1A Boys' Team Preview - PIAA State Championships
For a second straight season, the Jenkintown boys come into the state meet after scoring a perfect 15 points at the PIAA District 1 Championships. J'Town looks like it's stronger than it was a year ago and this could be the year for the Drakes.
A small school, Jenkintown has a male enrollment of just 92 boys, per the PIAA's latest report. That hasn't seemed to affect the Drakes much this season. Jenkintown was fifth in the PIAA Foundation Invite meet merge and sixth in the Paul Short Run meet merge (it won the "White" race at both meets), beating out a number of AAA and AA state qualifying teams.
Fifth a year ago, Jenkintown returns five from last year's team, including one of the individual favorites in Jack Miller and a pack of three that ran between 16:17 and 16:21 at Lehigh last week. This team will be hard to beat on Saturday.
It gets very interesting after that.
The team with the best chance of making a run at the favorites are Winchester Thurston. The 2016 1A state champs were fourth last season. WT always retools nicely, and it has done so this season, putting 5 in the top 16 to win Class A in the WPIAL by 49 points. WT was second to Jenkintown by 41 points at Foundation, but we'll see if this team can bridge the gap a month and a half later.
The reigning state champions from Penns Valley Area can't be counted out. After the loss of some key components to last year's team, PV has rebuilt well. Behind a very solid top two in Brendan Colwell and Colton Sands, Penns Valley has improved its depth as the season has gone on, winning last week at District 6 with 34 points.
Cochranton won the District 10 title this past week, continuing its impressive run after a seventh place finish at states last year. Wyalusing Valley Area looked strong at the District 4 meet, putting 4 boys insides the top 10. They'll be returning to Hershey after placing third at Foundation.
Elk County Catholic and Cranberry made it out of a tough District 9 with ECC taking the win by 2 points. Both squads will be looking to get inside the top 5; Cranberry was fourth at Foundation, while Elk County Catholic comes back to Hershey after taking second a year ago.
Montrose was third last season and is having yet another solid season. It rolled through District 2 with 30 points and has a good lowstick in Liam Mead. Look for this team to make another run at the podium. West Middlesex and Riverview are among the other teams that could get inside the top 5 with a good day in Hershey.
Jenkintown comes in as the strong favorite, but after that the field is wide open in 1A.