Fellow West senior AJ Morgan also competed at the State Championship race, placing 200th after losing a shoe.
Both seniors are very much looking forward to the first winter track and field meet on Saturday, December 8th.
Chris Berry dramatically improved his 2011 113th place State Cross Country Championship performance with a solid 16:56 5k to place 59th overall in the AAA (large schools) Championship Race on Saturday. Berry was 97th out of the 674 male runners that competed among all three divisions in the merged results.
Fellow West senior AJ Morgan also competed at the State Championship race, placing 200th after losing a shoe. Both seniors are very much looking forward to the first winter track and field meet on Saturday, December 8th.
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The Central Bucks West Boys XC Program continued it's climb toward contending on the big stage as they placed 8th out of 54 teams in Pennsylvania's most competitive district on Friday at the District One Cross-Country Championships. Their 8th place performance ties the program's best team finish in 2007. The Bucks finished behind only West Chester Henderson (PA#3), Council Rock North (PA#4), West Chester East (PA#6), Great Valley (PA#9), Downingtown West (previous PA#10), Pennsbury (PA#8), and CB East. West completed a championship race sweep of respected local foes North Penn (2011 Team State Champions), William Tennent, Pennridge, Upper Dublin, Hatboro-Horsham, Bensalem, Council Rock South, CB South, and many more good teams. Pressing in the top 10% of the race of 373 finishers were seniors Chris Berry (29th, 16:05) and AJ Morgan (35th, 16:15, PR!). Although Morgan finished 9th at the SOL Continental Championships, Morgan improved to 7th among conference rivals on Friday, besting CB East's Alec Brand (8th in SOL Continental) and Pennridge's Joe Logue (5th in SOL Continental). Morgan dropped a beastly 77 seconds from his 2011 PR of 17:32 at last year's District Championship race, when he overcame an August 25th appendectomy to save the Bucks' bacon as their fifth and final district championship race scorer. The Bucks' 3-4-5 pack of freshman Rock Fortna (111th, 17:02), sophomore Baylor Griffin (116th, 17:04, PR!), and senior Will Bone 136th, 17:09) competed fiercely together to the last yard, keeping the 1-5 gap down to a solid 64 seconds. Of the SOL Continental's eight teams, six placed in the top half of the race, five placed in the top third of the race, and three placed in the top ten of the District One Championship field. In the Unseeded Varsity race, senior Austin Kline (10th, 17:19), sophomore Pat Kelly, freshman Declan McDonald, and sophomore Beckett Wilson ran outstandingly. Kline earned a trinket to commemorate his brilliant last XC race. AJ Morgan and Chris Berry earned the right to compete at the PIAA State XC Championships by virtue of finishing among the top 25 individuals who were not on the top five state-qualifying teams. Their race is on Saturday, November 3rd at Hershey at 1:15 pm. See you there! Following each league championship meet, SOL coaches vote for the athletes who should receive First-Team, Second-Team, Third-Team, and Honorable Mention All-League honors, as well as one team that should receive the SOL's Sportsmanship Award. This year, Central Bucks West is the proud winner of the SOL Contintental Sportsmanship Award. People notice the way that you carry yourselves, for better and for worse. Congratulations, athletes, on carrying yourselves with class and representing our school with dignity. Congratulations are also due to the six varsity harriers who were chosen to the Suburban One League Continental Conference All-League Teams: First-Team All-League: Chris Berry, Sr. Second-Team All-League: AJ Morgan, Sr. Third-Team All-League: Brian Iatarola, Fr. Rock Fortna, Fr. All-League Honorable Mention: Baylor Griffin, So. Will Bone, Sr. Placing six of out seven runners in the top half of the field to earn this honor is quite an accomplishment. 2012's result may be the most All-League Award recipients that the CB West boys' program has ever had in one season. CLICK HERE to read Kev Hunter's Saturday column on the SOL Championships (CBW boys are featured in the second half).
For the first time since 2002, the Central Bucks West boys cross-country team was able to defeat their league rivals in their Suburban One League Conference Championship race. At that time, Christina Aguilera was classy, texting was rare, and Coaches Sherwood and Mahoney had just begun their sophomore year... of high school. While the overall team league championship is determined by adding three points for each regular season dual meet loss to each team's championship meet score, the Bucks still emerge with a proud result. The Bucks placed a close third in the overall standings: CBE 85, NP 87, CBW 89, PENRDG 94, HH 109, CBS 136, Q 185, SOUD 189. This season's SOL Continental Championship race contained not only the 2012 Individual State Champion (Connor Quinn, Hatboro-Horsham), but also the 2012 Team State Champions (North Penn). The professional timing system creates merged race results with all three conferences in the Suburban One League. The Bucks placed 3rd overall out of the 23 SOL teams when the athletes' times are compiled into the same race, behind only Council Rock North (PA #8) and Pennsbury (PA#6). The 23 SOL teams in these merged results when coupled with the Ches-Mont League (West Chester Henderson PA#3, West Chester East PA#7, Downingtown West PA#10) contain the most competitive teams in District One, as well as half of Pennsylvania's best. The Bucks turned in a 44-second 1-4 gap and a 61-second 1-6 gap on their way to winning the day. Senior frontrunner Chris Berry paced with individual state title favorites Jack MaCauley and Connor Quinn through a blazing first mile despite the laughable mud. Berry toughed out the second two miles to place 4th overall in 16:39. Fellow senior AJ Morgan (9th, 16:57) also cracked the top ten and broke the 17-minute barrier, finishing 18 seconds behind Berry. Morgan also finished just two seconds behind one of the other three pre-race individual favorites, Alec Brand from overall League Champions, CB East. Freshmen phenoms Brian Iatarola (17th, 17:13) and Rock Fortna (23rd, 17:23) delivered gems in their League Championship Race debut, finishing 3rd and 4th for West. Sophomore Baylor Griffin (27th, 17:39) and senior Will Bone (28th, 17:40) fought to the finish to complete the scoring for the Bucks and secure All-Conference honors by virtue of their top-28 performance. The Bucks capped off the day by placing 5th out of the 23-team Suburban One League JV race, without top harrier Ian Davies (117th) who still finished in the top third of the 382-man field despite suffering a stress-fracture in the final mile of the race. Sophomore Patrick Kelly (10th, 18:03) had the Bucks only PR of the day, despite the horrific mud. Kelly was followed by fellow CBWXC2013 stars: freshman Declan McDonald (18th, 18:13), sophomore Ben Severn (24th, 18:18), and sophomore Trevor Belding (45th, 18:42). The Bucks return to action at the District One Championships at Lehigh University on Friday, October 26th. The top five teams and the top 25 individuals not on those teams will advance to the PIAA State Championships on Saturday, November 3rd. CLICK HERE to read Scott Huff's SOL Championship preview article (boys half is on the bottom).
CLICK HERE to read Tom Moore's article from Wednesday's Intelligencer.
The Central Bucks West boys ross-country runners can walk a little taller in the hallways of school on
Monday after bringing home the first team invitational win for the Bucks cross-country program in at least four years. Man for man, the Bucks stepped up with 28 of it's 30 competitors running personal best times. The Bucks were led by courageous performances by Chris Berry (15:30), AJ Morgan (16:15), and Brian Iatarola (16:30). Each harrier bettered their PR by 37+ seconds to earn trophies for placing 1st, 8th, and 16th, respectively. Berry defeated a tremendous field that included Maryland state cross-country title contender Collin Crilly (Our Lady of Good Counsel), PA 800 meter state title favorite Brad Rivera (Bensalem), and Francis Ferruzzi (Upper Dublin), who placed 7th in the 2011 District One XC Championship and last spring won the PTFCA Track Classic 3200 meter run over a field that included eventual 3200m State Champ Sam Hibbs, 2011 XC State Champ Connor Quinn, and PA State Title Runner-up O'Hara's entire top five. Closing out the scoring with personal bests were the hard-charging 4-7 men: Rock Fortna (16:53, 36th), Will Bone (16:56, 39th), Jimmie Kilgannon (16:59, 41st), and Baylor Griffin (17:06, 48th). The Bucks scored 100 points on the nose, just ahead of hosts William Tennent (113) who was the team runner-up in the large schools race at the Salesianum Invitational in Delaware, Pennridge (115), Our Lady of Good Counsel (135), and many others. The Bucks placed 4th in the JV race, just outside of the trophy range, with 111 points. Earning trophies for West were Ian Davies (3rd, 17:10) and Declan McDonald (8th, 17:21). The Bucks return to action on Friday, October 19th at Lehigh University for the Suburban One League Continental Conference Championships. In the final round of dual meets this season, Quakertown's Alex Balla (runner up at Saturday's Souderton Invitational in 16:31) took West's Chris Berry for a two mile tour of his home turf. Chris Berry pulled away over the final mile to muster a 10-second victory with a time of 16:34 on the flat, windy, and wet grass course.
