By Dan
Beck
SOL Continental Boys
The goal was 15-flat for Jake Brophy. The senior came up just short in windy conditions at Lehigh, running 15:06, but still setting him up nicely for a return trip to the Lehigh Valley next week.
Brophy asserted his intentions from the start taking the lead from the gun to claim the wire-to-wire win in the SOL Continental race. With the exception of duel meets, Friday's race was Brophy's first race since the PIAA Foundation Invitational back on September 26. He showed little signs of rust, as the reigning state champion continued his undefeated streak in 2015.
"I felt pretty good," Brophy said. "It was a little windy, but the temperature was great, so I really can't complain. It was a little bit disheartening with the wind, but you just have got to do it."
As far as breaking the 15-minute barrier, Brophy isn't too concerned with missing it at SOLs with the District One Championships back at Lehigh's flat course in a week.
"We were shooting for 15-flat today," he said. "I think I got as close as I was going to get, so I'm looking forward to next week. I haven't really laid it out this season and today was the first day I really did that."
Brophy's rivals from the west dominated the team race. Central Bucks West placed their entire top five in the top ten. Senior Rock Fortna led the way the Bucks finishing in second place in a time of 15:32, a PR. Senior Brian Iatarola was fourth in 15:54. The West pair, along with Souderton's Connor McMenamin, comprised of the chase pack for most of the race. McMenamin was third in 15:45.
Ben Smullen (sixth), Declan McDonald (eighth), and Brian Mass (ninth) made up the rest of the CB West top five. The Bucks scored 29 points, 34 points ahead of second place CB East. Hatboro-Horsham was third with 101 points and North Penn took home fourth with 108.
SOL Continental Girls
Second, third, second.
That's what place CB West senior Maddie Villalaba finsihed in the last three SOL Continental races. She can now add a first to that list.
Villalba made a move past the two mile mark, putting a gap between her and North Penn's Ariana Gardizy, and she never looked back. Her winning was 18:34, two seconds off her districts time from last year. Still, Villalba, who won the state championship at 800 meters in the spring was hoping for a little more.
"I felt a little flat today," she said after the win. "I was hoping to run a faster time, but I'm pretty happy I won."
Villalba said she expected company for Gardizy, but used that closing speed to put her away in the final mile. Gardizy wound up second individually in 18:48 and her Maiden teammates edged CB West for the team crown. North Penn scored 44 points to West's 60 for the title.
North Penn's Olivia Dyer and Phoebe Clowser finished sixth and seventh respectively, both finishing before West's two. Souderton's Emily Bonaventure was third in 19:15, followed by a pair of CB East harriers--Hannah Morris (19:17) and Tate Dawson (19:22).
Typically known as a half mile specialist, Villalba said she's feeling great this season, as she looks forward to next week's district meet.
"I feel fitter than I've ever been, which is why it was kind of disappointing to not PR today," Villalba said. "But I'm definitely ready to run some fast races."
SOL National Boys
With 400 to go, it was anybody's race in the National boys race. Well, as long as you were in the top three.
Neshaminy's Rusty Kujdych, who took the lead from the start, led Bensalem's Rahi Shah and Pennsbury's Eric Kersten into the final quarter mile. In Lehigh's patented long straight to the finish, it was Shah that caught Kujdych in a mad dash to claim the came-from-behind win.
"The last 400 meters, I heard my coach Mary Ellen Malloy screaming 'you have a kick, you have to go now!' and I started to make some ground up on Rusty," Shah said. "Midway through the homestretch, I started to take off and luckily I caught Rusty."
Shah won it in 15:52, a second ahead of Kujdych. Council Rock South's Joe Maguire caught Kersten with a strong kick to take third place in 16:08, just ahead of Kersten in 16:09.
"It just feels great to finally win something," Shah said. "I was looking to break 15:50, and I was at 15:52, so I'm happy. This is championship season, so I'm always looking to run my best."
Council Rock North found a way yet again to pull out the team title, its eighth consecutive in the National Conference. The Indians remarkable 23-second gap from one to five was more than enough to win it. Ben Heintz, Tim Haas, Ryan Campbell, and Bryan Keller took places five through eight to lead to way for CR North, which put their fourth in before any other team's two.
