After looking at the posted results for the boys' Class AA race at the WPIAL cross country championships, Beaver coach Steve Goldcamp walked over to where the Bobcats had set up camp and said Beaver finished second.

No one would believe him.

"There was some confusion and some of the parents thought I said we had two [individual] qualifiers," Goldcamp said.

It took a few minutes but he finally convinced everybody that Beaver was the WPIAL runner-up in Class AA.

Quaker Valley won the boys' team title with a ridiculously low score of 41 points. Beaver was next with 199 with Greensburg Central Catholic close behind at 207.

Goldcamp thought the Bobcats had a chance to place in the top four in the team standings and earn a trip to Hershey for the PIAA championships. That meet is Saturday morning at the Parkview course next to the Giant Center. But finish second?

"I knew we'd be in the hunt," Goldcamp said. "But we also had the soccer kids in the playoffs and I didn't know how much that would affect them."

As it turned out, not that much.

The Bobcats earned the runner-up trophy with a pack mentality. Sophomore Josef Depietranio was the team's first runner to the cross the line, finishing in 13th place with a time of 17 minutes, 32 seconds. The Bobcats' fifth finisher was sophomore Jack McLaughlin in 19:08. That's a solid spread of 1:36.

Sophomore Asa Equels joined Depietranio in the top 20 and earned a WPIAL medal -- the top 20 finishers receive awards -- with a time of 17:38 and freshman Cameron Clerici was right behind in 17:45. Junior Kevin Forner had a time of 18:46.

"We knew our top three guys would be up in there," Goldcamp said. "We thought if the fourth guy was in the 80s and the fifth runner was anywhere from 90 to 110 then we'd probably be under 200 points. And that would get us into the top four in the standings."

He never thought he would bring a trophy home from the championships at Cooper's Lake Campground near Slippery Rock.

"I don't even know if we even have a trophy case in the school [for cross country]," Goldcamp said. "They might have to find one after we won this and two section plaques [for the boys' and the girls' teams] this year to go with the one the girls' we won last year."

He was disappointed his girls' team didn't fair better at the championships, but there were extenuating circumstances. Beaver placed ninth in the girls' Class AA standings and did not have an individual qualify for the PIAA championships. The girls' top finisher was sophomore Brittany Shay, who placed 46th.

The problem was that Madeline Goldcamp, a sophomore and the coach's daughter, was sidelined with complications from the flu and didn't run at the championships.

"I feel badly for the seniors on the girls' team," Goldcamp said, referring to Caitlin Feroce, Melanie Westurn and Sarah Dalessandro. "I thought they had a chance to go to the state meet, too."

The boys' team experienced success with just one senior -- Dillon Griffin -- in the top seven, so the Bobcats expect to be strong again next season.

"I'm really excited about them going out to Hershey," Goldcamp said. "There's no pressure on us. We can go out there and try our best and see what happens."

Mike White's "High School Sports Edition" videos are featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.