Cross Country Team Advances To PIAA State Championship For 4th Consecutive Season
Cross Country Team Advances To PIAA State Championship For 4th Consecutive Season
n/a
The La Salle College High School Cross Country Team advanced to the PIAA State Championship for the fourth consecutive year on Friday, October 28th, 2011.
The team finished second at the PIAA District XII AAA Championship at Belmont Plateau. La Salle is the only District XII AAA Boys team to qualify for every State Championship since the PCL joined the PIAA in 2008.
The team continued their impressive season by improving yet again. They were led once again by the front-running of Tom Coyle. Coyle ran a very strong race, turning in the second fastest time in school history (behind only his school record from Saturday's PCL Championship of 15:56!) of 16:02 to win the District Championship and become the first AAA boy to win both the PCL and District titles in the same year.
Coyle was followed by the outstanding race of Andrew Stone who ran a 20 second personal best to finish 5th in 16:28. Behind Stone two more great performances were turned in by Jack Magee and Brendan Bilotta who placed 11th and 16th in 16:41 and 16:59 respectively. The team scoring was then rounded out by the tough running of Matt Greco who fought hard all the way to the line to finish 21st in 17:07. The 54 points totaled by the first 5 finishers brought them in only 21 points behind Cardinal O'Hara's 33 – much closer than the 28-66 point differential at the PCL Championship.
In addition the 5-man average was an outstanding 16:39 (a 5 second improvement from the also impressive 16:44 from the PCL Championship). Additionally, senior captain Kevin Quinn turned in a personal best in 27th place of 17:28, and Alex Chrostowski closed out the day in 38th place running 17:57.
Coyle was followed by the outstanding race of Andrew Stone who ran a 20 second personal best to finish 5th in 16:28. Behind Stone two more great performances were turned in by Jack Magee and Brendan Bilotta who placed 11th and 16th in 16:41 and 16:59 respectively. The team scoring was then rounded out by the tough running of Matt Greco who fought hard all the way to the line to finish 21st in 17:07. The 54 points totaled by the first 5 finishers brought them in only 21 points behind Cardinal O'Hara's 33 – much closer than the 28-66 point differential at the PCL Championship.
In addition the 5-man average was an outstanding 16:39 (a 5 second improvement from the also impressive 16:44 from the PCL Championship). Additionally, senior captain Kevin Quinn turned in a personal best in 27th place of 17:28, and Alex Chrostowski closed out the day in 38th place running 17:57.
The team will travel to the Hershey Parkview Course for the PIAA State Championship on Saturday, November 5 at 12:30PM. They will look to extend their current 3 year streak of finishing in the top 10 in the state (one of just 3 programs to have that streak, along with North Allegheny and West Chester Henderson – the past two State Champs).
For more information on the 2011 PIAA Cross Country State Championships, visit the PIAA Web Site.
For more information on the 2011 PIAA Cross Country State Championships, visit the PIAA Web Site.