2012 Season: Top 25 Rankings

Without a doubt 2012 ended up being one of the deepest ranking years that we had in the decade and it made things very tricky for me when trying to sort out the list. Let me hit a few honorable mentions real quick:

Sam Ritz, So Germantown Academy (Independent) – Ritz was second at Independent States in a really quick mark of 16:04, behind only national qualifier Sami Aziz. He also placed 5^th at Paul Short. However, you can make an argument Ritz wasn’t even the best guy in his own family as his brother Ben was Inter-Ac champ and 2^nd at Paul Short to only Galassi, but unfortunately Independent States wasn’t his best day.

Mac Emery, Sr Council Rock North (1 AAA) – Emery was fantastic in the early season with wins at Abington, Council Rock and Steel City plus he was top 10 in a deep District 1. Over the course of the year he beat Ross Wilson, Connor Harriman, Sam Webb, Chris Kazanjian, Reiny Barchet and James Zingarini all of whom ended up on the medal stand at states in AAA. But Mac didn’t and so he just barely was edged out in a super deep year.

25. Aaron Valoroso, Sr Towanda (4 AA): 4^th/1^st

A year after he placed 7^th in AA, Valoroso was 4^th at the state championship behind three guys who ended up in my top 7 of the end of year rankings. He was also the runaway district champion in a strong small school division, District 4. However, a few factors worked against Valoroso as he was gunning for a spot on this list. For starters, the expansion to three classifications put an asterisk next to his state performance as the A division had the likes of not only Rico Galassi and Luke Jones, but also the Northeast Bradford duo who could have swiped Aaron’s district title. It also hurt the AA state meet ended up going out at a significantly slower pace than the other two races as the guys were moving quite comfortably through two miles before things exploded over the last mile.

24. Colin Abert, So Easton (11 AAA): 12^th/1^st

23. Kevin James, So O’Hara (12 AAA): 22^nd/2^nd

22. Conner Quinn, Sr Horsham (1 AAA): 13^th/6^th

It’s crazy to think that in many ways Conner Quinn was just as good (if not better) in 2012 as he was in 2011 when he became the state champion. He ran faster marks at both of his championship races at Lehigh and had a better finish at the Footlocker Northeast regional. Considering the pressure he was under after his surprise finish in 2011, Quinn really held his own quite strongly and would be much higher than 22^nd a lot of years.

21. Tom Coyle, Sr LaSalle (12 AAA): 11^th/1^st

As I’ve already written about, the 2012 LaSalle team is one of the wildest rides we will ever see in PA Cross Country. The fact that were able to survive a tumultuous start to the season and then turn around and finish 5^th in the state is nothing short of spectacular. Coyle in many ways personified this swing as he went from a district 4^th at PCLs to District champ (sub 16 at Belmont again) and 11^th at the state meet in a faster time than the prior season.

20. Ernie Pitone, Sr O’Hara (12 AAA): 9^th/6^th

Ernie Pitone was very good for much of the 2012 season, but I don’t think anyone can say they saw his state championship race coming. Pitone had been a dog fight with many of his O’Hara teammates most of the season and had not finished as their #1 runner at any point in his career until the state championships when he brought home 9^th overall. If the tiebreaker was flipped, Pitone would have been the hero of that state championship, but unfortunately his clutch performance is lost to history. By the way, his nationals performance was arguably just as good and just as critical as O’Hara finished in 5^th in the nation without a guy under 18 minutes.

19. Ean DiSilvio, Sr Allerdice (7 AAA): 25^th/3^rd

District 8 won’t be getting their own “through the decade post”, but I can tell you right now DiSilvio was the best guy they had this decade (all respect to Amadou Diallo who was a beast as well). DiSilvio was a two time state medalist and, although he was likely hoping for more than 25^th during his senior state meet, put together an awesome 2012 season. He was third at the WPIAL championships behind Brent Kennedy and Ethan Martin (top 5 in the state) and posted top 5 finishes at McDowell, Red White and Blue, Boardman and Foundation.

18. Curt Jewett, Sr Northeast Bradford (4 A): 4^th/1^st

17. Sam Williams, Sr Northeast Bradford (4 A): 3^rd/2^nd

The Northeast Bradford duo finished side by side once again with Jewett taking the district title and Williams the better state medal. Williams was also the Foundation and PTXC winner while Jewett won at NTL Coaches. But the real story for these two guys was not their individual accomplishments, but the fact that they ended their careers with redemption in the team competition. Two years after a heartbreaking disqualification, they led NEB to a blowout in the first ever A state championship.

