PIAA District 5 Championships - Boys' Preview
Class-A
- State Qualifying Spots For Teams: 1
The top four finishers at last year's District 5 Championship meet were all seniors, meaning the top returner is a sophomore this year: Ian Sherlock of Northern Bedford. He's joined by an impressive freshman, Ian Zimmerman, making NB a powerful 1-2 punch up front. Windber's Tyler Napora will look to challenge, along with any others that we maybe haven't seen yet in action this year yet.
Southern Fulton, who we haven't seen yet this season, will go for a repeat district title. Northern Bedford will look for Zimmerman and Sherlock to give them low sticks, but depth could be a question. NB's fifth will need to lower the gap to the leaders if it wants a shot at the top spot.
Windber Area and Meyersdale Area are two other teams worth watching for.
Class-AA
- State Qualifying Spots For Teams: 1
This AA race figures to be a battle between Somerset Area and Bedford, just like last year.
Bedford has benefitted from the emergence of a freshman---Van May---who will be the favorite to win it all on Wednesday. May ran an impressive 16:38 to win the LHAC Conference title last week. The Somerset duo of Dominic Mazzariello and Cejay Walker placed fourth and sixth respectively in that race and will try to hang with May on Wednesday. Mazzariello is the defending D5 champ.
Team-wise, Somerset will be favored over Bedford. Somerset was second to Central Cambria at LHACs last week, 30 points ahead of fifth place Bedford. Can Bedford reverse its fortune on Wednesday?