By Alex Frazier
Brad Miles didn’t have his best day, but that didn’t prevent the powerful North Penn boys from capturing their second consecutive District One Cross Country Championship.
“All in all, they ran pretty good,” said North Penn coach Ron Jaros.
Three Suburban One teams took the top three places, with North Penn finishing with 110 points, Council Rock with 160 and Upper Dublin with 178. Upper Dublin captured the Class AAA title.
As expected, the race for first came down to a duel between Council Rock North and the Knights, with Upper Dublin not far behind. Miles did finish first for North Penn, sixth overall, with teammate Sam Bernitt close on his heels.
“It was not what I was hoping,” said Miles. “I just didn’t feel my legs today. It wasn’t a good race.”
He had no excuses.
“You can’t ask for better conditions,” he said. “I didn’t show up to win today. Last year I ran really well at districts. I don’t know what got to me today.”
“Hey, that’s all right,” said Jaros. “We can do it next week. We’ll give him another try.”
Brian Quintrell was 11th for North Penn, while Tom Stauring finished fourth (38th) and Dominic Comasso was fifth (48th).
The entire pack of seven was just 38 seconds apart.
Upper Dublin’s spread was actually closer than Council Rock North’s 47-54, but the Indians’ Dan Wallace was fifth overall, while the Cardinals’ Mike Palmisano came in 10th
Upper Dublin made up some of the gap when Paul Reilly (16th) and Matt Lorenzo (17th) finished ahead of North’s second runner Chris Campbell who finished 20th. However, Rock North had better depth as it pushed two runners ahead of Upper Dublin’s fourth and one ahead of the Cardinals’ fifth runner.
Upper Dublin’s Reilly had an unusual adversity to deal with on the course. Around the two-mile mark, a wood chip caught in his cleat. Naturally he couldn’t stop to remove it, so he had to run with it for about a half mile before it finally dropped out.
“It stayed on for so long,” he said. “It was so annoying. I couldn’t take it off, either.”
But the incident didn’t affect his time. His goal was to better his PR of 15:49, which he did by two seconds with a clocking of 15:47.
“I’m happy about that,” he said. “I did that at the very beginning of the season.”
He credited the more intense competition this week for helping him run faster.
“There were a lot more kids, which takes your mind off a lot more when you’re running,” he said. “There’s a lot more to think about.”
Next week Reilly is hoping to improve on a poor performance at states last year. He has the advantage of having run the course once already this year at the Hershey Invitational, when he lowered his previous time on the course by 20 seconds.
Even though it’s a tough course, Reilly is looking forward to it.
“I like running the hills,” he said. “It’s one of my strengths.”
After placing second last week at the SOL league meet, Hatboro-Horsham finished out of the running for a team bid to states in 10th place, but the Hatters will send two runners in Seth Hibbs (15th) and Greg Wesh (37th).
For Hibbs, it will be his third trip to Hershey. His time of 15:46 was a personal record by 30 seconds. Last week on the same course, he ran a 16:04.
“I took it out like I usually do, trying to go around 4:50-4:55,” he said. “The pack started pulling away and I hung in there. The last mile I gave it all I got.”
It was important for him to get a fast start, especially in a crowd of 403 runners funneling into a chute 200 yards into the race.
“I’m pretty good getting out at the beginning,” he said.
Last year at states he finished around 35th. This year he’s hoping to move into the top 20.
“It would be nice to get a medal,” he said.
Next week North Penn is hoping to defend its state championship. North Allegheny will provide some very tough competition. If the Knights hope to do that Miles will have to have a better day.
“I just have to forget this race and look forward to the state meet,” he said. “Our team is really close together. It’s always well to run well individually, but overall the team is the most important thing.”
Top five teams
1. North Penn 110
2. Council Rock North 160
3. Upper Dublin 178
4. Henderson 197
5. Perkiomen Valley 227
Top SOL state qualifiers (not including all team members)
1. Dan Wallace, Council Rock North (5th overall), 15:30
2. Brad Miles, North Penn (6th), 15:30
3. Sam Bernitt, North Penn (7th), 15:33
4. Sean Keefe, Council Rock South (8th), 15:36
5. Mike Palmisano, Upper Dublin (10th), 15:39
6. Brian Quintrell, North Penn (11th), 15:41
7. Seth Hibbs, Hatboro-Horsham, (15th), 15:46
8. Paul Reilly, Upper Dublin, (16th), 15:47
9. Matthew Lorenzo, Upper Dublin (17th), 15:47
10. Chris Campbell, Council Rock North (20th), 15:49
11. Mike Mahoney, Council Rock North (23rd), 15:52
12. Jordan Dawson, Central Bucks East (24th), 15:53
13. Brady Desko, Pennridge (25th), 15:54
14. Nick Scarpello, Central Bucks West (26th), 15:54
15. Ryan Knouse, Pennridge (29th), 15:55
16. Donnie Noble, Souderton (30th), 15:55
17. Tom Mallon, Central Bucks South (33rd), 15:58
18. James Faucette, Pennridge (36th), 16:00
19. Greg Wesh, Hatboro-Horsham (37th), 16:00
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