etrain11's Track Blog: Nuff Said

2013-12-14T10:44:00.003-08:00

The writer of this blog has moved to the follow web address: www.therealtrain.blogspot.com

Goodbye XC

2013-11-17T07:56:00.001-08:00

Alright so I'm a little rusty on the whole blogging thing so you will have to bare with me on this one.

Has anybody ever used spotify before? It's pretty much the best new discovery of my life right now and basically you can pick any song online and listen to it for free (with some ads in there somehow but I mean somebody's gotta pay the bills). So naturally that has allowed me to fill my life with an excess of Drake music. Due to this little influx of musical talent, you will notice the theme of this post may remind you of some popular songs out there.

Started From The Bottom
Much like Drake, I was far from ever starting at the true "bottom" of cross country, but relatively it is cool to look back at the improvement curve I have made over the years. It's honestly one of my favorite parts about the sport: you can definitively prove that you are improving and that your hard work has paid off.

In 2009, I ran my first ever cross country race in somewhere between 18-19 minutes at Belmont Plateau. Sounds like a pretty solid freshman 5k time right? Yeah, I'd agree that is a reasonable 5k for your first race. Too bad that race was a 4k.

But I persevered, and I got a heck of a lot tougher than I was that day. By the end of the season I ran 19:12 for 5k and I went back to Belmont the next year and started my season by running 19:20 for 5k this time around.

By the time I was finished high school I dropped my 5k time to 17:05 and by the time I was finished college I was coming through the 5k mark of races somewhere between 17 minutes and 17:20 on my way to a PR of 27:29 over 8k. 8 years of hard work and lots of miles got me something. It's nice to know it was all worth it.

And the cool part was I wasn't the one making these drops alone. My friend Ian McGrath went from a 23 minute first ever 5k to a 16:50 guy in the span of two years. Another guy on my college team went from 30 minutes 27:30 in two years. I don't know if he ever really put in perspective where he has come from, but I think that's something to be proud of.

Best I Ever Had
Running Cross Country has been an unbelievable experience. I built up my etrain reputation off the sport of cross country, ranking individuals and teams from all over. There is so much more to question and to judge and to rank in the Fall. The courses are all different and each has their own shortcomings or difficulties. I stopped my etrain games this year but I never stopped being etrain. I kept a file on the top 200 runners in the region this year and was projecting how things would shape out all year. Same stuff different day.

I found it really cool how things ended for me. I ran the Lehigh XC course about 15 times for races in 8 years. I ended my career there yesterday. There was no extra magic because it was my last race. The pain wasn't any easier to handle. It was exactly the same as any other race and what got me through was motivation and heart. That's what it was about when I started and what is what about when I finished.

I finished my high school and college careers at the same place with the same kind of race and of the course, the same picture. Thanks for putting up with my crap guys.

So sorry Drake, doesn't look like Nothing Was the Same applies here.

All Me
The last song on Drake's album is a real good song. But it's actually the opposite of what I want to say. Cross Country has never been All Me. To me the team aspect in XC is nothing like the team aspect of track. You train all summer and sweat and fight and bleed and puke with a family of guys that you lay it all out there for every day when you race. Almost all the best friends that I have today came from this sport and I am truly thankful to have had the love and support of so many dedicated people all my life.

And so as I close out 8 years of cross country I have some thank yous to make. It's impossible to thank everyone but I will give it my best shot.

First, to my parents. My dad pushed me to do cross country before it ever existed. And not because he was a runner himself, he was a baseball player and a wrestling coach. He pushed because he knew it was something I would love and he was right. My mom and dad were there at my last race and that was a big part of what made it so special. I love you guys.

Next I have to thank all my great coaches. I ran a PR under every coach I ever had and some of those were not easy to come by. Thanks Grift, Ames, G, Bracetty and the Fins.

I also have to thank all my teammates. There are too many to all thank individually but I will throw some names out there. Ian McGrath we were great rivals but without you I wouldn't be who I was today, I owe you a big thanks for your trash talk. Mike Palmisano, the Reillys, Sam Stortz and heck even Gourlay. You guys made me a part of that team at Upper Dublin and you showed me what good runners are like. Without you guys there is no way I would have become who I did as a runner. And of course my buddies Todd and Tanzer. I started with you guys from the beginning and both of you helped me enjoy the sport and pushed me to continue it from the beginning. Fran and Mitchell thanks for all the summer training and the fantastic friendships.

As for my college teammates, I have to give a special thanks to Luke Munyan this year. I think a lot of my improvements were made from running and training with you. You gave me the confidence to think I could hang with the big dogs on the squad. Also I'd like to say thanks to Josh and Zach. Together we went through some hard ups and downs in the past two years on the XC course. I wish we could have all been out there together on Saturday for that last one, but as you guys have said so many times sometimes this sport is cruel.

Another thanks belongs to Bob Torphy. He really showed me what it takes to be a top notch college runner. I never really became one but I always strived to imitate his example as a runner and a leader. Will and Andy were two great captains to have as well and took me under their wing from the time I was a freshman.

And finally to my fellow class of 2014 members.
Tom you were always the Thor to my Wolverine, without you there to push me every day I never would have gotten to run either of the regional races I was lucky enough to run. I owe so much of my success to you. We will always be Thor and Wolverine.

Bobby I'm so proud that you had the race you did at regionals. Honestly, I think it's the greatest and most clutch performance I have ever seen from a Muhlenberg guy at Regionals. It was unbelievable. I'm inspired by your hardwork and you are truly an extremely nice person. You deserve success.

And my roommmate Charlie Kline. Thank you for always being a great friend. We went through it all together and you were always supportive and level headed and a true Players Player. I've voted for yo the last two years, and I will be voting for you again one more time. Go get that 5k record this year baby.

Thank you to all my teammates I have ever had and all my great friends in the sport including guys I didn't mention like Kenny and Tom Lorenzi and Pete Schartel and even Ryan Desch and so many more. I will always remember these teams and these friendships. It made me etrain and it made me Jarrett Felix.

Last but certainly not least to my Nicki. You have always been my biggest fan. You keep me in one piece and you always show me what is most important when I get lost in the numbers and the pressure: having fun. You brought me back two years ago when it looked like I was done and ready to quit and you brought me back this year once again. I love you.

So this is it XC. Thanks for the memories. But as Drake said, I'm not gonna quit til it's over. And it's far from over.

See you on the track.

-train

Cross Country

2013-11-11T19:01:00.001-08:00

It's weird to think that in one week barring something historically magical, my cross country career is going to be all finished up. I don't think things like this can really hit you until you are staring them in the face.

Last year I got complacent and I let things slip away. It's funny how a really great year can turn quickly into a really crappy year after that. I had hated having to go through all the stuff I did last year at this team. Watching my teammates keep running while I was done was incredibly painful. But it made me hungry. It made me the guy I was this summer. The guy I was this year. I didn't hold anything back on my training and I didn't let anyone tell me no or tell me what I couldn't do.

Look, this year wasn't anything amazing. I'm not trying to say I'm suddenly a big name in the game of running and that my achievements are anything better than anybody else's, but there is something satisfying about hard work isn't there? Just about knowing that all your hard work got you to where you had fantasized about getting to.

I always thought I could just keep doing the same thing and keep improving, but eventually everybody hits the wall and hits the point where things won't click no matter how hard they try. I train months on end so that one day of the year it will click. And it's worth it to me. That's why I keep doing it.

But after Saturday I won't be doing it anymore. I'll be done running with the guys and running with my best friends with a name across my chest that means something. It's sad to know that I'm losing a little piece of who I am this week.

Goals may be reached, but as soon as you hit one, you start adjusting and looking ahead. There will always be something to chase and new dreams to be realized.

I know I don't have any readers out there anymore, so I'm just talking from the heart. But hey, if somebody does stumble upon this old abandoned place, enjoy the ride because it's an honor to be able to represent your school and run with your friends. You can't take it for granted because you don't know when it will all end.

Well I guess I kinda do now.

Dang.

I hope I make this last race count, and I hope all you out there make the memories last.

-train

The Running Diaries

2013-06-11T19:45:00.000-07:00

SECTION UPDATE HAS BEEN ADDED 6/17/13
4TH SECTION UPDATE HAS BEEN ADDED 6/14/13 (both sections are marked NEW as a head's up)

Decided to try and make things a little easier to follow/read by just putting everything in one post. Let me know if this creates problems. I'll also put the word NEW!! above each new section I add so people know where to start up again. I'll probably update once or twice a week depending on demand. Also if you've got a good title hit me up.

The Running Diaries

November 7^th, 1999

The 1999 State Championships was truly a historic day in PA cross country. Jimmy Springer, the six foot one Senior from Union Valley, was looking to win his fourth championship in his four years of high school, a feat never before accomplished. He glided across the course with beautiful, long strides. Currently, he jogged lazily across the frosty Hershey golf course, seemingly unaware of his surroundings or the other hundreds of runners and fans flooding the course. As he approached the parking lot where he liked to do his pre-race stretching routine he passed a short runner wearing a purple sweat suit. The two locked eyes briefly, to which Jimmy responded with his usual stone cold stare. His own notoriety combined with this intimidating gaze was on many occasions enough to send his opponent’s eyes darting off in the opposite direction, but this runner’s eyes did not budge and as the two began to part ways, he gave Jimmy a small wink and a smile. “Good luck out there Jim-bo.”

Fear was not in Ben Havko’s vocabulary.

February 4^th, 1999

The weather in Lower Fairview was rarely conducive to a winter track season and the winter of 1999 was far from an exception to the rule. For this reason, Lower Fairview did not pour funds into the track and field department to allow for entry into any of the local (local being a relative word here) meets hosted by the TSTCA or PTFCA. The school had one of the best lacrosse programs in the state and that was how the school made money. Active track programs landed a school such as this consistently in the red.

But the school did have a track team and had actually had quite a strong history of producing quality state runners. Ryan Jewett ran a 4:14.72 mile at the 1979 state championships to claim state gold. In 1966, Kevin Donnelly ran a 9:03.66 2 mile at the Baldwin Invitational to set what was then a state record. The record stood for almost 30 years and was only beaten by a herculean effort by Paul Spooner of District One powerhouse Coatesville in 1995 to better the mark down to 9:00.05. He closed in a 57 second final quarter.

But Lower Fairview was now approaching the 20^th anniversary of Jewett’s 1979 state title, the school’s last state champion in any sport and the school had struggled mightily on the track during that time period. By this point the program was more of a club sport than anything. The school had no cross country or track and field coach and only three official team members, two of which had not raced during any of their four years at school but were simply using the team as a means of boosting their college applications.

The remaining member was quite the opposite. Ben Havko first joined Lower Fairview’s program as a freshman looking to run cross country. At this point he weighed in at roughly 90 pounds and was about 5 foot 4 inches tall. Needless to say, it was hard for him to contribute to any other high school sports programs. A competitive individual by nature, Havko’s father, Sam, suggested he take up running, a sport where everyone would get a chance to play. When Ben joined the squad, the team was a group of seven runners. The other six were seniors.

Ben was hooked immediately. He reveled in the chance to push himself to the brink, to compete on a weekly basis, and to be part of the running community. In Ben’s first race he clocked a 23:12 5k, but by the end of his freshman year he had cut almost four minutes off that mark to get down to 19:18. To say he was infatuated with running would be an insult to their relationship. Ben Havko was head over heels in love with running.

Havko stepped out into the cold, swirling winter winds in his purple Lower Fairview sweats. He held a pair of spikes in one hand and a shovel in the other. The call came this morning to Ben’s house that the Edinboro Open track meet would have to be cancelled due to all the previous day’s snow. Looking out at his home track, it was clear that the meet directors had made a logical choice. But Ben was not to be deterred. He had adjusted his training preparing for this meet, preparing to hit the indoor state qualifying standard of 9:04.88 in the 3000m. He woke up expecting to race, and that, he decided, was what he would do.

He carefully stepped onto the track in his blue and black ASICS running shoes and dug his shovel into the snow. It was still relatively fresh and, thus, soft and easier to break up and shovel out of the way. After two hours of work, Ben had cleared out the entirety of lane one of the track. He had a pretty good sweat going by this point, so he figured he probably only needed another 10 minutes of jogging and some drills before he was ready to go.

As he jogged about, trying to keep his feet as dry as possible (which meant reasonably damp), he talked aloud to himself about the splits for his goal mark.

“So 9:00 is 72s meaning 9:04 would be about the same thing. I’d have to be at about 3:01 and 6:02, ideally closer to 6 flat so there is some cushion there if I start to tie up.”

It probably would have been odd to witness a little boy jogging around in the snow mumbling to himself, but there was no one else around to hear it or see it. There were no signs of life within quite the large radius of the track. But that didn’t matter to Ben. On the note he left for his parents before he left this morning he simply wrote, “Those who are truly great, are great when no one is watching”.

After a few drills and strides, Havko stripped down to simply his uniform, gloves and a hat. He was wearing roughly the amount of fabric that one would wear in a tanning salon in the aftermath of a February snow storm in Northern PA. He set his watch, toed the line, steadied himself and took off.

The first few steps of a race are always exhilarating. Even in conditions like this Ben still had butterflies in his stomach the first 200m, but those feelings had to be controlled. He didn’t want to waste all his energy in the first seconds of the race. The wind howled in his face on the home stretch has he went by the first time, nature was his opponent on the track today. Now he was coming back around towards his first 400m split. 72 on the nose, perfect split. He trudged on.

At 800m, it starts to hurt. It defies logic; there is still so much of the race left, why is it hurting so early? But in racing, pain is always present, but the best runners can shove it aside, convince themselves it’s all part of the plan and everything is going well. Ben did feel strong as he approached two laps and began to flood his mind with compliments. ‘You’re moving strong, this is perfect, this is easy.’ Then he split his watch. 78 for the second lap.

There are few worse feelings than thinking you are moving considerably faster than you are in a race. A pit dropped in Ben’s stomach and he knew it was time to work, he dropped his pace down and looked to hammer things back down. He was through the first 1k in 3:05, much slower than he had planned. He continued to put his head down, trying to stay on pace. He split his watch again and this time saw a 66. A bad overcompensation, his pacing was running him ragged around the track and he knew that lap could catch up to him. A sense of dread ate at the back of his mind, when would he pay the price for his mistake?

1600m in 4:47, 2000m in 5:59, 2400m in 7:10. He was rolling back on 72 pace, clicking off these even splits gave him confidence, but he was starting to feel the burn in his legs and in the back of his throat. It was hard to breadth in the cold winter air and the pace was faster than anything he had raced before. His Personal Best from last spring was just 10:08 for the 3200m, equating to roughly a 9:30 3k and 76 second laps. He was crossing the 400 to go mark, he imagined a tiny bell going off in his head as he hit the line. He fought the urge to look at his watch, it was sprint time from here on and he didn’t want to break form. But it was hard to keep it, down the back stretch his head began to wobble back and forth and his shoulders tightened up. The shoveling had probably not done his arms any favors as he tried to drive heading through 200m to go. He was tying up, clearly, over the last minute or so. His finishing kick was never really something he could hang his hat on.

As he made the turn for home, the wind really picked up, blowing straight into his face. He grit his teeth and bowed his head in agony hoping to use it as some type of battering ram against the wall of air he was trying to break through. After what felt like miles of fighting, he could finally stop his watch as he hit the line. His legs shook and he almost fell as he cross the line and stumbled over to the fence for support. Naturally before he could even catch his breath or understand his surroundings he was looking at his watch for the time. 9:05.2. He gave a frustrated sigh and staggered around the turn in what was intended to be a jog to go retrieve his clothes and start his cool down.

There were an unlimited amount of excuses that Ben knew he could easily make for himself, but he let those thoughts pass him by. When he was finally back home in a warm bath, soaking his aching limbs he could at least take solace in the fact that he had just set a 25 second PR.

September 30^th, 1996

Jimmy Springer may have been born with all the physical gifts a runner can ask for, but he was certainly not born a runner. Growing up he much preferred playing basketball, baseball, football, soccer … really anything with a ball and he was sold. He liked being on a team and having friends and to him the idea of running always seemed pretty individual and lonely, not to mention boring and unpopular.

But running, as it does for many, found Jimmy. His parents were both doctors and, although the family was quite well off, Mr. and Mrs. Springer did not always have time for their son. So if Jimmy wanted to get somewhere, he would have to run.

The summer before his freshman year he ran the two miles to the high school varsity soccer fields for try outs, carrying his soccer cleats under his arms. On the first day, Jimmy stood out as the top freshman on the soccer field, but got bumped around a bit by the older, stronger boys. The coach was still more than willing to have him come back for day two of try outs where the boys were surprised with a 2 mile time trial on a loop around the high school campus.

Coach Martinez, Union Valley’s head coach, proclaimed, “Anyone who can’t break 12 minutes … well you can just run on home and start training for next year.” The older runners knew this was an empty threat, many of whom had run slower than the mark and still been named to the varsity squad, but young Jimmy Springer had no such inside information. Considering Springer ran 4 total miles yesterday to get to and from try outs and had run 2 miles to get to school for try outs to today, he was nervous wreck as the group lined up to get the run started.

On the word go, Springer bolted to the front of the group and took off running scared. It just so happened that the boys cross country squad was practicing on the same day and head coach Sal Albertson, who usually tried to scoop up a few runners who were cut from soccer, was eyeing the 2 mile time trial. By the half mile mark of Springer’s run, Albertson was off jogging across the soccer field to talk to Coach Martinez. By the time Springer crossed the line and turned around, he saw that he was about a quarter mile ahead of anyone else and had clocked a time of 10:15 for the 2 mile loop.

While Jimmy was still catching his breath, Coach Albertson and Martinez pulled him off to the side (leaving a very frazzled assistant coach to try and collect the times for the rest of the players).

“Jimmy that was some remarkable running! I’m Coach Albertson of the men’s cross country team. You have the potential to be something great son. Our team could really use you, we a great group of returning runners this year and with you on the squad I think we could compete for a state championship!”

“Listen Jimmy,” Coach Martinez began solemnly, “You are a fine young soccer player, but you have a once in a lifetime kind of opportunity here. Why don’t you go to Cross Country practice tomorrow and if you don’t like it, I’ll keep a spot on the team open for you.”

Cross Country was different from “running” as Jimmy had always previously thought of it. There was a great team dynamic and runs were far from lonely. All the guys on the team were quite friendly and funny and right away Jimmy felt this was a place he belonged. There is a certain sense of family around a cross country team and the Union Valley squad quickly became Jimmy’s.

Springer jogged in the pack of Union Valley boys around the Lehigh cross country course as the team prepared for their third race of the season. The roster for the team was filled with talented harriers including Colin Leak, who had run 9:19 for 3200m the previous season and Dan Dallago who clocked a 4:18 1600m. The team filled out their scoring five with a couple of 16:20 guys in Sean Gross and Evan Fischer and James Burkhardt who was an 800m specialist but had a solid summer of mileage and was running solid cross marks. Coach Albertson had held Springer out from the first few races of the season saying, “I want to surprise some people with you. I can’t show all my cards too early.”

