Palmer Ridge Busts Rust At Legacy Rust Buster

Brandon Hippe ran away with the individual title. 

4:58 - 4:59 - 5:00...

Like the girl's race, anyone in a navy blue Bears uniform was all business. The 2017 state cross country champions may have graduated four of last year's top-five from state, but they made it very well known that this will not be a rebuilding year. 

Brandon Hippe ran in tandem with teammate Logan Bocovich through a quick opening mile. The duo held a 20 meter gap over their chasers, which included the remainder of their top five. Palmer Ridge held five of the top seven spots through the mile, and again, just like the girl's race, not much would change in the remaining two miles.

Hippe used the middle mile to telescope away and only looked back once - in the final straightaway. The Palmer Ridge senior nabbed his first win of the season with a 16:22 victory - a 20-second win. 

"I wanted to go for the win," Hippe shared. "I didn't expect to go out that hard, but it ended up well."

The heat took its toll on quite a few, though Legacy's Ryan Montera paced his race to near perfection, finishing second in 16:42. Behind Montera, Erie's Jamison Cartwright took third in 16:55. 

The Palmer Ridge boy's squad nearly duplicated their girl's team domination. The Bears won with 25 points, going 1-4-5-7-8.

"We've got a pretty good chance of going after a state championships again," Hippe said. "We definitely have more work to do, but we'll be coming for that trophy."

Erie was the runner-up with 71 points, just ahead of host-Legacy, who tallied 82.