As I’ve already alluded to in the Dustin Wilson piece,
the Independent League can often be swept under the rug while all the attention
focuses in on the PIAA. However, if you ignore the Private Schools outside the
PIAA jurisdiction, you’ll miss out on some truly spectacular athletes. I’ve
always felt like the state really misses out on some key insights because there
is no “Meet of Champions” to give the best guys in each classification and the
Independent League a head to head match-up to help clarify exactly who is #1
(and #2, #3 and #4) in the state. Of course, then I wouldn’t have so much to
speculate about.
In 2009, just before this decade started, Germantown
Friends had perhaps the most significant achievement of any Independent team
when they defeated the PIAA’s top schools and rolled to a surprise second place
finish in the Nike Northeast Regional Championship. This was enough to lock up
a spot in the Nike Cross Nationals meet, an achievement that each of the prior
three PIAA champs had failed to do.
Although GFS never quite got back to that level, the
tradition lived on throughout the 2010s. The Tigers (I think they are Tigers, although
after watching Clemson-LSU everybody might be the Tigers) won 7 of the 10 Independent
League Championships including two three-peats that were split only by a great
Malvern Prep team.
The lowest point total the team posted was 36 in 2010, a
year after their NXN birth. But they scored under 50 points on 4 other occasions
and posted 7 of the best 10 point totals in the decade, including the lowest
other second place total in 2014. Their best average time came on the Pre-2013
Belmont layout when they averaged 16:51 in 2012.
GFS won their 2016 and 2017 titles behind the front
running of Nick Dahl. The 2018 graduate won the Independent title during both
his junior and senior seasons and, although he was arguably at his peak running
relays on the track, Dahl was a top 12 finisher at the Footlocker Northeast Regional
and a champion at the Paul Short Invite. In his two non-championship seasons,
Dahl was 4th and 5th.
Dahl was not the only repeat champion within the Independent
League. In fact, the 10 titles in the decade were shared among 7 runners as
Dustin Wilson (2010, 2011) and Rob DiDonato (2018, 2019) book-ended the decade
with back-to-back wins. These two are also the only members of the Independent
League to qualify for the Footlocker Finals and, combined with Dahl, all won
gold at Paul Short. DiDonato, however, has won his two titles as an underclassman
and will look to begin the 2020s with a win and a return trip to San Diego.
GFS’s Sami Aziz is also a national qualifier as he
punched his ticket at the 2012 Nike Northeast Regional as an individual
qualifier to pair with the Henderson and O’Hara teams that also went to Oregon.
A few weeks earlier, Aziz had perhaps his signature moment when he dueled against
Tony Russell on the Henderson harrier’s home track and defeated him in a 3200
tune-up race for the Regional meet. Aziz won the Independent league title in that
same season, running 15:51 to win at Belmont over Sam Ritz. Aziz, Wilson and
DiDonato are the only ones to win the Independent League title in a sub-16
time.
Aziz’s 2012 win came against Germantown Academy stand-out
Sam Ritz. Ritz, who is also known for his incredible times on the track, was
second at Independent States in both 2012 and 2013, both times running under
16:05. In 2014, Ritz finally broke through for individual gold.
While Ritz’s 2012 title was denied by Aziz, his 2013 bid
was lost by only a second. Jaxson Hoey, then a sophomore at Malvern Prep,
handed Ritz a narrow loss en route to his first Independent League title of the
decade. Ironically it was Jaxson’s younger brother Josh who Ritz defeated to
win gold in 2014. The Hoey brothers proved to be significant game changers for
the Malvern Prep program. As Jaxson ascended to the top spot in the Independent
League, the Malvern Prep pack started to take shape around him with guys like
Billy McDevitt, Brendan Stec and Colin Wills contributing key performances. They
scored a decade best 29 points to win the League with a decade best 16:50
average. With a then 8th grade Josh Hoey joining the roster, Malvern
Prep finished 5th in the Nike Northeast Regional in 2013. On paper,
they were the team to beat in 2014 with nearly all of their key contributors
returning. Malvern Prep opened up the 2014 season with a spectacular showing at
the Briarwood Invite, led by Jaxson’s course record of 15:30, but health wasn’t
on the team’s side. Jaxson ended up injured and unable to finish the season
and, although the team won a second straight Independent League title, they
didn’t match their prior success at the Nike Regional.
Westtown became the last champion of the decade this past
fall when they knocked off Germantown Friends by just a single point at the
Independent Championships. GFS had a faster average time, but Westtown was able
to steal the title with their depth.
