The North Allegheny boys cross country team is more than eager to start the indoor track season. And they should be after the fall they had.
"They're already looking forward to next year," said coach Jim LeDonne. "We know we need to back up. Winter track starts up slow so we'll be putting in the junk miles."
Mat Jacob led North Allegheny much of the year,
here showing their tight formation at Tri-States on October 19th.
His team's readiness to start another season is a reflection of this summer, when LeDonne started cross country practice with 123 kids at North Hill County Park and had no idea just how far his boys squad's work ethic would take them this fall.
"Halfway through the summer they blew the goals I had for them away," LeDonne said. "I knew we had a good team, but not that good."
LeDonne returned a very young team this year and had hoped his squad would be competitive in the WPIAL (District 7). But after the team finished second to Coatesville in the Carlisle Invitational that goal quickly changed.
"That was the highest finish we had in the last five years," he said. LeDonne has been trying to rebuild the team since taking over the program five years ago.
Allegheny used that runner-up finish to springbroad themselves to a Class 3A district championship and a fifth place finish at the state meet.
Leading the way this fall was junior Matt Jacob, who medalled at states for the first time with a 19th place finish.
"He's really turned into a competitive runner. He's such a goal-oriented kid," LeDonne said. "He concentrates on his sleep and nutrition. He's someone who's very easy to coach."
Jacob never expected to have the season he or his teammates had.
"Everyone put in the time this season," Jacob said. "It first started in the first couple of invites. We had four in the top 10 at Slippery Rock. Carlisle was as good as a win for us."
"But we stayed grounded," Jacob continued. "We lost a dual meet against Seneca Valley and that was a good wakeup call."
Jacob took over top runner duties partly because junior Pat Morgan, a state medallist last year, is currently doing an exchange student program in Germany. Losing him for the year was part of the reason why LeDonne wasn't sure where his boys would stand heading into the season.
Another reason was because his top senior and last year's No. 5 runner, Matt Conti, was coming off an injury and didn't even step back into the varsity lineup until the latter part of the season.
By the state meet he was back in the No. 5 spot.
"I was honored to be a part of this team and I think they will do extraordinary things next year," Conti said. "I was glad I could cross the finish line at Hershey with these guys for my first time running at states."
Highlights from North Allegheny's 2006 XC Season
Note: The four teams ahead of North Allegheny at PIAA States
are losing a lot next year, and NA is getting a state medalist
returning from an exchange student program this year
The rest of the group wasn't far behind
at Tri-States on October 19th, where they had a spread
of 41 seconds. All season, they never exceeded a minute,
and twice had a gap of 27 seconds..
9/9 Red, White & Blue Classic @ Schenley Oval
1 North Allegheny 65 5 11 12 16 21 32 50 16:40 27
774 5 Matt Jacob, Jr 16:23 5:17
772 11 Jake Holdcroft, Jr 16:39 5:22
785 12 Chase Broussard, So 16:41 5:23
778 16 Dan O'Brien, Jr 16:45 5:24
781 21 Will Appman, So 16:50 5:26
779 32 Justin Taylor, Jr 17:05 5:30
776 50 Jackson Kernion, Jr 17:22 5:36
9/16 Slippery Rock Inv @ Cooper's Lake
1 North Allegheny 48 5 6 8 9 20 28 59 17:29 27
5 Justin Taylor, 3 17:20 5:35
6 Chase Broussard, 2 17:22 5:36
8 Will Appman, 2 17:29 5:38
9 Matt Jacob, 3 17:30 5:38
20 Dan O'Brien, 3 17:47 5:44
