West Chester East vs. Everybody

West Chester Henderson may have been the state champions in 2012, but it was another West Chester team that ended up becoming the most underrated team on the etrain blog. At the end of the 2011 Cross Country season, West Chester East finished 8^th in District 1 and missed out on a state qualifying spot. Although they were returning quite the war chest of Henderson, they were bringing back 5 of their top 7 including state qualifier Jesse Rogers and one of the district’s freshmen in Eric Diestelow.

But East was overshadowed within their own conference. Not only did West Chester Henderson shine as perennial title contenders, but the boys from Great Valley who had been second at the 2011 district championships, were also bringing back 5 of their top 7 including three guys who had finished in the top 40 at Lehigh’s championship. Great Valley had state experience, strong recent success and a preseason stamp of approval in the rankings. West Chester East would have to be party crashers.

West Chester East’s first chance to do just that came in their opening invitational at Abington. Here, East was racing against two teams largely considered to be the best threats to Henderson in CR North and Great Valley. In the match-up, East promptly showed their worth. Posting strong depth (5 in the top 15), East edged out CR North. The big game changer was Chris Cummings who led the way in 5^th place overall. The junior hadn’t raced at districts the prior fall, but had been a member of the team’s varsity squad during his freshman season. The performance was good enough to get East the #10.5 spot in the etrain rankings, a non-committal vote of confidence from the site head.

East’s performance proved to be no fluke over the next two weekends. East swept the top 4 spots at the Chris Fretz invitational before scoring just 28 points in the large school section of the Bull Dog Invitational. East’s top 4 was only broken up by Downingtown West athletes (Joey Steadman took 2^nd overall) and, even without #5 Sean Dougherty, the East boys rolled through the competition.  Ultimately, there success was beginning to turn heads. They came it at #7 in the etrain team rankings, the #3 team in D1 behind only Henderson and surprise early-season squad Pennsbury.

With a target now firmly on their back, West Chester East entered the prestigious Paul Short Invitational hoping to post a strong victory. The battle would feature league rivals Great Valley, perennial D3 power Cumberland Valley, an upstart Hershey team and the AA state favorites from Pottsgrove. Although many thought East’s streak of victories might come to an end, the squad ran flawlessly with 5 top 50 scorers. The talented sophomore Diestelow led the way at 16:23 with Cummings also coming home in the top 20. It was Trey Crump who stepped up in a big way to take 43^rd and finish as the team’s #4. With no Dougherty in the line-up, it looked like there could be a gaping hole in the team’s varsity, but they rose to the challenge and outlasted the highly touted D3 packs and easily topped Great Valley as well.

However, after the meet, the comment section of the blog was quick to write off East’s victory. Some said they didn’t beat any true top tier teams. Others noted that, had CV’s Alex Coburn not suffered from dehydration, Cumberland Valley would have left the meet with the championship trophy instead. Still, East’s victory was enough to rise them another couple spots into #5 in the etrain team rankings.

As East went into Ches-mont’s it was revealed that Dougherty had a stress fracture and the team’s key early season cog was done for the year. Trey Crump’s breakthrough at Paul Short would need to become a habit as depth and overall health became an increasing concern entering championship season. In fact, it was so concerning that East actually slipped two spots in etrain’s rankings without even running a single race.

The drama heightened even further as the supports for Great Valley and Downingtown West increased in volume. Sure, Henderson was going to run away with the Ches-mont title, but the battle for second was turning the league championships into a marquee invite. The pressure was not just for the silvers at Ches-mont, but the knowledge that there might only be one non-Henderson state spot up for grabs at the District championships the next weekend.

On race day, as expected, things were unbelievably tight. Downingtown West got a massive lift from their front runners as Joey Steadman and Kenny Leidal took 3^rd and 4^th overall behind only the super-duo of Russell and Barchet at Henderson. Matt Willig of Great Valley was 5^th and then Diestelow came home in 6^th, putting East in a front-running hole early. But that whole would be short lived. Stephen Dages for East saw that Cummings wasn’t having his best day and came through with a clutch 8^th place overall finish. He crossed the line as the team’s #2 runner in a surprise turn. When Cummings came home a spot later, that gave East the best #3 in the meet (including Henderson).