16. Connor Harriman, Sr Pennsbury (1 AAA): 8^th/7^th

You know the 2012 rankings are crazy when someone like Connor Harriman is coming it at the 16^th spot. The Pennsbury senior placed in the top 10 at AAA states for a second straight year in 2012, but that probably wasn’t his most memorable appearance on the Hershey hills. At the Foundation Invite, Harriman produced one of the first “kick of the week” moments I can remember hearing about when he hawked down DiSilvio for the individual title. A storyline that probably deserved more play in the 2012 season was Harirman’s Pennsbury squad which, for much of the early part of the season, was the darlings of the etrain rankings and a Cinderella team that was taking it to the big favorites from CR North. Unfortunately, Harriman would not be on the roster when the fruits of his labor began to blossom at Pennsbury when they qualified for the state meet a year later and won the 4x8 at states two years later, but I am sure he was proudly watching.

15. Dan Savage, Sr O’Hara (12 AAA): 10^th/4^th

It must have been an odd transition for O’Hara’s senior leader in 2012. After being the clear front runner on the roster in 2011, Savage suddenly found himself competing for the top spot on the team not only with classmate Ernie Pitone, but also the talented young sophomore Kevin James. Savage actually opened the season as the team’s #3 at Briarwood and the #2 at Foundation before finding his rhythm at Great American where he finished as PA’s top runner (ahead of Brendan Shearn). His postseason included DELCO and PCL championships and top honors within the O’Hara locker room at Regionals and Nationals. He was 10^th at states, but ran a faster time than he did when he finished 4^th a year earlier. And its worth noting the guy was literally two inches away from being the senior leader on a team that was back-to-back state champs and 5^th in the nation.

14. Reiny Barchet, Jr Henderson (1 AAA): 19^th/3^rd

The simple fact of the matter is that Reiny is not just a massive talent, but a gutsy runner. His highs in 2012 were really high. He beat Tony Russell twice during the invite season (at Ches-monts and Carlisle) and then finished in 21^st in the Nation at the Nike Cross Nationals for the top spot in all of PA and All American honors. He was sub 13 at Manhattan, sub 15:25 at Lehigh and sub 16 at Bowdoin Park for 2^nd in the Northeast Regional. States wasn’t his best day, but he still fought valiantly in his final sprint and held off a couple guys that would have swung the title the other way if he got passed.

13. Jack Macauley, Sr North Penn (1 AAA): 6^th/5^th

The highlight of Macauley’s career is probably the upset team victory from his junior season, but from an individual standpoint he hit an entirely new level during his senior year. He won at Salesianum in one of the best times PA has ever seen and ended the Hershey meet with a 16:02. He spent the season jockeying around with the loaded pack in D1.

12. Ross Wilson, Jr CR North (1 AAA): 7^th/2^nd

11. Ethan Martin, Jr Fox Chapel (7 AAA): 5^th/2^nd

Ethan Martin and his WPIAL teammate Brent Kennedy put together monster seasons for juniors and, besides an all-time great in Tony Russell, grabbed the top spots on this list for the class of 2014. Martin spent much of the fall in Brent Kennedy’s shadow so even when he was turning in breakout races (like at RWB where he beat Jaskowak) he was still something of an afterthought. A year later, his twin brother Colin’s rise to stardom (Colin ended up WPIAL champ and sub 9 in the 3200) made Ethan even more out of center. But his 5^th at states (behind 4 guys who would all go on to qualify for a national championship) and 2^nd at WPIALs were both phenomenal and of course Martin took 2^nd the next indoors in the 3k before outdueling Ross Wilson, Vinny Todaro and others en route to the state title in the outdoor 3200. Kid is an all-time great.

10. Luke Jones, Sr Elk Lake (2 A): 2^nd/1^st

Not sure how much there is left to say about Luke Jones at this point. The kid is just a championship performer. He won three straight District titles (two of them over Rico Galassi) and led his team to a state gold (2010) and state silver (2012) in two tight races. The guy always seemed to be at his best when the pressure was at its most intense as he finished 2^nd at states two years in a row, both times exceeding most people’s expectations. He doubled down on that Hershey success (he ran 16 flat) with the 6^th best PA performance at the Footlocker Northeast Regional.

