Methacton’s Kirshenbaum puts it all together, becomes All-Area ROY
Jeff Kirshenbaum goes back a long way with distance running.
Earlier than seventh grade, when he ran for the Arcola Middle School team. Even earlier than age six, when he was competing in five-kilometer races.
“I thought it was a fun thing to do with my parents. They ran every day,” he recalled. “I grew up (riding) in the baby jogger.”
From rider to runner: That’s been Kirshenbaum’s progression in the sport during his formative years and beyond. This past fall season, the Methacton senior made an even more significant evolution to champion and front-of-the-pack competitor … and, ultimately, The Mercury’s Male Runner of the Year.
Kirshenbaum was unpassable in the Pioneer Athletic Conference, first winning all Methacton’s league duals, then the boys’ championship race on Methacton’s home course at Heebner Park. His postseason continued with a sixth-place finish in the District 1 Class AAA competition at Lehigh University, followed by a ninth-place showing in the PIAA Class AAA meet at Hershey.
“He was serious about it (cross country) the other years,” Methacton head coach Steve Savitz noted. “But when I spoke to him in the spring, Jeff said in his senior year, he wanted to go forward. You can see the difference.”
There were other notable runs along the way: a third-place finish in the Gold race of the PIAA Foundation Invitational in late September, and a sixth in the Brown race of the Paul Short Run a week later. And there figure to be more in the future, with Kirshenbaum already drawing interest from several Division I colleges for dual participation in cross country and track.
Universities like American, Brandeis, Lehigh, Penn State and Temple have already come a-calling. In fact, Kirshenbaum was seen talking with a Brandeis coach shortly after his run at states.
His commitment to a college remains to be determined. But there’s no debating Kirshenbaum’s commitment to a sport renowned for its monotony as much as the physical strain it puts on a participant.
“Jeff’s dedicated,” Savitz said. “He’s logged over 1,000 miles from June to the end of October.”
His progression through the sport at the high-school level has been evidenced by the lowering of his times. From 18-minute runs as a freshman, to 16s as a sophomore and junior, to 15s this year, Kirshenbaum has been all about improving.
“When I’m out there by myself,” he said, “my focus is to give my absolute best.”
Kirshenbaum was literally the runaway winner of the PAC-10 boys’ meet, his 15:55 clocking more than a half-minute faster than second-place Liam Conway of Owen J. Roberts (16:32) and third-place Dylan Smiley of Phoenixville (16:33). After coming up short the previous two times — he finished second to Spring-Ford’s Paul Power as a sophomore — Kirshenbaum had a league gold medal.
“Winning it as a senior meant so much to me,” Jeff said.
His 15:43 at districts was 34 seconds off the winning pace of Central Bucks East’s Jake Brophy. One week later, Jeff capped his scholastic career with a 15:58 on the Hershey Parkview 5K complex known not so affectionately as the “Poop Out Hill Course.”
“I told myself going in, it was okay to not win if I collapsed across the finish line having given everything I had,” Kirshenbaum said.
Accompanying all the medals and accolades — he was named to the All PAC-10 first team — has been a work ethic his coach lauds as a model for all runners.
“When he does his injury-preventing exercises,” Savitz noted, “Jeff gives 100 percent to the stretching portion. Because of that, he felt good all season.
“He did five- to six-mile cooldowns sometimes, while other varsity runners do a 3-4 minute cooldown. That helps the other kids on the team, seeing his discipline. For a young team like ours, it was good to watch him and see what they have to do to get to the next level.”
Kirshenbaum thrived on the injury-prevention training, which featured leg circuits four times a week and concerted focus on stretching.
“That’s something the coaches are good at,” he said. “It’s a testament to doing something right.”
A fifth-place finisher at the 2014 PAC championship meet, Kirshenbaum saw the road to being the league’s front-runner uncluttered by graduation. Power and Boyertown’s Dylan Eddinger, who went 1-2 in the race, and fourth-place Derek Lopez of Pottsgrove were all seniors who moved on. That left only Conway — a precocious freshman who placed third — as his principal challenger to becoming the PAC’s new standard-bearer.
“That certainly was a goal of mine,” Kirshenbaum said. “I’m not saying I expected it, though. Look at how many great runners there are in the league — Conway, Sean McGinnis (Phoenixville), John Conner (Spring-Ford). I didn’t really think much about it.”
His high finish in the PIAA Foundation Invitational’s Gold race, and the 16:11 time he ran, got Kirshenbaum thinking he could run with the state’s best competitors.
“I had done well in other invitationals,” he recalled, “but that was the first one where I saw how well I could do. It was a really good preview for the state meet.”
A change in his approach to the PIAA race ended up contributing to Kirshenbaum’s Top 10 run.
“I wanted to be more aggressive,” he explained. “In a lot of big races, I went out too conservative. I wanted to get over that, to test myself.”
One test came at the two-mile mark, when Kirshenbaum hit the third major hill on the course. He had been running with the leaders to that point.
“That’s when I started hurting,” he recalled. “At that point, I knew I had to hang on.”
He hung on, finishing two seconds behind Plum’s Jake Susalla but six ticks ahead of North Allegheny’s Marc Migliozzi. He was among the five runners from District 1 schools — race winner Jake Brophy of Central Bucks East, Downingtown West entries Jaxon and Josh Hoey (2-3) and Henry Sappey (sixth) who placed in the Top 10.
“I’m very pleased,” he said at the time. “To come across ninth … I’m happy. I couldn’t ask for a better way to end my high-school career.”
While he ponders his ultimate college destination, Kirshenbaum will be spending the rest of his senior year competing with Methacton’s winter and spring track teams.
“Right now,” he said after finishing his run at the state meet, “I’m seeing what is out there, especially since I have more success.”
