Western PA Top 25 - 9/13 Weekend

Here is my updated list of the top 25 runners in Western PA.  This includes D7, D8, D9, and D10.  There were several big races and the rankings got pretty jumbled up this weekend.  Some that I had in my preseason rankings are still yet to run, so we’ll have to see where they fall after their debuts.

1. Matt McGoey, North Allegheny, D7 AAA, Previous Ranking: 1

McGoey has started off his season strongly with a win at Red, White and Blue in 15:27 and a runner up finish at the Boardman Invitational in 15:41.  He is the better half of the best 1-2 punch in the state alongside fellow senior Hunter Wharrey.  He has PIAA Foundation coming up this weekend and will face off against the likes of Jake Brophy, Kevin James and Dominic Hockenbury which makes for a very exciting race.

2. Hunter Wharrey, North Allegheny, D7 AAA, Previous Ranking: 3

Wharrey has been stuck in the shadow of teammate Matt McGoey for a couple seasons now and has to be hungry to get a win for himself.  He will be in the front pack at the aforementioned PIAA Foundation meet for sure and will definitely help NA get their team score down.  He’s had a couple really fast times this year, going 15:32 and 15:44 at RWB and Boardman.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see him close the gap on McGoey and get a couple of top finishes for NA before the year ends.

3. Elias Graca, Fox Chapel Area, D7 AAA, Previous Ranking: 22

Graca made a big statement at RWB last weekend.  Until Red, White and Blue he was a track guy who did cross country, now he’s a track guy who does cross country and runs crazy times.  Going 15:44 and setting a 51 second PR was absolutely ridiculous.  Fox Chapel typically takes a couple weeks off and comes back for the Central Catholic Invitational during the first weekend of October, so it’ll be awesome to see what he can do then.

4. Jacob Heinauer, North Hills, D7 AAA, Previous Ranking: 23

In my opinion, Heinauer is the biggest story of the season in the West so far.  Much like Graca, Heinauer was a decent cross country runner, PR of 16:48, and had a few solid times on the track, running around 4:27 this past season but was yet to really prove himself.  Then he ran 15:55.  At this early point in the season, he is one of the best runners in the West and is leading a fantastic team in North Hills, a team without a championship trip since 2009.  He picked up a win at the Slippery Rock Invitational in 16:26, beating out Ian Baun by 13 seconds.

5. Sean Hilverding, Waynesburg, D7 AA, Previous Ranking: 8

Sean dropped a huge 15:51 at RWB to open up his 2014 season.  Sean is a very strong runner and has the benefit of having a solid teammate in Ben Bumgarner this year, 17:09 at RWB.  I’m excited to see some Hilverding vs. Skolnekovich AA battles as the season progresses.

6. Zach Skolnekovich, Quaker Valley, D7 AA, Previous Ranking: 20

Skolnekovich PR’d by 54 seconds in his first race of the year.  This kid’s the real deal and is certainly a force to be reckoned with as the season progresses.  Quaker Valley has always pumped out great runners and Zach is carrying on the tradition.  QV typically takes a bit of time off from racing and only gets back into it come early October, so we may not get to see Skol race for another few weeks, but I expect that he’ll come back full force.

7. Sebastian Curtin, Mercyhurst Prep, D10 A, Previous Ranking: None

Left him out of my preseason rankings by mistake, but the defending District 10 champion came out full force in his senior debut this past weekend.  He won the Penn State Behrend Invitational by 1:18 in a winning time of 16:10.  That is absurd.  He also has a strong team behind him, scoring 33 points to win the meet over Fort LeBoeuf.  I would not be surprised to see him climb into the top 5 Western Runners by the end of the season, if not even top 3.

8. Jeff Van Kooten, Pittsburgh Central Catholic, D7 AAA, Previous Ranking: 5

Van Kooten went 15:50 at Red, White and Blue to take 5th.  I was a bit surprised by this as I thought he would have run a bit quicker, but he always peaks at the right time, his first 1600 of the outdoor season was 4:40 but he ended with a 4:14.  I am very confident that Jeff will sneak into the WPIAL top 3 by season’s end.  He grabbed a win at the Red Dragon Invitational in New York over the weekend in 16:16, winning by around 20 seconds.