28 Jake Holdcroft, 3 17:58 5:47
59 Jackson Kernion, 3 18:39 6:01
9/30 Carlisle Invitational
BOYS REEBOK CHALLENGE
1 Coatesville 30 1 3 5 8 13 30 39
Total Time: 1:19:38.91
Average: 15:55.79
2 North Allegheny 115 12 18 19 31 35 53 81
Total Time: 1:23:09.13
Average: 16:37.83
3 LaSalle College HS 115 9 16 21 23 46 55 67
Total Time: 1:22:56.81
Average: 16:35.37
1 Dawson, Kyle 12 Coatesville 4:55.5 15:17.83 1
5 Leonard, Jason 12 Coatesville 5:06.4 15:51.83 3
7 Pannula, Tom 12 Coatesville 5:08.0 15:56.75 57
10 Dawson, Owen 12 Coatesville 5:11.8 16:08.47 8
11 Wood, Phil 10 LaSalle College HS 5:12.2 16:09.81 9
16 Jacob, Matt 11 North Allegheny 5:16.0 16:21.75 12
17 Ward, Sean 12 Coatesville 5:16.8 16:24.03 13
21 Dorsey, Steve 12 LaSalle College HS 5:18.8 16:30.30 16
23 Broussard, Chase 10 North Allegheny 5:19.6 16:32.97 18
24 Taylor, Justin 11 North Allegheny 5:19.7 16:33.28 19
26 Heck, Tim 12 LaSalle College HS 5:21.1 16:37.45 21
28 Lowry, Dan 11 LaSalle College HS 5:21.3 16:38.25 23
37 Rosato, Chris 10 Coatesville 5:24.5 16:48.08 30
38 Holdcroft, Jake 11 North Allegheny 5:24.7 16:48.67 31
43 Appman, Will 10 North Allegheny 5:25.9 16:52.46 35
47 Gordon, Chad 12 Coatesville 5:26.3 16:53.49 39
61 O'Brien, Dan 11 North Allegheny 5:30.1 17:05.48 53
63 Bonnevie, Ed 12 LaSalle College HS 5:30.3 17:06.01 55
FROM JV: 1 Mahoney, Andrew 11 Coatesville 5:31.9 17:10.89 1
76 Pinchock, George 12 LaSalle College HS 5:33.6 17:16.34 67
90 Kernion, Jackson 11 North Allegheny 5:37.0 17:26.87 81
10/19 Tri-States Coaches @ Cooper's Lake
1 North Allegheny 36 3 4 8 9 12 17 20 17:19 41
3 Matt Jacob, Jr 16:54 5:27
4 Justin Taylor, Jr 17:19 5:35
8 Will Appman, So 17:22 5:36
9 Chase Broussard, So 17:22 5:36
12 Matt Conti, Sr 17:35 5:40
17 Dan O'Brien, Jr 17:46 5:44
20 Jake Holdcroft, Jr 17:48 5:44
10/26 PIAA District 7 @ Cooper's Lake
1 North Allegheny 53 3 9 11 14 16 19 28 16:47 29
3 Matt Jacob, Jr 16:27 5:18
9 Justin Taylor, Jr 16:48 5:25
11 Chase Broussard, So 16:50 5:26
14 Matt Conti, Sr 16:54 5:27
16 Jake Holdcroft, Jr 16:56 5:28
19 Dan O'Brien, Jr 17:01 5:29
28 Will Appman, So 17:06 5:31
11/4 PIAA State Championships @ Hershey Parkview
1 Coatesville (1) 26 1 3 4 7 11 21 27 15:43 42
2 Wc Henderson (1) 86 2 6 8 31 39 55 137 16:09 1:21
3 Strath Haven (1) 129 9 14 17 18 71 132 148 16:25 1:18
4 Wc East (1) 133 13 16 20 32 52 105 112 16:31 55
5 North Allegheny (7) 166 12 22 36 43 53 54 57 16:38 59
1. Coatesville (1)
976 1 Kyle Dawson, Sr 15:17 4:56
978 3 Tom Panulla, Sr 15:38 5:02
977 4 Owen Dawson, Sr 15:47 5:05
980 7 Sean Ward, Sr 15:54 5:08
979 11 Jason Leonard, Sr 15:59 5:09
982 21 Chris Rosato, So 16:32 5:20
981 27 Andrew Mahoney, Jr 16:36 5:21
2. Wc Henderson (1)
992 2 Chris Aldrich, Jr 15:29 4:59
993 6 Chris Ferry, Sr 15:50 5:06
994 8 Andrew Jervis, Sr 15:55 5:08
996 31 Jim Norley, Sr 16:41 5:23
995 39 Scott McCollester, Jr 16:49 5:25
997 55 Will Kellar, Fr 17:00 5:29
998 137 Doug Paxson, Jr 18:10 5:51
3. Strath Haven (1)
984 9 Rob Speare, Sr 15:57 5:08
985 14 Kevin Murray, Jr 16:12 5:13
986 17 Ryan Fink, Sr 16:20 5:16
987 18 Clarke Hunt, Sr 16:23 5:17
988 71 Nathaniel Paffett-Lugas, Sr 17:14 5:33
989 132 George Dickson, So 18:07 5:51
990 148 Andrew Donaghy, Jr 18:26 5:57
4. Wc East (1)
1000 13 John Lacolla, Jr 16:03 5:10
1001 16 Andrew Lobb, Sr 16:19 5:16
1002 20 Steve Vincent, Sr 16:29 5:19
1004 32 Luke Trama, Sr 16:46 5:24
1003 52 Scott Trama, Sr 16:58 5:28
1005 105 Dan Herring, Jr 17:44 5:43
1006 112 Matt Herring, Jr 17:49 5:45
5. North Allegheny (7)
1097 12 Matt Jacob, Jr 15:59 5:09
1100 22 Justin Taylor, Jr 16:33 5:20
1093 36 Will Appman, So 16:48 5:25
1095 43 Matt Conti, Sr 16:51 5:26
1099 53 Dan O'Brien, Jr 16:58 5:28
1096 54 Jake Holdcroft, Jr 16:58 5:28
1094 57 Chase Broussard, So 17:01 5:29