PIAA State Champs-Boys AAA Race Story

AAA Boys - Manheim Twp sophomore Craig Miller 15:50 5k catches Henderson's Ian Gottesfeld and Greg Williams in the stretch. Gottesfeld 15:59 holds on for second but Williams fades to 15th. Nevertheless, Henderson 135 (2-7-10-35-81) wins torrid team battle over North Hills 147 (Ian Fitzgerald 16:10 for third), with 6 more teams under 200 points.

PIAA State Champs-Girls AAA Race Story

PIAA State Champs-Boys AA Race Story

PIAA State Champs-Girls AA Race Story

Henderson's Ian Gottesfeld, the defending AAA State Champ, and Greg Williams, the sometimes Henderson #1, made their move where planned. What wasn't planned was for a very confident sophomore to follow in their footsteps, and run them down on the final straightaway to win States. Manheim Township's Craig Miller says it was all part of the race plan. "I tried to run ten yards behind them the whole time." He used his knowledge of the course - where District 3 runs their championships - to his advantage. "That last stretch after the turn is a lot longer than you think it is, so I knew I could catch him there." The increasingly confident Miller also immediately made a statement about his future in PA. "I just want to win the next two years. If I don't do that, I'll be pretty upset."

Gottesfeld held on for second, while Williams faded, somehow holding on to get 15th, suffering from dehydration. He fared better than a year ago, and helped his Henderson team repeat as State Champs. " Last year, we made a move at a mile and a third, and this year with the heat, we decided to make a big move at two miles. So we had a gap on the final straight. It worked that way. I felt great until the final 300. Last year was a lot worse, with dehydration, hypoglycemia, and I was run-down. I think it was just dehydration this year. Nothing to do with fitness." After great races this year at Districts and Great American, Williams remains undecided about the rest of the season. "It's kind of hard for something like that to happen two years in a row, so I have to evaluate what I want to do the rest of the season. But I know I have the ability to make it to nationals and to do well there, too."

The team race was probably the closest in history, with seven teams within 39 points, and eight under 200. Henderson won for the 2nd year in a row by the same margin, 12 points. North Hills was 2nd behind Ian Fitzgerald's 3rd place 16:10. Hatboro was a point back in 3rd, Cedar Cliff 13 behind that for 4th, Council Rock-North two points higher in 5th, Coatesville 12 points later in 6th and Mount Lebanon one point back in 7th. Cedar Cliff and Rock-North each return four of five scorers.

Henderson's 2nd year coach Kevin Kelly admits that losing his three seniors will send them back to the drawing board. "But we have some good young talent. We'll just have to get back to work." Kelly said the race plan went exactly as drawn… going out conservatively, especially on such a hot day. " We wanted to run smart. We knew it was going to go out too fast. And this course is running faster, so we knew that people would run dumb and get out too fast and pay for it. We wanted to be up there by the mile, which we were. That's how you have to run this course, because this course just tears you up." (Just after the mile, Williams was 9th and Gottesfeld was 24th. ) As one would expect, it was a team effort according to Kelly. " The race went great until Greg went down. But our fourth guy, freshman Chris Ferry, picked up 40 places in the last mile, and Tom Espedel, who is a sophomore, picked up like 35 places in the last mile. And that, with Greg staying up, Jimmy Alexander getting 10th, and obviously Ian, we ran great."


Miller kept his rivals in site approaching 2.5 miles.