SOL National Girls
Not only did Pennsbury repeat as National Conference champions, but the Falcons also repeated as sweep champs. For the second straight year, Pennsbury cleaned up, taking spots one through seven and scoring the minimum 15 points to win the league crown.
Olivia Sargent won her third straight individual title, PRing in 17:33. It wasn't your typical wire-to-wire win though. The Falcons hung back in the beginning of the race, before making a mad dash to the lead around the half mile mark. From there, it was no contest.
"I felt strong," Sargent said. "We kind of went out and wanted to stick together, so I'm happy with how we did. We didn't want to go out too hard. We wanted to go out relaxed and see how things go for the first mile and start surging throughout the race."
Sargent's teammates took care of business behind her. Two packs made up the Falcons' scorers. Senior Hannah Molloy and junior Mary Webb came across next in 18:28 and 18:29, while seniors Maddie Sauer, Meredith Twomey, and Bailey Balmer were next in 19:10, 19:13, and 19:14 respectively. Sophomore Rachel Estey rounded out the top seven for Pennsbury with a time of 19:43.
"We knew we were capable of doing it (sweeping) this year," Sargent added. "Being that five out of the seven of us are seniors, it's our last chance to make our mark on the league."
Council Rock South ran well, taking the next three places after the Falcons seven. Elizabth Sauers came the closest to breaking up the sweep, taking eighth in 19:46, just three ticks behind Pennsbury's Estey. South's Megan Blaustein and Brittany Gable made up the rest of the top ten in the race, finishing ninth and tenth.
SOL American Boys
Repeats are always nice, and Friday's repeat was possibly even sweeter for Wissahickon's Lukas Marcelis. The Trojans senior cruised to his second straight American Conference individual title.
Even better, him and his teammates repeated as team champions, winning the meet and squeaking out the American Conference crown by a point (after dual meets are factored in).
From the gun, Marcelis went out to square up his competition.
"I felt really comfortable," Marcelis said. "It was fun. I went out pretty hard just to see who would stick with me and once I started going, I just kept a comfortable pace and went for it."
It was 31 seconds faster than his win last season and he was eight seconds faster than his time on the Lehigh course at districts a year ago. He'll look to drop some time next week at districts. After the race, Marcelis wasn't sure if his team's great race would be enough to win the team championship. Sure enough, it was barely enough.
Wissahickon senior Andy Harman was third in 16:37, and fellow Trojans Ben Hoyer and Christopher Cameron took home sixth and seventh overall. They scored 32 points on the day. Cheltenham, which finished undefeated in dual meets this season scored 49 points in the meet. After the math was added up, Wissahickon edged out the Panthers.
Upper Dublin's Riley Hannon was second in 16:33 and Upper Merion's Noah Falasco was fourth in 16:45. Marcelis was more than happy to be a repeat double champ.
"The team did awesome," he said. "We're mostly underclassmen, so it meant a lot to see that they would go out my senior and put out the effort."
SOL American Girls
If there was one race up for grabs coming into Friday, it was the last varsity race of the day--the girls' American Conference. Sarah Richart of Cheltenham didn't even know what to expect.
But the senior ran away with the race. Richart took the lead early and opened up a huge gap, holding on to win by 31 seconds--a romping defeat.
"I'm really happy I wasn't expecting it," a jubilant Richart said after her race. "Everything is for my coaches and my team because I couldn't imagine having a better team than them."
She wasn't lying. After her win, instead of basking of her individual crown, Richart raced to the side of the finishing stretch to cheer on the rest of her Panther teammates as they made their way to the finish.
Upper Dublin won the team race, scoring 39 points. Four Flying Cardinals placed in the top ten to easily take the win over Upper Merion (55 points) and Wissahickon (70 points). Junior Sarah Smith was the first UD runner across in 19:56. Saddie Gustafson, Sophie Gustafson, and Emily Stewart were next, taking 6-7-8.
Upper Moreland's Maria Antoni was second in 19:46. Lotte Black, last year's champ in the American, was fourth in 20:01.
Richart will look forward to next week at districts.
"I would really like to make states and break 19," she said. "That would be a dream come true. Anything that would get me into the state championships is my goal."