D2-A Boys - Team & Individuals Breakdown
- Preseason Rankings: Team | Individual
- State Qualifying Spots For Teams: 2
- State Qualifying Spots For Individuals: 10
- 2020 Individual Champion: Kevin Jumper (Holy Cross) - 16:53
- 2020 Team Champions: Holy Cross - 45 points
Individuals Breakdown
The top six spots in D2-A last year went to either seniors or freshmen. The seniors have since graduated, but it leaves three impressive freshman from the district back this season in D2-A. The head of that group is Daniel Danilovitz of Riverside. After taking second in the district to Kevin Jumper, Danilovitz placed 13th at the state meet. He was the highest placed ninth grader in the A field. Now into his sophomore season, he'll look to move up in a Class A field that graduated a lot of top seniors from last year.
Those two other top freshmen returners out of D2-A were just on the outside of state medals last season. Montrose's Nate Sinkovich was third at the district meet and then took 32nd at the state meet. Lackawanna Trail's Brayden Clarke took sixth in the district and then placed 31st at states, a spot ahead of Sinkovich. Look for both to move up inside the top 25 this season.
Justice Johnson of Elk Lake is the only other returning individual state qualifier from D2-A. He was 37th at Hershey after placing seventh in the district. Johnson moves into his senior year this fall. His teammate Dylan Way just missed out on state qualification, and he should be in good position to get to states this year.
Team Preview
Montrose placed second in the district last year, and that was initially supposed to mean a trip to the state meet. D2-A added a second team qualifier before the start of last season. But the pandemic limited each district to just one team, so the Montrose team was left at home. This season, it going to be a motivated Montrose squad, looking to return to the top of D2-A.
Sinkovich was impressive as a freshman and the Montrose team returns five of its top seven from a year ago. They are the team to beat in the district last year and should be a good bet to at least crack the top two and head to Hershey.
Holy Cross won its second straight district title last season, and then went on to place fifth at the state meet. That team included five seniors, so Holy Cross will have some retooling to do if it wants a return trip to the state meet. The team does have some decent depth, ready to step up, though, Holy Cross isn't a team to count out.
Elk Lake returns five boys this season after a third place district finish last year. Expect them to be in the mix for the top two. Dunmore and Riverside are teams to keep an eye on, too. Overall, it will be fairly wide open for the second of the two state spots this season.