Lederer first, leads Penncrest to team title
UPPER PROVIDENCE » When the 2017 season began, Cardinal O’Hara’s domination of the Delaware County Boys Cross Country Championships had extended over eight consecutive years.
Since 2000, the Lions had surrendered the team title at Delcos only four times — in 2004 to Archbishop Carroll, in 2006 to Strath Haven, and in 2007 and 2008 to Penncrest.
The winning streak did not reach nine at Rose Tree Park Saturday at the 54th Delco boys meet. Penncrest placed three runners among the top five finishers and had its top five all place among the first 18 to cross the finish line in scoring 45 points to outdistance Haverford High (72) and O’Hara (86) for its first team title since 2008. That was when Nick Bonaventure repeated as individual champion and the Lions won the team title for the second year in a row.
Penncrest senior Avery Lederer, runner-up in the 2016 race, finished 20 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Zack Forney of Ridley. Lederer’s winning time was 16:27. Tony Harper of Monsignor Bonner & Archbishop Prendergast was third, one second behind Forney.
Rounding out the top five were Penncrest sophomore Patrick Theveny and Lions senior Justin Senackerib.
The heat had a number of runners collapsing as they came up the finishing hill and crossed the line.
“I took it out fast for the first mile (4:55),” Lederer said. “I was really feeling it at the two-mile hill. I didn’t have a lot left, but I knew I had to tough it out up that last hill,”
With Delco individual and team championships to his credit during the first weekend of October, Lederer turned his focus to what he hopes will be another achievement as the month comes to a close.
“We want to go to districts and qualify for states as a team,” he said. “We know how tough a district this is, but we’ll keep working toward reaching our goal.”
Theveny was 50th in the Delco varsity race as a freshman (18:27). He finished a minute and a half faster in moving up to fourth place Saturday.
“We want to go to districts and qualify for states as a team. We know how tough a district this is, but we’ll keep working toward reaching our goal.” — Penncrest’s Avery Lederer on what’s the Delco champion Lions next for
“I worked together a lot with Avery and Justin (Senackerib) getting ready for this season,” Theveny said. “We ran a lot at Ridley Creek State Park. Today the weather made it tougher, especially on the last hill. But we got through it.”
Sophomores Luke Narbus (17th) and Andrew Woolery (18th) rounded out Penncrest’s top five finishers.
Lions coach George Munro knew the challenges his team would face with the high late-afternoon temperatures.
“It was hard trying to run, and this was a hard race,” Munro said. “The conditions were very tough. Just as the girls’ varsity race started the clouds started to clear away, so you knew it was going to get even tougher.”
Ridley’s Forney was last year.
“I ran a lot more trying to be ready for this season,” he said. “Last week at Paul Short (Lehigh University) it was 60 degrees when we were running. This was a lot tougher.
“I wanted to go out fast with the front pack and do what I could to stay in the race. Now I want to work harder to make sure I can make it to states.”
Bonner & Prendie’s Harper plays goalie for his school’s soccer team in addition to running.
“If I have soccer in the afternoon, I go out and run in the evening,” he said. “Today, every step you took when the sun was out made it hard to run.”
Strath Haven senior Cole Wirth took seventh place, three seconds behind sixthplace finisher Josh Fingerhut of Haverford. Radnor had two runners in the top 10 – senior Jack Bell, who came home in eighth place, and junior Doug Rosin, who placed ninth. Senior Jack Becker (13th) was Cardinal O’Hara’s top finisher. 12th in this race