9. Sami Aziz, Sr Germantown Friends (Independent): 1st

The signature moment of Sami Aziz’s Cross Country career was ironically a performance on the track. At the Henderson 3200 tune-up meet, Aziz crashed the party that was set up for the Henderson v. O’Hara match-up and outkicked Tony Russell for the victory. The result came sandwiched between two fantastic actual XC races where Aziz first won the Independent League title in 15:51 and then qualified for the Nike Nationals in Oregon by placing in the top 10 at the Regional Meet.

8. Rico Galassi, Sr Holy Cross (1 AAA): 1^st/2^nd

One of the biggest disappointments about the switch to three classifications was the split of the top of the AA class. Having Galassi, who ran an incredibly bold and aggressive state championship race, mixed in with the likes of Todaro, Shearn and Jaskkowak (all of which ran much more conservatively in the early going) would have made for quite the clash of abilities. Would Galassi have been able to win the state championship in AA like he did in A? We never will know. But we did get to see Galassi go head to head with the majority of the big names at the Footlocker Northeast Regional where he placed 16^th overall and was the #5 runner on a loaded Pennsylvania Regional team. Galassi’s 2012 accomplishments also included invite victories at Paul Short, Cliff Robbins and Lackawanna.

7. Max Norris, Sr Harriton (1 AAA): 4^th/4^th

Look, I’ll always have a soft spot for Max Norris because he gave me a shout out in Penntrack journal and quite frankly I’m not sure that’s ever happened at any other point this decade. But ignoring that fact, Norris’s 2012 XC season was really quite special. Norris had been a strong XC runner each of the previous two seasons, but hadn’t been able to make that leap into the state medals. After an injury set him back, it looked like 2012 wouldn’t be much different. But once he actually got back on the course, it was a different story. Norris won the Central League title, took 4^th in District 1 and then took 4^th at the state meet.

Yet things went up another level for Norris after Hershey. This is when Max Norris became a super star. Training through to the Footlocker Regional, Norris finished as PA’s #2 runner at Van Cortlandt and punched a ticket to San Diego. At Footlocker, he upped his game again by placing 17^th overall for the #1 spot in PA. Only 5 guys placed higher at Footlocker over the course of the entire decade (and 3 of those guys are in the discussion for greatest ever).

6. Dan Jaskowak, Sr Grove City (10 AA): 3^rd/1^st

The classification change really shook up a lot of individual battles, including the rematch many were hoping for with Jaskowak taking on Quinn. Coming off an absolutely prolific track season, Jaskowak seemed like the favorite regardless of his classification, but that’s not the way he came out of the gate. After being upset at Red, White and Blue by Brent Kennedy and getting beat out for the fastest PA time at Boardman by Austin Pondel, Jaskowak prepared for his rematches. His 2012 season started to heat up with a victory at the Foundation Invite over defending AA state champ Brendan Shearn. Then he entered into a truly incredible two meet stretch. First, he toppled Brent Kennedy by a nose at the TSTCA championships in a legendary Coopers time of 15:36. Then, in incredibly sloppy conditions at Buhl Park, Jaskowak went head to head with Austin Pondel and again, by a slim margin, came out victorious. Their times of 16:23 were 45 seconds faster than anyone else in the entire three classification meet. There’s no way to prove it, but I wonder if something got taken out of Jaskowak’s legs at the wacky D10 meet because ultimately, when it came time for the sprint-kick finish in Hershey, he didn’t have the wheels to go with Shearn and Todaro and he came home in 3^rd place. Still, his three marquee wins against Shearn, Kennedy and Pondel is really special and hard to match for anyone outside this top 5.

5. Austin Pondel, Sr Correy (10 AAA): 3^rd/1^st

The meteoric rise of Austin Pondel somehow ends up outside the top 5 storylines of the 2012 season just because the 2012 season was absolutely bananas. Look, Pondel was a great XC runner in 2011. He grabbed a state medal and he placed really well at the Northeast Regional. But he didn’t show much flash on the track and he was housed in a district that didn’t get a lot of love (outside of Jaskowak). So what did Pondel do to make the state wake up? Well, he started smashing records. He went to McDowell and dropped a blistering 15:37. He went to Boardman and ran 15:45. He went to Sharpsville and ran 15:33! For added fun he ran 15:47 at Cochranton. Four races. Massive margins of victory. Sub 16s. The guy had an absolutely monster September.

So now people were aware of Pondel and the question became: what classification did Correy belong to? Ultimately, his team was slotted for AA, but apparently the Correy coaches didn’t want to be classified outside of the biggest and best competition in AAA (plus, it doesn’t hurt to avoid Grove City) so Correy ended up pushing and getting approval to be in AAA. Could Pondel win the state championship in a seemingly open field?

