Cross Country Team Places 2nd In PIAA State Championships
The top 2 finish put the Explorers on the PIAA Podium for the 3rd time in program history (2nd in 2008, and 1st in 2017). Since 2015 the Explorers have not finished outside the top 5 at the State Championship.
JohnsonR@LSCHS.ORG
The La Salle College High School Cross Country team placed 2nd in the PIAA AAA Boys State Championship on Saturday, November 3rd at the Hershey Parkview Course. The team scored 112 points to place just 22 points behind team champions North Allegheny who scored 90 points behind a 2-3 overall finish from their top two runners.
The Explorers were led by a strong State Medalist performance from junior Vince Twomey who ran 16:55 on the extremely muddy course to place 22nd overall (13th place in team scoring). Just behind Twomey came fellow juniors Ethan Maher and Bradden Koors who ran 16:57 and 17:02 to place 27th and 32nd overall (16th and 20th in team scoring). Just behind the juniors came the first of the senior captains, Paul Ghantous in 17:08 for 39th place overall (23rd in team scoring - which gave the Explorers the first #4 runner in the meet). Then, just 18 seconds later came La Salle's 5th runner, senior captain Matthew Zilligen in 17:26 for 74th place (40th team scoring). The 32 second spread from Twomey to Zilligen gave the Explorers the smallest spread in the entire field. Just behind Zilligen was junior Dan Gervino in 17:30 for 83rd (44th in team scoring). Senior captain Jack Seiblerich ran 18:28 for 191st.The Explorers had entered the meet ranked 2nd in PA, and on a day with tough conditions raced very well. They were aggressive, asserting themselves in 2nd place at the mile mark, behind Downingtown West. They maintained their position well through the difficult Aloha Hills in the middle section of the race, as they remained in 2nd place even though the leading team switched to North Allegheny. They then fought off late challenges from not only Downingtown West, but also Seneca Valley and Mt. Lebanon who all score 134 points or less to maintain their position on the podium.
The top 2 finish put the Explorers on the PIAA Podium for the 3rd time in program history (2nd in 2008, and 1st in 2017). Since 2015 the Explorers have not finished outside the top 5 at the State Championship.
2008 - 2nd
2009 - 3rd
2010 - 10th
2011 - 7th
2012 - 5th (with 5 individual qualifiers)
2013 - NTS (only 2 individual qualifiers)
2014 - 10th
2015 - 4th
2016 - 5th
2017 - 1st
2018 - 2nd
The varsity seven will now prepare to compete at the Nike Cross Nationals Northeast Regional Championship at Bowdoin Park in Wappinger Falls, NY on November 24th.