Because the district 1 finish between defending state champion Jake Brophy of Central Bucks East and Jaxson Hoey of Downingtown West, everyone knew the rematch with be very compelling. Brophy had been undefeated all season, but it was a state title defense, which is always tough. Hoey had nothing to lose in his first and only Hershey course appearance.
Unlike last week's slow pace that made Brophy uneasy, an aggressive pace started the AAA title tilt. Brophy put himself in the lead before all the major hills, with both Jaxson and Josh Hoey ready to do battle with the champion one more time. The pack of three broke themselves away from a chase pack of seven at the two mile mark to make it a three man race.
At district 1, Brophy had the lead and resisted Hoey's final push with 200 meters to go. Today, Hoey had the lead at the final stretch, and the 4:11 miler looked poised for state gold, only for Brophy to find one final push in his system to keep the title in his grasp with a time of 15:39 to win by a second. Josh Hoey was 3rd, teammate Henry Sappey was a few meters away from completed a 2-3-4 sweep for Downingtown West, only for most improved runner of the year Nick Wolk of Peters Township and Nathan Henderson of JP McCaskey to snatch the 4th and 5th positions respectively.
Despite that minor hiccup, Downingtown West fulfilled their potential once again on the biggest stage in the PA cross country scene by winning their first ever state championship. The Whippets scored 57 points to win by a big 48 point margin over 2014 champions North Allegheny, who had the best finish out of the three boys defending team champions. 3rd place went to Central Bucks West with 132 points, which was 10 points better than 4th place Lasalle and their unbelievable 15 second spread.