PA HS XC

Predictions for tomorrow off top of my head

AAA

1. Griffith

2. Dicola

3. Lawson

4. Kroboth

5. Roden

6. O'Brien

7. Bertram

8. Hodge

9. Ryan

10. Brill

Team:

1. North Allegheny

2. LaSalle

3. North Penn

4. Hempfield

5. Haverford

AA

1. Lieberman

2. Strawser

3. Pajak

4. Whitaker

5. Papa

Team:

1. Grove City

2. Lewisburg

3. Hampton

A

1. Smigo

2. Michell

3. Sherry

4. Aiken

5. Lechleitner

Team:

1. Jenkintown

2. Central Cambria

3. Winchester Thurston

Ok so DiCola from Hatboro Horsham with the win! Didn’t see the race but looks like Griffith went out super fast but couldn’t quite hold off DiCola. Hot day in Hershey.

I ran in the late 80s/early 90s Hartwood and they had an decent individual every few years, but were never a team threat to make it to states any year back then. And John Wilkie never coached at NA. He coached at North Hills.

You can credit all of this success to their AD Bob Bozzuto. He hired me for my first coaching job at a different district he was the AD in (Franklin Regional) and it was an interview unlike any I've been in. He really wanted to know what I knew about the sport and what I would bring to the district. He wanted to know what my involvement would be with the middle school program and how it would link to the high school program. He checked references and even called his younger brother about me whom I graduated with. He was a baseball guy and believe me...he cares about all sports, because if any sucked or are poorly coached...it's a reflection of his work. He is also not afraid to let coaches go. I've seen it happen and he will find someone better. As a high school coach, this is the kind of guy you want to work for.

Told you. That said, the races for the individual wins in AAA were exciting, but damn was it hot out there yesterday. It felt near 80 degrees during some of the races when the clouds broke.

DiCola and Griffith ran a 199 and 195 SR respectively. How accurate is this?

http://tullyrunners.com/XC2022/Ratings_Nov05.htm#PIAA

Accurate in terms of what? Based on how he does his ratings, yes. DiCola set the Paul Short HS record earlier in the season, so it's not like he's not legit, and Griffith was doing similar things on the other side of the state.

You don’t think parents move to districts that benefit their kids in sport? They certainly do it for academics. An avid runner parent in the Pittsburg area would be stupid to not live in the NA district. NA wasn’t made overnight it’s established dominance over decades with this mindset.

Oh and I’m not saying that NA doesn’t have excellent coaching and the athletes work extremely hard. They certainly do that. It’s just that they have these other factors going for them that are more difficult to acquire. Like being a large suburban school not surrounded by tons of other large suburban schools to compete for talent with.

AAA

Episcopal to NXN

Griffith, DiCola, Pajak, and Roden to Champs Nationals

Predictions on how North Allegheny and Episcopal academy will do at NXN?

So, dumb question: why can't they just use the names of the high schools? Why "Wexford Flats" for NA?

They can, they chose to make their club name something else but they could have been North Allegheny XC or something like that.

If you live in the Pittsburg area, are a good runner, and have children wouldn’t you look to buy a house in the NA district. This happens in all sports. The difference is that in the east suburbs there’s tons of schools with a high reputation like NA. So the talent gets divided.