The team had managed to win its previous two invites without Springer competing, but the competition was nothing compared to what they would see at the Paul Short Invite. This year Cumberland Valley and LaSalle, last year’s state runner ups, both were looking to run fast times at this early season meet. Captain Colin Leak kept his team calm all week while still injecting confidence and positive energy at practice. Leak was the perfect general for this army. He was easy to talk to, optimistic, and, most importantly perhaps, a fast dude. He had logged 80 mile weeks over the summer in hopes of taking the next step and competing for an individual state championship. Leak was 18^th the year before at the state meet. However, his team goals outweighed his personal goals, he wanted to see his team place well above all else. A year ago, the team finished 19^th at the state championship, suffering from inexperience on the brutal Hershey course. It served as motivation every time the team touched the trails.

Springer was filled with nervous energy on race day. He trusted Coach Albertson, but he was sick of feeling like a caged dog. In workouts, he had been running just off Leak, in the pack with Dallago, Gross and Fischer and was hoping to prove he had not been training above his head. As the team switched from jogging to stretching, Albertson approached his nervous freshman.

“I don’t want you to get carried away out there. You are going to be excited and that is perfect natural, but I want to try and avoid having you bust out the gate with a 4:40 mile, ok? So here is what I want you to do, stick behind Fischer until the halfway point of the race. After that if you can go faster, go ahead and take off.”

When the gun sounded, Jimmy was off and running, so fast that he found himself at the front of the entire field by the 100m mark. Wildly he looked around, waiting for Fischer to come up and overtake him. He came to almost a complete stop as the field came storming by him, swallowing him up in a crowd of multi colored jerseys. It was all a blur as he pressed on, looking for a tall, brown-haired boy wearing orange. He almost ran into him when he finally found him and the two pressed on together towards the mile in a huge sea of competitors. Springer still felt jumpy, nervous and energized. It took a lot of self control to calmly breadth and run along his teammate. As they approached the mile all sorts of numbers were being called out amist the stampede of runners and the cheering of spectators. Somehow, Albertson’s voice stood out among the crowd. “5:08”.

It felt easy. Runners were panting and breathing hard all around him, but Jimmy was completely under control. He took a look to his side at Fischer who seemed to be pressing. Up just ahead was Gross, Dollago was a few groups ahead of him, and way at the front, almost out of eye sight, an orange jersey that Jimmy assumed was Leak was leading the charge. From the shouts of the other coaches, Jimmy figured he was probably in about 110^th or so. He wanted to move up but Fischer was struggling and his pace was slowing. It wasn’t quite halfway yet, but Jimmy couldn’t wait. The team needed him to make a move, he was in the scoring five and there was a team title on the line. He went by Fischer.

He caught up to Gross as they crested a small hill going back by the start. Just ahead of him was a pair of Red and White Jerseys. “Cumberland Valley right up here boys! We need these points” It was Albertson again, screaming at his runners, this time concern clearly imbedded within his tone. Springer responded immediately. He blew right by the pair of runners and kept his eyes up ahead. He was charging up the far right side of the course, doing his best to weave through runners, one after the other. He was almost at 2 miles now and he felt much worse than he had after the first. He charged up the course’s final hill passing a gold jersey that he thought read “LaSalle” and listening for a split. “10:19”.

The weaving through runners had zapped most of his strength; the hill was a struggle, his quads burned as he charged on. It was hard to have a lot of thoughts going on at once; he had to have a single minded approach. For now it was simply: finish. However, he had been making up a lot of ground, by the sounds of things he was up to about 35^th now. And then it happened. Around the turn in the cornfields he saw Dollago racing down the downhill, locked in a battle with a runner from Downingtown West. Extra motivation kicked in, goals changed.

The competitive spirit of running is always greatest between teammates. No one can motivate a runner more than the person he trains with every day, the person whose strengths and weaknesses are clearly known. Jimmy knew he was running well if he was within striking distance of Dollago. But he also knew Dollago was hoping for a top 10 finish to help the team, and he was off that pace. Springer charged ahead with a second wind. It was all down-hill from this point and he opened up his long powerful stride. He passed Dollago with surprising ease coming down the hill, but Dan was not going to let him go without a fight. The two continued to run hard, pushing each other passed what they had previous thought were their limits. Albertson was at the statue that marked 400m to go and just passed him was a clump of what looked to be 5 runners. “You boys are in 15^th and 16^th! Relax and go! Eyes on this group right here!”

It was a different voice now, excitement the dominant emotion, and Springer responded. He made the turn into the final, long straightaway with a huge crowd screaming him home. He couldn’t feel where Dollago was now, but it wasn’t about him anymore, it was about how many guys he could catch on the final stretch. He could feel spittle gathering on his face, his legs burning, his arms flailing but he pushed on to the roar of the crowd. As he approached the line, neck and neck with another runner with big powerful arms, he put in one final surge right before the finish and was able to edge him out.

The finishing shoot was a mad house as usual. All Springer wanted to do was lay down and find a nice, quiet place to throw up, but the officials ushered him through the shoot, yelling that he had to move. He was pretty sure he got a little bit of vomit on their shoes as pay back. In between gasps for breadth he managed to get in a few nice jobs and handshakes. A few of his other JV teammates who had been watching the race came over to congratulate him as well.

“You finished 10^th!”

“And ran a 15:52!”

“That’s unbelievable man!”

“It’s the fastest time by a freshman in school history!”

He was trying to do the math in his head, but the numbers didn’t easily add up. For a moment he thought he had closed in a 5:30 last mile, easily his slowest mile of the race, until he realized the mark was actually closer to 5 minute pace, since he had forgotten the extra tenth of a mile. It was all just a dizzy mess of numbers to him at this point. He had never run serious races before; his best comparisons were simply to the marks of his teammates.

But he knew he had run well when Leak came over and picked up off the ground in a large hug.

“That was fantastic man! You may have just gotten us the team title!”

In the end Union Valley did eek out a victory narrowly over Cumberland Valley, who finished second, and LaSalle, who took third. Leak finished in 3^rd place overall, his first loss of the season, but ran a 15:37 to lower his PR by almost 20 seconds. Behind him Springer finished 10^th and Dollago held on for 15^th to give the team a potent top three. Gross managed to finish 42^nd in the race but Fischer struggled after Springer passed him and ultimately it was a step up day from Burkhardt that helped the team take the title. Burkhardt was the squad’s 5^th man finishing in 68^th place. As the team walked back to the bus carrying the team title trophy proudly (Leak gave it to Burkhardt to carry after his big race), Albertson kept Springer back to talk with him.

“I cost you about 10-15 seconds by making you stay with Fischer. Weaving through all those guys on the hills in the second mile was brutal; I’m honestly amazed you managed to come out of that in one piece. You know, you could have your own state championship in a couple years.”

“Coach” Springer chose tried to decide how best to phrase it to try and avoid sounding cocky, “I’m winning the state championship this season.”

Sometimes there is no good way to avoid sounding cocky.

November 7^th, 1999

As Ben jogged away from Jimmy Springer he thought to himself, “Jim-bo?” It wasn’t his coolest move by any sense, but he may have at least gotten in Springer’s head a little bit. Most people are too scared to even look at him straight in the eyes, but Ben was not most people. He had put in too many long hours to be afraid of someone like Jimmy. He had run over 1,000 miles in the past year and he had done it all by himself, without any teammates to share the load. All alone.

He jogged by a few teams warming up together. He saw North Penn and Coatesville, the two favorites to take down the state title. He also spotted West Chester Rustin, the upstart program out of District One who was a sleeper team to say the least. Finally he came by the District 3 runner-ups, Manheim Central.

He spotted Jason Miller outside the stretching circle. Now this was a man who was not afraid of Jimmy Springer. But unfortunately, Miller had suffered his devastating injury and his state title hopes and likely his team’s hopes were all but gone. It was hard for Ben to relate to this team dynamic. He thought back on the last words she had said to him, “I think you will be happier alone.”

September 1^st, 1999

West Chester Rustin was one of the smallest schools in District One AAA, but you wouldn’t be able to tell by looking at their sports programs. West Chester Rustin’s cross country team had qualified for states the past four seasons under their new, innovative young coach Kevin Vigilante. The team competed in the same conference as both Coatesville and Union Valley, but managed to hold their own against these large, impressive programs. Coatesville had taken cross country state championships in 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996, and 1997. The years in between they were always in the top three. Only other large schools had managed to unseat them such as North Allegheny (1992, 1994) and North Penn (1998). A team like West Chester Rustin was thought to be too small to have any sort of chance.

But in 1998 the program took a dramatic step forward and finished 4^th at the state championship meet just behind Coatesville and just ahead of North Allegheny and LaSalle. The team returned a fantastic five of their top seven runners and was poised to compete for the 1999 state title. However, the small contingent of runners was overshadowed by the school’s other top program: football.

In 1998 the football team had its highest finish in school history, making it all the way to the state title game before losing at the hands of Neshaminy. The team’s success was due in large part to the success of the team’s Quarterback: Chris Cline. He was a High School All-American and being heavily recruited by just about every college in the country. He was fast, elusive, strong and intelligent: the total package. He played the position differently than anyone else in the NFL.

Cline’s greatest attribute was his competitive spirit. He hated losing. In tight games, he played both sides of the ball and returned kicks. In the semi final game he scrambled 68 yards for the game winning touchdown against North Penn, carrying the Knight’s All-State linebacker Mike Adams with him into the end zone.

Chris walked out onto the field, the lights shining down on him and crowd cheering behind him. There was nothing quite like a Friday night football game. This is what he felt he was born to do. Rustin was playing their in conference rivals: Coatesville. Cline hated Coatesville and he knew that they felt the same way about him. But that was what drove him to be at his best, he always seemed to step it up when the pressure was at its greatest. He lived for moments like these.

In the pregame huddle, Cline tried to fire up his brothers to take up arms with him in battle.

“This is it boys. I still got a bad taste in my mouth from that championship game last year. I want to get back there and take that state title that we deserve. Everything starts with tonight. These guys over there on that sideline think they can come in here, on our home turf and take this away from us? We gotta give it everything we got and show them that last year wasn’t a fluke! Warriors on 3 … 1, 2, 3 … Warriors!”

And with that it was game time, the Coatesville defense came out strong and Rustin could only pick up a few yards on their first possession before punting it away. The Rustin defense struggled early, but a key shoe string tackle on third down and missed field goal kept the game scoreless. But Coatesville’s defense continued to put the pressure on. They had a constant attack on Cline, daring the team to run the ball with somebody else, but not letting Cline and the Rustin offense play to their strengths.

The Coatesville defense paid off, Rustin’s running back Jay Williams fumbled the hand off from Cline and the turnover led to an easy TD. The Warrior’s were down 7-0 early. But Cline was unperturbed. On the first play of the next drive, the Warriors ran a wide receiver reverse to Luke Naughton who began to sprint up the right side. The Coatesville defense stormed to the right, while Cline, left uncovered, sprinted down the life side. He made the catch at the far side line and sprinted easily into the end zone for a touchdown.

The momentum carried over and Rustin got a turnover of their own on the ensuing Coatesville drive. Cline waved his arms to the crowd to get them pumped up as he ran back out onto the field with the offense. They were on the opposing twenty five yard line and hoping to punch in. The first play, Cline ran a play action fake and rolled out to hit Naughton on the sideline. It picked up 9 yards. Then Cline set up in the shot gun and the Coatesville defense showed signs of bringing pressure. He audibled into a screen pass instead of the designed quarterback run the team was planning. Then, he quickly called for the snap. Coatesville’s pressure came as expected and Cline got the ball out in a hurry. However, even after Cline got the ball out the Coatesville defense continued to go after him. He put his arm out for protection as a onslaught of opposition came collapsing down on him.

The crowded was up in arms. It was a blatant late hit by multiple members of the Coatesville team as they completely ignored Williams who ran in for the score. They had clearly gone out of their way to try and injure Cline. And it had worked. The star QB came up clutching his throwing hand. Rustin fans were on their feet yelling and Cline’s father, Charlie, had come down along the fence to scream at the referee. Rustin’s coach, Andy Berry, sat Cline down on the bench.

“You are not going back in this game. You probably just jammed something, no need to make it worse.” He gave Cline a pack of ice. He sat there with his hand in the ice, unable to even clap and cheer his teammates on. Rustin clung to a 14-7 lead at the half, but Coatesville came charging out the gate to start the 3^rd Quarter. They tied it on the opening possession and after an interception by replacement quarterback Andrew Macany, they were in position to take the lead.

“Coach, my hand’s fine, just let me go back in,” Cline pleaded on the sidelines, but it was only half convincing, his hand still throbbed with pain and coach Berry saw through his lie. By the time the fourth quarter began, Coatesville was on top 31 to 17. Cline began trying to throw some warm up passes on the sideline. His grip was off and his passing was erratic at best. His thumb seemed to be the problem: that was where pain shot out from. But the ice had numbed it fairly well and if the game got close he would try and force his way back in. Almost on command, Rustin intercepted the next pass and ran it back for a touchdown. With just 3 minutes to go, Rustin was back within one score of Coatesville.

Rustin set up for the kick off and surprised the stadium by going for an onside kick. To the horror of the Coatesville sidelines, the ball bounced off a confused offense lineman and fell into the hands of Rustin on the recovery. Again Cline tried to reenter the game but his coach refused. However, after two straight pass attempts tipped off Coatesville defenders, Coach Berry’s hands seemed tied. To the joy of the crowd Cline came running out onto the field. The eruption of noise made it hard to hear in the huddle.

“You sure you’re good to come back man?” Center Brian Mao asked.

“I’m fine, let’s just go win ourselves a football game.”

Mao snapped the ball to Cline who dropped back to pass, stepped up in the pocket and launched the ball sailing well over Naughton’s head. It brought up a 4^th and 10 for the Warriors from the 48 yard line. Coach Berry called a time out and called his troops over.

“Chris, there is no pressure here, we can still win this game without you, if you’re not at 100% just sit down.” But Chris Cline would have to die before coming out of the game. He had something to prove and his throbbing left thumb wouldn’t slow down his legs, he knew that much.

“Everybody get open downfield and I’ll make the play” Cline said with confidence and he trotted out on to the field with his team behind him. This play would likely decide the game as little time remained on the game clock. Cline set up in the shot gun and called again for the snap. The snap was a bit high and he was unable to catch it clean, the football fell to the turf as the Coatesville defense closed in. Quickly Cline picked up the ball with his right hand and took off on the run. He cut to the outside, split two Coatesville defenders and turned up field. Slicing back across the middle of the field he moved off a nice block from Naughton and sprinted up the far sideline. He just had to beat the Coatesville safety to get into the end zone and keep his team’s chances alive. The safety went low and so Cline had to go high, hurdling over him and landing cleanly on his two feet. He gave a fist pump to crowd as his teammates came running over to celebrate.

“It’s not over yet, stay calm, we are going to win this game right now, we aren’t waiting for overtime.” Cline waved the kicking team off the field. Coach Berry stood by agitated on the sideline as his kicker turned back to look for guidance.

“He got us this far, if he wants to throw the game away, he earned the right.” Cline flashed a thumbs-up to his coach as he set up the offense for the final play of the game. Berry looked on tormented, hoping he would not pay for his decision.

Cline took the snap and rolled out to his right. The Coatesville defense moved with him, determined to not let him run for the score. Cline was sprinting, hoping to get to the corner first, but Coatesville was ready, they had him cut off. Realizing this, Cline froze and flicked the ball with his left hand outstretched just over the defense to Naughton who was waiting in the corner of the end zone, having slipped through the rush of defenders. Naughton made the catch and completed the improbable comeback for Rustin with a final score of 32-31.

But Cline didn’t get a chance to see Naughton make the catch. The Coatesville defense closed in again and a helmet launched directly into his outstretched left thumb. There was a horrible breaking sound, a cry of pain and a cold, cruel certainty: Chris Cline had broken his throwing hand.

NEW!!

August 28^th, 1998

Jason Miller was considered by many in the Manheim Central community as the town’s “Golden Boy”. By the summer of 1998 he had established quite the reputation as a scholar, athlete and, as the ladies said, “he wasn’t too hard on the eyes either”. By the time Miller finished his sophomore year he had already become the talk of the town, winning the District Championship in the 3200m the previous spring and placing 4^th at the state championships. It was the highest finish at states for any athlete in school history. In addition, he scored a perfect 240 on the PSAT examinations and allegedly had his sights set on either Harvard or Stanford for his college.

For this reason, it was extremely hard to be Mark Miller. Mark was a solid student in his own right and no slouch on the track, he finished his freshman campaign running 4:37 and 2:01, but the expectations surrounding him because he was “Jason’s brother” were seemingly unobtainable. It wasn’t easy to walk into all of his classes on the first day of school and hear, “Your brother was my favorite student!” about six times in a row. His first cross country practice he was put in the top group before even running a single stride and after receiving a 95% on his first Chemistry exam he couldn’t help but feel the teacher handed the test back disappointed.

But despite the natural comparisons that would undeniably begin when he started running for Manheim, Mark joined up anyway. He didn’t see his performances as a “Me vs. Jason” race as much as a “Me vs. Me” one. On the track, he could clearly improve from race to race and he didn’t have to better than Jason, he just had to be better than he was the week before. That was the ultimate satisfaction and the greatest joy to him of running. He could share in his brother’s success and vice versa.

Mark jogged out the door and headed for his brother’s car. It was 5:50 in the morning, 10 minutes before the team’s first captain’s practice of the summer.

“Sorry, I forgot I put newspaper in them last night.” Mark mumbled sliding into the passenger seat with his running sneakers.

“Works wonders doesn’t it?”

“Haha I guess I just would rather avoid running through the creek in the first place next time.”

Jason smiled at his brother as he backed out of the driveway and headed off toward the high school. The two brothers had run a 7 miler through the back woods behind their neighborhood the previous afternoon.

“Well we race at Central Dauphin this year and the last time I raced there they took you down all sorts of trails and tight turns and stuff. Not bad to pick up a little extra experience.” It was natural for Jason and Mark to talk racing, the two were talented, passionate runners on the squad.

“Shoot I was hoping we’d get them at home. I really wanted to try and get some revenge on Schrom for outkicking me at Leagues last year.” Mike Schrom finished as the top freshman in the district a year ago and Mark had a special rivalry with the other top runners in his year as many top underclassmen do.

“With Rotz gone we should be able to take 5 out of the top 6 against those guys now. We gotta just start worrying about CV and Conrad Weiser really, those are the best two teams in the district. I’d love to sneak in there and give them a scare. Just let ‘em know that we’re coming you know?”

They pulled up in the school parking lot in which a small clutter of 7 scrawny, shirtless kids were tying shoes or stretching against their cars. The full size of the team was close to 25 boys, but when Jason and Mark got out of the car they knew they were the last ones. Believe it or not, 6 AM practices did not appeal to everyone. Only the most dedicated team members came out to these morning runs, half asleep and hungry, but underneath it all they understood it would make them stronger by season’s end.

Jason’s success a year ago had provided inspiration for a number of new runners to join the cross country and track and field teams. The men’s distance team had roughly tripled in size (the girls team also saw considerable growth), stealing a few JV soccer players to come out including Stan McNally, a promising new addition to the team’s varsity. It was a young group with no seniors projected to be on the varsity 7, but Jason had the team thinking big for the season ahead. They were 6^th at districts the previous year, one spot away from the state championships.

“We thought you boys were going to be skipping out! Would have been a cruel prank for you to call this and not show up Jason!” Brad Dennin called out to the Miller boys as the approached.

“Haha I just wanted to see who would be the first one to bail, and you guys all passed the test.”

“Well it’s good you showed up because we were about to have to promote Meyers to take your place.” This produced a good round of laughter. Zach Meyers was the only senior on the team and was notorious team know-it-all, trying to correct peoples form or training tactics at every turn. Meyers was a 400m man outdoors, but ran cross to “stay in shape” although he would only attend a few practices a week. It was likely this reason that kept his PR at 57 seconds year after year.

“Well Dennin, I hope you’re going to run these hills as quick as you’re wit.”

“Nice line super nerd.” Mark responded. The group chuckled again, even Jason who was a good sport about self deprecating humor. The group set off on a modest clip for the warm up, running down the road towards the state park on Tilghman street which was home to some viscous up hills. Mark hung back with his friend Corey Groff, another sophomore on the team hoping to make the varsity squad.

“I was up til 2 last night trying to finish off my Madden season. It’s addicting man, I’m telling you, computer games are sick.”

“Corey, I don’t have time to stay up til 2 my Mom still is kinda a tyrant about that stuff. I’m almost 16 years old and it’s the summer, but she has all the electronics off by 11. Jason’s asleep by then anyway so it doesn’t make much of a difference to him.”

“Ah the price one pays for success. Sometimes you just wonder where it is you want to draw the line? I mean I could cut out all the crap from my diet and eat only cael and crap like that and live to be 105, but is it worth it? I like Oreo’s a lot man …”

The boys were at the bottom of the first hill now. It was a long, gradual up-hill of about 600m.

“I’m thinking 3 on Playground, 3 on Powerlines and 3 on Wood Chip to close it out.” Jason instructed. The group mumbled and nodded in general agreement. They group up into a few packs, two juniors and a new freshman were in the first pack, the slowest group, and set off briskly up the hill to start. Then playing catch up was the sophomore trio of Groff, Mark Miller and McNally and then finally the Junior pack helmed by Jason and Dennin. The first few hills were up tempo, a long sustained effort. The group timed things fairly well on these hills and all finished together at the top.

They rolled through the second set of hills at a steeper grassy hill in the middle of the park and Jason and Dennin started to pull away from the group leaving a bit of a gap between the remaining members of the varsity team. McNally was trailing of the back of the pack a bit; he was fairly inexperienced in workouts like this. The boys closed in the final hill, Wood Chip hill, having already completed, in total, about 8 miles of hard running. Wood Chip hill was a pulverizing hill with the first 200m being a gradual up-hill before a sudden steep incline that felt straight up and down for the final 200m. At this point in the workout, everything felt like an all out sprint through quicksand.

It was at this point that Jason proved his dominance. He tore through the first rep with ease as Dennin hung on the best he could, but a gap was beginning to form. Behind Dennin, Junior Craig Weller led the chase group that included Mark Miller and a slowly fading Corey Groff. The second hill was just as pulverizing and Jason was practically up the hill by the time Weller started it. At the bottom, Jason waited, telling the young freshman to take a breather and grouping up the remaining seven runners at the bottom of the hill. He pulled aside a visibly exhausted McNally while the others keeled over with their hands on their knees. Corey didn’t have enough energy to ask, so he just made a face that Mark recognized as “What is he up to?” to which Mark responded with a well worded shrug.

“Alright boys last rep” Jason said as he jogged in place, “Feel free to go a little crazy on this one and let the competitive juices out. We got some time before we will be able to go this hard again.” Mark always loved the sprint to the finish. He viewed himself as an 800m runner at heart and he could usually take the top guys at the end of a hill workout.

“Corey, count us off.”

“Ready, go.”

The boys went racing up the hill, the first stretch being the easy part before the legs really began to burn. Mark held back a bit as Corey, Brad and Craig all got a solid jump on him. Jason was of course already strides ahead of the bunch. They turned and hit the steepest part of the hill and Mark took that as a cue to go. He pumped his arms and began to power up the hill, legs struggling to turn over. He had timed his move well and it was now only his brother ahead of him. As he hit the final 50m, thinking he had his position locked up, a rush of body came flying by him. Powerless to respond, the ex-soccer player’s muscular arms carried him with ease over the crest of the hill past Mark into the finish. Jason, noticing, turned around to whoop with joy.

“What I tell you kid! Now that’s why we recruit soccer players!”

NEW!!

November 5^th, 1998

In the state of Pennsylvania schools were divided into two class systems: AA and AAA. The smallest schools were placed in the AA category so that they could fairly compete for state qualifying spots and state medals. The AA competition, in most years, was far easier than that of the AAA field. In 1997, Jimmy Springer won the AAA title over a minute faster than AA champion Vincent Beveridge whose 16:26 would have gotten him 24^th in the large school race. But all the same someone in this race would leave with the title of “state champion” and no one would be able to take that away.

In 1998, most of the top AA runners had graduated, leaving behind a wide open field of potential new state champions. Ben Havko was hoping it would be him. He had won the District 10 Championships the previous weekend by 18 seconds over Garrett Beasley from North East to qualify for the state championships for the first time in his career. Beasley had been a top 5 finisher the previous season at states which made him the top returner from the field.

But Havko knew it was not as simple as beating Beasley again. Havko had spent the past 4 months reading everything he could about running. He read about proper training, proper form, and proper race strategy. He read about the other top athletes in the world like Hicham El Geuorjj and Halie Gebersallassie. He even looked back on the work of Jim Ryun and Marty Liquori. He could close his eyes and name the other top guys in the AA field: Brendan Jones, Luke Jaskowak, and AJ Gruschow. All of those runners had flashy PRs from big invitationals on the East Coast while Havko won most of his races with ease. His 16:21 on the District 10 Course was easily his best mark of the year. He figured he need to match that mark on the impossible Hershey course if he was to take home gold.

Ben nervously jogged around the Hershey course through the early morning fog. This was a meet unlike any he had ever participated in before. He was completely out of his element and completely inside his own head. He figured the start would be crowded and he would have to get out hard. He also knew that the first mile was by far the easiest and if he burned out the first mile he would crumble in the hills. It had never been his style to front run, his best races had come from a well timed move at the 2 mile mark. There was a sharp up-hill at this point on the course and if he could surprise the pack there, he felt he could steal the gold.

He entered his starting box in his purple sweat suit, petrified by the moment. Brendan Jones came over to shake his hand which was coated in sweat.

“Good luck man!”

“Thawk … ewe”

He could barely get the words out. He mustered a feeble smile and turned back to do a few pre race strides and try and get out the jitters. His first stride didn’t help. The whole first straightaway was lined with hundreds of fans, walls of noise surrounding the runners on the start of their quest for glory. He was not prepared for this, he didn’t belong here.

Unfortunately, even all the reading in the world cannot prepare someone for these key moments in the sport. It’s hard to put into words the atmosphere around a state championship or the nervous pit in your stomach you get when you realize you are surrounded by the best runners you have ever raced against.

Ben stripped down to his uniform, did one final run out, and then prepared himself for the inevitable. A few boxes to his left was the Elk Lake squad favored to win the state title while a few down to the right he saw the boys from Quaker Valley who were the defending champions. It dawned on him there that he had to get out hard or these two squads would flush him into the crowd where he would be vulnerable to all sorts of pushing, shoving and tripping.

As the runners took their marks at the line, Ben took a deep breath and forced himself into a big smile as was his pre-race routine. He felt you had to make yourself remember that this was what you did for fun at a difficult time like this to feel anything but the numbing of cold of apprehension. If he could trick is mind into believing this was what he wanted to do, the pain would be easier to fight. And hey, he was at his first state championships after all and that was a pretty cool achievement.

The gun blasted and Ben sprinted as hard as he could off the line. He was going with his instincts and getting out hard. Unfortunately, Ben’s sprint speed capped out right around 30 seconds for 200m so getting out hard required an all out effort. But it worked, as the group began to narrow he was clear of the imposing packs of Elk Lake and Quaker Valley and out at the front with Beasley, a notorious front runner. Now, he deduced, he could settle in.

The problem with being in perfect position is everyone wants it. So as the group continued on the narrow path towards the half mile, runners were elbowing and pushing their way through the pack trying to move up. Right around 1000m in the aggressive running had worked through the pack up to the front and a well placed elbow knocked a runner to the ground. The tangle of feet took down a few more and Ben felt an outstretched hand pull on the bank of his jersey for balance. He wasn’t prepared for the contact, unable to see the movement behind him and his body crumbled under the pressure. He fell hard to the ground as a mass of swarming bodies hurdled or stepped on him as he tried to scramble back to his feet. He could feel blood dripping down his right calf and his body stung from the impact of his collision with the gravel path. But the greatest pain was psychological: he had given up at least 50 places in a matter of seconds.

With a rush of adrenaline that came from the fall he began to surge his way up pack, forgetting that he normally liked to hang back in the early going. In a race, it isn’t easy to think logically. Thoughts come into your brain and you act. Sometimes foolish thoughts that when you look back you are stunned you could possibly believe, but this is the magic of the race. Havko weaved through bodies as he approached the mile. He was clocked at about 4:53, roughly 10 seconds off the leaders. It was the fastest opening mile he had ever run despite the fall and his fastest mile ever was just a 4:45, two seconds slower than the time for the leaders.

He trudged on as the packs approached the back hills. He was breathing hard already, feeling the effects of his hard 800m before the fall and his hard 800m since. On all sides of him there were other runners. Some were slowing down, some were speeding up, but everywhere he looked there was someone. It was another completely different feeling. He was the only one on his cross country team and his District barely could field a full AA race. But this, he had decided long ago, was just what he needed. He would respond to the push provided by these other athletes, there would be constant pressure to keep up the pace or chase another runner.

As he went into the first hill he geared up for a surge. He estimated he was about 50m back from the leaders by this point, sitting in somewhere around 20^th place. He pushed hard up the first hill passing a small pack that included twins with yellow jerseys and was beginning to gain confidence. The doubts that had been fighting his will power in the back of his mind ever since the fall were starting to subside. As he crested the hill he saw the course make a quick turn to go back down hill and began to try and lengthen his stride, but he didn’t realize that just ahead was AJ Gruschow whose long strides and big back kick were blocking his path.

Ben’s legs tangled in Gruschow’s as he whipped around the bend and the two went tumbling down the hill as if they were some type of Jack and Jill rag dolls. That was it, the dam was broken and the doubts flooded his subconscious. A second fall! All momentum gone, dizzy and broken, Ben began running again, promptly turning and facing another grueling up hill. It was the last thing he needed at a time like this, he tried to power with his arms but his weak, fatigued frame was no match for the unyielding mountain of grass.

Ben went on to finish 38^th in the race. He and his parents drove home from the meet in silence as he wiped away tears from his face with the back of his hand. He kept his blood stained, sweat-coated bid number and taped it up above his head so it would always be the first thing he saw when he woke up each morning.

The Real Train

2013-06-10T14:44:00.004-07:00

Alright folks so here is the beginning of my untitled story that I am working on this summer. To give you a brief synopsis, the story is about a group of high school cross country and track athletes and their overlapping journeys to the 1999 PA state championships. Hopefully you will find it an entertaining read. I haven't done any editing or anything like that yet so hopefully it is not too hard to follow/too boring. Basically the story is most flashbacks at the beginning leading up to the big state meet at the end.

All characters are fictional but those of you who have been around awhile will probably be able to see how I got some of the names.

I also don't have a title yet so for now I will just call it: The Real Train ... Because I think it is a great pun but it has nothing to do with the story. Enjoy!

The Real Train

November 7^th, 1999

Fear was not in Ben Havko’s vocabulary.

February 4^th, 1999

But the school did have a track team and had actually had quite a strong history of producing quality state runners. Ryan Jewett ran a 4:14.72 mile at the 1979 state championships to claim state gold. In 1966, Kevin Donnelly ran a 9:05.66 2 mile at the Baldwin Invitational to set what was then a state record. The record stood for almost 30 years and was only beaten by a herculean effort by Paul Spooner of District One powerhouse Coatesville in 1995 to better the mark down to 9:00.05. He closed in a 57 second final quarter.

As he jogged about, trying to keep his feet as dry as possible (which meant reasonably damp), he talked aloud to himself about the splits for his goal mark.

“So 9:00 is 72s meaning 9:04 would be about the same thing. I’d have to be at about 3:01 and 6:02, ideally closer to 6 flat so there is some cushion there if I start to tie up.”

1600m in 4:47, 2000m in 5:59, 2400m in 6:10. He was rolling back on 72 pace, clicking off these even splits gave him confidence, but he was starting to feel the burn in his legs and in the back of his throat. It was hard to breadth in the cold winter air and the pace was faster than anything he had raced before. His Personal Best from last spring was just 10:08 for the 3200m, equating to roughly a 9:30 3k and 76 second laps. He was crossing the 400 to go mark, he imagined a tiny bell going off in his head as he hit the line. He fought the urge to look at his watch, it was sprint time from here on and he didn’t want to break form. But it was hard to keep it, down the back stretch his head began to wobble back and forth and his shoulders tightened up. The shoveling had probably not done his arms any favors as he tried to drive heading through 200m to go. He was tying up, clearly, over the last minute or so. His finishing kick was never really something he could hang his hat on.

Untitled Book

2013-06-09T13:03:00.000-07:00

So I am aware since I retired from talking about PA High School track and field nobody reads this blog anymore, but I am starting work on a new fiction book about running so I may post up my progress a couple pages at a time on here to see if people think it's any good or hear feedback and stuff.

I'm still retired from talking about high school track and field and that isn't changing, but I figure I might as well share what I write with people.

So yeah, coming soon for any of you who are still out there reading.

Thanks,
Jarrett Felix

Brett Favre

2013-05-27T11:38:00.002-07:00

This year was an interesting year for me on the whole. When the State Championships ended and the graduation season begins, the last of those who I ran with high school will have moved on. Everyone who is left was a freshman when I was a freshman ... in college. Maybe that was my first signal that it was time to hang it up.

The great thing about following this sport is someone new comes along every year with talent and potential to claim a state title. This year everyone from Tony Russell to Max Norris to Ethan Martin played that role. Next year's class of runners may be the best the state has ever seen, but if I wait around long enough someone new will always come along that is exciting and fun to watch that makes you want to stick around.

I've always loved blogging about this. Ever since I first took my dad's penntrack account and started posting, I knew that this was something I was passionate about. I never dreamed that a few posts on penntrack would grow into a blog that has captured over 400,000 views and won me a surprising amount of recognition and friendships. This blog has never been about money, it was never a job to me, it was fun, it was what I wanted to do and where I felt like I belonged.

This blog has always been about more than me. I love when people say that I motivated them to be better and to prove me wrong, but that wasn't me, that was the competitiveness and determination of the athlete. My posts and my analysis are the things people can easily notice on the blog, but what you have to click and search for are the comments. The comments have always made this blog what it is. My words are more of a prompt to stir up the pot of the commentators out there. You all have made this blog special and powerful and I hope that when it is gone, you will continue to find ways to keep the discussion going and promote this sport that I have grown up with.

I haven't really seen to many HS XC or track races in person in the past 3 years since going to Muhlenberg College. It was very ironic to me that my blog didn't really get popular until I had graduated and been to school. I guess that's how artists feel when their work only becomes popular after their death. I guess that was probably a bit dramatic, but ...

It would be easy to keep going, put down the occasional post, slowly lose touch with who is out there and who is a strong runner and slowly lose quality in my posts and predictions and analysis. But I don't want to go out like that. I don't want to hang around past my prime or past my time. I don't want to be that awkwardly to old creepy guy at the meets.

If this was a job or something I was hired to do I would maybe feel differently about this all, but I think as simply a hobby, the time has come to stop being a blogger and an analyst for this level of sport.

I would love to go on and stay in the sport one day as either a coach or a writer for penntrack or dyestat or some other site, that would be a great job. But more likely I will end up as just another past runner or forum poster. I'm a math and economics double major at school. I'm doing work at Columbia this summer in Biostatistics and may go to graduate school for that. I also have taken the first actuarial exam and am considering entering that profession.

It's odd to think that one of those careers is likely where I will be five years from now. Completely unconnected to this blog and to the high school track scene. The etrain name will likely disappear into obscurity and I'll just be back to Jarrett Felix.

But running will never leave my life. I will always be a runner, have a runner's personality, determination and work ethic. The girl I want to marry some day in the future is a runner and I would love for our children to pick up the sport because I feel it is a fantastic sport (no pressure though). My best friends are from running and my life would be so dramatically different if I had never stumbled upon penntrackxc for the first time so many years ago.

And I will likely never completely stop following the high school scene. I'll always be flipping around the results, maybe commenting somewhere anonymously or something like that. I could never stay away from this sport forever, any one who knows me at all knows that.

And maybe for that reason, you could see me again one day blogging. Maybe I won't be able to stay away. Maybe I will be another Brett Favre.

But for now, I am officially retiring from posting on this blog. It has been an amazing ride and I thank you all so much for what you have given me. This has been one of the coolest experiences of my life and I will never forget it.

Thank you so much.

-train

And now etrain is gone and Jarrett Felix returns.

Live Updates 5/25

2013-05-25T07:07:00.002-07:00

AA Boys- Galassi nips Shearn in the last 50m 9:12 midto 9:13 low

  1   187 Galassi, Ric  12 Holy Cross 02     9:12.48 SQS               10   
  2   372 Shearn, Bren  12 No Schuykill 11   9:13.33 SQS                8   
  3   412 Kemp, Barret  12 Oswayo Vly 09     9:19.08 SQS                6   
  4   140 Jones, Luke   12 Elk Lake 02       9:21.85 SQS                5   
  5   539 Molino, Grif  10 S Williamsprt 04  9:26.16 SQS                4   
  6   382 Williams, Sa  12 NE Bradford 04    9:27.49 SQS                3   
  7   482 Wagner, Greg  12 Riverview 07      9:35.01 SQS                2   
  8   157 Roberts, Wes  12 Freedom Area 07   9:35.17 SQS                1

AAA Boys- Real slow first mile (4:44/45), but a pack of 11 guys or so. Wilson took the lead at 1000m to go and pushed it (5:55 through 2k). Ethan Martin closed in 60.0 (28 last 200) for the win in 9:10.74, Wilson took second, edging out Todaro (9:11 high).

