Nobody's quite having an era — like the Craig Miller Era or the Vince McNally Era — currently in Lancaster-Lebanon League cross country.
Hempfield's Kevin Hull and Warwick's Alli Mannon are among the favorites.
L-L League cross country meet records (PDF)
Not a bad thing.
Miller won three straight state championships at Manheim Township from 2003-05. His closest competition in the L-L generally came from his brother Brad.
McNally, of Conestoga Valley, won league and district titles in 2006 and 2007 and, in track season, a state 3,200-meter title.
Craig Miller is now at the University of Wisconsin, Brad at Syracuse, McNally at Penn State, all starring in cross country.
And back in the L-L there is close competition.
"The Millers and McNally were, well, the Millers and McNally," Hempfield coach Terry Newman said Thursday. "There's a lot of parity in the league right now."
The regular season ended last week. The league meet will be held Tuesday at Ephrata Middle School.
Parkview Golf Course in Hershey will host the District Three (Oct. 22) and state (Nov. 1) meets.
The top dog (for now) among L-L boys is Hempfield's Kevin Hull, who finished second to McNally in last year's league meet and has qualified for states his previous three years.
Hull, who's considering running track and cross country at Bucknell or Lehigh, among others, also won the L-L 800-meter title last spring.
"He's had his sights set more on the end of the season this year," Newman said.
Hull ran his first career sub-16-minute race in finishing 11th at the Paul Short Invitational at Lehigh last month. He was also second at the Gettysburg Invitational.
He's undefeated in L-L dual meets this fall except for a goofy race at Hempfield Sept. 9 in which he lost a shoe, ran for a while without it, then regained the shoe and finished third.
Hull kept his shoes on for last Tuesday's showdown with otherwise-undefeated Elizabethtown senior Dustin Horning and beat Horning barely, in a time of 16:50. Horning ran 16:51.
The boys' team competition is, if anything, even tighter than that.
Hempfield defeated Manheim Township 25-30 Sept. 2. Township beat defending league and district champ Cedar Crest 28-32 Sept. 9. Crest knocked off Hempfield 28-32 last Tuesday.
Those three are thus all 20-1. The tie will unofficially be broken at Ephrata Tuesday.
Maybe.
"I'd have to consider Cedar Crest the favorite," Newman said. "They ran a very tactically sound, very smart race against us.
"But, depending on how things go, I think E-town and Lancaster Mennonite also have a shot at it."
Further, Hempfield has gone the last nearly three weeks without its No. 2, Matt Groff, who's nursing bursitis. Groff's going to give it a try Tuesday.
Among other boys' runners to watch: Cedar Crest's Brent Balmer and Alex Galli, Cocalico's John Wallace, McCaskey's Quichon Walker and Angelo Arce and Hempfield's Matt Groff.
On the girls' side, last year's league meet seemed the harbinger of an era when a freshman, Garden Spot's Emily Martin, won the individual title.
But Martin has missed most of the season with mononucleosis. The year didn't get a definitive stamp until Sept. 30, when four undefeated girls' teams — Manheim Township, Lampeter-Strasburg, Elizabethtown and Warwick –—were all on the same course, at Warwick.
The Warriors, and top Warrior Alli Mannon, made a statement there by sweeping easily. The closest score, with L-S, was 20-41.
"I never coached a team like this before," veteran Warwick coach Ed Nixdorf admitted.
Nixdorf says he has 11 legitimate runners, and only nine are allowed to enter the league meet. Only eight can enter districts.
"I've told our 6-7-8 kids, 'You're running against five teammates' " Nixdorf said. "It's a good problem to have."
Mannon, a junior, hasn't been beaten in the league. She has been pushed by training partner and teammate Katelyn Oliver, a senior.
"Katelyn's been really good for Alli, and Alli's been really good for Katelyn," Nixdorf said.
Mannon was fourth in the state in the 3,200 meters last spring. This fall, she's defeated another top junior, Elco's Kayleigh Perry, in a dual meet.
Perry was second in the Class AA 1600 as states last spring, has run a 5:00 mile and set two course records this fall.
Cedar Crest actually scored more points than anyone head-to-head with Warwick.
"They're the team we have to contend with," Nixdorf said. "L-S could beat us too. So could Township. It all depends what one or two key people do."
Other top girls' runners: Donegal's Kara Lofton and Jess McDonald, Cedar Crest's Becca Brandt, Justine and Melanie Barr of L-S, Taylor Ludman of Solanco, and McCaskey's Lisa Auster-Gussman.
Mike Gross is assistant sports editor of the Sunday News. E-mail him at mgross@lnpnews.com.
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