But there was an agonizing wait for West Chester East. Three Great Valley runners and two more DT West athletes crossed the finish line during the 44 second gap between East’s #3 and their #4 runner Trey Crump. Then Great Valley’s #5 Dan Dudt slipped inside the chute one second ahead of West Chester East’s #5 Jesse Rogers. In an incredibly slow race, would that be the difference?

After what was likely an agonizing wait, the final standings were revealed. Great Valley had put together a terrific performance and they finished with 77 points. However, West Chester East had edged them out by a nose, scoring 75 points. Dages proved to be the hero with his 8^th place finish. DT West was also in the mix with 80 points. They were just 5 points out of second and, if their #5 continued to make strides, could jump both teams at Lehigh.

In perhaps an equally important meet for the Ches-mont teams, CR North and Pennsbury faced off at the SOL National meet at Lehigh. Pennsbury had bested North in the early season and was a top 5 team in the etrain rankings for much of the season, most notably posting a 3^rd place finish at Foundation over Mount Lebanon and Lower Dauphin. But CR North had a proven track record of success and a reputation for peaking at the right time. After a lackluster start to the year, they were beginning to come on strong right when it mattered most. At leagues, it was North who became champion with just 28 points against 44 for Pennsbury.

With CR North’s emergence into their old self, it looked like a 6 team battle for 5 state championship spots. Henderson would surely claim the district title and then CR North, West Chester East, Pennsbury, Great Valley and DT West would slug it out for the remaining tickets. CR North’s peaking at the right time inspired etrain to expect similar results out of Great Valley at the district meet. West Chester East was predicted at #4 with Pennsbury at #5 and DT West the odd team out.

As usual, the Ches-mont proved to be a special group of runners. Henderson won the meet with 67 points and CR North came through for silver. However, the remaining 3 state qualifying spots all ended up belonging to Ches-mont programs. West Chester East led the way yet again as they continued to defy the haters with a 3^rd place overall run. They dipped under 200 points despite no finishers higher than 20^th. Eric Diestelow and Chris Cummings both snuck under 16 minutes with Jesse Rogers, the team’s lone state qualifier in 2011, had a phenomenal race to take 44^th overall as the team’s #3. Also rising to the occasion was #6 runner Alex Hughes. Depth had been a concern, but the speedster raced phenomenally at Lehigh and finished 77^th overall just 6 seconds behind the school’s #5 runner.

Great Valley (218) and DT West (253) both found a way to get past Pennsbury. Great Valley had solid depth with a 47 second spread, led by Matt Willig at 15:59. Billy Wolffe had a nice day as the team’s #3 runner with a 16:14 performance. Meanwhile, DT West got a massive lift at the #5 spot. This was the team’s weakness on paper, but sophomore Will Pelcin dropped a phenomenal 16:53 to race right on the coat tails of Keegan Flagg. That performance proved to be the difference maker as Pennsbury finished 20 points back. Pennsbury sophomore Alek Sauer (easily one of the best ten 800 guys this decade) had an unfortunately timed off day and finished outside the scoring 5 for this team.

So the Ches-mont was sending 4 teams to the state championships. While most schools would be taking a victory lap, the league got ready to double down on their success. They would get a chance to see the top ranked teams from the WPIAL and District 3 and they dreamed of much more than sneaking into the top 12 overall. And there was extra motivation when etrain released his state predictions …

West Chester East got slotted in the 10^th spot in the predictions one spot behind Great Valley. East had beaten Great Valley every team they faced them include at the Ches-mont Championships and the District Championships. Not to mention that East had already taken down Cumberland Valley at Paul Short who was ranked in the 5^th position as well as Hershey (8^th).

Etrain’s prediction proved to be a galvanizing one in the comments as many East supporters were quick to point out they were underestimated and would rise to the challenge as they had all season to date. Ches-mont mates DT West were not picked to place in the top 12 and of course the now infamous etrain pick was for O’Hara to knock off Henderson at the top of the standings.

