with a solid 16:33. Rotz was the next best D3 runner with a 17:08. On the team side, Chambersburg delivered an encouraging performance with 3 runners in the top 20 overall.

All the early meet season stuff is fun, but people don’t really start to take stock of performances until the big midseason stretch: Foundation and Carlisle. At the Hershey course (the first of three trips for the D3 athletes who competed there), Evan Williams finished as D3’s top runner in 10^th overall and his teammates easily took the top D3 team spot by finishing 3^rd overall behind only super powers O’Hara and Mount Lebanon. Manheim Township finished as the #2 D3 team in 8^th.

At Carlisle, the top program was Lower Dauphin, who became the second different D3 team to edge out the talented bunch over at Chambersburg. Lower Dauphin scored 229 to place 3^rd overall while Chambersburg was at 242. The top two squads were, ironically, the two other D7-D12 powerhouses from that season: North Allegheny and LaSalle.  Individually, Adam Katora of Dallastown had the impact performance of the day as he surged to #1 in District 3. Michaiah Schlicher of Elizabethtown was perhaps an even more surprising #2.

Other big names cracked the top 20 overall, showing they could contend for the District 3 title in a month if training went their way. Cole Nissley of Lower Dauphin jumped his fellow sophomore Jeff Groh as the pair took 14^th and 19^th in the meet. Connor Strynkowski of Palmyra, one of the rising stars in district, had been top 50 at states in 2010 and truly excelled in the 3200 during track. He proved his XC acumen was still strong with a 15^th place performance. John Ausel (16^th), our boy Nick Rotz (17^th) and John Felts (20^th) all turned heads as well.  

When you talk about District 3 during this part of the decade, you have to keep your eyes out for Cumberland Valley. Although they were absent from Hershey and Carlisle, they showed up at Paul Short for their midseason check-in. Finishing 11^th in the team standings, they ended up the #1 D3 team in the meet and did it with 4 juniors and a sophomore in the scoring 5. Alec Kunzweiler, a 1:56 800 runner the previous spring, was their star of the day with his 15^th place individual finish, also tops in the district.

In that race, Kunzweiler looked like a guy who could be the district champion in October, but at his next race, Connor Strynkowski showed him what work was left to be done. Connor broke 16 on the Gettysburg course to finish tops in PA in the race. His time of 15:54 was 12 seconds ahead of the next best D3 guy, John Felts, and 21 ahead of Kunzweiler. Adam Katora, the big dog at Carlisle, finished 10^th overall in 16:22.

Having trouble keeping track of who the favorites are? Well, Connor Styrnkowski was trying to make it easy for you as we entered league week. Within perhaps the deepest league in the state, Strynkowski raced to his first invitational gold in 16:42. Jeff Groh and Cole Nissley, the Lower Dauphin sophomores, were 2^nd and 4^th, split by John Felts of Red Land. Kunzweiler and Vinny Todaro rounded out a loaded top 6.

The team battle was equally compelling here as Chambersburg got revenge on Lower Dauphin 87 to 89. Chambersburg had 4 guys in the top 20 overall and the 2^nd best #5 runner in the field so their depth won out. Cumberland Valley sat lurking in 3^rd place with 107 points and the best #5 of the group. Their #3 had been just 28^th overall (Alex Coburn), but the junior had the potential to run in the top 10 of this league on a better day.

Adam Katora (YAIAA), Harrison Schettler (Lebanon-Lancater) and Evan Williams (Berks) were the top AAA runners in the other major D3 leagues. Team titles went to Dallastown, Manheim Township and Governor Mifflin.

And that set the stage for the District 3 championships. Let the craziness begin!

As the district championships kicked off, the boys shot off the start line quicker than a starting pistol. The Governor Mifflin duo of Evan Williams and Dalton Fisher went straight to the front, hoping to be two low sticks toward a team title bid. The pace was absolutely breakneck and a gap to the pack opened up pretty quickly. The only one brave enough to truly follow was Lower Dauphin’s Jeff Groh, with Strynkowski and Elizabethtown’s Nate Kreider also committing about halfway.

The Mid-Penn champions, Chambersburg, had taken a bit more conservative start. While Nick Rotz put himself with sight of the front, the rest of the team’s pack was some 20 seconds off the leaders a mile into the race.

As things progressed, the pack started to come back on the ambitious starters. John Felts of Red Land helped lead a charge toward the Aloha Hills and by the two mile mark, although Williams and Groh still led, there was a bit more of a crowd around them. Also within an arm’s length were Felts, Ryan Hertzog of South Western, Harrison Schettler and Alec Kunzweiler. Strynkowski was beginning to fade, but was still lingering dangerously. Nick Rotz of Chambersburg had worked his way to the shoulder of Governor Mifflin #2 Dalton Fisher and he had confidence that the guys behind him were timing their surge as well.

