Cross Country Team Wins Catholic League Championship

The La Salle College High School Cross Country team captured the 2016 Philadelphia Catholic League team championship on Saturday at Belmont Plateau with a 30-32 win. It was the Explorers second consecutive title and their 9^th in the last 14 years.

The day started in impressive fashion at the freshman team showed their strength led by a blazing fast 17:18 individual win for Ethan Maher. Maher was followed by the great pack of Bradden Koors (17:59), Griffin Pumilia (18:07), and Dan Gervino (18:20) in 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th. The scoring was rounded out by the strong run of Matt Hladczuk (19:06) in 6^th – for a team score of 16 points!

Additional depth was provided by the strong runs of Ben McGrath (19:26) in 9^th, Tom Agnew (19:45) in 12^th, George Costello in 15^th, Michael Herron in 16^th, Jack Rhines in 19^th, and Dylan Gianfrancesco in 20^th.

The JV team then really showed the Explorers' depth by scoring a perfect 15 points and taking places 1-11, and 18 out of the top 25 places. They were led by an incredible win from Dave Kennedy (17:28). He was quickly followed by Tom Farrell (2^nd, 17:31), Nick Cardamone (3^rd, 17:35), Jack Galbreath (4^th, 17:48), Conor Christian (5^th, 17:49), Mac Costonis (6^th, 17:51), John Loftus (7^th, 17:58), Paul Ghantous (8^th, 18:02), Thomas Price (9^th, 18:09), Kieran Morgan (10^th, 18:13), Matthew Zilligen (11^th, 18:14), Matt Pires (13^th, 18:19), Michael Eastmond (14^th, 18:25), Michael Loftus (16^th, 18:28), Spencer Norris (17^th, 18:41), Shawn McKenna (18^th, 18:51), Kellen Reiche (24^th, 19:11), and Chris Mulligan (25^th, 19:12).

The final race of the day was the highly anticipated matchup with PA #5 Cardinal O'Hara (the winners of the 2010-2014 PCL Titles, the only other program to win PCL titles since 2000). And the race was every bit as close as predicted. The Explorers trailed O'Hara by just a few points with 1200m remaining but closed their races very well to earn a hard fought 2 point win, 30-32.

PCL Championship Photo Slideshow

The varsity team placed all 7 runners in the top 15 (1^st Team All-Catholic), led by the great runner-up performance from junior Evan Addison (16:18, 6^th in school history). Following him was the big race from Steve Paul (4^th, 16:39), who passed an O'Hara runner in the final 800m for a 2 point swing. Then the great pack of Brendan Price (7^th, 16:50), Quinn O'Neill (8^th, 16:54), and Vince Twomey (9^th, 16:59). Clutch depth was added by Greg Galbreath (12^th, 17:07) who placed ahead of O'Hara's 5^th man, and Sean Egan (15^th, 17:38).

A final analysis of the days results prove out the Explorers depth. Taking 5-man team averages the Explorers had the fastest average of 16:44 from their varsity, but impressively their JV team had the 3^rd fastest average of the day (17:39), then their 2^nd JV team would have had the 5^th fastest (18:02), the freshman with the 6^th fastest (18:11), and the 3^rd JV team with the 7^th fastest (18:25) – so 5 of the top 7 team averages in the PCL on Saturday belonged to the Explorers!

The team will compete on Thursday, October 27^th at Belmont Plateau in the PIAA District XII Championship looking to secure a top 2 finish for the trip to the PIAA State Championship in Hershey (Saturday, November 5^th).