SOL Golden at District XC Meet – Suburban One Sports

The SOL was golden at the District One Class AAA cross country meet. To view photos of Friday’s races, please visit the Photo Gallery.

By DENNY DYROFF

LOWER SAUCON — In recent years, there has been a rivalry for supremacy in District 1 Class AAA cross country between the teams and the runners from the Suburban One League and the Ches-Mont League.

The pendulum swings back-and-forth. This year, bragging rights belong to the Suburban One League with two individual champions — Pennridge’s Marissa Sheva and Central Bucks East’s Jake Brophy — and one team winner – the Pennsbury girls.

In the boys’ meet, which was held Friday morning at Lehigh University’s Goodman Campus, the top five teams qualify for next weekend’s PIAA Class AAA Championships in Hershey. Two of those five teams are Central Bucks West, which finished third with 169 points, and Council Rock North, which was fourth with 208.

Conestoga, the 2014 Central League champion, took first place with 152 points, while last year’s champion West Chester Henderson was runner-up at 160 and Downingtown West was fifth at 227. Central Bucks East (sixth, 238), Pennsbury (seventh, 296) and Bensalem (eighth, 332) just missed the cut.

In the Girls’ Class AAA meet, Pennsbury claimed the team championship trophy with 64 points and Central Bucks East placed fifth with 261. Unionville was second at 95, followed by Great Valley in third at 206 and Conestoga in fourth at 259.

Two other Suburban One teams just missed qualifying for states — Central Bucks West, which was sixth at 290, and North Penn, which finished tied with Downingtown West for seventh place with 314 points.

Two of the top three individual finishers in the girls’ race were Suburban One League runners — Pennridge’s Sheva, who won the gold medal with a clocking of 17:28, and Pennsbury’s Olivia Sargent, who was third at 17:51. They were sandwiched around Unionville’s Olivia Young, who posted a time of 17:41.

“There was a big pack of girls for the first mile,” said Sheva, a Pennridge senior. “We went out pretty conservatively. If somebody was leading, it was me. I felt really good after the first mile. I decided at the mile-and-a-half mark to put a move in and break away from the pack.

“The hills and the cornfield in the second mile were tough. I tried to work the hills well. I don’t like them but I run them. Once I pulled away, I was by myself for the rest of the race.

“I was racing the clock. In the last 100 meters, I saw the clock and realized that I was going to run in the 17:20s. I was excited because the Pennsylvania course record is 17:25. I ran a 17:28. I’m just happy that I ran fast.”

Sargent, a Pennsbury junior, said, “In the first mile, I was running with Marissa and then Olivia (Young) came up. After that, it was just the three of us out front. The second mile was really tough in the cornfield, but I felt good.

“At the two-mile, Marissa and Olivia were still in my sight, so it wasn’t that far. I tried to reel them in. But, with the wind and all, it didn’t work. I’m still happy because my time was a couple seconds faster than what I ran here earlier this year at the Paul Short invitational.”

Pennsbury’s other district champion finishers were Hannah Molloy (eighth, 18:35), Meridith Twomey (ninth, 18:35), Erin O’Connell (19^th, 18:59), Bailey Balmer (25^th, 19:05), Rachel Estey (35^th, 19:22) and Maddie Sauer (70^th, 20:00)

Central Bucks East’s crew in the meet at Lehigh included Elizabeth Morris (31^st, 19:10), Jackie Kinkead (32^nd, 19:15), Hannah Morris (40^th, 19:29), Tate Dawson (50^th, 19:38), Julia Heiges (108^th, 20:31), Caitlin Shewbrooke (129^th, 20:40) and Sommers Moyer (153^rd, 20:57).

Other Suburban One girls who qualified for states individually were CB West’s Maddie Villalba (seventh, 18:32), Wissahickon’s Lotte Black (14^th, 18:48), North Penn’s Gabriella Bamford (27^th, 19:08) and Phoebe Clowser (36^th, 19:23) and Upper Dublin’s Lucille Ionescu (38^th, 19:25).

In the boys’ race, Brophy crossed first with a time of 15:11. Conestoga’s Andrew Marston was second at 15:18 followed by Hatboro Horsham’s Casey Comber at 15:19 and Pennsbury’s Sam Webb at 15:26.

“I wish I had broken 15:00 but I’m still happy with my race,” said Brophy. “The first mile was 4:55 and I felt good. I felt comfortable. The top five were still running in a pack. The two-mile was 9:50 and there was still the pack.

“It broke up on the backstretch going up the hill by the cornfield. Marston started it. I moved into the lead with 400 meters to go. That’s when I started my kick. Last year, I ran a 1:55 split in the 4×800 and that was a confidence-builder for my kick.”

Two other league runners were in the Top 10 — Council Rock North’s Brian Arita (ninth, 15:56) and Council Rock South’s Andrew Hanna (10^th, 15:56).

North’s state-qualifying team also included Sean Griswold (32^nd, 16:27), Tim Haas (51^st, 16:39), Jesse Laitman (56^th, 16:42), Ben Heintz (60^th, 16:46), Bryan Keller (115^th, 17:09) and Rohan Bhandarkar (127^th, 17:12).

Central Bucks West’s finishers were Rock Fortna (13^th, 16:03), Ian Davies (15^th, 16:08), Brian Iatarola (23^rd, 16:20). Declan McDonald (39^th, 16:31), Teagan Fortna (79^th, 16:53), Trevor Belding (111^th, 17:07) and Brian Mass (114^th, 17:08).

Other league runners who made the state cut as individuals were Souderton’s Connor McMenamin (11^th, 15:59), Rock South’s Joe Maguire (19^th, 16:15), Wissahickon’s Lukas Marcelis ( 20^th, 16:16), CB East’s Connor Sands (22^nd, 16:18), North Penn’s Eric Chapman (29^th, 16:25), Neshaminy’s Liam Galligan (30^th, 16:26) and Bensalem’s Tyji Mays (35^th, 16:28) and Alex Ramirez (36^th, 16:28) and Pennridge’s Phil Gunderson (38^th, 16:29).