October 20, 2018
Team Race
This appears to be a three team race for the one state qualifying spot available. York Catholic, Fairfield, and Kutztown have been leading our rankings throughout the season and will compete to move on to Hershey next Saturday (Oct 27th). Fairfield narrowly edged out York Catholic on the Big Spring course at Ben Bloser on September 15th, 62-65. Fairfield has the best depth and has progressed well as a team throughout the season. The better battle may be between York Catholic and Kutztown for 2nd.
Race Projections:
District III A Champion – Fairfield
District III A Runner-up – York Catholic
3rd – Kutztown
4th – Trinity
5th – Camp Hill
Individual Race
The 2018 Boys Championship in A will be a changing of the guard at the top. Brenden Miller (Upper Dauphin) won the previous two championships. He won by 1 minute last year, running 16:21. He would end up 2nd in the state. Miller is now an integral part of the Saint Francis University cross country team and will be competing at the Northeast Conference Championship as opposed to a District title on October 27th.
Miller was the only senior in the top 10 last year, so expect many of last year’s top talent to do battle again in 2018. Fairfield’s John Whitcomb (jr) finished runner-up in 2017 and will be looking to capture his first district title. The junior ran a PR of 17:12 last weekend at the YAIAA championships. Last year’s 3rd place finisher, Alex Rosenberry (sr, West Shore Christian), ran well at the Big Spring course earlier this year when he finished 3rd in the A division at the Ben Bloser Invitational. In fact, he was the top District III A finisher in the event, beating Whitcomb who was 8th. Trinity senior Sam Predmore may have made the biggest improvement from 2017 to 2018. He currently has run the fastest 5k time in A this year when he ran 16:59 last weekend at the Mid-Penn Championships. Predmore’s teammate, Will Bucher, ran a 17:18 at PTXC10, however, he did not run at Mid-Penn’s and his availability for Districts is unknown. Another athlete to keep an eye out for is Kutztown soph Mitchell Brett. Brett was 9th last year as a freshman and has a season best time of 17:17 from the Carlisle Invitational. He is coming off an 11th place finish at the BCIAA. The top 5 individuals not on the state qualifying team will compete at Hershey next weekend.
Other Top Individuals Season Best Time
Christian Gervasi (sr, York Catholic) – 17:16 at YAIAA (Gettysburg)
Gabe Hall (sr, Delone Catholic) – 17:21 at YAIAA (Gettysburg)
Joseph Rizzuto (soph, York Catholic) – 17:44 at YAIAA (Gettysburg)
Matt Gurgiolo (jr, Camp Hill) – 17:48 at Ben Bloser (Big Spring)
Eric Shelton (soph, Christian School of York) – 17:53 at Ben Bloser (Big Spring)