For Cardinal O'Hara and LaSalle, two teams in the Saucony Flo50 team rankings in PA, Saturday was the invite opener at the historic Briarwood Invitational. Add in teams like Council Rock North, Central Bucks West, and NJ power Indian Hills, as well as strong individuals like Springfield (Delco)'s Liam Galligan and Neshaminy's Rusty Kujdych and we had a great team battle on tap.
Up front, the race didn't disappoint. The race came down to O'Hara, LaSalle, and Indian Hills and we didn't find out a winner until results were posted next to the finish line at Belmont Plateau.
O'Hara squeaked out the victory with 71 points, slightly better than Indian Hills' 74 points and LaSalle's 76 points. While that's probably the last we'll see of Indian Hills against PA compeititon, we'll see plenty more of the O'Hara-LaSalle rivalry. This week's pre-state meet at Hershey will be round two, then they'll clash again at the Philadelphia Catholic League Championship and the District 12 Championships before the state meet.
O'Hara benefitted from strong #2 and #3 runners after Ryan James, who figured to be among the leaders. Gavin Inglis turned in a big race to finish fourth and Patrick James was strong in sixth place. That made it three runners ahead of LaSalle's top runner, Stephen Paul, who took eighth overall.
But LaSalle had a small gap after that. Evan Addison and Brendan Price took 12th and 13th. The Explorers were just five points off O'Hara despite the Lions' top three. And when we combine all the races from Briarwood together, LaSalle actually beats O'Hara by 23 (and Indian Hills by one). So would LaSalle do better in a bigger meet with more than ten teams? Maybe.
Still, O'Hara won the race that was run. It's a checkmark in the win column for a team that, in their own words, are looking to take back the PCL from LaSalle this year.
But it's just the first of many matchups.
Watch an interview with the Cardinal O'Hara boys below: