District 2 is probably one of the most under appreciated districts in the PIAA and this past weekend they put up some great numbers to open up the weekend. In the past few years we have seen Bobby Micikas, Reece Ayers, Victor Costello, Sean Burke, Chris Eheret, AJ Lomingelli, Aaron Wilkinson and much more (I'm sure I'm missing like 50 AA guys) drop some great times on the trials and the course before they graduated. Now the new era is reigning supreme and a lot of these guys have already achieved greatness equal to or superior to these graduates. I'm still not quite sure which teams are AA and which are A and even which are AAA but I wanted to give a bit of a shout out to some of the names to watch in District 2.
In AA (last year anyway) Holy Redeemer returns their top 3 runners from the competitive D2 championships. Mitchell Ford and his two teammates took the 3-4-5 spots at Districts behind the big names of Luke Jones (1st) and Rico Galassi (2nd). Jones and Galassi have quickly risen to become the glass of the new A title race. Galassi, after a break out track season that included a 9:19 3200m, won his opening race of the season over his rival Jones (3rd). Jones, who broke out on the track in his own right, was 2nd at XC states, finishing closely behind Brendan Shearn. Galassi and Jones were 3rd and 2nd at XC states last year so they have the ability to run the Hershey course quite well.
On the AAA side (which is rapidly becoming the AA side), Dominic Deluca (AA this year) opened his season with an impressive second place over 3 of the best guys in AA last year: Curt Jewett, Sam Williams and Luke Jones. Now a junior, Deluca looks poised for a break out season. He leads a young Dallas team with no Seniors in their top 7 from the opening meet. They were a close 2nd behind Scranton Prep. Deluca was 3rd at Districts last year behind eventual medalists Wilkinson and Burke. Yours truly named him the big sleeper of his 2011 states predictions. Didn't work out. But hopefully I was just one year too early. North Pocono, 2nd at AAA District 2 Champions, returns their entire top 7.
I hope you continue you this as the way through the districts. These are really interesting to see especiallly when you don't know much about districts other than your own.
ReplyDeletewoah, dont know what that did with the name thing, sorry
DeleteDeLuca second at PTXC today. good call on this kid etrain. distict 2 always seems to have a couple studs.
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