9. Aaron Benka, Grove City Area, D10 AA, Previous Ranking: 4

Benka doesn’t drop in the rankings because I wasn’t impressed with his performance, 16:06 at RWB is a great time, there are just several kids who stepped up huge and earned the spots ahead of him.  I’m a real big Benka fan and he is definitely at the top of D10 at this point.  Grove City was entered at Slippery Rock but neither he nor Budnik ran, so it looks like they took the weekend off.  We should see Benka back at the Sharpsville Invitational next weekend, where he took 3rd last year.

10. Jake Susalla, Plum, D7 AAA, Previous Ranking: 18

Susalla’s 2014 season has been excellent so far.  He started off with a win at the Gateway Invitational in 17:28, taking down West A’s Zack White and Baldwin’s standout sophomore Casey Conboy.  He followed it up next week with a huge 16:07 at RWB, finishing 7th out of the AAA runners.  Plum certainly doesn’t race as often as some of the other AAA teams in the area, so we won’t get to see a ton of Susalla before the big meets start, but he’ll definitely throw down some big times before then.

11. Griffin Mackey, Sewickley Academy, D7 A, Previous Ranking: None

Mackey has started his season off with several strong showings, running 16:11 at RWB and then winning the A race at Slippery Rock in 16:38 by a margin of 27 seconds.  There is a video on MileSplit of the race and he takes it from the gun and just goes after it, leads the entire race.  These are excellent times for Mackey, who is only a sophomore and still has tons of room for improvement.  The battle for WPIAL A champion at the end of the year will shape up to be one of the more exciting races, with Landin Delaney and Will Loevner having put up solid times so far.

12. Ian Baun, Mt. Lebanon, D7 AAA, Previous Ranking: 16

Ian has never really had a full cross country season, but this year he’s doing things different.  He started off his senior campaign with an 11th place finish at RWB in a PR 16:22, and followed it up the next weekend at Slippery Rock with a runner-up finish to Jacob Heinauer in 16:39.  Ian has established himself as the front-runner of the pack running machine that is Mt. Lebanon (2-5 spread of 9 seconds at Slippery Rock) and that is something they really needed.  We’ll see Ian at pre states next weekend hoping to lead Mt. Lebanon to big things.

13. Scott Seel, North Allegheny, D7 AAA, Previous Ranking: 5

Seel is a strong runner, there is no doubt about that, but I haven’t been impressed with his times yet this season.  He went 16:13 at RWB and 16:37 at Boardman, over 10 seconds slower than last year on both courses.  There is no doubt that NA has the best 1-3 in the state, but if they want a shot at a state title Seel needs to move up a few spots to make up for their 4-5 guys who are a bit further back.

14. Ethan Linderman, Canon-McMillan, D7 AAA, Previous Ranking: 7

Ethan started the year off strong with a 16:16 at Red, White and Blue, finishing 10th.  He came back with a 3rd place finish at Slippery Rock, further cementing the fact that the WPIALs senior class is very strong this year.  I’m a big fan of Ethan and the way he races and I am very optimistic for how his season will turn out, don’t be surprised to see him sneak into the top 8 or so come districts.

15. Noah Smith, Ringgold, D7 AA, Previous Ranking: 21

Smith opened up his season with a huge PR of 16:17 at Lock Haven and I was very excited for his RWB performance, but I’m not sure if he lived up to the hype I had for him.  He still ran 16:28, but I don’t necessarily think that the times translate.  He ran at Boardman this past weekend where he finished 4th in the D2 race with a 16:33.  I have high hopes for him on the district and state level as Ringgold was moved down a level to AA.  

16. Landin Delaney, Winchester Thurston, D7 A, Previous Ranking: None

I definitely messed up not ranking him right off the bat, could have sworn that I did, but stuff happens.  Moving on, Delaney started the season off right with a 16:30 at RWB, only a second quicker than he ran last year but improvement is improvement.  He came up big at Slippery Rock with a 4th place finish in 16:50, almost taking out Ethan Linderman.  He has a very strong training partner in Will Loevner, who according to a previous comment on the blog came down with blood poisoning.  

17. Tanner Quiggle, Seneca Valley, D7 AAA, Previous Ranking: 11

Quiggle began 2014 with a 16:23 at RWB, a 47 second improvement from his time there last year.  Seneca always has a strong team and they have one of the better 1-2s in D7, with Mike Kolor and Quiggle trading off as the top runner.  With a pair of top 15 finishes in two very big meets in Western PA, Quiggle will be a very dangerous runner by the end of the year.