  1   227 Martin, Etha  11 Fox Chapel 07     9:10.74 SQS               10  
  2   155 Wilson, Ross  11 CR North 01       9:11.97 SQS                8 
  3   738 Todaro, Vinn  12 Big Spring 03     9:12.02 SQS                6
  4   226 Martin, Coli  11 Fox Chapel 07     9:16.12 SQS                5   
  5    63 James, Kevin  10 Crdnl O'Hara 12   9:17.01 SQS                4   
  6   548 Webb, Sam     10 Pennsbury 01      9:19.75 SQS                3   
  7   334 Kennedy, Bre  11 Kiski Area 07     9:20.16 SQS                2   
  8   278 Norris, Max   12 Harriton 01       9:20.57 SQS                1

A-C dominated boys AA, ran away with it and made it look easy.

Anchor Shawn Wolfe was able to take it fairly easy running 55/2:00 as he is in the open 800 later in the day. Not sure if Curt Jewett ran in the 4x8 after getting DQ'd in the 1600 yesterday.

  1 Annville-Cleona 03      8:03.25 SQS               10   
  2 Wyomissing 03           8:11.91 SQS                8   
  3 Trinity 03              8:12.33 SQS                6   
  4 Lakeview 10             8:12.88 SQS                5   
  5 Northeast Bradford 04   8:15.10 SQS                4   
  6 Northern Potter 09      8:15.32 SQS                3   
  7 Masterman 12            8:16.06                    2   
  8 Southern Columbia Area 04     8:16.39                    1

Bensalem gets so much needed points for that team title taking first in the 4x800 with a time of 7:47.
Rivera- 1:57.6, French - 2:02.0, Cox-Finn 1:56.8, Francis 1:51.8

Cumberland Valley takes Second, official results up soon. John Lewis had a huge second leg for Cheltenham though, split about 1:54.

Also really like the big leg by Coburn on the third leg, he ran really well to get his squad back in it. Francis just had one heck of a motor in that wind. Nice coaching move by DT East to move Caldwell to the third leg, I really like that decision and I think it paid off. Times are not going to be fast today, wind is a big factor.
Also big anchor by Red Lion's Gatchell to get them into 5th place.

  1 Bensalem 01                  7:47.82#SQS               10   
  2 Cumberland Valley 03         7:53.51 SQS                8   
  3 Pennsbury 01                 7:54.56 SQS                6   
  4 Downingtown East 01          7:58.63 SQS                5   
  5 Red Lion 03                  7:59.40 SQS                4   
  6 Cheltenham 01                7:59.44 SQS                3   
  7 State College Area 06        7:59.64 SQS                2   
  8 Carlisle 03                  8:01.07 SQS                1

Smathers easily wins the 1600m in 4:22 leading the whole way. Tom Seykora kicks away from the chase back for second. An amazing triple for Sam Williams who also ran in the 4x8 after the 3200. Major props for Williams' run he made a great team sacrifice in that 4x8 instead of purely pursuing individual goals. Seykora was great, he has had a great last two weeks. Smathers just dominated the field, it was too easy for him. Hill fell I believe they said which may have hurt his performance.

  1   364 Smathers, Ry  12 North East 10     4:22.69 SQS               10   
  2   129 Seykora, Tom  12 Devon Prep 01     4:29.05 SQS                8   
  3   382 Williams, Sa  12 NE Bradford 04    4:30.11 SQS                6   
  4   256 Walker, Sean  12 Lewisburg 04      4:30.29 SQS                5   
  5   297 Curtin, Seba  10 Mrcyhrst Prep 10  4:32.52                    4   
  6   372 Shearn, Bren  12 No Schuykill 11   4:34.53                    3   
  7   624 Hill, Bobby   12 Wellsboro 04      4:35.64                    2   
  8   117 Vella, Tyler  11 Danville Area 04  4:35.96                    1

Schettler took it out hard in about 60.5 and the pack went through in 62. They caught him and Russell took the lead to try and push it but the wind hurt the pace a lot. They even split about 2:08/2:08. Russell ran gutsy, if the wind wasn't so bad he may have been able to win, but at 200 to go the kickers took over. Jaskowak is so clutch. Thats awesome for him to pull out this performance and I'm really happy for him. How about this for a fact: Kevin Moy is the top returner in the field. What a season for him and a great kick. Lastly, it was a fantastic race between Huemmler and Coyle and I'm thrilled we got to see it. Huemmler put on a big move at 200m and Coyle fought to stay around and then almost came back in the last 50 but Huemmler had just enough left to seal it at the end. Thrilling race, perhaps a little tentative from Coyle as he thought about taking the lead earlier but waited and let Huemmler jump him a bit. Both are great runners and ended great careers with this race.

  1   638 Huemmler, Ja  12 Strath Haven 01    4:16.25 SQS               10   
  2   343 Coyle, Tom    12 La Salle 12        4:16.62 SQS                8   
  3   265 Jaskowak, Da  12 Grove City 10      4:19.53 SQS                6   
  4   156 Zingarini, J  12 CR North 01        4:19.55 SQS                5   
  5   689 Moy, Kevin    11 WC Henderson 01    4:20.20 SQS                4   
  6   690 Russell, Ton  11 WC Henderson 01    4:20.59 SQS                3   
  7   385 Watro, Curti  12 Methacton 01       4:21.02 SQS                2   
  8   517 Schettler, H  12 Penn Manor 03      4:24.88                    1

After being DQ'd in the 1600m pre-lims Curt Jewett was out for blood as he made a big move with 250 to go to take over the lead from Dan Alexander. He finished strong to get his first state title. A big kick at the end gave Smathers a silver to go along with his Gold in the 1600m earlier in the day.

  1   379 Jewett, Curt  12 NE Bradford 04      1:58.25 SQS               10   
  2   364 Smathers, Ry  12 North East 10       1:59.06 SQS                8   
  3   304 Grim, Lucas   12 Mohawk Area 07      1:59.84                    6   
  4   265 Alexander, D  12 Lower Morelnd 01    2:00.04                    5   
  5   511 Wilt, Jordan  12 Shade 05            2:00.44                    4   
  6   660 Miller, Andr  11 Wyomissing 03       2:00.83                    3   
  7    66 Goodson, Jon  11 Boiling Sprgs 03    2:01.12                    2   
  8    84 Brinkley, An  12 Catasauqua 11       2:01.55                    1

800m was a fantastic race in AAA. Kunzweiler was leading until 120m left and from the video it seemed as though he was really close to the rail and attempted to step towards the middle of lane one with his left foot and he clipped the back of his heel with his right foot, since there was no space on the ouside (Rivera was right there). Brehm jumped over him and stormed home for the victory. Really great racing by all 3 and I don't believe a foul occured. Real shame for Kunzweiler though, who had an unbelievable career. Great doubles by Coburn and Caldwell off the 4x8 3rd legs for there teams to medal.

  1    74 Brehm, Zach   10 Carlisle 03          1:54.40 SQS               10   
  2    33 Rivera, Brad  12 Bensalem 01          1:55.73 SQS                8   
  3   535 Logue, Josep  10 Pennridge 01         1:56.37 SQS                6   
  4   349 Stone, Andre  12 La Salle 12          1:57.31 SQS                5   
  5   160 Coburn, Alex  12 Cumberlnd Vly 03     1:58.61                    4   
  6   662 Nole, Alex    12 Tunkhannock 02       1:59.08                    3   
  7   178 Caldwell, Bi  11 D-Town East 01       1:59.38                    2   
  8   515 Wilhoite, Dy  11 Penn Hills 07        2:00.16                    1

Point update for the Team Title

Garnet Valley: 35 points (1st in Triple and 110H, and 300H and 6th in the Shotput, 7th in long jump

Bensalem: 48 points (2,5 in the 400, 1st in the 4x800 and 4x400, and 2nd in the open 800m, and second in the 200m.

Gateway: 46 points (1st in the 100m and 4x100 and second in the 110H and Shotput, and 5th in the 200m, and 5th in the LJ)

Seems as though Bensalen has won the team title by just two points over Gateway. Gateways top 200 runner missed finals which is real tough, but they have 3 of the 4 4x100 members returning, so they should be a great squad again next season.

Really great competition all around today. Congratulations to all the athletes who participated today.

I'm going to say this now and I hope people hear it, the conditions today were not fun, today was about getting a W. But PA has depth and has talent. I strongly encourage everyone to come out to the Henderson distance festival. With a loaded 800 we could definitley see a 1:50 or under.

In the mile with a rabbit out front we could see a sub 4:10.

In the 3k or 32 we could see 30+ guys break 9:20 for 3200m without a doubt in my mind.

The state has a ton of talent this year, it is incredibly deep. If the state joins up to go after some fresh, fast times, we could see some of the best performances in state history.

Think about it.

Live Updates

2013-05-24T08:12:00.001-07:00

Bad weather out there appearently. Windy and rainy and that will slow the distance times. If anyone has splits today or tomorrow I'd really like to have them posted up. Thanks!

Boys 4x800 Meter Relay AA
=========================================================================================
12 Advance:  Top 4 Each Heat plus Next 4 Best Times
 NFHS Record: ! 7:33.48  2009        , Central Bucks So HS, PA                 
                         Dickson, Manion, Poiesz, Mallon                   
 PIAA Record: R 7:44.44  2004        , Lewisburg HS 4                          
                         Moreau, Renner, Schoenfelder, Spooner             
NFHS Hnr Rol: # 7:52.00                                                        
                8:15.55  SQS
    School                                               Seed    Prelims                 
=========================================================================================
Heat  1 Preliminaries
  1 South Williamsport 04                             7:58.09    8:18.87Q                 
  2 Lakeview 10                                       8:09.40    8:20.69Q                 
  3 Trinity 03                                        8:07.87    8:21.99Q                 
  4 Southern Columbia Area 04                         8:09.84    8:22.76Q                 
  5 Masterman 12                                      8:14.28    8:26.53q                 
  6 Washington 07                                     8:16.99    8:31.05q                 
  7 Hickory 10                                        8:16.61    8:32.19q                 
  8 Mount Carmel Area 04                              8:14.97    8:36.35                  
  9 Windber Area 05                                   8:18.45    8:38.54                  
 10 Paul Robeson 12                                   8:26.57    8:47.38                  
 11 Avonworth 07                                      8:25.97    8:49.38                  
 12 North Schuylkill 11                               8:22.35    8:50.96                  
 13 Christopher Dock 01                               8:21.95    8:52.39                  
 14 Our Lady Of Sacred Heart 07                       8:18.64    8:58.61                  
Heat  2 Preliminaries
  1 Annville-Cleona 03                                7:53.67    8:20.25Q                 
  2 Wyomissing 03                                     8:08.62    8:22.49Q                 
  3 Lakeland 02                                       8:16.14    8:24.43Q                 
  4 Northeast Bradford 04                             8:08.00    8:24.52Q                 
  5 Northern Potter 09                                8:14.04    8:24.57q                 
  6 Freedom Area 07                                   8:13.15    8:32.58                  
  7 Boiling Springs 03                                8:15.11    8:32.95                  
  8 Riverside 07                                      8:17.13    8:36.30                  
  9 Richland 06                                       8:22.52    8:40.88                  
 10 Oswayo Valley 09                                  8:19.98    8:41.64                  
 11 Tyrone Area 06                                    8:21.36    8:44.27                  
 12 Minersville Area 11                               8:17.60    8:46.98                  
 13 Bellwood Antis 06                                 8:24.96    9:05.34                  
 14 Delaware Valley Charter 12                        8:33.27   10:31.24                  
 
Boys 4x800 Meter Relay AAA
=========================================================================================
12 Advance:  Top 4 Each Heat plus Next 4 Best Times
 NFHS Record: ! 7:33.48  2009        , Central Bucks So HS, PA                 
                         Dickson, Manion, Poiesz, Mallon                   
 PIAA Record: R 7:33.48  2009        , Central Bucks So HS 1                   
                         Dickson, Manion, Poiesz, Mallon                   
NFHS Hnr Rol: # 7:52.00                                                        
                8:02.04  SQS
    School                                               Seed    Prelims                 
=========================================================================================
Heat  1 Preliminaries
  1 Cumberland Valley 03                              7:48.52    8:03.67Q                 
  2 Red Lion 03                                       7:55.93    8:03.75Q                 
  3 Pennsbury 01                                      7:51.45    8:03.75Q                 
  4 North Allegheny 07                                7:54.29    8:05.72Q                 
  5 Cardinal O'Hara 12                                7:55.92    8:05.81q                 
  6 Downingtown East 01                               7:58.14    8:06.20q                 
  7 Hershey 03                                        7:58.74    8:07.58                  
  8 North Penn 01                                     7:58.57    8:11.11                  
  9 Altoona Area 06                                   7:54.92    8:15.40                  
 10 Governor Mifflin 03                               7:57.87    8:19.93                  
 11 Father Judge 12                                   8:00.83    8:20.14                  
 12 Manheim Central 03                                8:00.63    8:23.70                  
 13 Saint Marys Area 09                               8:13.18    8:41.22                  
 14 Whitehall 11                                      8:06.24    8:51.42                  
Heat  2 Preliminaries
  1 Bensalem 01                                       7:48.03    8:01.29QSQS              
  2 Carlisle 03                                       7:52.45    8:02.06Q                 
  3 State College Area 06                             7:52.51    8:02.99Q                 
  4 Cheltenham 01                                     7:55.15    8:03.09Q                 
  5 Williamsport Area 04                              7:55.42    8:04.09q                 
  6 Kiski Area 07                                     7:56.65    8:04.27q                 
  7 Penncrest 01                                      7:58.29    8:09.12                  
  8 Upper Darby 01                                    7:59.44    8:09.30                  
  9 Central Bucks East 01                             7:57.73    8:11.69                  
 10 Canon-McMillan 07                                 8:00.39    8:16.57                  
 11 Norwin 07                                         8:06.06    8:26.76                  
 12 Central Dauphin 03                                7:58.30    8:26.87                  
 13 Parkland 11                                       8:02.00    8:39.22                  
 14 North Pocono 02                                   8:16.50    8:49.67                  
 15 Grove City Area 10                                8:21.64    8:53.84

Boys 1600 Meter Run AA
=========================================================================================
12 Advance:  Top 4 Each Heat plus Next 4 Best Times
 NFHS Record: ! 3:59.51  2001        Alan Webb, RestonSoLakesHS, VA            
 PIAA Record: R 4:03.22  1987        Paul Vandegrift, Arch Kennedy HS 1        
NFHS Hnr Rol: # 4:12.00                                                        
                4:31.13  SQS
    Name                    Year School                  Seed    Prelims                 
=========================================================================================
Heat  1 Preliminaries
  1   129 Seykora, Tom        12 Devon Prep 01        4:29.62    4:30.39QSQS              
  2   256 Walker, Sean        12 Lewisburg 04         4:24.14    4:30.50QSQS              
  3   117 Vella, Tyler        11 Danville Area 04     4:25.92    4:31.18Q                 
  4   624 Hill, Bobby         12 Wellsboro 04         4:27.04    4:31.97Q                 
  5   198 Hiller, Jay         12 Hughesville 04       4:29.63    4:32.23q                 
  6    23 Gusew, Jonathan     12 Avonworth 07         4:30.75    4:32.80q                 
  7    36 Bartlett, Kyle      12 Bellwd Antis 06      4:37.37    4:34.83                  
  8   491 Sweet, Nick         10 Sayre Area 04        4:25.72    4:37.88                  
  9    49 Wilt, Brady         10 Biglerville 03       4:28.86    4:38.20                  
 10   637 Dailey, Kevin       12 Wstmnt Hlltop 06     4:37.88    4:38.99                  
 11   536 Trimble, Colten     10 South Side 07        4:30.29    4:39.32                  
 12    84 Brinkley, Anthony   12 Catasauqua 11        4:34.42    4:46.06                  
 13   608 Archer, Alex        12 Vincentian 07        4:38.24    4:46.95                  
 14   213 Colson, Avery       12 Kane Area 09         4:41.49    4:48.79                  
 15   485 Gordon, Amir        10 Roxborough 12        4:48.02    4:56.64                  
 --   379 Jewett, Curt        12 NE Bradford 04       4:18.14         DQ                  
Heat  2 Preliminaries
  1   364 Smathers, Ryan      12 North East 10        4:17.13    4:29.72QSQS              
  2   297 Curtin, Sebastian   10 Mrcyhrst Prep 10     4:24.62    4:30.30QSQS              
  3   372 Shearn, Brendan     12 No Schuykill 11      4:24.22    4:30.45QSQS              
  4   549 Steely, Andrew      11 Sthr Columbia 04     4:26.00    4:30.64QSQS              
  5   382 Williams, Sam       12 NE Bradford 04       4:28.57    4:31.48q                 
  6   499 Heck, Glen          11 Schuylkll Vly 03     4:30.81    4:32.41q                 
  7   296 Reno, Kevin         12 Mercer Area 10       4:26.39    4:32.90                  
  8   554 Richards, Tyler     11 Sthrn Fulton 05      4:37.65    4:34.56                  
  9   644 England, Bryce      11 Williamsburg 06      4:37.71    4:36.60                  
 10   529 Rigby, Tyler        12 South Park 07        4:30.06    4:38.71                  
 11   234 Morgan, Nathan      10 Lakeland 02          4:28.99    4:39.30                  
 12   188 Ford, Mitchel       12 Holy Redeemer 02     4:29.80    4:40.45                  
 13   648 Loevner, Will        9 Wnchst Thrstn 07     4:31.02    4:43.40                  
 14   214 Hunt, Chris         11 Kane Area 09         4:40.01    4:48.00                  
 15   285 Rosessler, Julian   11 Masterman 12         4:45.78    4:48.84                  
 16   494 Wade, Ronald           HS of Future 12      4:54.72    4:59.66                  
 
