Jake Brophy was caught in a sea of royal blue.
Brophy--the defending state champion--came out of it alive and with yet another state championship. The Central Bucks East senior had a good feeling about how the AAA boys' race at the PIAA State Championships would play out. His hunch turned out to be exactly right.
At a mile and a half, Brophy and three Downingtown West runners separated themselves from the field. It was a race to the finish at that point. Just like a week earlier, Brophy won a mad dash to the finish with West's Jaxson Hoey.
"I don't like to say it, but it was a little more reactive than proactive," Brophy said. "I knew what was going to happen today and it played out. I was waiting for them to make a move and then capitalizing on that. In future races, I'll probably come in with a better race plan, today was more of a reactive race."
Whichever way you slice it, Brophy can once again say he's a state champion, joining elite company as a multi-time state champ in cross country. The time was a bit off his course record time set a year ago, but with those unmistakable singlets donning a "D" made the trip to title number two a little more difficult for Brophy.
In a wild sprint finish, Jaxson Hoey gapped Brophy by about five meters at the top of Poop-Out Hill. But Brophy responded, throwing in an acceleration to catch, pass, and nip the eldest Hoey brother at the line.
"I wasn't gonna lead for three miles and then get outkicked," Brophy quipped after the race.
"I wasn't too concerned about [the time]," Brophy said. "It was more of a reactive race and I was just going for the win. I would have liked to break the record today, but I'm looking forward to the three freshmen on our team beating that in the years to come."
Brophy enjoyed the presence of six others on the line Saturday. For the first time since 2000, CB East qualified a team to states and certainly eased some of the pressure to defend his title that Brophy felt.
The brothers Hoey--Jaxson and Josh--took second and third. Don't feel too bad, though. The boys from Downingtown West won the team title. Henry Sappey, West's third runner, who was running in fourth for most of the race, wound up in sixth.
For the Hoeys, despite no individual titles, Saturday was definitely a good day.
"He ran a really good race, so he deserved to win," Jaxson said of Brophy's win. "I gave it everything, but I am really proud with how the guys on the team performed today."
"I was just trying to stick with Jaxson and Jake for as long as I could," Josh, only a sophomore, added. "They kind of got away from me on the last hill, but it was a really exciting race."
You'd likely have to go pretty far back in the record books to find a team that put three guys in the top six at states. So how about the training at West?
"Running with the team is my favorite part of the day," Josh said.
"The team camaraderie is a real gift here. It is really special to be apart of," Jaxson said.
The season's not over for the top finishers. The Hoeys, Sappey and the rest of the West team will look to NXN, where they hope to qualify a team for Nationals.
Brophy will head to Van Cortland Park on October 28 for Foot Locker Regionals. He was fifth a year ago and earned a trip to San Diego for Nationals. This year, Brophy's looking for the Northeast individual title. He still thinks he's got something left in the tank.
"This was an emotional peak, but I don't think I'm at my physical peak," Brophy said of his training. "We'll take a couple days off and ramp it up for regionals, but I'm feeling good, so we'll see."