State Championship Memories

With states right around the corner, I figure it wouldn't be a bad idea to drop in one the state meets of the past and all their glory and significance in PA history. Most of this will be from memory and word of mouth speculation because I wasn't at quite as many of these as I would have liked to have been. And some of these are from before I even ran track at all so you will have to pardon my gaps in memory. Anyway here's what we got.

2002
West Chester Henderson took the AAA boys title despite Greg William's collapse on the final straightaway. He managed to crawl his way across the line and finish as the team's 4th. The individual victory by Junior Ian Gottesfield got the job done out front to help Henderson defeat D1 rival CR North. Placing 5th at this meet was a young freshman by the name of Craig Miller who started to turn some heads early in his high school career. His twin brother Brad finished 11th in the race. These are two of the highest finishes by a Freshman at states in the past decade. The defending state champion in the mile (and at the time the state meet record holder) Sam Bair, finished 24th.

On the AA side, Junior Chris Spooner took down the individual title beating Ryan Blood and David Mock. Sophomore Jed Christianson was 5th in the race. Scranton Prep squeaked out the team title by 13 points over Harbor Creek.

2003
The sophomore Craig Miller surprised defending champion Ian Gottesfield by sprinting by him in the final stretch to take the victory. Gottesfield, who had led out front with teammate Greg Williams for essentially the entire season, said he was waiting for his teammate Greg to pass him and take the victory as they had agreed they would do before the race. Future state champions Ian Fitzgerald, Jeff Weiss, and Ken King took the next 3 spots in the race. Craig's brother Brad did not match his finish from the year before, the only sophomore to medal was Curtis Bixler (another future state champ) in 24th. Craig's rival all season Brain Fuller faded and finished out of medal contention. Henderson was in 10th place team scoring wise at the mile mark, but at the finish they had sealed their second straight team title, this time winning by just 12 points over North Hills. North Hills took second over Hatboro Horsham by just 1 point.

On the AA side, defending champion Chris Spooner suffered on the final straightaway, falling down, allowing rival David Mock to sprint by and take the victory. Sophomore Jake Walker took 12th place in the race. Spooner's Lewisburg team finished second by just 2 points, as Eisenhower won the title by a score of 109 to 111.

2004
Craig Miller did not fail to retain his title as a Junior as he beat Sam Luff and Amin Garnett amongst other talented foes. His brother Brad had a solid 9th place finish. Familiar names Jason Weller, Kyle Dawson and Paul Springer all took medals finishing 11th, 25th and 23rd respectively. Freshman Vince McNally took 13th place overall. This is the most recent time a AAA freshman has medaled at the state championship. The Dawson twins, who were at Downingtown West, not Coatesville, were not able to give Coatesville the lower score it needed to take down Cedar Cliff as Cedar Cliff defeated their D1 rivals 95 to 100. Miller's Manheim Township squad was 3rd.

Scranton Prep took down yet another state title as they defeated Wyomissing 122 to 146. Jeff Weiss took the gold in the fastest time of the day, 15:45. Weiss had been AAA the season before. Meanwhile Jed Christianson took a hard fought second place finish. He had been a state title contender since his sophomore campaign. Jake Walker took 6th while future state champs Isaac Dunkleburger and Lucas Zarzeczny took 8th and 9th respectively as sophomores.

2005
Craig Miller took down his third straight title, but Kieth Capecci gave him the best run for his money he had seen in a while. Capecci would go on to become a Footlocker finalist. Capecci added his name to a long list of guys who had never medaled before at a state championship, but just missed winning the big one in the fall of their senior campaign. Meanwhile Sophomore Vince McNally surprised with a 3rd place finish (once again the last sophomore to finish in the top 5 at a state championship) and Jason Weller took 4th as a Junior. Dawson and Springer were 7th and 10th respectively. Miller was out the first mile way ahead of his competitors but by mile 2 Capecci had caught back up and challenged for the lead. Miller pulled away at the finish, but it was a solid race all around. Craig did not land the team title, however, as Manheim lost by just one point to surprise champions West Chester East. 105-106. Coatesville's young squad finished off the podium, very disappointed.

Scranton Prep took home yet another title, this time beating Ellwood City. Ellwood City's hourse Jake Walker would set the tone early in the race hammering the first and second mile, Lucas Zarzeczny followed for the first mile before falling off and leaving Walker all alone out front. However, Walker paid for his big move and surprise winner Isaac Dunkleberger, the Junior from Tamaqua caught all the way up to the front pack and took the victory. Walker faded hard over the last stretch and settled for a hard fought 4th. Freshman Joe Beveridge finished 37th.

2006
Coatesville was in the midst of a truly historic season as they crushed their opponents at the state championship running away with the team title and 5 in the top 18 in a very competitive year that featured 0 sophomore medalists. Coatesville's 26 points is the lowest point total ever at a state championship. Henderson finished a solid 2nd place with 86 points. They also had 3 runners in the top 13 at the meet. Out front Dawson and VanKooten destroyed the first mile and led everyone to a very fast race. Ultimately it was Weller who upset Springer for the title in a very fast, hard fought test of guts.

