Photo by Ethan Rissell
PIAA District 7 Championships - Boys' Preview
Class-A
- State Qualifying Spots For Teams: 3
Tristan Forsythe certainly has some big plans for this season, but it will all go through Cooper's Lake. The Winchester Thurston senior and Georgetown commit took second at WPIALs last year to a teammate before placing third at states. He has two wins this season already and will shoot for No. 3 on Thursday.
His Winchester Thurston team will be favored to win yet another team title. The reigning 1A state champs lost some pieces to last year's team, but Gordon Pollock, Scott Routledge, and Sean Heintzleman have filled in the gaps nicely. It's unlikely any WPIAL team will challenge Thurston, but it will give us a good idea of where this team is at overall.
Riverview's Ben Barnes will look for a strong day in the race. He's registered an incredible three wins on the season. He's a reigning state medalist and we'll see if he can give Forsythe a run for his money. Freedom Area's Adam Hessler is also having a strong season and should be in the top five on Thursday.
Serra Catholic's Lukas Dunaway, OLSH's Christopher Kocent, and Northgate's Jonas Jason are among the other individuals to watch for.
Riverview, Shenango, Our Lady of Sacred Heart, and Eden Christian will be among the teams gunning for those two other state qualifying spots after Winchester Thurston.
Class-AA
- State Qualifying Spots For Teams: 3
Sam Snodgrass will look to take home the WPIAL title on Thursday. The South Fayette senior was fifth in the district last season, but he's in the midst of a very strong campaign this season, which included a win at Red, White, & Blue and a strong showing at Foundation and Mack Cooper.
The two best challengers to Snodgrass's title hopes are a pair of Greensburg Salem runners in Mark Brown and Cameron Binda. The junior were fourth and sixth at WPIALs, respectively, last year and could be expected to work together to try to pull out the win.
Other individuals to watch for include New Castle's Le'Shawn Huff, Indiana Area's Kendall Branan, and Quaker Valley's Daniel Ford.
With three team spots on the line, the race for the team title (and spots two and three) will be very competitive. Both New Castle and Indiana Area have looked like the favorites this season. Both have picked up some nice wins and have a good balance of front-running and depth.
For teams like Greensburg Salem and South Fayette, the back end of their varsity teams need to have big days to ensure a spot in the top three. Beaver Area, Quaker Valley, and Elizabeth Forward are among the other teams with hopes of Hershey come Thursday afternoon.
Class-AAA
- State Qualifying Spots For Teams: 3
Seneca Valley ended North Allegheny's long-standing WPIAL Championship win streak last season, so that storyline is out the window. Instead, it's just four very good teams battling it out for just three state qualifying spots.
The PA#1 Seneca Valley boys will go for another win on Thursday, and its second straight District 7 title. A week and a half ago, the Raiders won the "Pre-WPIAL" face-off between the D7 powers. But it's a new week and a strong Mount Lebanon squad will look to take them down this week. Add in motivated North Allegheny and Butler teams, and we've got a shootout for the WPIAL crown.
Seneca Valley has some talented low sticks in Sam Owori and Seth Ketler. Mount Lebanon has a very deep team led by the upstart Patrick Anderson. NA is led by Daniel McGoey, the state's top sophomore. Butler boasts the individual favorite and state title contender Noah Beveridge. It will come down to a number of factors, but mostly how those 3-4-5 runners perform. Butler was the fourth team in the standing at Mack Cooper, but it did so without Aden Dressler, a strong top five piece. If he returns, could that bump NA out?
Oh, and no one will know the course until they show up at the course on Thursday. Yeah, there's some drama here.
So that's the team battle. Individually, we mentioned Butler's Beveridge will be the one to beat. He ran 15:46 on the now "old" course. What does he have in store for Thursday? NA's McGoey, SV's Owori and Ketler, and Lebo's Anderson will all be expected to mix it up with Beveridge up front, though.
Look, too, for Chartiers Valley's Czar Tarr, Fox Chapel's Christian Fitch, Mount Lebanon's Peter Cosentino, Butler's Brett Brady, Seneca Valley's Connor Volk-Klos, and Mars Area's Zachary Leachman to make up another group of top five contenders.
This is a crazy deep WPIAL field and there are no shortage of storylines to keep an eye on Thursday.