After another sub 16 at Region 4 (15:37) and the legendary 16:23 in the mud at Buhl Park (they wanted to cancel the race and have the kids run on the road and he and Jaskowak ran 16:23 instead, I mean that’s just incredible), Pondel had firmly inserted himself into the discussion. Some were worried about his lack of big race competition. I personally remember being very concerned that the conditions at District 10 were going to leave his legs super flat for states. Regardless, I’m not sure anyone was beating Tony Russell on State Saturday as the junior was just on another level, but Pondel really held his own and proved he belonged in the title discussion with his third place finish in a blistering 15:56. As an added bonus, Pondel qualified for the Footlocker National Championships at Van Cortlandt to end November with, yes, another sub 16 (15:51).

4. Brent Kennedy, Jr Kiski (7 AAA): 2^nd/1^st

Heading into the state championship meet, I thought Brent Kennedy had a better chance at state gold than Tony Russell. Although he was also a junior, the Kiski harrier had been 7^th the prior year as a sophomore and had just sub 15:40 at both Carlisle and Coopers in a pair of runner-up finishes against the best guys in AA before running away with the WPIAL title. Plus, Kennedy had battled with Russell on the track in the 1600, both guys upstart talents in the middle distances and Kennedy had proven to be just a bit better. Was this his moment to show the east coast what was up? Ultimately, Kennedy came pretty darn close with his 15:52 to Russell’s 15:45 and settled for the silver. Then Kennedy joined rare company by qualifying for the Footlocker Finals as a junior.

Kennedy was an unreal talent, but unfortunately, we didn’t get the chance to see him and Russell rematch for the state title in 2013 as an injury knocked Brent out for the year. But still Kennedy managed to put together one of the best careers of the decade in three years when most guys couldn’t do the same thing in four.

3. Brendan Shearn, Sr North Schuylkill (11 AA): 2^nd/1^st

It’s really hard being a defending state champion. After Shearn’s junior season finished, he had already grabbed two state golds (one for XC, one outdoors in the 3200) and now he was the big name in AA with a large target right on his back for the new entries into the classification to shoot at. At his opening meet at PTXC, Shearn ended up just 7^th overall and was buried behind multiple small school athletes. But Shearn found his footing, first with a win at Briarwood over Tony Russell and then with an all-time great performance at the Schuylkill League Championships. However, after a slower early pace, Shearn didn’t have enough of a surge on the last mile to put Vinny Todaro away and the Big Spring senior sprung the upset.

All that said, Shearn’s senior season was clearly geared toward a deep run into the end of November and hopefully December. When he showed up to the Footlocker Regional meet, he proved that with a 4^th place overall finish in 15:46, good for tops in PA ahead of the 2^nd through 4^th finishers at AAA states and the top two guys in A. At Footlocker Nationals, Shearn ran a quick 15:44 and ended up 21^st in the nation. That was #2 in PA. Ultimately, I believe Shearn was named the Gatorade Runner of the Year for the State of Pennsylvania.

2. Vinny Todaro, Sr Big Spring (3 AAA): 1^st/1^st

The 2012 season from Vinny Todaro is one of the all-time great seasons lost to history. Todaro put together the rarely season undefeated season including a win at the state championships against arguably the best two seniors in the state in Brendan Shearn and Dan Jaskowak. Todaro also compiled head to head wins against Brent Kennedy and Tony Russell while throwing down one of the fastest times in Carlisle history. His 16:00 final time from states may not look like much, but that was off a 10:16 3200 split, making Todaro’s last mile one of the quickest ever in Hershey history.

Where did this magical season come from you might ask? Well, Todaro had finished 26^th and 9^th in his last two state finals, both times being one spot away from medaling. Those disappointments drove him to become the runner he was: a state champion in XC and my #2 runner in the state in 2012.

1. Tony Russell, Jr Henderson (1 AAA): 1^st/1^st

Russell had a pretty dominant stretch run to his 2012 season that included wins at Districts, States (in a new meeting record) and the Nike Northeast Regional. Add in his all-time performances at Manhattan and Belmont and you’ve locked up the title. Plus, it doesn’t hurt his ranking that Russell was the #1 guy on the state championship team.

By the way, I talked a lot about Todaro’s final mile and how quick he ran it. Well, Russell went out faster through 2 miles and still closed the last 1.1 in 15:38! It’s the second fastest last 1.1 in course history behind only Jake Brophy’s superhuman 2014 race.