Boys A was anyone’s race to win, with District 7 leading the favorites with Sewickley Academy and their consistency along with Winchester Thurston and their big runner up finish at Districts last week. Winchester Thurston’s momentum from that race carried over into the state meet in a big way.
The 1-2 combination of Will Loevner and Ben Littman made it tough for their competition to chase them down with their front running abilities. Griffin Mackey did all he can to break up that duo, and he would ultimately finish ahead of them. But the experience that the Sewickley team had to lead the team throughout the season did not have their best day, and Winchester Thurston took advantage of that by placing their 3-4-5 runners ahead of Sewickley’s number 3. That was too much for Sewickley to overcome as Winchester Thurston went from 2nd at districts to state champions over their district rivals 65-111.
Like the Class A girls race, the Class A boys race saw a repeat champion in Griffin Molino of South Williamsport. The senior did have to battle to earn the victory, as Sebastian Curtin of Mercyhurst Prep ran step for step with the champion through the first half of the race. By the 2 mile mark, however, Molino created a gap for himself and pulled away from the gutsy Curtin. Entering the final stretch, Molino was eying the course record of 15:45 set by Tony Russell in 2012, but as he crossed the finish line, the clock switched over to his official time of 15:46, which was 2nd all-time on the course as of 12 noon on Saturday. Curtin earned the silver medal and for his hot pursuit of the champion, clocked in at 15:58. Mackey was 3rd in 16:09 ahead of Loevner in 16:23, level with 5th place Colten Trimble of South Side.