18. Mike Burchlaw, North Hills, D7 AAA, Previous Ranking: None

Burchlaw is #2 on one of the strongest teams in the WPIAL this year.  He PR’d at RWB with a 16:31, placing 13th.  He only ran 17:25 at Slippery Rock, but everybody has off days and I’m not going to kill him for it.  He has two very strong training partners in Jacob Heinauer and Killian McNally and will fight for those points to get North Hills to States come October.

19. Will Loevner, Winchester Thurston, D7 A, Previous Ranking: 6

I’m a big Will Loevner fan, he’s gutsy and came out of nowhere last year and killed it.  He dropped quite a bit from my original ranking, but I’m keeping him in my top 20.  He ran 17:08 at Slippery Rock to open up his season, by no means a bad time, but if a comment a little while back was true, and Loevner has/had blood poisoning, 17:08 is certainly a step in the right direction.  Will is a very strong runner and I hope he can get back to 100% by the end of the season as he and Delaney are both forces in the WPIAL A scene.

20. Mike Kolor, Seneca Valley, D7 AAA, Previous Ranking: 17

Dropping Kolor a spot this weekend, but I haven’t lost faith in him yet.  Mike is an excellent strength runner with a 4:21 full mile to his name, but I haven’t been extremely impressed with any performances thus far.  He ran 16:44 at RWB to place 19th, only a 1 second improvement on his time from last year.  Paired with Tanner Quiggle though, I’m confident that Mike can hit his stride when it really matters.

21. Colten Trimble, Southside, D7 A, Previous Ranking: 25

Placed 3rd in the A division of RWB with a 16:29, edging out Landin Delaney.  I wish we could have seen him race at Slippery Rock with the rest of his team, but he unfortunately was not there.  16:29 is an excellent time this early in the season and he is a top returner from the A division.  He will be a name to watch come October.

22. Ian Harris, Mt. Lebanon, D7 AAA, Previous Ranking: None

Ian has taken some big steps in the last year or so to put him where he is at the moment.  He started off his junior season with a big PR of 16:37 at RWB and then followed it up with a 13th place finish at Slippery Rock, helping Mt. Lebanon to their 2nd invitational victory of the season.  He is the leader of Mt. Lebanon’s chase pack, behind Ian Baun, and he should be putting himself in contention for the medal stand at WPIALs come October.

23. Nick Wolk, Peters Township, D7 AAA, Previous Ranking: 14

I wasn’t extremely impressed with his RWB time, running around 17:03, but he followed it up next week with a 5th place finish at Slippery Rock in 16:57.  Nick is a gutsy runner and I heard from my old teammates at Lebo that he beat out Ian Baun at their dual meet yesterday, so he should be rounding into shape nicely.  He is a returning state qualifier and I am confident he will make a return trip.

24. Casey Conboy, Baldwin, D7 AAA, Previous Ranking: None

As just a sophomore, Conboy has already established himself as Baldwin’s top runner this season.  He opened his season with a runner up finish to Jake Susalla at Gateway, going 17:42, but then came on strong at RWB with a 16:42, a PR by 51 seconds.  Part of a historically strong program, and one of the few to give NA a scare in roughly the last decade, Conboy has the coaching he needs to do big things in the future.

25. Jacob Halasowski, Fox Chapel Area, D7 AAA, Previous Ranking: None

Halasowski stepped up big to fill the #2 spot at Fox Chapel behind Graca.  He ran some solid times in track, including a 9:52 for 3200, but nothing incredible.  He came up big at RWB running 16:42 and then again at Fox Chapel to place 8th in 17:07.  With a strong training partner in Elias Graca, Halasowski should be in medal contention throughout the season leading into WPIALs.

Near Misses:

Matthew Stone, Mt. Lebanon

Shane Burkhart, Bethel Park

Brett Trottier, Franklin Regional

Duwon Terrell, Penn Hills

Floyd Nichols, Taylor Allderdice

Todd Gunzenhauser, Mt. Lebanon

Dropping off the list:

Todd Gunzenhauser, Mt. Lebanon

Ryan Budnik, Grove City

Eric Kennedy, Kiski Area

Shaun Hay, Unknown

Jonathon Weese, Canon-McMillan

Dennis Doyle, Baldwin

Thanks for reading!

-Evan