Boys 1600 Meter Run AAA
=========================================================================================
12 Advance:  Top 4 Each Heat plus Next 4 Best Times
 NFHS Record: ! 3:59.51  2001        Alan Webb, RestonSoLakesHS, VA            
 PIAA Record: R 4:07.32  2011        Drew Magaha, Upper Moreland HS 1          
NFHS Hnr Rol: # 4:12.00                                                        
                4:24.22  SQS
    Name                    Year School                  Seed    Prelims                 
=========================================================================================
Heat  1 Preliminaries
  1   690 Russell, Tony       11 WC Henderson 01      4:14.75    4:23.17QSQS              
  2   541 Harriman, Connor    12 Pennsbury 01         4:16.75    4:23.19QSQS              
  3   156 Zingarini, James    12 CR North 01          4:15.23    4:23.61QSQS              
  4   233 Martin, James       12 Garden Spot 03       4:23.62    4:23.62QSQS              
  5   184 Leidal, Kenny       12 D-Town West 01       4:18.97    4:24.13qSQS              
  6   207 Abert, Colin        10 Easton Area 11       4:21.87    4:25.54                  
  7   366 Groh, Jeff          11 Lower Dauphin 03     4:16.90    4:28.42                  
  8   271 Sloan, Nathan       11 Hampton 07           4:19.42    4:28.67                  
  9   339 Snider, Tyler       12 Kiski Area 07        4:20.54    4:29.13                  
 10   364 Sauvageau, Xavier   12 Littlestown 03       4:20.95    4:30.79                  
 11   285 Birk, Andrew        12 Hempfield 03         4:23.92    4:30.86                  
 12   601 Brier, Mike         12 Scranton Prep 02     4:28.83    4:33.14                  
 13   577 Lauer, Aaron        11 Red Land 03          4:21.66    4:35.11                  
 14   219 Patterson, Mike        Father Judge 12      4:28.32    4:37.04                  
Heat  2 Preliminaries
  1   343 Coyle, Tom          12 La Salle 12          4:18.31    4:20.13QSQS              
  2   385 Watro, Curtis       12 Methacton 01         4:17.29    4:20.13QSQS              
  3   689 Moy, Kevin          11 WC Henderson 01      4:16.01    4:20.68QSQS              
  4   638 Huemmler, Jack      12 Strath Haven 01      4:13.68    4:21.71QSQS              
  5   265 Jaskowak, Daniel    12 Grove City 10        4:26.91    4:21.91qSQS              
  6   517 Schettler, Harriso  12 Penn Manor 03        4:15.31    4:22.06qSQS              
  7    47 Yousif, Aziz        12 Bradford Area 09     4:39.20    4:24.57q                 
  8   686 Mueller, Ben        12 Warwick 03           4:21.12    4:26.15                  
  9   565 Wathen, John        12 Pleasant Vly 11      4:26.27    4:27.83                  
 10   304 Kardish, Christian  11 Holy Ghost 01        4:20.29    4:29.95                  
 11   367 Nissley, Cole       11 Lower Dauphin 03     4:21.41    4:30.36                  
 12   551 Reinhart, Thomas    12 Pine-Richland 07     4:22.52    4:31.31                  
 13   388 Colwell, Jon        11 Mifflin Cnty 06      4:19.57    4:35.34                  
 14   242 Palenchak, Tyler    12 Gateway 07           4:23.36    4:41.12                  
 15   711 McGarvey, Liam      10 Williamsport 04      4:38.58    4:53.03

Indoors v outdoors

2013-05-23T10:36:00.001-07:00

Indoor state champs last 5 years
Wilson, Willig, Hardy
Gil, Endress, Endress
Gunzenhauser, Mallon, Lefebure
Micikas, Ivo, Mallon
Izewski, Kaulbach, Rhodes

Out of those 15 men just one took home the outdoor state title in the event they won indoors (Mallon) bad news for Huemmler Norris and Rivera?

You decide

State Championship Predictions: AAA 800m

2013-05-22T16:54:00.000-07:00

Somehow I feel like I've managed to not make the same title style for any of these predictions. Hmm. Anyway, let's get right down to business in the always compelling AAA 800m race. What do I want to do with this race? There are a lot of compelling story lines here. If this field was assembled at a post season meet where all could run fresh, we could realistically see a 1:50 or under time. At states, I'm not counting on it. But that being said I still think things will be competitive and fast.

Out of heat 1, I think our finalists will be Jeff Wiseman, Andrew Stone, Zach Brehm and Dave Garton. Wiseman with no issue here, his kick is phenomenal and the season he has had leaves no doubt in my mind that he will get through. Stone has not been as strong as he was a year ago in my mind, keeping a relatively low profile, but I think Stone is hungry for a state title and gets through. No one is talking about him at all including myself and how a guy with his credentials has been essentially forgotten from the discussion is beyond me. Brehm should get in. Normally I would doubt a sophomore's abilities to double at the state meet but I think last weekend he showed everyone how strong he was. He qualified for the finals last year as a freshman when I doubted him and I haven't forgotten. Lastly I like Garton to sneak up and surprise. Without having to swing 4x8 duties I think he will be a lot stronger and ready to sneak up and get in to the final with a capital Q next to his name.

In heat 2, I think the finalists will likely be Joe Logue, Alec Kunzweiler, Alex Nole and Steve Yannacone. This heat is softer to me than the previous heat and if a sleeper is going to come from somewhere I think it is this heat. I'm not huge on the D7 800m guys as you can tell from my predictions. I don't know why, those guys have been solid throughout the year, but the D1 guys have big race experience and great kicks. Logue and Yannacone have proven themselves. Kunzweiler has been money this year and if necessary he will run 1:52 in the prelims and make finals. Last year he ran 1:53ish and it didn't phase him for day 2. Nole is the wildcard here out of D2. He has run 1:54 and soloed a 1:55 last weekend to win extremely easily so I like his upside against some of the doubling guys like Becich, Caldwell, Jaskowak and Cox-Finn.

The at large guys in my mind will be Brad Rivera, Dylin Wilhoite, Sean Gipson, and Matt Sankey.
Its hard for me to pick just 4 guys looking down this list. Smith, Mazzanti, and Culley are all quality guys that I think will be left off the finalists list. Rivera I'm counting on slipping in, he was the indoor state champ after all. Wilhoite has won a lot of big D7 meets, now the only question is can he do it against the big names in D1. I hesitantly stick him through. Gipson ran a quality 1:55 last weekend seemingly out of nowhere. I'm hoping that's a Drew Gerberich type performance. Gerberich dropped to 1:55 out of nowhere and then 1:53 at states. Is Gipson are Gerberich that I asked about at the very beginning of the season? Sankey is strong as well and dropping the 16 should be a smart move.

Guys left out of the finals in this scenario would include Magee, Culley, Smith, Mizzanti, Jaskowak, Caldwell, Cox-Finn, Smail, Sullivan, Coburn, Hunter, Stelly and Becich. Wow. Great field of guys and will definitely be a great final.

In the final, we will see a battle between stud Alec Kunzweiler and the field. I'm a huge Kunzweiler fan and if he was running fresh he would be my pick. But I think that Kunzweiler will have to run very hard in the relay, maybe a sub 1:50 split to give his team a gold, and so when he is closing down the last 100m of this open 8, I think Jeff Wiseman will put on his kick that he has unleashed all year and surprise Kunzweiler to take down to a gold. I think Andrew Stone is a huge sleeper here. He has a lot of talent and if he is ready for this meet, which the LaSalle boys usually are, he could use his fresh legs to his advantage. Brehm is clearly a stud and he will follow Kunzweiler like a hawk in this race. If he isn't too tired from a busy weekend last weekend, he will sneak into the top group.

I'm not sure where to place Joe Logue. I thought his kick would be good enough to compete with Wiseman, but he didn't put himself up front early enough to mix it up at the finish. The nice thing is, this will be the closest thing to a Henderson Invite repeat Logue will see: a fast pace with lots of quality guys to do the work and then try to kick. Logue's best open time before his 1:51 last year was just 1:54. Rivera is the indoor state champ and has medaled in the 8 before. But likely Rivera is going to be leading this race or pushing the pace and on tired legs that could be his undoing. Yannacone was the D1 champ a year ago. I'm not sure if he is as fit as last year but he surprised me in a competitive D1 race so he could surprise me again here, but I'm not going big with him.

In a race like this, it's going to be a free for all for the final medal spots, especially considering it's going to be a free for all for the final finalists spots. My bet is that something like 5th and 10th will be within the same second or so.

Here's how I think it plays out
1. Wiseman 1:51
2. Kunzweiler 1:52
3. Logue 1:52
4. Stone 1:53
5. Brehm 1:53
6. Nole 1:53
7. Gipson 1:54
8. Yannacone 1:54
9. Rivera 1:54
10. Garton 1:54
11. Sankey 1:54
12. Wilhoite 1:55

That's it for my predictions! Leave your own and comment away, just try not to be too harsh with one another, I don't want to have to delete comments.

State Championships: AA 800m Predictions

2013-05-22T16:21:00.000-07:00

The 800m is my personal favorite event to be a part of as an 800m guy for just about all of my running career. So I love to see a good 800m race and watch guys lay it all on the line in this race. So now I lay my 800m reputation on the line going for the predictions in the 800m.

Out of Heat 1, I see Dan Alexander, James Clements, Mark Arzie and Andrew Miller getting the auto times. Alexander has fresh legs and has been a consistently top 800m guy in the AA scene for the past few years. Clements, a D1 rival out of Christopher Dock, may expend a lot of energy in the 4x8, but I think it is equally possible his team will be out of it enough to allow him to conserve. Miller and Arzie are going to be doubling and both will have likely ran fairly hard on the 4x8, but I think that they are talented enough to get through anyway. Arzie seems very strong based on what I have seen despite the fact that he just a sophomore.

Out of Heat 2, I got Ryan Smathers, Curt Jewett, Shawn Wolfe and Jordan Jackson getting through. Yeah, I'm aware that's just the top 4 seeds, but these guys are all big names on the AA scene. Jackson is the top returner in this event while Smathers is the defending state champ in the mile and has successfully qualified for the finals in both events each of the past two years. Wolfe is the top seed in this field and the heavy favorite to win this race. Jewett I suppose is the most likely guy to miss qualifying because he has rarely tried this double, but I feel Jewett can run the likely 1:58ish qualifying time with his eyes closed.

The at large spots make the event much more interesting. Colton Snyder out of NE Bradford is a returning finalist and as long as he doesn't waste too much in the 4x8 trials, he should be able to get into the finals. The same goes for Jonathan Goodson. His Big Spring team needs a big leg from him in the trials, but I think he won't have much of an issue getting through the first round as an at large qualifier. After that the question essentially becomes is anyone going to break out or are the rest of the favorites going to dominate? I'll go out on a bit of a limb and say that Jordan Wilt and Ryan Detsch step up after relatively little competition at their district meet and end up sneaking into the finals.

In the final, the race is Shawn Wolfe's to lose and I don't expect him to let it get away. He has run some very fast times with very little competition so I would hate to see what he can do if he is actually pushed this outdoor season. The only concern I have is his fairly busy schedule of two relays and the 8, while Dan Alexander and Jordan Jackson can play upset here with relatively fresh legs, focusing only on the 800m. I don't expect either of those two to take it down, but they are the guys I would look at if I wanted to call upset.

Smathers and Jewett are interesting here. Both are super talented, but both are going to be laying it all on the line in the 1600m and I'm not sure how much either will have left. Smathers has tried this double the past two years and finished 12th and 8th and in the finals. Jewett's one 16-8 double at Henderson was not incredibly successful either. I'm not sure I can bid high on either runner in this spot. The loser of the 16 out of these two has a much better shot of doing well in my mind.

The rest of the contenders will be pulling double duty off the 4x8. I really like Arzie in this race, he has done fantastic this season and I think he could be 1:56 if conditions pan out well. Snyder has had some positive momentum as of late and I'm sure having a teammate in the race is only extra motivation. James Clements had one heck of a race last weekend against Alexander and I don't expect his 4x8 squad to make finals. He could be the wild card in this race.

Here's how I see the boys crossing the line when all is said and done:
1. Wolfe 1:53
2. Alexander 1:55
3. Clements 1:56
4. Jackson 1:56
5. Arzie 1:56
6. Snyder 1:57
7. Smathers 1:57
8. Goodson 1:57

State Predictions: AAA 4x800m

2013-05-22T09:36:00.002-07:00

Oh my goodness. Your guess is as good as mine here. An incredible amount of depth and a lot of hard running is going to go down in both trials and finals to get this done and that is going to make things very fun for us but very nerve racking for the runners and even the favorites in this field.

But I suppose I have to try and predict it ... Don't judge me too harshly if these are way off because it could go a lot of different ways. Here we go.

Out of Heat 1 I see the 4 auto qualifiers as follows: CValley, Pennsbury, O'Hara and Red Lion
This heat is filled with some of my favorite sleeper pick teams and some of the best overall teams and that is going to make it very hard for even great teams like CV to make it out of these rounds in one piece. It probably will take around 7:50-52 to get an auto qualifying spot comfortably. CV is obviously the favorite and Kunzweiler will get the team into the finals. Pennsbury has a lot of very nice pieces and with 4 fresh legs they shouldn't have too much of an issue getting through to the finals on talent. O'Hara is the big sleeper here, they have a lot of under the radar talent. Red Lion has been a very strong team all this year, I like their pieces and I'm banking on them rising to the moment with a big anchor and a big relay PR to make it past day 1.

Out of Heat 2 I got Carlisle, State College, Bensalem and Cheltenham
This heat is very tricky. I don't think it is quite as talented as the first heat and Bensalem should be able to run fairly relaxed and get in to the finals to set up a Penn Relays rematch. I'm a big State College fan. All the SC guys have only this race to worry about, it means everything to them and I think that pays off. Carlisle has Brehm on the anchor and Brehm on fresh legs is scary to me. They have solid legs in front of him and Brehm should bring it home. Cheltenham is one of about 4 teams in this race that I think could take the last spot. I have seen them run great at various meets this season, they have always risen to the occasion They haven't broken through for that low 7:50s mark, but this weekend may be the weekend.

What other 4 do I think will get in? Well I have Kiski, Williamsport Area, CB East and North Allegheny. I'm not sure how I feel about NA at this race, I really didn't think they had 7:54 in them at all. I threw them in the finals because they have proved me wrong already this year so why not again. CB East has been a solid team all year. I think they can still drop more time from last week and they will need to to get in. Williamsport is the big sleeper all year, I have to ride them all the way through to the finals. Kiski is another one of my teams that I have backed all year and I feel obligated to back them. They have much more talent than 7:56 in my mind.

Teams left out include Altoona who certainly could make it through to the finals. I worry a bit about their star power to have an anchor to bring it home, but they ran strong against State College last weekend so maybe they will surprise again. DT East is a team I really like, but Caldwell carried them last weekend. The other legs need to step up, but if they do, they could sneak into the finals. Penncrest is always a strong team, they are consistently in the mix to make finals. I, again, am skeptical of their fire power to mix it up with the other anchors in this race who are big names in a lot of cases, but if somebody steps up to become a 1:55-56 type it's a different ball game.

Now to the finals. The battle out front should be between Cumberland Valley and Bensalem, but I really think Cardinal O'Hara has the potential to be right there. If Kevin James was on this relay I would be picking O'Hara to become state champions, but without James I am a little worried about the inconsistency of some of the O'Hara legs on the relay. I also worry about Smart or Belfatto or whoever anchors matching up against Francis and Kunzweiler who are 1:51 splits at states almost without a doubt.

In the match up with Bensalem and CV, it is going to be key for Rivera to dominate on the lead off leg. As I have mentioned I'm not a huge fan of either squads order, but I assume by this point they aren't going to make any changes. Bensalem is better on paper without a doubt. CV's front 2 legs have not posted times that match up with Cox Finn and Rivera and Francis on paper are better than Coburn and Kunzweiler.

However, if Rivera only leads off in 1:55ish like he did at districts, they give CV a chance to stay in it during the opening legs. Bensalem has to keep the pace fast and try and bury CV's lead off leg in the pack. If they do that they leave a tough job for the rest of the CV boys. The big leg will be Coburn v. Cox-Finn. It is likely that Cox-Finn will be out front with probably a team like Pennsbury (if Webb can hang on at all after that 32) and Cheltenham (if they run Lewis 2nd as they have in the past) while CV will be back a bit depending on how much their first two legs step up. Coburn is going to need a 1:53ish mark to catch his squad back up. He is definitely capable of it. If CV and Bensalem give off to the anchors at the same time, I'm betting on Kunzweiler. He has a 1:50ish split in his legs without a doubt and he was unbelievably clutch a year ago. But Francis is no joke and he will be relatively fresh, hopefully fresher than Penn Relays.

Ultimately, I expect Francis to have enough of a lead that he can hold of Kunzweiler, but it should be close once again. I really like CV but I'm picking Bensalem to pull this one out because I do believe they have 3 very strong legs and I think that will be enough.

Behind these teams I like State College and O'Hara to battle it out. Both can definitely run under 7:50 in the 4x8 and both are focused on this relay and this relay alone. That is huge in my mind and they will run very well. Behind them a big leg from Brehm could get Carlisle in the mix or if Cheltenham finally breaks out they will be in the mix for sub 7:50. Pennsbury is a great team here with Sauer and Harriman to lead them. They need O'Connell to have a bit of a step up day, he has struggled a bit as of late but I know he has a huge split in him waiting to happen. Of course Webb will be the key. Just a young sophomore that double on a hot day at states is going to be brutal. He will get the baton out front with the leaders most likely given Harriman's racing this year, but can Webb hang on or will he blow up? That is the difference between a sub 7:50 effort for Pennsbury and being left off the medal stand. I worry about both Kiski and NA considering the guys they have in the 32 and in the individual events. I like Red Lion a lot as mentioned above, but I am worried they will have gone too hard in the trials to make an impact here in the finals. Williamsport is a sleeper of course, but I'm not sure if they are 7:51 good. Time will tell I suppose. CB East has nice pieces as has been mentioned. They need to have a good weekend, but they could be in the medal mix.

Ultimately it is time to post up the predictions. Here is what I got.
1. Bensalem 7:43
2. Cumberland Valley 7:44
3. O'Hara 7:48
4. State College 7:49
5. Carlisle 7:51
6. Pennsbury 7:51
7. Cheltenham 7:52
8. CB East 7:54

I think Red Lion will run around 7:52 in the trials and Williamsport should be around the same mark, maybe 7:53. NA and Kiski both can run sub 7:55 in the trials without a doubt. Probably a 7:55ish mark will be sitting at home on Day 2.

State Championship Predictions: AA 4x800m

2013-05-22T09:02:00.000-07:00

The relays are easily my favorite event to watch at states, but naturally they are one of the hardest to predict. Who will run on which relay? How much will be saved or sacrificed for individual events? The nice thing is it is the first race of the weekend so in the qualifying heats everybody is fresh.

So who is getting through to the finals? Well in my mind out of heat 1 I see Trinity, South Williamsport, Lake View and Souther Columbia Area. Now I am far from an expert on AA 4x8s, but I know that Trinity has been very strong in this event throughout the entire time I have been following the state meet and I expect them to get through the first round. South Williamsport comes in with a seed time miles ahead of the field. I don't think they will have a big issue getting through the rounds either. Lake View was a fairly comfortable district champion who I think may have time to drop and Southern Columbia was just another fast seeded team that I saw potential in. I feel in the AA 4x8 there are fairly clear cut levels of ability.

