RACE VIDEOS & VIDEO INTERVIEWS
2 races in 48 hours was the task for the Downingtown West boys team. Part 1 was already completed with a big victory at the Eastern States race at the Manhattan Invitational on Saturday. Monday morning came and the task was to retain their league title.
The squad was rotated a little bit, as Jaxson Hoey, defending league champion Henry Sappey, and Ben Ryherd were held out of the league title meet. In their place went Ben Codd, Ben Alansky, and Patrick Blair. Ryan Barton and Josh Hoey were still in the team, and they were put in a position to lead the rest of the squad and they did just that. Josh Hoey let Kent Hall of Unionville push the pace until the final 400 meters. From there, Hoey took over and became the new Ches-Mont league title winner in a time of 16:02. Behind him, Ryan Barton finished 4th and the team used a 47 second spread to score 39 points and keep their league title over West Chester Henderson.
The Downingtown West success did not stop there. In the girls race, Aislinn Devlin was set to defend her league crown after winning her first one last season. From the start, Devlin was out to keep the title, and by the mile mark, she had already created a gap on the field. By the time the race was done, Devlin had retained her title and had achieved a new PA#1 performance of 17:48! The time was 30 seconds better than the field and is 3 seconds better than the previous state leader Olivia Sargent, whose 23 day streak on top of the state comes to an end.
The girls race saw Unionville defend their home course one again to retain their league championship. The team had four of the top six finishers led by a 2-3 finish from Anna Juul and Kacie Breeding. The team scored 54 points to win by 44 points over Great Valley.