Souderton's Connor Linse (3rd, 17:27) and Quakertown's Colin McLaughlin (4th, 17:35) were able to get away enough in the middle miles to stay away from the hard-closing Bucks' 2-6 pack on their heels: AJ Morgan (5th, 17:38), Baylor Griffin (6th, 17:41), Rock Fortna (7th, 17:41), Brian Iatarola (8th, 17:46), and Will Bone (9th, 17:54). On Saturday, Linse won the Souderton Invite in 16:16, while McLaughlin placed 4th in 16:41. Souderton's Dan Bedell (10th, 17:58), who placed 6th in the Souderton Invite on Saturday in 16:57, finished just behind Bone. Jimmie Kilgannon (11th, 18:08) and Ian Davies (12th, season-best 18:17) finished next, just ahead of Souderton's Bobby Greve (18:23) and Mitchell Schlegel (18:35), who ran 17:52 and 17:41, respectively, on Saturday. Also setting season-bests for the 4-3 Bucks were Tyler Press (39th, 19:55), Jake Doherty (53rd, 20:17), Liam Hay (63rd, 22:50), and Matt Young (72nd, 26:46). Wednesday marked the best 2-5 gap for the Bucks all season, a scant EIGHT seconds. The pack running sealed the wins: 19-43 over Souderton and 23-38 over Quakertown. Souderton (1-6) narrowly defeated Quakertown (0-7) by a score of 25-30. Elsewhere in Suburban One Continental Conference action, East (6-1) narrowly defeated South (3-4) with a score of 25-31, and North Penn (7-0) and Hatboro-Horsham (3-4) defeated Pennridge (4-3). A three-point penalty is assigned to each team for each regular season loss. Thus, heading into the Suburban One League Championship Meet: North Penn brings 0 points, while East brings 3, Pennridge and West bring 9, South and Hatboro-Horsham bring 12, Souderton brings 18, and Quakertown brings 21. These points will be added to each team's invitational score when the eight teams go head to head at Lehigh on Friday, October 19th at Lehigh University. The 2012 SOL Continental Conference Team Champion will be determined by each team's total score once these regular season penalty points are added in. The Bucks return to action on Saturday afternoon at their final invitational of the season at William Tennent. The Bucks placed 3rd last year in the varsity race, 4th in the JV, and 2nd the freshman race. CB West picked up it's first pair of wins on Wednesday over Hatboro-Horsham (previously 2-1) and CB South (previously 2-2) by scores of 24-33 and 23-32. CB South defeated Hatboro-Horsham in the closest showdown of the day by a score of 27-30.
In next week's final dual meets of the season, the Bucks (2-3) face Souderton (0-5) and Quakertown (0-5), while South (3-3) faces East (5-1), and Hatboro-Horsham (2-3) faces North Penn (5-0) and Pennridge (3-2). Hatboro-Horsham's defending individual State Champion Connor Quinn broke the tape in 15:57. CB West senior Chris Berry challenged Quinn through 2k and placed second in 16:34. Senior teammate AJ Morgan ran solo in 3rd place from wire to wire, earning a personal best of 16:50 in his last time out on his home course. South's Austin McCadden (4th, 17:02) and Tom Quinn (5th, 17:04) edged West's Rock Fortna (6th, 17:05) to keep South's chances alive. Hatboro's Dylan Ashbach and Justin Ehring had strong races, placing 7th and 8th in 17:06 and 17:16. South's James Chappell (9th) followed in 17:27, just ahead of West's 4-5 men Brian Iatarola (10th, 17:29) and Baylor Griffin (11th, 17:32). CB West senior Austin Kline (16th, 17:51) and freshman Declan McDonald (18th, 18:09) broke into the top seven for the Bucks for the first time on Wednesday. Kline set a season best and nearly broke his PR of 17:47 from 2011. The Bucks also had season bests from Anthony Soares (19:45), Dean Woodrow (19:38), Matt Bahner (19:55), Matt Belding (19:58), Trevor Belding (18:57), Tyler Press (19:57), and Gillis Wang (19:33). The Bucks now enter a well-earned week off from racing before returning to action for their final double-dual meet of the season next Wednesday at 3:30 on Quakertown's pancake flat, grass course versus Souderton and Quakertown. |
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