In Heat 2 I predict Anville Celona, Lakeland, Northeast Bradford, and Wyomissing will get in. Wyomissing is a lot like Trinity because they are farily consistent AA program that turns out good 4-8 talent. Northeast Bradford, I believe, is running hot enough to get through the first round. Lakeland in my mind is an underrated team out of district 2. They have some solid guys and should get through. And Anville Celona is a heavy favorite in this race and I would be incredibly surprised if they didn't make it out of the rounds.

Taking the final four spots in the final I got Masterman, Freedom Area, Boiling Springs and Oswayo Valley. Oswayo Valley is a bit of a question mark here because it is hard to say whether Barrett Kemp will join the squad or save up for the 32. I think there is enough time for him to run both without much issue in terms of the prelims and the 32 finals. The 4x8 finals, as everyone knows, will be a tough one to run. Masterman has been an under the radar squad for some time and hopefully learned something from Keaton Naff a year ago. Boiling Springs has a great anchor which should help them get through the rounds and Freedom was the D7 champion and D7 usually performs well at states so I threw them in.

Looking ahead to the finals, doubling becomes an issue. You have guys like Sam Williams, Griffin Molino and Barrett Kemp who will have the 32 in their legs as well as Shawn Wolfe who will have tripled the day before. A lot of other relays will have had runners in the individual events including Masterman, Lakeland, Southern Columbia, Wyomissing, Boiling Springs, and Trinity.

So in this war of attrition who will come out on top?

Well Annville Celona in my mind has got the W. Wolfe and Mason (sub 49 open 4) look incredibly strong and Wolfe on the anchor in itself should be enough to get this team around the track sub 8 minutes and that may be good enough to take the victory. Behind them, things are pretty up for grabs. I think that South Williamsport has the best shot at second but having Molino double like that really worries me. I'm not positive as just a sophomore he will be able to give them a strong leg on the 4x8. I like Lakeland a lot as well, Arzie is a really strong guy to have on the anchor. But he is just a sophomore and this is a big moment for a sophomore to take on. If NE Bradford was definitely going to have an A team of Williams, Jewett, Snyder and one more then I'd be on board with this squad for 2nd, but that is far from guarenteed given what I have seen from their other entries.

Ultimately I suppose I have to make some picks here so I'll give it my best shot but don't be surprised if I'm quite wrong on the predictions here.

1. Anville Celona 7:54
2. South Williamsport 8:00
3. Lakeland 8:01
4. Wyomissing 8:02
5. Trinity 8:02
6. NE Bradford 8:04
7. Southern Columbia 8:04
8. Lakeview 8:07

States Predictions: AAA 1600m

2013-05-21T11:19:00.003-07:00

Same deal as before, gotta establish the qualifiers before I pick out the medalists.

In heat one I got the auto qualifiers as Russell, Zingarini, Leidal and Sloan
Sloan is going to have run a big PR to get this auto-qualifier. It's going to take 4:15ish to make it out of this heat with an auto-bid in my mind. I'm optimistic about Leidal and Sloan here. Russell and Zingarini are smart, strong runners. A fast pace only benefits them and they shouldn't struggle to get through. With Groh and Abert in this heat I'd be very surprised if this heat was not very quick in the early goings.

In heat two I have Huemmler, Moy, Coyle and Schettler getting through on the auto-bid
I see this one being a bit more of a kickers race and that means Huemmler and Coyle are licking their chops. Schettler made the final last year and I think that experience helps him get through. Huemmler and Coyle are money obviously and I'd be stunned if one of them misses out on the finals. And then Moy is the classic boom bust pick in this spot. He is a bit inexperienced but he has been on a roll as of late and has a killer kick which is quite valuable in a race like this. I worry a little bit that he isn't in the same heat as Tony, who is the perfect teammate for a guy like Moy because he is experienced smart and if you can be anywhere close by you are going to run a great time, but I'm optimistic that Moy's kick and momentum gets him to the final.

Then there will be a bunch of guys fighting hard for the at large qualifying spots. With 4 on the line, I think that first heat will be fast enough to get Groh in at least. Harriman is going to have run hard in that 4x8 for sure, his 4x8 heat is quite stacked, so I wouldn't be surprised at all if he misses finals. But I think he hangs tough and gets one of the last spots in. Someone else in this 1st heat may step up to the plate and run a huge surprise time off a fast pace, but right now I can't pick out who that will be. The last two spots are very tricky to call. Dan Jaskowak steps it up come states time but I'm not picking him to get through but not very confidently. He seemed to be running with a lot more confidence a year ago and had posted a lot faster times, but it's always hard to count out a guy with his potential. The 2nd heat has a lot more talent in my mind, someone very talented is going to be left out of the finals. Ultimately I'm going Colwell and Watro to pull this one out. I like Kardish a lot, he could certainly be the surprise of this heat, but I'm worried about the way he has been front running lately and he may pay for it in this race given all the talented kickers in the field. Watro showed great closing speed twice last weekend. 4:17 may be his ceiling, but I think that kind of mark is good enough to get him into the finals.

Now the final sets up to be on to remember. Obviously, the depth of the state has been something that has been talked to death on here, but the quality of this projected final speaks volumes about just how good the state is. In the final, I have to drop Groh out of the conversation. That 32-16 double is no joke and I can't, in good faith, pick him to dominate the double. Especially because I see him being a factor in the 32 and tired after a very hard run in the 16 the day before. Harriman is a big question mark for me here as well. He runs lead off on the 4x8 so he will be trying to complete the successful doubled Nick Rotz did a year ago. Harriman ran unreal last weekend, I didn't expect him to have such a great double, but at states doubling is even harder than it is at districts. I am leaving Harriman out of the medals as well.

I'm not sure how fast the pace will be in the early going of this 16. I think things will be fairly slow and favor the kickers, I don't see many guys making it honest early. Leidal likely learned his lesson last weekend about leading races out front. I'm projecting somewhere around 2:08-2:12 for the first 800m. Then things should get interesting. I forsee somebody making a move at 800m, likely Russell but could be someone like Sloan or Colwell or Schettler (haven't seen these guys race in person), waking up the field a bit and things will start to crank down.

The last lap will be a true kicker's race and a fantastic battle to the finish. I think this will become a three man race by 200m to go with Russell, Coyle and Huemmler coming around the turn in that order. I think Russell has improved his kick over the last few weeks, he and his coach know that is what it is going to take to win. But that being said, Coyle and Huemmler are proven 1:52-1:51 types and they might just be too quick down the stretch. Ultimately I think those two will be able to slightly pull away from Russell as the race comes to a close. It will be close, but I have Russell finishing third.

Who will take down the victory out front? Coyle the defending outdoor state champion or Huemmler the winner indoors? I think something was a little off with Coyle indoors at states. I'm not sure if it was sickness or not, but he seemed off especially after what I saw at PCLs. He would never make excuses or discredit the great running by the other guys so we will never know, but I think that wasn't a true test of his ability.

That being said, Huemmler put himself in a tough spot last outdoors. He was worried about a fast time more so than the win and that ultimately cost him when Coyle put on his kick at the finish. Huemmler will adjust accordingly for this meet.

Honestly I'm just glad we get to see this match up unlike the Willig Magaha match up that was hyped up by me a year ago. I think this race lives up to the hype with 3 guys within one second of one another. I think it comes down to a lean for the gold just like indoor states last year and this time Jack Huemmler is the guy to take down the victory by less than a tenth of a second.

Behind the 3 out front, Zingarini seems the most likely guy to break up the group. Zingarini reminds me of Vince Perozze. Zingarini is a very solid runner, great strength runner, no flashy 800m speed but consistently solid running and a strong kick and gusty running. Harrison Schettler has been running great for some time now as well, he can maybe break up the District One fanfest. Kevin Moy has that dangerous kick and in this kind of kickers race, he may be the most dangerous of the "non-favorites" out there. Harriman is very dangerous in terms of a kick as well. If he isn't too exhausted from the 4x8 he will really benefit from a slower pace.

Ultimately, here are my medalists. It is a little bit of D1 bias in action, but I just don't know enough about some of these guys to pick them to finish at the top. I hope they are not too offended and I hope they show me something big at the meet.

1. Huemmler 4:11
2. Coyle 4:11
3. Russell 4:12
4. Moy 4:14
5. Zingarini 4:14
6. Schettler 4:14
7. Leidal 4:16
8. Watro 4:17

Like I said, heavy D1 bias here, but those guys are great with solid kicks so I'm expecting big things. All 8 D1 guys are legit medal contenders.

States Predictions: AA 1600m

2013-05-21T10:46:00.003-07:00

I was waiting to previews for the non 3200m distance events because I wanted to see how the heats lined up. In my mind that plays a big factor in those 6-12 placing spots because running a hard trial heat the day before can wear on you, especially if you are doing a lot of doubling or tripling in the heat.

So in the AA 1600m, I've looked over the heat sheets and I've got some speculation on who will get through the first day.
In heat one I see Curt Jewett, Sean Walker, Bobby Hill and Tom Seykora taking the 4 auto spots. I'm probably a little biased on Seykora because I watched him run last weekend, but he looked very in control in that race and I'm banking on a big day for him. Hill has run 4:19 this year, he was off at districts but I see him bouncing back. Walker and Jewett were studs at the D4 meet and I believe they are talented enough to get through. My only worry for Jewett (and Williams later on) is if they try to go for the 4x8 they are going to be worn fairly thin.

In heat two I got Smathers, Shearn, Reno and Rigby getting the auto qualifying spots. Shearn and Smathers are talented guys who have made the finals the past two years without issue while Reno and Rigby are talented guys out of D7. Rigby had a killer indoors and I'm hoping he will return to form at the outdoor state meet.

That leaves 4 qualifying spots up for grabs. If Williams is not running the 4x8 (which I speculate that he and Jewett will not run) he should be one of the 4 qualifiers. With him I expect Brady Wilt, Sebastin Curtin and Andrew Steely to get through. District 4 has so many talented guys it is hard to pick which ones will rise to the occassion and which will not, but clearly the D4 guys were in a competitive race a week ago with a guy out front to pull them along so the potential to drop time is a bit less than some of the other guys in other districts.

Now in the finals, I think Jewett and Smathers are clearly the top guys in this field. Williams and Shearn will be fairly tired after the 32 and Hill is the only other guy under 4:20 this year outdoors. After the top 2 medal spots, I think things are fairly up for grabs.

If the race is like last year's Smathers and Jewett will push from the gun and see how fast they can go. Jewett has already had good experience going out hard at Henderson and Penn Relays and has proven he can run very fast times. Smathers, however, is the defending state champion. Smathers did get outkicked by Martin a bit earlier this year, but Jewett strikes me more as a strength kicker than speed kicker. If these guys both are going for it from the gun, it will be a matter of who holds on better, but if one decides to settle in and work off the other, they will be able to win. That being said, that's easier said than done. If you let things get tactical I think a big move from Jewett at around 800m could win the race, but Smathers I believe would win if things stay slow until 1200.

Ultimately, I think this race is fast and these guys run gutsy, and I think Curt Jewett hangs on for the upset victory over Smathers. I see those guys as a clear cut 1-2. Behind them I'm going big on Tyler Rigby out of District 7. I am hoping to see a return to his form indoors, I like what I saw from him there. Then I have to expect Bobby Hill to step up and return to form.

After this I think Reno will hold on against Williams and Shearn. Both of those guys are going to be so tired after running all out in the 32 with chances to win and definitely end up top 3. Williams doubled better than Shearn a year ago, but in the oppressive heat it could have gone either way. I think Shearn does a better job bouncing back this year in cooler weather, but I can't go too bold on him because he will have to work hard to beat Galassi. He has a better chance of doing well in the 16 if he loses the 32 (which as mentioned earlier I don't think will happen).

Here is how I ultimately see the 1600 finishing up:
1. Jewett 4:14
2. Smathers 4:15
3. Rigby 4:20
4. Hill 4:21
5. Reno 4:23
6. Shearn 4:24
7. Williams 4:24
8. Walker 4:25

Times are fairly speculative here, there is potential for those to be blown out of the water.

State Championship Predictions: AAA 3200m

2013-05-20T11:29:00.003-07:00

The AAA boys 3200m is a race that I am really excited to see results for. In my opinion the race is incredibly up for grabs although Norris has to be the favorite for his big time performances in the past. At districts, I definitely wouldn't say Norris looked comfortable, but I also don't think he went into that race trying to do anything more than get the state qualifying time.

I thought about how so many people really focus their energy on saving for the state championships and I decided to do a little check back at the state champions the last few years in the 32. Last year it was Sam Hibbs who dominated the district one championship and ran a then PR mark. Before him Glenn Burkhardt did essentially the same thing dominating the D1 championship. Neither of those guys felt the need to save anything and won their races by convincing margins. Before Burkhardt you had Fischer, who was second at D1 and outkicked by his teammate Burkhardt, but the two pushed the pace the whole way. Tarsnane won before then, he ran hard at districts while Furcht saved himself for states, but Tarsnane still won both. Dennin won the year before that winning both the district one title and the state title with PR marks back to back weeks.

So really in my opinion the whole saving yourself thing is overrated. The cream rises to the top. So, therefore, in my mind everyone is on even footing this week whether they saved up or not. So does that mean I should go Ross Wilson for state champion?

Sorry man, I can't go that bold. I can't believe this guy has dominated as much as he had racing 32 after 32. He looked the most comfortable out of any guy I saw in the D1 race if I'm being perfectly honest. But my head says all those hard 32s back to back to back to back to back will finally add up. Doesn't mean he can't jump up and snag a medal, but I don't think he will win.

I go back and forth on who I will pick to win this race. There are a lot of guys that I think could, here is my list: Norris, Wilson, Kennedy, Martin, Todaro and James. If anyone else one, I'd be surprised, although it certainly could happen considering the quality of this field.

In order to pick between this group I had to consider how the race itself would play out. I don't anticipate things being incredibly fast from the gun, but I do hope that some combination of Groh, Wilson, James, Quinn and whichever other front runners are out there keep this thing honest. I can't help but compare this race in many ways to the 3200m I saw back in 2009 at Shippensburg. Ben Furcht, Bobby Micikas and Jimmy Tarsnane were the top 3 in the race. Micikas had won Penn Relays and Indoor states by outkicking the field that included Ben Furcht who was runner up both times. Furcht didn't have the wheels to win in a kicker's race so he hammered the whole way on the second mile to try and suck the kick out of Micikas. It worked and Micikas just didn't have it that day, but Tarsnane did. He surprised Furcht with about a 60 second last lap and took a surprise gold despite a gutsy run by Ben.

For some reason I equate Norris to Micikas. Norris is a bit more accomplished in both XC and the 1600 so it isn't a completely reasonable comparison but it's the one I jump to when trying to pick this state championship winner. It might be stupid of me, but I'm picking against Norris in this one.

As mentioned above I have my doubts about Wilson as well, so leaving him out of the conversation that leaves James, Todaro, Kennedy and Martin in my possible winner's circle. Man, this is a tough one. I am a huge fan of James but I pick against him as well here. He is only a sophomore and he will have more chances at this event. This event is usually dominated by Seniors and it takes a truly special soph and a fairly week field to see something other than a senior victory. So I'm not going with James this year for the W.

Now I go back and forth with these 3 guys. Every time I visualize the race I see a new guy who would finish first out of the three of them. Kennedy and Martin have been so close every time that they have raced it's hard to imagine anything different. Martin is fresher now than he was when he beat Kennedy a week ago, but Kennedy has been gaining momentum all year since his injury. But so too has Vinny Todaro who dropped a huge 4:13 1600m a week ago to prove he has one of the top kicks in this field behind Norris. I suspect that this race will be one of the best the state has ever seen, not just in terms of depth, but in terms of competition for the win. So many guys have the potential, but only one guy can wear the gold around his neck.

Ultimately, it is hard to say this with any form of certainty, but I'm taking Vinny Todaro to take the gold medal in this race. I'm a huge fan of Martin and Kennedy here so if one of those two wins I'll regret not going with my gut. And as for Norris, I think if the race is run 10 times he would probably win about 7 and if I was give 5 bucks to bet on anybody it would be Max. Sometimes you just get a feeling and you got to jump on it and that's what I'm doing today.

But this race is far from just being about gold. The race for the other medal spots should be equally compelling. Adam Bodine has made big strides in the past couple weeks and dropped a 9:17 PR. Maybe he has taken the next step to grab a state medal. Sam Webb always sticks his nose in it as does Jeff Groh but both guys will be pulling double duty over the course of the weekend. NA has 3 guys in the race and Matt McGoey is my big sleeper pick here, but again, having the 4x8 to worry about complicates the odds that he has a breakout race. Dominic Deluca is a sub 9:20 man who has proven he can run fast in a talented field. Dan Savage is a very talented 3200m man who was one of the top finishers indoors in a very competitive 3k and can not be overlooked in this field despite the breakout of his younger teammate. Savage is just as likely as any to surprise for a top 5 finish. Will McDermott has a lot of momentum in his favor coming off a couple of close battles with Kevin James. Reiny Barchet is one of only two guys in the field who have run under 9:10 for 3200m this year. Clearly, he deserves a bit of respect. He also seems to alternate his big races, which means he is due for a big one here at states. And Conner Quinn is one of the few guys in this field who has a state championship. Not to mention the fact that he has an old teammate who has stepped up and won this race before. If anyone knows how to step it up in the post season it is Quinn. Plus you have to throw in Colin Martin into the equation. He is always close behind Ethan and Ethan is one of the top guys in this field.

Not to mention Ean Disilvio of Allerdice and Austin Pondel, the footlocker finalist are in this field seeded way down the list!

This race is incredibly deep and there are legitimately over 20 guys with realistic medal chances. But there can be only 8.

This was easily the toughest event for me to pick and if I predicted in 10 times we would have 10 very different predictions by me. Even now I go back and forth on every posistion for 1st to 21st. But ultimately I have to put something down and here is what I am going with. The times are if the weather is reasonable, I can't imagine the pace won't be fast.

1. Todaro 9:04
2. Norris 9:06
3. Martin 9:07
4. Kennedy 9:09
5. Martin 9:12
6. Wilson 9:13
7. James 9:13
8. Quinn 9:15
9. Savage 9:18
10. McGuoy 9:19
11. Groh 9:21
12. Barchet 9:21
13. McDermott 9:22
14. Deluca 9:23
15. Webb 9:25
16. Stratman 9:25
17. Bodine 9:26
18. Zemet 9:26
19. Pitone 9:28
20. Conrad-Kline 9:28

Man I still have some question marks about where to put some of these guys and I can't even list all the guys who can do damage. These are my picks, but man it's a toss up in a lot of places. Let me know what you think and predict away!

State Predictions: AA 3200m

2013-05-19T21:49:00.002-07:00

Hoping to do one of these for all the events. AA stuff is far from my specialty but I'll give it a shot because the races should be sick. None perhaps more so than the 3200m at Ship which will feature some of the most talented AA boys of all time and is highlighted by the two big guns Rico Galassi and Brendan Shearn who have run 9:10 and 9:04 respectively and have qualifying times under 9:20. No disrespect meant to Sam Williams who has been phenomenal this year as well as the other members of this field, I anticipate the winner of this race to be one of these two men.