Without putting the names in a specific order, my all-Independent
League decade team would be as follows:
Runner of the Decade: Dustin Wilson, Chesnut Hill Academy
First Team (alphabetical order):
Sami Aziz, GFS 2013
Nick Dahl, GFS 2017
Robert DiDonato, GA 2021
Jaxson Hoey, Malvern Prep 2016*
Billy McDevitt, Malvern Prep 2015
Sam Ritz, GA 2015
Dustin Wilson, Chesnut-Hill Academy 2012
Second Team (alphabetical order):
Gabriel Allgayer, Mercersburg 2016
Peter Borger, Malvern Prep 2018
Josh Hoey, Malvern Prep 2018*
Elias Lindgren, Episcopal 2018
Jeffery Love, George School 2019
Scott Mason, Penn Charter 2014
Matt Sandifer, GA 2020
|
Name
|
Place
|
Year
|
Course
|
Time
|
Team
|
Grade
|
|
|
1
|
D Wilson
|
1st
|
10
|
Belmont*
|
15:48
|
CHA
|
11
|
|
2
|
R DiDonato
|
1st
|
19
|
Belmont USATF
|
15:50
|
GA
|
11
|
|
3
|
S Aziz
|
1st
|
12
|
Belmont*
|
15:52
|
GFS
|
12
|
|
4
|
S Ritz
|
1st
|
14
|
Belmont USATF
|
16:02
|
GA
|
12
|
|
5
|
Jax Hoey
|
1st
|
13
|
Belmont USATF
|
16:04
|
Malvern Prep
|
10
|
|
6
|
S Ritz
|
2nd
|
13
|
Belmont USATF
|
16:05
|
GA
|
11
|
|
7
|
S Ritz
|
2nd
|
12
|
Belmont*
|
16:05
|
GA
|
10
|
|
8
|
N Dahl
|
1st
|
15
|
Belmont USATF
|
16:06
|
GFS
|
11
|
|
9
|
Jo Hoey
|
2nd
|
14
|
Belmont USATF
|
16:12
|
Malvern Prep
|
9
|
|
10
|
B McDevitt
|
3rd
|
14
|
Belmont USATF
|
16:17
|
Malvern Prep
|
12
|
|
11
|
M Sandifer
|
2nd
|
19
|
Belmont USATF
|
16:23
|
GA
|
12
|
|
12
|
E Dumas
|
3rd
|
12
|
Belmont*
|
16:23
|
Penn Charter
|
12
|
|
13
|
L Wistar
|
4th
|
12
|
Belmont*
|
16:24
|
GFS
|
12
|
|
14
|
S Aziz
|
2nd
|
10
|
Belmont*
|
16:24
|
Abington Friends
|
10
|
|
15
|
E Lindgren
|
1st
|
17
|
Belmont USATF
|
16:25
|
Episcopal
|
12
|
|
16
|
S Mason
|
3rd
|
13
|
Belmont USATF
|
16:29
|
Penn Charter
|
12
|
|
17
|
N Dahl
|
4th
|
14
|
Belmont USATF
|
16:30
|
GFS
|
10
|
|
18
|
P Borger
|
2nd
|
17
|
Belmont USATF
|
16:31
|
Malvern Prep
|
12
|
|
19
|
N Dahl
|
1st
|
16
|
Belmont USATF
|
16:31
|
GFS
|
12
|
|
20
|
J Olson
|
3rd
|
19
|
Belmont USATF
|
16:32
|
Hill School
|
11
|
Team of the Decade: Malvern Prep 2013
Program of the Decade: Germantown Friends
|
Team
|
Course
|
|||||
|
1
|
Malvern Prep
|
13
|
29
|
16:50
|
Belmont USATF
|
1st
|
|
2
|
GFS
|
10
|
36
|
17:00
|
Belmont*
|
1st
|
|
3
|
GFS
|
15
|
41
|
17:03
|
Belmont USATF
|
1st
|
|
4
|
GFS
|
17
|
47
|
17:24
|
Belmont USATF
|
1st
|
|
5
|
GFS
|
12
|
47
|
16:51
|
Belmont*
|
1st
|
|
6
|
Malvern Prep
|
14
|
48
|
17:04
|
Belmont USATF
|
1st
|
|
7
|
GFS
|
11
|
48
|
Belmont*
|
1st
|
|
|
8
|
GFS
|
16
|
50
|
17:22
|
Belmont USATF
|
1st
|
|
9
|
GFS
|
14
|
54
|
17:19
|
Belmont USATF
|
2nd
|
|
10
|
Germantown Academy
|
11
|
55
|
Belmont*
|
2nd
|
