Junior Chris Berry led the way for the Bucks, as he has in nine of the 13 races since August's Ivyland 5k. Berry and senior Alex Predhome were inseperable through the first 4k, with Berry finishing 38th in 16:29, followed by Predhome in 54th with a time of 16:41. Next, seniors Nico Metzler and Ben Smith placed 117th (17:10) and 134th (17:16), respectively.
Junior AJ Morgan stepped up with another big PR of 17:32 to place 182nd out of 431 varsity competitors, saving the day for the Bucks as their fifth and final scoring varsity runner. Friday marked the first time that juniors Morgan, Austin Kline (232nd, 17:50), and Jimmie Kilgannon (247th, 17:55) competed in the varsity race at the District One Cross Country Championships.
Freshman Baylor Griffin (21st, 17:49) and senior Rob Mitchell (30th, 17:55) led the Bucks to what may be their highest finish team finish ever in the unseeded varsity race amongst over 800 competitors. By stampeding 13 runners in within 54 seconds of Griffin, the Bucks placed 6th out of the 75 teams in District One* and staked their claim on who's next to watch out for in 2012.
Super sophomore Ben Aunins was the 10th Buck of the day to run 18 minutes or better, placing 37th with a time of 18:00. Junior Shawn Young closed out his first XC season as the Bucks' seventh returning runner for 2012, placing 43rd with an impressive PR of 18:04. Senior Brandon Ciliberto completed the scoring for the Bucks as the fifth man, placing 56th in the field of over 800 competitors in 18:19. The Bucks finished ahead of perennial PA powerhouse Council Rock North and finished 3rd amongst all three conferences of the Suburban One League, ahead of Wissahickon, CR South, William Tennent, CB East, CB South, Pennridge, Hatboro-Horsham, and many more.
Also finishing in the Top 100 were freshman Ian Davies (60th in a PR of 18:22), senior Eric Zoleski (61st in a PR of 18:23), junior Anthony Soares (69th in a PR of 18:24), freshman Ben Severn (79th in 18:31), junior Graham Thomas (85th in a PR of 18:32), and freshman Sean Bristow (92nd in a PR of 18:36) and Patrick Kelly (96th in 18:39).
Seniors Eric Grznekowski and Alex Ingrassia saved their best for last, finishing their last XC race with PRs of 18:43 and 19:57, respectively. Also proudly racing to PRs and finishing well within the top half of the field were XC newbies: sophomore Dean Woodrow (19:30), freshman Jake Doherty (20:06), and junior Roshan Padodara (20:12).
The Bucks had one of the deepest teams in the hypercompetitive District One, boasting TWENTY athletes at 18:43 or better on Friday. Averaging six minutes per mile through some mud and over some hills for 3.1 miles is a remarkable measure of fitness. 12 Bucks set PRs on the partly saturated course on Friday.
Junior Chris Berry will gain valuable experience as 2012's top returning CBWXC harrier during his first trip to the PIAA State Championships on Saturday, November 5th on the hills of Hershey Park. Chris will race at 12:30 pm and will be joined by West sophomore Meghan Iatorola and junior Gretchen Krause, who will race at 10:30 am.
*some less competitive teams elected not to pay for timing chips and are not in the results.