Both of these boys have ran great this season and both finished 1-2 a year ago in another dramatic race to the finish. Each man has a state title in XC as well. Galassi is going all in for the 32 for the second straight year. He has dropped the 16 to focus on the 32 and be as fresh as possible against Brendan. Galassi has shown that he has the potential to still drop time as he has soloed some of his best efforts of the year, dominating fields and still running fast times. He also has proven he has solid speed, running under 4:20 on multiple occasions for 1600. Meanwhile Shearn is running the 16 and the 32 as he has the past 2 years at the state championship and the 16 has yet to effect his performance as he was 2nd and 1st the last two years. Shearn has big race experience and two state titles and has proven he can close well have a fast pace. One thing Brendan has certainly never lacked is heart and he will lay it all on the line to try and defend his title.

I picked Galassi to win last year and I may have been a year to early on my call, but I'm going with Shearn for the W this year even still. For me Shearn has constantly proved me wrong this year with a big run at indoor states after recovering from injury, a sub 8:30 at Penn and then a 9:04 victory at Henderson. I see this one being quite close, but I see Shearn, ultimately, coming out on top for the second straight year.

After the big two there is still plenty of talent in this group. Sam Williams, who comes in with a 9:12 PR, is my pick for third. Sam is a strong runner and I fully expect him to stick his nose in this race throughout. He is easily the most likely candidate to disrupt the big Shearn v. Galassi duel.

These are kind of the big 3 names in this group but also in the mix out front should be a pack that includes Luke Jones, Barrett Kemp, Griffin Molino, Aaron Valoroso, Ryan Archer and Kieran Sutton. Jones is an established XC stud who dominates the trails and shows up at states. Barrett Kemp had a bit of a down year last track season but has come back with a vengenance and quietly has run some very solid 32s under 9:30. Valoroso was a big story with a few low 9:20s marks but was off a bit at districts. I expect him to bounce back this weekend. Ryan Archer was an indoor state qualifier and is a defending medalist who should stick his nose in it. Griffin Molino is the youngster of the group. Just a sophomore he has gradually dropped time and stuck his nose in it with Sam Williams last weekend and came away with a big PR of 9:26. I like this kid, he is young, but not afraid of the moment. Sometimes being young and blissfully unaware is a great gift on the big stage.

There are a lot of other guys who's names I don't know as well who could definitely step up in the big moment. Jeremy Parsons from Maplewood is a nice sleeper. Any district 2 guys could sneak up in there and grab a medal and the District 7 guys are definitely underrated just because I don't really recognize names.

Ultimately when the dust clears here is how I see the medal positions being filled. I expect a bit of a tactical performance in the heat with a very fast last mile so who knows how close the times will be but here is what I got.

1. Shearn 9:09
2. Galassi 9:11
3. Williams 9:21
4. Molino 9:24
5. Kemp 9:26
6. Valoroso 9:29
7. Jones 9:32
8. Archer 9:38

Haupt, Sutton, McGuire, and Parsons stand out as names that could surprise. Leave your predictions below and let me know what you think!

Quick Recap

2013-05-19T07:50:00.003-07:00

I'm pumped to have a big state preview as we get closer to game day but for now I'm just going to give a little recap of my thoughts on all the district action.

District 1
The 4x8 was very entertaining. Major props to North Penn who dropped a sub 8 relay without Macauley and I think Johnston was also in a boot. This school just knows how to churn out relays and they did it without their best guys this weekend. That's impressive. Bensalem dominated and they look great. Besides Bensalem and maybe Pennsbury (even though Webb had an amazing double this weekend I still worry about how effective he will be at states trying that), I'm not too sold on any of these 4x8s grabbing medals at states. Cheltenham would be the only team that I could see sneaking in their with a good day.

In the 1600m, we are seeing the beginnings of something big with Kevin Moy. He ran 4:16.0 for 4th in a very talented field and has made strong improvements from week to week for some time now. His kick is very dangerous and he could definitely surprise some people next week. Huemmler and Russell looked very comfortable, both guys have room to drop. Great race by Harriman on the double. He was having a bit of a rough patch for a few weeks but he come big when it counted in both the 4x8 where he had a very solid lead off split and now the 16. Curtis Watro is also running very well, dropping a 4:17 PR is huge.

Tom Seykora is AA sleeper in the 16 he looked very in control.

In the 800m Rivera kept it fast, but Wiseman was just too strong and he looks very good so far. He has no relay duties either which is huge. Logue needs to be more agressive if he is going to finish high at states. He kinda waited a bit too long it seemed, but he may have been saving until next week. There is potential here given his kick. Cox-Finn runs 1:55! Sick sign for the Bensalem 4x8. Nice to see Yannacone back in the mix. I was wrong about his strength at this point and I am very happy to be wrong. Props to the other Upper Merion man, Austin Cooper who had an impressive weekend but unfortunately will not move on to states.

In the 3200m, I think Norris and maybe Barchet were holding back for next weekend, but they both looked at least a little uncomfortable. But hey, if you running low 9:20s pace you are going to be uncomfortable. Wilson continues to go strong, but this marks his 4th straight hard effort over 3200m, can he hold on for one more race? He shows no signs of slowing down right now. Adam Bodine had a huge day, but he has been an under the radar talent all year. He had this in him for some time. Nice races by Chris Berry and Chris Coates. My heart goes out for all those guys who hit the time but didn't get in. I obviously have a close attachment to that with Francis falling victim.

District 2
Rico Galassi ran surprisingly hard in that 32, but so did Shearn so I guess it's no big deal. I hope he throws his hat in the 16 as well, the kid is a real talent. District 2 has a lot of solid AA guys so keep an eye on all of them next week. In AAA, Alex Nole looks great, he should be able to drop into the 1:53s at states. Fetterman ran a great race to get in over 3200m, major props to him for a big PR.

District 3
Link to Results: http://piaadistrict3.org/2012-2013-district-3-mt-bank-track-field-championship-results/
How about Zach Brehm this weekend? He really worked hard for his squad this weekend running a sick 9:18, running hard on a 7:52, apparently running a 4:13ish before the DQ and then dropping a 1:55. Wow. Hope he isn't too tired to perform well at states next year, he's just a sophomore.

Vinny Todaro looks fantastic. He won the 32 relatively easily, but really showed off his stuff running 4:13 in the 1600m. Todaro looks great and next weekend should be someone to watch.

Props to District 3 who looked like a real powerhouse district this year. 9 guys hit the SQS in the 16 not including Brehm who was DQd. Groh ran very nice on the double as did Nissley. Good weekend for Nissley. The 4x8 featured 7 teams at 8 flat or faster. D3 can do damage in the 4x8.

Nice PRs for guys like Calvin-Conrad Kline (9:26), Aaron Lauer (4:21), and Harrison Schettler (4:15). Gotta like what Schettler has been doing. Alec Kunzweiler's 1:51 is killer. The kid is an easy favorite in the 800m and in a fresh 800m at season's end in good conditions the guy could be under 1:50.

In AA, Anville Celona looks sick. Killer 4x8 and big time anchor in Wolfe (1:54.39). Plus they had a sub 49 man in the open 400.

District 4
Curt Jewett had a nice very nice double gold in the 8 and 16. Curious to see if he will try the double at states. Might be fun to watch. Bobby Hill ran 4:27 and was 5th at the meet. That's some depth for D4 AA. They had 7 guys in the 16 under the SQS.

Watch out for Herb Steeley. He has been running solid all year and dropped into the 1:56s for the first time when he dominated the field at districts in AAA.

Sam Williams wasn't blessed with the opportunity to coast in the 32 this weekend as Griffin Molino continues to run like a stud. Wow a nice 9:26 for him. Williams, of course, was money himself running 9:24, he can roll. But this 32 took a bit out of him, he ran 4:28 for 6th in the 16 final. We will see if he tries both at states, he was a medalist in both a year ago.

Aaron Valoroso and Bobby Hill both sleeper picks to drop time at states.

How about the 4x8s? South Williamsport with Griffin Molino surprises with a 7:58 and Northeast Bradford runs 8:08, they can drop time. It will be interesting to see how the 32-4x8 double factors in to these teams championship hopes. Williamsport Area in AAA has been my sleeper pick all year. They dropped a solo 7:55 in the relay this weekend which is very exciting for them. Should be a dangerous team with competition.

District 6
The State College boys looked great in the relay, that's where they have to focus up this year because they can do some damage. Surprise 1:55 from Sean Gipson of Bellefonte for a big win. Jon Colwell looks good, we will see if he has the raw speed to compete at 1600m at states. He had a pair of nice wins. Altoona 7:54? Wow, didn't know they had that in them! Fantastic run for those boys who are suddenly in contention for a state medal.

District 7
Props to Ethan Martin for making me look good as he took down double gold and beat out his big rival Brent Kennedy. Colin Martin continues to improve after dropping time in the 16. I'd like to see them all focus up on the 32 for states as a trio and drop the 16, but if Ethan wants to try it I won't knock him. I was pleasantly surprised to see NA win that 4x8. Didn't see that coming, but they ran fantastic to grab the W. I still think there is a lot of potential for Kiski. Great job by Nate Sloan in that 1600m to break 4:20. Chris Culley should be dangerous on fresh legs, he ran 1:56 on the double. The D7 800m guys are starting to come into their own. Smith looks real good and props to JG for calling Smail's big day.

District 8
DiSilvio is the only distance man to watch out of this group. 3200m is probs his best bet at competing with the state's best.

District 9
Watch out for Barrett Kemp in the 3200m at states. He could really surprise. Aziz Yousif is no slouch either.

District 10
Interesting to see Jaskowak drop the 3200m. It's not a bad move all things considered, so I'm excited to see if he can return to 4:17/1:55 form with ideal competition at states. Good to see Pondel back, but still a lot of question marks about what kind of shape he is in.

Smathers rolled this weekend. He looks the sharpest he has looked in some time and he will have his hands full with Curt Jewett. If Jewett does not run the 4x8, Smathers and Jewett may push each other to something very impressive. I can't wait because both of these guys are not afraid of a fast pace.

District 11
Shearn and Galassi soloed under 9:20! That race is going to epic.

District 11 doesn't have many sleepers in my mind, but Parkland's 4x8 could be a deep sleeper and Colin Abert may surprise and sneak into the 1600m finals after his 4:21. Those would be the guys I'd keep tabs on for next weekend.

District 12
O'Hara is putting their chips in the 4x8. I like it. They could be the surprise team in the mix out front with Bensalem and CValley. James continues to roll, but McDermott also continues to look great. He ran 9:22ish and 4:20 this weekend and has to be feeling confident in his abilities. He is a legit medal threat and heck Kevin James is a threat to take down the state title.

As I mentioned earlier in a comment, thrilled to see Magee and Sullivan qualify in that open 8. Great exclamation point to their season, they have been great relay guys this year.

Stone and Coyle could just kind of coast this weekend. Both have to be in the state title talks but neither guy really has a crazy impressive mark to boast this season, but both guys show up in the championship season. Will the rest help or hurt come states? We will find out!

More Districts!

2013-05-15T14:49:00.000-07:00

I'm back home folks and I have punched my metaphorical ticket to the district one championships on friday. See some of you homies then.

Wow I can't believe I just said homies, let's pretend that didn't happen and get to the district preview work.

Also to whoever said they could get updates I'd love them if you are willing to post them up.

I'm going to make this post a preview for the following three districts:
District 7
District 3
District 1

I'm sorry for the limited amount of coverage, I know that's lame but I just don't have the time to put together more than this at the moment. I'm also trying to keep my posts relatively small and readable.

If you would like me to do another district, I encourage you to comment on here and I will see what I can do time permitting. D12 should be good but it is mostly just PCL squads and D11 and D6 should provide a few sleeper picks in the AAA races and D4 and D11 should provide a lot of studs in the AA race.

But on to the glory districts.

District 7
Favorites (in no particluar order)
800m: James Smith, Billy Dougherty, Ryan Lee, Dylan Wilhoite, Tyler Palenchak, Patrick Miller, Mike Becich, Mike Mizzanti, Chris Culley, Brett Foster, Thomas Reinhardt

There are a lot of wild cards in this race for sure. The WPIAL always manages to churn out a few solid 800m guys and had the surprise state champ a year ago in Wil Bailey. I don't think this district has any legit state title hopefuls but I do believe that one or two state meet finalists will reprsent District 7. Dylan Wilhoite has got to be one of the favorites to do that. He has run some solid marks in the low 1:56s and I think he could drop to 1:54-1:55 in the coming weeks. He runs for Penn Hills who has had some pretty good guys in the past like that state champ Wil Bailey. I also really like Mike Becich. Maybe it is the NA jersey he is wearing but the guy has got some talent. Vinny Tonzo from NA was one of the big guns of the race a year ago. Should be another Penn Hills v. NA race out front. Gotta watch out for Chris Culley who ran 1:56 a year ago and made states (if he is doubling I'm not sure he will run quite as fast but we will see) and James Smith who has run in the 1:56s this year. Some wildcard will likely step up and snag the SQS but it will be tight for sure.

1600m: Jonathan Weese, Tyler Snider, Tyler Palenchak, Nate Edenfield, Luke Schott, Ethan Martin, Nathan Sloan, Thomas Reinhardt, Colin Martin, Scott Slaney, Anton Martinez

It's hard to say who is going to get the 4 auto-spots in my mind. Ethan Martin should be able to coast and win this race in my personal opinion. He is certainly the most talented guy in terms of PRs and big wins and this sport is about momentum, which he has a lot of. I do like Nathan Sloan from Hampton though, he could mix it up well here and should make states. I go back and forth on Colin. He hasn't shown quite as much promise in the 16 as his brother has but he has plenty of talent and all he needs to do is run 4:22ish and he should get 3rd, I'm not seeing a lot of depth in this race. Edenfield and Schott are two possible sleepers in this race and even Anton Martinez and Scott Slaney could do slip in there. I definitely expect Thomas Reinhardt to get to states, he should be under 4:24 and is likely a top 4 guy most days in this race.

3200m: Seamus Roddy, Patrick Quirk, Jared Pollock, Brent Kennedy, Jon Faye, Ethan Martin, Colin Martin, Brian Shields, Caleb Wakeley, Josh Zemet, Matt McGoey, Cordon Luoco

Wow! This I expect to be the race of the day without a doubt, perhaps the race of the weekend. Kennedy will be relatively fresh when he toes off with Ethan Martin in a showdown of two outstanding juniors. Both guys could push each other under 9:10 and drag a lot of guys with them. I'm a huge Kennedy fan and I think he is starting to get healthy and that is bad news for a doubling Martin, but I have seen great stuff from Martin this year and I'm picking Ethan to take down the win and a pair of golds. Kennedy may get him back come states, but I haven't decided. Both guys are straight studs.

Behind these two is the guy who often gets overlooked, Colin Martin who has been consistently solid and has dropped a lot of time throughout the year. Unlike Ethan, Colin has had more of a tendency to start slow and drop a lot of time as the season progresses. He has struggled to beat Ethan, but maybe this is the race? If both guys are doubling I'm not sure what to expect, but I'm banking on a big 1600m Pr for Colin which sets him back a bit in this race. He will still get to states in my mind just won't be up with the other two competing for victory.

This may be the race that Matt McGoey surprises some people. I think he could beat Colin in this race for sure and dip under 9:20. He and Zemet have a great shot at qualifying for states. As mentioned Brain Shields is a very talented runner. He should get a nice PR at districts and I think he could be a big, big sleeper at outdoor states as he continues to build confidence and momentum. Jon Faye is a nice sleeper here, he has solid marks in the past including a trip to states last year. Who knows what you will get out of the Lebo guys? But there is always talent there, maybe a sleeper sneaks in a fast time outta that school.

4x800m: NA, Seneca Valley, Kiski, Norwin, Gateway, Canon-Mac
This race seems fairly one sided in my mind. Kiski, if they put their A team on the track, should dominate this race. This team is still waiting to showcase their true talent. Basically this same crew ran 7:50 last year and I think they can go even faster this year with the pieces they have, but that won't be til states. I like Gateway's pieces a lot. Big sleeper here for a sub 8 minute mark and an outside chance at competing to qualify for the finals at states. NA is unpredictable here but with their A team they should get to states no problem. But I don't know if they will put out the A team. Norwin is solid as well, they hung tough with Kiski last week.

District 3
Performance List: http://piaadistrict3.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/2013-TRACK-B-AAA-SEEDS1.pdf
3200m
Gosh what a toss up of guys here. Obviously out front this is a 3 man race. Groh has been fantastic since indoors but Todaro has gotta be the favorite here with his terrific 9:15 mark. Todaro is just starting to get healthy and round into top shape after a breakout XC season. I am betting on Vinny here. Jeff should take down second and Nissley should be third, but I say that with a bit less confidence. Nissley is very good but a little bit more unpredictable than Groh who is a super talent.

This still leaves 2 free spots to states even without time. The group chasing it will include Gebhardt, Martin, Savaegeau, Reilly, Bitner, Corcoran, Brehm, Coburn, Hamilton, Conrad-Kline, and Demko. Now I don't expect all those guys to run it but they are all qualifiers. I'd scratch out Brehm and Coburn at least and maybe the Hershey guys as well. For me Gebhardt has been waiting for a chance like this to break out if he can rise to the occassion. Savagaeu is very good even though I can't spell his name, I also like Conrad-Kline. But Corcoran for me is the guy here. He should get one of the 5 auto spots to states and maybe will surpise with a sub 9:30 again. That's his PR. I don't see more than 5 guys making it outta d3 in this event.

1600m
This event is a bit trickier to predict who will run than the 32. In my mind I see Kunzweiler as the only sure fire pull out of the group. Brehm is second most likely for me, I don't think it is wise for him to try the 4x8, 16 and open 8 but he without a doubt could make states in all 3. But I think Brehm is 1:52 kind of talent in the 800m if he runs it fresh at states. If he ends up fresh in that race, he would be my sleeper pick for the title. It's early, but we have yet to see his best work.

But to the actual race. I expect to see the 3200m guys back for a shot at the spot even though I am not sure Todaro would run both at states. This race is very deep with guys like Schettler, Groh, Todaro, Coburn, Sankey, Brehm, Mueller, Conrad-Kline, Nissley, and Corcoran all under the SQS. I'd love to make a bold statement here and pick a winner, but it is hard for me to say at this point because it is unclear who will be doubling where. I like Todaro if he is feeling good after the 32 to take the win, but Sankey and Mueller are sleeper picks for a big time drop and a win. If Brehm is in the race fresh he is my pick but I'm thinking he goes 4x8 before hand. Schettler is very talented as well, but I'm worried about him doubling back from the 4x8 as well so I'm not sure he can take down the gold here. If he's fresh he will compete and maybe surprise for the win.

