Looking back, last year it was clear Dustin Wilson was the #1 runner in the state of PA for XC (no offense to the other boys like Quinn, Magaha and Shearn) he was an All-American and dominated the races he decided to run. But this year there is no Dustin Wilson anymore, just a bunch of names that we have to try to piece together with the AAA, AA and now A boys. Among that group of potential independent league stars is Ben Ritz, Sami Aziz, Lyle Wistar, and Sam Ritz.
In XC in 2011 at the Independent League Championships Dustin Wilson demolished the field running 16:34 to 2nd place's 17:23 (Ben Ritz). At the regional meet, Dustin Wilson was the top PA runner and the only individual national qualifier. Sami Aziz was the next best independent runner in his first race after a fall out of the country. Aziz was 59th in the race running 17:19. Sam Ritz, as a freshman, was 78th and Ben Ritz was 118th. Austin Pondel was 24th in 16:37 as a point of reference.
The highlight for the independent league boys in XC was on the fast Lehigh course at the Paul Short meet. Sam Ritz ran 16:11 to finish 9th, beating 3 future XC medalists in the process. In 19th was Sam's older brother Ben who finished in 16:30. Lyle Wistar took 25th in 16:33.
But the real prowess of the independent league boys was on the track. Of course Dustin Wilson highlighted the Independent league results (and Quinn Davis, another graduating Senior had a solid and oft overlooked year himself) but it was the returners who really made noise and established themselves as more than just the guy who was second to Wilson.
At the Henderson Invitational the 3200m was littered with Independent league up and comers. Sami Aziz and Ben Ritz took 2-3 behind Wilson in 9:21 and 9:22 respectively. They beat the likes of Sam Williams and Connor Harriman in the process. Lyle Wistar from GFS also hung tough in the 3200m with a 7th place finish in 9:29 beating guys like Tony Russell, Zach Trama, Kenny Leidal, Brett Kelly, Ross Wilson, Sam Webb, AJ Chaborek, Matt Willig and Steve Yannacone. A slew of guys dispersed among my top 50 this year.
The icing on the cake for Ritz had to be a big 1600m to end the season where he launched himself into the PA elite with a massive PR (roughly 8 seconds by my math) and ran 4:12.76 to beat out Wilson and Hibbs, two of the best 3200m runners of 2012. Wistar added a 4:18 PR and freshman Sam Ritz came through with a 4:22 PR.
Ben Ritz finished the season with a 9:22/4:12/1:54 track resume, begging the question, can this guy become a break out XC star? Aziz who has 9:21/4:18c credentials and an indoor 3k medal has proven himself in XC more so than Ritz and is coming off his own mini break out season. The freshman Sam Ritz, who was perhaps the best XC runner of the bunch in 2011, finished the year with a 1:57/4:22 resume.
Track times don't always translate into XC performances, but I like the potential this group has. Don't sleep on this bunch in 2012.
To see exactly where I ranked these guys feel free to go to the "Abridged Version" link on the side of the page under popular posts.
Solid posts. Lots of good points. The Ritz bros will be nasty good this year.
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