Leaving the hills, Lower Dauphin sophomore Jeff Groh decided to begin his run for home. He put in a big surge through the down hills and broke away from the pack to start the journey to the finish alone. Williams continued to pursue in second with Ryan Hertzog the surprise story in third. Perhaps the pre-race favorite, Styrnkowski was still in the top 10, but it seemed his bid at the title was over.

At the finish, Groh proved he had saved enough to get home safely. With a perfectly executed race, the youngster shocked the field for the District gold. Junior Ryan Hertzog fought his way to second position and John Felts managed to out dip Williams for the bronze. Vinny Todaro, Connor Strynkowski and Nick Rotz rounded out the top 7 in that order.

With Groh’s title in house, Lower Dauphin had banked 1 point in the team standings. That gave them hope of not just qualifying for states, but winning the district championship. Chambersburg, Governor Mifflin and Cumberland Valley all had one top 10 guy of their own. The teams watched the line nervously before Governor Mifflin broke through with the 15^th and 16^th place finishers. Levi Lang and moved up dramatically over the final mile to usurp his teammate Dalton Fisher.

After those results, it seemed like Governor Mifflin had clinched it. A second Lower Dauphin and Cumberland Valley both proceeded the first Chambersburg athlete. It was the 800 runner Ryun Holder who came through as the team’s #2 runner, a bit of a surprise. It was quickly revealed that he had pulled Adam Harriger with him, giving Chambersburg 3 in the clubhouse. Maybe they had a chance.

In the large meet that is the district championship, waves of runners came crashing through the finish line, but in 48^th place, Chambersburg got another lift. Their #4 was the first to come through as Danny Klink crossed at 17:29. Things were a little closer.

About 10 seconds later, Lower Dauphin put two guys in. Now they had 4. Then Governor Mifflin’s Andrew Lesko. That was 4 for them as well. What was the gap? Who had the lead now? While we were still doing that math, Zach Coleman came flying through to the finish line to round out the scoring 5 for Chambersburg. His time of 17:49 made him the best #5 in the field. And it turns out that would clinch it for his squad. The D3 champs scored 178 points to defeat Governor Mifflin, who ended up just 12 back in 190. The wait for Lower Dauphin proved to be drama filled for another reason as they slipped back to 5^th in the standings as they waited for their #5. On a team who had been carried by sophomore standouts, it was senior Dan Mummau who stepped into the gap in the scoring group and did just enough to help Lower Dauphin defeat defending champions Hempfield for the last qualifying spot.

The biggest surprise of the day belonged to Red Lion. This team had been second at YAIAA, the most overlooked league in the district already, but they jumped not only Dallastown, but a number of teams favored to defeat them as they finished 4^th overall in the final standings. Matt Croft led the way in 16^th with junior Caleb Gatchell also delivering a big lift in 32^nd. But Nate and Josh Pardoe were the x-factors as they really narrowed the team’s spread by closing the gap from the 4-5 spot. Cumberland Valley was 3^rd in the final standings, but only 8 points ahead of this upstart Red Lion team.

It’s not every day that a sophomore wins a district championship. Sure, its been known to happen, particularly in some of the smaller districts, but in the “big 3” (D1, D3 and D7), it’s downright impossible. Even District 3’s chosen son, three-time XC state champion Craig Miller, couldn’t pull out the district title during his sophomore season (although he came within 0.72 seconds). Jeff Groh’s achievement was not just surprising, but incredibly rare and impressive.

So now the million dollar question. The question that started all of this. What happened to these guys at states? Well, unfortunately, the story goes back to being wacky. District 3 ended up with just one state medalist on the first Saturday of November. They also boasted 6 total top 50 finishers. But if you looked at the district results, you’d probably be surprised to find out who exactly those runners were.

Leading the charge was actually Cumberland Valley junior Alec Kunzweiler. The stand-out went from 9^th position at the district championships to 14^th in the state. It led something of a banner day for the young CV squad as they ended up 11^th in the final state tally, the top team within District 3 for a second straight season.

The other top 50 finishers included Vinny Todaro (26^th at States / 5^th at Districts), Ryan Hertzog (37^th / 2^nd), John Ausel (39^th / 10^th), Adam Katora (41^st / 11^th) and Connor Strynkowski (45^th / 6^th). Dalton Fisher was actually next to come through (54^th / 16^th) as he and Evan Williams led Govern Mifflin to the #2 spot out of D3 teams in 15^th overall. Red Lion (16^th) and Lower Dauphin (18^th) both also ended up better than the district champions, Chambersburg, who finished in 20^th.

Once we saw the craziness in District 3 unfold, we should have known there was going to be a lot more craziness to come when the state descended on Hershey.