D11-AAA Boys - Team & Individuals Breakdown
- Preseason Rankings: Team | Individual
- State Qualifying Spots For Teams: 2
- State Qualifying Spots For Non-Team Individuals: 10
- 2018 Individual Champion: Cosmo Cardone (Easton Area) - 16:17
- 2018 Team Champion: Easton Area - 55 points
Individuals Preview
A strong and competitive senior class from last season gives way to a solid group of underclassmen. The battle for the individual crown looks like it will be between Liberty's Cole Frank and Southern Lehigh's Alex Kane. Frank was sixth at districts and took 45th at states. The rising junior will look to move up to the top spot in the district this year.
Kane was one of the state's top freshman last fall. He was seventh at districts, less than two seconds behind Frank, and Kane took 58th at states making him the No. 2 ninth grade finisher at Hershey. Look for Kane and Frank to battle it out for the win this fall at districts.
After those two, a group of rising seniors will look to compete with Frank and Kane. Rising seniors Easton's Marco Cardone, Nazareth Area's Travis Lahr, Parkland's Nathan Reimer, and Emmaus' Paul Petre, along with Emmaus rising junior Keshav Shankar all placed inside the top 15 at districts last year. Each will look to move up in the top 5 this season and possibly compete for the win.
While there are two favorites, this race looks to be relatively wide open this season.
Team Preview
Easton Area will go for its third straight D11-AAA team title this season in what figures to be a crowded group of teams going for the title and one of the two state spots allotted to the district. The Rovers lose their top two -- Cosmo Cardone and Joey Ozgar -- from last year's team; the pair went 1-2 in the district. Easton typically rebuilds pretty well and should contend for the title or at least the top two again this fall.
Parkland, which beat Easton for the EPC team crown last year and took second to Easton at districts last year, loses four varsity runners from last year's team. Similarly, this team retools well and will look to find the pieces to contend for a spot in Hershey.
Emmaus was fourth in 2018 and returns five varsity boys from a team that had just a 31-second 1-5 gap last season. Petre and Shankar lead this squad, which can certainly make a run for the title.
Southern Lehigh and Nazareth Area went 5-6 in the district, respectively, last year. Both teams have five varsity returners and strong top runners that will make them contenders for the top two. Northampton Area, Stroudsburg (third in 2018), and Liberty could all make a run at a high district meet finish.
This is a wide open district with those top two spots coming down to the teams in this district that find the depth to fill out those scoring five runners. It's up for grabs in D11-AAA this fall.