Boys AAA Feature: Brophy rides the wave to a record! North Allegheny surge late to win team crown!

Most likely, it’s just a coincidence that both Jake Brophy and North Allegheny walked away from the PIAA Foundation Gold race with third-place finishes and looking forward to better days.

No matter the reason for the duplicate placings in September, their return trips to Hershey’s Parkview Course for the state championship meet Saturday resulted in markedly improved results and plenty of smiles being flashed all around.

Central Bucks East’s Brophy laid waste to a 239-runner field and the course record for the tough 5,000-meter layout, while John Neff’s Tigers picked up their second title in the past four years in Class AAA.

“I saw 4:37 and when we crest that hill right at the mile mark, I thought I was done,” Brophy said of the torrid early pace that still left a pack of six battling for the lead deep into the Aloha Hills. “I felt myself starting to die off a little bit. I was here in the Foundation Face, and we did about the same thing. I died in that race so I thought ...