On the AA Zarzeczny redeemed his failure in 2005 and destroyed the field and defending champion Isaac Dunkleberger in the process. West Middlesex took the team title by almost 50 points over Tulpehocken in a high scoring state championship race. The top 10 finishers were all seniors, leaving a pretty wide open field in 2007.

2007
Although recieving very little talk in the offseason, North Penn surprised a lot of people with a huge championship run, capped off with a very impressive state championship race to win over surprise runner up Coatesville who took a page out of the previous year's team to finish second, 17 points out of first and 3 ahead of third place North Allegheny. Meanwhile, Mark Dennin battled with Chris Aldrich and Vince McNally out front until finally he broke away, torching his two competitors over the final mile with a brutal pace throughout that broke McNally (who also was sick at the race) and Aldrich and gave Dennin a 30 second victory over future footlocker finalist, Aldrich. Stud soph Brad Miles took 10th place and helped out a pair of seniors named Zach in the championship quest.

Junior Joe Beveridge stunned the field and took the gold defeating Terrence Lee in the process. 4 out of the top 5 runners were Juniors. John Yankello took top soph honors in 12th. North East took the team title over General McClane with a commanding victory, scoring 83 points to McClane's 150+.

2008
Pre race favorites Ben Furcht and Neal Berman didn't get out well enough over the first mile and paid the price for a huge surge in the 2nd mile. Meanwhile proper pacing and added experience propelled Jimmy Tarsnane to the top of poop out hill in 1st place. Ben Furcht faded hard over the final 100m falling all the way from 3rd to 11th. Will Kellar put on a great kick to take 2nd in the race as a Junior. 4 sophomores took home medals including Reece Ayers (8th) Wade Endress (14th) Jake Kildoo (17th) and Ryan Gil (20th). On the team title race North Allegheny, huge pre race favorites and futre NXN finalists were stunned by North Penn and LaSalle as LaSalle stole second place with a tight spread and North Penn took the victory thanks to some great finishes from Juniors Brad Miles and Sam Bernitt up front in the 7th and 10th.

On the AA side Beveridge successfully defended his title by trashing the field over the final mile and taking home a commanding victory by over 20 seconds over Alfred Santana and Jim Spisak. Quaker Valley finished second in the team scoring by just two points, being defeated by Elk Lake for the Gold. Freshman Nate Tallada took 12th in the race and finished as the #3 returner for the next state championship. Stephen Welsh finished 15th as a Junior. Elk Lake won the meet despite not having a single medalist.

2009
Brad Miles sat back and waited for the right moment to strike before sprinting past Rad Gunzenhauser of Mt. Lebanon to take the state title. Gunzenhauser tossed his name into a group with Furcht and Capecci as guys who almost accomplished the feat of winning after not medaling the year before. Ryan Gil led his North Allegheny team with a 3rd place finish and very well run race. North Allegheny redeemed last year's team with a surprise runner up finish ahead of LaSalle. Henderson took the title behind 6th place finisher Will Kellar. Sickness struck a lot of top runners including Wade Endress and Jacob Kildoo. Of the 4 sophomore medalists from the previous year, only Gil placed higher in 2009 than 2008.

On the AA side York Suburban took its turn at depriving Quaker Valley of the title, as QV took 2nd yet again, despite having the 18th, 19th and 20th place finishers in the race. Stephen Welsh took home gold just edging Brett Kubiak, his district 3 rival, while Alex Beardsley finished a solid 3rd. Aaron Wilkinson (now AAA) finished 4th as a sophomore to be the top returner at the time before making the switch. The new top returner became Alex Woodrow in 6th. Nate Tallada managed 10th as a sophomore after a 12th place finish the year before. Tommy Gruschow finished 41st.

2010
Ryan Gil was the story of the state championship as he not only won individual gold but led his team to the title as well. After hobbling around all season on a broken toe Gil stunned everyone with a fantastic race and first place finish edging out Wade Endress, Zach Hebda, and Chris Campbell who were all district champions and eventual national qualifiers. North Allegheny took down the defending champions Henderson by a score of 124 to 146. O'Hara took third in 160. Sam Hibbs was the top returner in 7th, and Drew Magaha finished well outside medal contention in the 100s. Logan Steiner and Alex Moran placed 13th and 14th.

On the AA side Quaker Valley was again denied the title, finishing 3rd. Elk Lake took back the title edging out District 2 rival Holy Redeemer 102 to 116. Tom Gruschow became the 4th straight District 3 champion to win the AA state championship edging out Redeemer's AJ Lomingelli. 6 sophomores snagged medals including Smathers, Williams, Shearn, and Jewett. Nate Tallada finished a disappointing 19th, his lowest finish ever, even compared to his freshman campaign. The top 4 finishers were all seniors, Smathers and Westwood are the two top returners.