Different meet, same venue, same players. This time, sophomore Jaxson Hoey got the best of Germantown Academy’s Sam Ritz to take first place and lead Malvern Prep to the 2013 Pennsylvania Independent School State Cross Country Championship at Belmont Plateau in Philadelphia on Saturday, October 26.

“Those guys have battled back and forth all season” said Malvern Head Coach Mike Koenig of Hoey and Ritz. “This was the third time they have finished within a second of each other. As soon as the race was over on Monday, Jaxson said he was going to beat him. I could see it in his eyes today. He was focused.”

Just like at the Inter-Ac race, Malvern placed five runners in the top 10 to win in convincing fashion with 29 team points. Once again, Penn Charter finished second, with 62 team points in the state meet. Junior Billy McDevitt finished in 4th place for the Friars with a time of 16:43.2; senior Brendan Stec finished in sixth place with a time of 17:02.9; sophomore Colin Wills placed eighth in 17:05.3; and junior Ryan Doane finished 10th in 17:13.7. Seniors Andrew Wilson and Dan Ferraiolo finished 19th and 20th, respectively, in 17:35.7 and 17:42.9. Josh Hoey, who finished fourth at the Inter-Ac championship, was not eligible to race because he is in eighth grade.

“This a talented team with exceptional leadership, and they bought into doing all of the little things – they took care of themselves – got their sleep, ate right. They lived the sport this season,” said Koenig. “While Inter-Acs is always our top goal, this year states was goal 1A. We had a bit of a different focus this year. We still had mental energy left after Inter-Acs.”

Under Koenig, Malvern has won three consecutive and 10 of the last 11 Inter-Ac cross country titles, but Saturday marked its first state championship.