Pick your favorite course of the 2015 XC season.
And
the nominees are ….
One of the state’s most famous and difficult courses hosts a variety of meets throughout the year, including the PCL Championships, District 12 Championships and Independent State Championships. It’s famous “Parachute Hill” still haunts etrain’s dreams from his first ever XC race. It’s the only time he ever walked during a race. The course has been traversed not just by multi time state champions like Jake Brophy and Tony Russell, but also by some of the greatest runners in the nation such as Jim and Joe Rosa of West Windsor.
The Big Spring course hosted the District 3 Championships for the first time in 2015, but also continued to host the always competitive Mid Penn Championships. In 2015, we saw some of the fastest times in course history, mainly by two runners who will return to the course again in 2016.
It’s
one of etrain’s personal favorite courses (he put a make believe meet on thecourse for goodness sakes)
because of its exciting mix of hills (both up and down) and it’s open, wooded
feel.
Brandywine Creek State Park(Salesianum)
Should a course outside of the great state of PA win an Etrain Oscar? If any course deserves it, it may be Salesianum’s Brandywine XC course. It’s another brutally difficult course where future Foot Locker finalists have struggled just to dip under 16:30.
Western Pennsylvania holds their district championships at this course which (I’ve been told, I’ve never actually competed there) features some difficult hills, difficult weather and a castle! No dragons, but that doesn’t mean the athletes who have competed there aren’t spitting fire. Nick Wolk, Domenic Perretta and Zach Skolnekovich all won their district championship races on this course in 2015.
The home of the state championship, Hershey’s Parkview course has become an iconic cross country lay out in the state of Pennsylvania. It provides brutal hills in the middle mile, but also a tight start that forces runners to get out hard or risk being stuck in a crowd. There’s also a hill that’s literally called “Poop-out Hill”. I swear, someone really named it that. Yes, I am very immature.
The home of the district one championships and the prestigious Paul Short Invitational, the Lehigh XC course is one of the fastest courses in the state. It has fantastic footing and usually brings together a ton of talent which brings out the best in the athletes. The course record is under 15 minutes!
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