District 3 Analysis!

AAA:

A lot to talk about here! Patrick Reilly runs 16 flat which is just insane! I knew he had the capability of running sub 16 @ states and this really proves it. Last year he placed second here and wasn’t able to come back well, hopefully he is able to keep running well, because he may have ran his way into title contention with that performance. Zach Brehm steps it up and has a very good race, just 9 second off of Reilly. 

Aaron Lauer must be injured, since he didn’t race for Red Land as they just missed states. If he ran they would have easily made it, but it’s great to see a young squad like Twin Valley squeak into the state meet. This will be a great test for them and the experience is fantastic. I’m glad they were able to step up. 

Aaron Gebhart had a very solid race for 3^rd place beating out Nissley by a few seconds at the line, but behind him there was some fantastic efforts. Jacob Connors was 50^th coming into the season and we didn’t see much of him all season, but he drops a 16:28 for 5^th place! I’m glad to see he’s back and rolling strong. He’ll be contending for a medal it looks like at states. Just a second behind him the two sophomore studs Seiger and Delany battled with Seiger getting Delany at the line. These two have fantastic futures and this district is very young. Jd Groff is a guy I missed from Central York, but someone pointed out in a comment and he had a great race for 8^th, running faster than winner Alec Kunzweiler did last season.  

Before I get to more team results, with all of these fast times, how will results pan out for the state meet? Last season the last qualifying spot was 17:20, it was 17:09 this season… 17:20 was 25^th last year, it was 43^rd this year. District 3 guys are really stepping up their game, but will it show at states? Will the Hershey hills have taken too much out of them to repeat the performance in 10 days’ time? I’ll let all of you discuss that for now and give my own answer in my states preview

Team Talk!

Cumberland Valley does it again. They peaked perfectly at Districts last season, and I knew they would place better than expected this year, but never did I think they’d finish 3^rd overall. Even if Lauer runs for Red Land and places 5^th (right ahead of Zieger) they still lose to CV by 3 points! I’ve never seen a team reload so well. Seeber and Soliman are total underclassman studs and Wasko is running right behind them. Their inexperience may get the better of them at the state meet, but much like Twin Valley, they are young so this will be fantastic experience next weekend. They should go out and have fun in a non-pressure situation.

Lower Dauphin grabs the team title as Sean Weidner and Santeusanio stepped up their game. Weidner was with their 6^th man last week and I had faith he’d bounce back and he did just that placing 30^th overall. Their freshman Cassel looked solid, but I think there is more in him. Jeff Groh on the other hand is really starting to worry me. The 16^th place showing is much better than last season’s 60^th place, but if this team wants to secure 4^th place they’ll need him to be in the top 15 next weekend. Nissley on the other hand just continues to do his thing and I think will be an easy top 20 finish.

Carlisle also stepped it up and ran very solid 1-7. They seem to have about 15 seconds between each runner and they run like a string is attached from that distance every race. They’ve been extremely consistent this year and I think that will treat them well at states. Brehm is looking really nice going into next weekend and Carroll has developed nicely this season as well taking 10^th overall. 

Sadly it just wasn’t Cedar Crest’s day as their top guy Neiswender placed 39^th and 4^th man Chad Bomgardner must have fallen and/or gotten injured during the race as he placed 237^th. Bragg had a very strong race finishing 12^th overall and will be making the trip to Hershey. 

Other Individuals to note are freshman Alex Tomasko who grabbed the last spot to the state meet. I love seeing freshman make it in; it’s great to get exposure at that level early in one’s career.  Ethan Hummel of Manheim Township has a great training partner in Delany and he was able to step it up to get a ticket. Noah Brady of Solanco was another guy not on my list who placed 25^th overall and will be making the trip. Demko and Sponaugle of Hershey are mixing it up pretty well for a late season, I think they’ll have big jumps in time at the state meet.

A:
Brady Wilt win's easily in 16:54, I think we'll see a solid drop from his next weekend. The team battle was fantastic with a young Camp Hill team coming up big to take down Veritas Academy by 2 points. Camp Hill has 4 underclassman in their top 5. They have a great future ahead of them, but they don't have the depth yet to compete at the state level.
 

--ForrestCRN