Ultimately, regardless of the predictions, the haters, the doubters or the anonymous commenters, the state championship would be decided by the runners on the course. After concerns about the Hershey Parkview layout being trashed by rain, it turned out the conditions were actually perfect for an XC championship meet. Even by the 6^th race of the day, things were looking set up for fast times.

However, the Ches-mont schools did not attack the course with an aggressive start. West Chester East was actually just 12^th in the team standings at the mile with their last two scorers in the 100s for overall placing. Great Valley’s pack had gotten off to a better start, sitting in 9^th, but it was actually DT West that stormed the castle gates with a hot start from Keegan Flagg and Ryan Mucha (40^th and 63^rd in team scoring). West was tied for 7^th in the standings and only 10 points away from 6^th.

A mile later, West Chester East had found their rhythm. Although the team was relatively new to the Hershey hills, they showed that they could attack the course at its most difficult stretch. Dages was looking closer to his Ches-mont form and Rogers was using his experience well. Meanwhile, Alex Hughes was continuing to be an x-factor. He was running as the team’s #5 runner and was actually ahead of the #5 guys for Great Valley and DT West. Those two teams were 6 and 2 points ahead of West Chester East at the two mile marker as the three schools held the 6^th, 7^th and 8^th positions in the standings. Yet Cumberland Valley and Mt Lebanon were only 1 and 8 points behind, ready to try and knock East back to their predicted position at 10^th.

The last mile of the state championships is always jam-packed with notable performances. Some guys are struggling for breath and going backwards, others are making championship saving surges toward the finish line. There are big kicks, dramatic falls and all sorts of chaos. For the three Ches-mont schools, the state picture would be very difficult to sort out. With the top 25 already in the clubhouse, none of these teams had any individual medalists. They would need to rely on depth to score highly in the state.

The first guy through to the finish was a bit of a surprise. Great Valley’s Matt Willig produced a clutch 29^th overall finish which was good enough to put him 17^th in the team standings. Just two seconds later was Joey Steadman in 18^th. It seemed like the league rivals had managed to find each other even among the crowded field as Ken Leidal, Chris Cummings and Eric Diestelow all crossed in a row with team scoring positions 23 through 25. Two in the clubhouse for East. Two for West. One for Great Valley.

There was an agonizing 15 second wait before the next finishers came through. Billy Wolffe came to play with a 17:02 for Great Valley, but the key runner was Thomas Doran. The junior finished just 2 seconds off Wolffe and one spot back in the team standings. When Garrett Zatlin crossed shortly thereafter, Great Valley had 4 runners in the clubhouse before any of their rivals could count 3. They were now back in contention. With Daniel Dudt crossing at 17:33, it looked like Great Valley might have done enough to jump East for the first time.

West Chester East was edged out by 18 points against the Patriots. Great Valley finished 6^th in the state standings and East exceeded expectations with their 7^th place run. Stephen Dages, Jesse Rogers and Alex Hughes rounded out the top 5. Each runner finished ahead of Dudt, but ultimately they couldn’t quite narrow the gap that Doran and Zatlin created in the 3-4 spot. Still, East put all 7 scorers in the top 90 team scorers proving that they were both healthy and deep on the Hershey hills.

DT West managed to hang for the 9^th place finish in the state. Leidal and Steadman led the way as they often had, but sophomore Tyler Alansky was a major part of their climb up the standings. The state rookie ran 17:36 and placed 73^rd in the team standings to surprise in the #4 spot for West. Ryan Markle, a senior leader on the team, had one of his better days as well when he jumped up to the #5 spot. Downingtown managed to hold off Lower Dauphin by just 16 points to clinch 9^th.

We’ve always known there is a strong culture of running in the Ches-mont League, but the 2012 season may have proven this better than any other year. There were 4 teams in the top 9 at the state meet all running within the same circles. They pushed each other, fueled a ton of state wide discussion and ultimately achieved far more than many would have thought possible.