Last year's 3,000 meter run at the indoor state meet featured a great showdown between McCaskey's Nathan Henderson and Rusty Kujdych of Neshaminy. The pair battled for the entire race before Henderson broke away late to earn the win and his first state title.
Since then, Kujdych has shown that he is ready for his chance. He rolled through the XC season, which will culminate with a Foot Locker Nationals race on Saturday. He ran 8:36 at nationals last season and is almost surely on track to run faster than that this year.
But of course, eight other Pennsylvania boys enter this winter with 3K. Only three others return from last year's state meet. Penncrest's Avery Lederer took sixth at states last winter, running a great time of 8:47. William Tennent's Sean Rahill was 11th and Butler's Noah Beveridge did not finish the race at states last year. But Beveridge should be a factor this winter and expects to be Kujdych's best challenger after a terrific spring track and XC season. He'll be hungr...