800m
The 800m should be very exciting and the guy to watch is Alec Kunzweiler. He in my mind has been severely overlooked by this blog as of late (myself included) and has not gotten his due for running fantastically over the past few weeks. He dropped a 1:54 low in rough, rough weather recently and has perfectly executed the 4x8-8 double countless times. I was a little worried about him at the beginning of outdoors but he has come on strong since. His indoor season was fantastic considering his previous indoor season before his 1:51 was 1:57high ish and no state medals. The guy will be peaking at the right time and has to be the favorite to drop a pair of 1:51s come states. He should handle this field this weekend.

Brehm is the name to watch down the line. Just a sophomore, Brehm is very talented at 800m, I expect him to be #2 here. Like I said, he could surprise if fresh at states. A guy who is doubling at states always has a shot at blowing up and if that happens to someone like Alec then Brehm can certainly step in and steal a win.

Caleb Gatchell is certainly a name worth noting in this race. We will see how he handles the double from the 4x8, but I think he has enough time to show off his talents in this race and surprise some people. Coburn is also a talent here if he doesn't run the 16 and instead goes 800 he will compete here. Again, I only see 5 guys qualifying for states out of this event.

4x800m
The 4x8 at District 3 is always one of the biggest surprises for me. Cedar Crest, McCaskey, Chambersburg and CV are just some of the teams over the past few years that have dropped huge times at this meet. CV should be able to cruise to victory. They are clearly the best team in this field. But behind them the race is very interesting. Carlisle has Brehm anchoring and some solid pieces all around. Then Red Lion has Caleb Gatchell and a few other underrated guys fighting to prove themselves. Penn Manor, led by the 4:18 man Schettler, have a slew of sub 2 guys that shouldn't be overlooked as well. I really like this Penn Manor team and have been talking them up for a bit on here.

But there is also Central Dauphin and new surprise Cedar Crest who dropped an 8 flat mark already this year. Hershey was an XC surprise this year and could be a 4x8 surprise at this meet with some talented guys on the roster. This race could be historic in terms of depth and sub 8 teams. I can't wait to see how this unfolds with the slew of talent across the board in this event, all the teams are separated by only a few seconds here or there.

I just hope CV stays out of trouble and doesn't get hit and fall or drop the baton or anything in this competitive race. I still think they gotta consider changing up the order to work Coburn into the 2nd spot for states.

District One
This meet will be tough to predict who runs what but I'll give it my best shot.
4x800
Here are my predictions for the 12 teams that will make finals:
Bensalem, Pennsbury, Cheltenham, Pennridge, CB East, CB South, DT East, Perk Valley, North Penn, Penncrest, Upper Darby, Downingtown West

Close: West Chester East, Upper Dublin, Abington, Radnor?, Penn Wood? (will they run hot?)

I predict that Henderson, Methacton, CRN, DTWest, Upper Merion, Strath Haven and Great Valley among others will not put their A team on the track in the event.

Plenty of room for changing here however. I feel that if every single team in D1 put their best possible relay on the track we could have roughly 24 teams under the SQS. It's just not fair. To make finals it is going to take close to 8 flat it seems. Now things could get a little easier if teams like Pennsbury and Pennridge who I have making it in pull out their top guns in favor of individuals. But teams like Henderson and Methacton could easily complicate matters by throwing their A team in. Abington is another team that could jump in the mix as a sleeper pick.

Pennsbury is just so difficult to call here. They have individual potential for sure. I really like their relay as well. Webb and Harriman gotta be thinking 32 or maybe 16 and either of those events are tough to qualify for with a hard 4x8 thrown in there. Very tough to guess where they will be.

In the finals, I see Bensalem running away with this one, they should be able to coast a bit to a win which will help. But Pennridge could surprise if Logue is going all out and chasing when he gets the baton. Pennsbury is a solid team, but I think Cheltenham is also very dangerous with Jon Lewis on the squad. Ultimately all these teams are solid, somewhere around 7:55ish potential, but it will be a matter of who rises to the occassion and breaks free. Very few teams have more than one stud on their roster for this relay which complicates things. I like DT East here as a sleeper, I'm a Caldwell fan and I think this team has been growing well throughout the season.

My 8 teams headed to states (I do believe it will be 8 in all the distance events) in no particular order:
Bensalem, Pennsbury, Pennridge, Penncrest, DT East, CB East, CB South, Upper Darby

1600m
Here are my predicted 12 finalists:
Huemmler, Francis, Zingarini, Stratman, Kardish, Scarpato, Pearlman, Leidal, Harriman, Ferruzzi, Hanson, Hare

It's tricky to predict this event because it's hard to guess who is running the 4x8 and who is not and then on top of that who is pulling out of the race. I think Russell, Wilson, Logue, Webb, Moy and Rivera among others are pulling out of this event which leave things quite wide open. Again things are tricky because I am trying to guess quite a lot of factors here, but this is a very tentative guess.

In the finals I have to think Huemmler will destroy the field if he is healthy but I haven't seen much of him lately so there are no guarentees that will be the case. If he is not at 100% and Ken Leidal is running a fresh race and no 4x8 the guy may be quite the sleeper pick in this race. Harriman too with fresh legs is dangerous. Zingarini has had a bit of a rough patch but he has the talent to win this race, he has yet to win the big win in his career, maybe this is his time. A lot of guys with potential to break out. Francis I think will be too tired to really compete hard up front but he should get into states. Kardish is a big sleeper here as well. He has run some great times over the years and he could be 4:16ish this meet. Pearlman, the sophomore, is a sleeper here as well for a roughly 4:20 flat time. Curtis Watro, if fresh, could get in the finals and compete well. Also gotta look for the WCE guys if they are fresh: Crump and Diestelow.

My 8 guys headed to states (very tricky here with all the doubling in place) again no particular order:
Huemmler, Francis, Zingarini, Leidal, Kadish, Stratman, Pearlman, Harriman

800m
Here are my predicted 12 finalists:
Wiseman, Logue, Moy, Caldwell, Rivera, Garton, Hunter, Yannacone, Sanders, Lewis, Huemmler, Holm

There are lots of guys in this race who could surprise and jump inside my top 12, but these are my tentative picks here. In the finals, I like Wiseman to run away from this field and dominate. If Sanders and Huemmler too are healthy they could both be in the mix for the title. Joe Logue, if he does not run the 4x8 all out, will challenge for the win as well. I would love to see Rivera, Logue, Wiseman and Sanders all reunite as the top 4 guys from indoor states could push each other to something impressive. I think it will be Wiseman who takes down the victory out of this group this time around, but Logue should give him all he can handle. Rivera will have to be doubling but I expect him to round out the top 3 despite the tough double that he will almost certainly have. Moy is very dangerous if he is not running the 4x8. He has been a roll as of late. Christian Hunter and Steve Yannacone are the big sleepers of this group. Both almost definitely will be fresh and both have run solid marks with potential to drop. Yannacone is the defending champ which you can't forget.

Ultimately this race should take mid 1:55s to make states at least and I think, assuming all parties are healthy the top 8 are:
Wiseman, Logue, Moy, Rivera, Sanders, Huemmler, Hunter, Caldwell

3200m
Well by this point of writing I am quite perplexed about who is running where but here is what I think.
A fresh Norris, Russell, Barchet and Wilson will control this race, but Conner Quinn should also be up in the mix. If Pennsbury really goes 4x8 I can't imagine seeing Harriman and maybe Webb but they have another guy they could sub for Webb and let him run this race.

Norris should put things on cruise control, knowing next week is the big week, but the pack won't let him just jog along. There are a lot of talented guys in this race that will need to keep it honest so they can take their shot at getting to states. Here is the group I expect to be in the mix (assuming Macauley and Emery scratch from injury/sickness)
Russell, Wilson, Barchet, Webb, Quinn, Bodine, Collins, Berry, Kazanjian, Cummings, Norris, Kazanjian and maybe Brophy

Ultimately only 8 guys can make it to states and I expect that group to be:
Russell, Wilson, Barchet, Quinn, Bodine, Norris, Berry, Webb/Kazanjian (depending on whether Webb runs this race or the 4x8)

It's hard to say who will win, but I think most of the top guys are looking past this weekend so I don't expect it to be a furious race for the win. More than likely Norris will kick his way to victory but Wilson and Quinn may beat out Barchet and Russell if they are saving up for states. Not sure what the status of Russell is because of those rumors about his heatlh but I gotta imagine the kid is fine at this point and he should be good to go in this race. I like Bodine in this race, he has been consistently solid in the 32 all year. Berry and Kazanjian are nice sleepers here. Both need to pop off that big race and this weekend could be the perfect opportunity.

Districts Preview

2013-05-13T13:33:00.001-07:00

Skip Around as Desired ... I'm on a real computer now so my thoughts should be a little bit less jumbled and a little more in depth. Well we will see anyway.

These meets are listed in the order that they are run so if I don't finish this way I will have time to before all the races are run.

District 2
The AA meet is going on right now and I haven't found results but I'll throw down a few thoughts about it. Rico Galassi should try for the 32 and the 16 at states. I'd be surprised if he won both for sure (and honestly I don't think he is the favorite in the 32 right now) but he could get two big PRs out of it. He has never really been pushed yet this year when he runs but he has still managed multiple 4:19s and a 9:10. Wow the kid has a lot of potential to drop time in the right environment. He will be battling, in the 1600m, Kieran Sutton, Matt Murray, Mark Arzie, Nathan Morgan and Dominic Huckleberry who are all seeded with 2 seconds of one another and just off the 4:31.00 SQS. Huckleberry and Murray are both just freshman. In the 32, Luke Jones, Galassi's hard nosed XC rival, will look to push him to his limits and try and get his own sub 9:20 mark. Jones is a gamer and is looking to prove himself as more than just an XC guy. His best events will likely be 5k-10k in college, but he can hammer a great 32 today if things go right. Sutton and Huckleberry will also be in the race with a chance at SQS marks.

In AAA, Jacob Fetterman, 17th place in XC this past year, is entered in the 4x8, 16, and 32 with state aspirations perhaps in all three. But he will be fought hard by Dallas's Dominic Deluca who already rocketed himself to a 9:13 for 32 at Henderson. Deluca is only running the 32 and should be able to lock up a spot to states. He will, however, have a tough challenge in the 32 from both Fetterman and Mike Brier of Scranton Prep who has run 9:32 and 4:26 this year. Brier is the favorite going into the 1600m to take gold. In the 800m, Tunkhannock's break out star Alex Nole has already run 1:54 this year and is the clear favorite in the field. Only one other runner comes in having already run under 2 minutes.

Independent League
Ok so not quite a district but still should feature some of the best action of the weekend. Sam Ritz stepped out of his older brother's shadow with a huge weekend that included a solo 4:15 and a 1:57 800m. That was a great day for him and hopefully he can carry the momentum into this championship meet. Surprisingly the Ritz boys and the GFS studs have all passed on running the 16 and the 32. GFS seems to be loading up a 4x8 squad, meanwhile both Ritz's are entered in the 800m. Lyle Wistar headlines the slow heat of the 800m and Sami Aziz is the 9th and final seed in a stacked 800m that includes Ben Ritz (1:54.41 PR), Dan Ferrariolo of Malvern Prep (1:55.8 this year), Sam Ritz (1:57.20) and 4 other guys at sub 2.

Two of those guys are from Penn Charter who also has a man seeded at 2:00.00. If they load up a 4x8 to compete with GFS and the Haverford School (which features Lucas Elek a 1:56 half miler) the race could be very fast. The 3200m has Ben Szuhaj and Billy McDevitt who are a couple solid 2 milers who are a bit under the radar. Szuhaj is a sleeper here for a fast time if McDevitt can match the work he did at Henderson where he ran 4:37.

District 10 Championships
Dan Jaskowak was on a roll last year and was one of my big sleepers for states based on his great range and XC season the year before. But now Jaskowak is an under the radar kind of runner who has yet to pop off any mark that is extremely fast. He still seems to have great range and has PRs of 9:14, 4:17 and 1:55 from a year ago. It is uncertain what he will run at his District championships and then at states, but a year ago he took down golds in the 4x8, 16 and 32. He will likely run the 16 and 32 again this season. Austin Pondel, a Footlocker Finalist, has been relatively off the map this season. He has a few solid 32s to his name so if he is healthy and ready to go, he could still slip into the mix on talent alone. Ethan Louis is also a talented 3200 man from this district and has been on the cusp of breaking out into a low 9:30s kinda guy for some time. Maybe this is his year.

2013-05-13T12:52:00.001-07:00

So I decided to go bold and try to make a post on my phone today. Crazy but hopefully it gets the job done. I'm not looking at any results right now just spitting out what I remember. Districts time is going to be very exciting. Out in district one we saw Conner Quinn basically smack me in the face for talking poorly about his speed. He had a nice win in the 16 over joe Logue. We also saw another 2 miler show off his wheels as Ross Wilson tripled a 2 flat split a 2nd place in the mile around 418 and a big win in the 32 in the low 920s. He has had a truly phenomenal stretch as of late and I hope he can hold on through the finish because he has done a lot recently.

Now I gotta give props to will McDermott next as he ran another phenomenal race to win the 32 At pcls. He was admittedly on fresh legs vs a tired field but I have seen Coyle run absurdly well on tired legs in the past as has Kevin James. McDermott I believe is AA so he will be an interesting variable to the Shearn v galassi battle. Throw in Sam Williams and Luke jones and this race is going to be very cool. Mcdermott's last 2 32s were both huge wins for him and really proved he is on a top level not just a guy who is solid. Coyle had a solid win in the mile and James did a solid job grabbing a pr in tht event behind him. I wish James was on the Ohara 4x8 but I think his best bet is a fresh 32 and let a fresh leg run the relay.

In other news Bensalem has some nice pieces, but how are they going to use them? Francis likely will try the 16 and 4x8 and possibly 4x4 which is quite the triple. Rivera will also triple with the two relays and the 8. Elijah will triple as well. These guys are going to be busy and I always have to be a little concerned about fatigue on a hot day at states. With team title hopes they gotta push it but they make sacrifice individuals.

Pennsbury and pennridge should both be interesting cases bc both have solid teams and solid 4x8s but until Friday morning I will have no idea what they will go for for. Personally I'm hoping to see them in the relay.

No Huemmler ritz or sanders this weekend. Hopefully all are healthy.

In d3 news Kunzweiler looked fantastic with his fast 8 in bad weather. The 4x8 also looked fairly dominate. It will be exciting to watch the race for 2nd if Carlisle red lion cd and others put their hat in the ring. Brehm has some choices to make for sure he could do the relay or try a 16 and 8 double and be solid. Todaro also looks to be rounding into top shape. He is a sleeper in the 32 States. The guy is a gamer and may surprise Norris and Martin and Russell. Unless he is AA now ... I get confused with everything after cross. Groh is strong as well. Lower dauphin could run a decent 4x8 and Nissley and groh are both strong 2 milers so I'm interested to see where the pieces are fit for sure.

I plan on doing a wpial preview in my next post so to save time I won't go in to it but Ethan Martin should seriously think about double gold there and maybe he can try to double at states and pick up a pair of medals.

Lots of Catching Up to Do

2013-05-10T18:19:00.002-07:00

First off I just want to say that while I was away the blog eclipsed the 400,000 career view mark which I think is awesome. Thank you to all of you out there who have followed the blog and are excited to see it return. I'm sorry for the horrible timing of my finals week, but I'm done now and I should be a bit more up to date on my blogging even though I am visiting my girlfriend in Long Island this week so I probably won't be completely focused on good solid blogging til Wednesday but I'm hoping to get in some stuff when I can and there is about a 95% chance I will be at district ones next week doing meet coverage.

Now enough about me, let's get down to the track!

PS This post is going to contain a lot so it is going to be looooong so feel free to skip around

First off we have to talk about the results of the Henderson Invite, it was truly remarkable. I had been kinda hyping the meet up for some time as a really deep meet with great potential for fast 3200s and despite my high expectations the meet did not disappoint. I would have liked to have seen a guy dip under 9 minutes but it just wasn't in the cards. What was in the cards, however, was a stunning 14 guys under 9:20 and 21 guys under 9:30. The 3200m depth was absurd this weekend as Kev James, Will McDermott, Ethan Martin, Brent Kennedy, Colin Martin and Vinny Todaro also broke 9:20 this weekend making 20 guys for the weekend. Throw in Galassi and take out the Delaware kids and 17 PA guys are already under 9:20. If you count a converted Max Norris and Dan Savage 3k that shoots you up to 19 guys under 9:20! Unreal! Especially considering Emery, Macauley, Jaskowak and Harriman have yet to break the mark despite being under a year ago. Aziz just missed break the mark and he has done it before which makes another sub 9:20 PR man in the state. There are also a lot of guys just off the 9:20 mark who may break it before all is said and done. And to top it all off district one looks like it is going to take around 9:20 flat to make states. There are over 8 guys in the district with PRs under 9:20.

Now to the meet itself. Gotta give props to the gutsy running of Brendan Shearn. He has really stepped up to the plate this year. For me personally, he was the biggest surprise of indoor states and Penn Relays so to see him top off that stretch run with this win is phenomenal. Just when Galassi thought he had a very real chance at beating him, Shearn cements himself back into the favorite spot. It will be really epic to see how the two of them match up against each other. I'd love to see Shearn in a fast mile between now and states, but I'm not sure he will get the chance. Clearly he can go well under 4:20 with 9:04 wheels and that could make the AA states mile exciting with Jewett and Smathers headlining a field of under the radar kinda guys.

Tony Russell ran a very solid race behind Shearn to grab a huge PR of his own. I have to believe his best shot at a state title is the 32. He often has do a lot of the work in these races which is unfortunate. It's tough to imagine that he can sit back and not lead the hard part of the race at states if he wants to take the kick out of Norris, but if he makes a big move over the final 1k of the race he may be able to use his strength to his advantage. Besides, Russell definitely has closing wheels, he has run 3 flat and 4:11y already this indoors and has beat Norris head to head in a 16.

Behind Russell was a string of big PRs. Ben Ritz had the race I was expecting, but I thought a performance like that would be good enough to win. Unfortunately that wasn't the case, but still a fantastic run. He will do big things over 1 mile in the right race, his kick was filthy. Then Ross Wilson, the week after a huge PR at Penn comes back and repeats the feat with a 9:08. He and Shearn really surprised me with their ability to run a pair of tough 32s in a row. Unfortunately for Wilson he won't be able to cruise as easily as Shearn at Leagues and Districts before states. Hopefully, he doesn't tire out.

Barchet's 9:08 was one of my biggest surprises for sure. He has always had this kind of potential as Tony has said before, it was just a matter of things clicking like they did at NXN regionals and nationals. This is a great confidence booster for Reiny and easily the best mark I've seen him put up on the track. With a nice race by Collins (9:26) and Moy (9:32 at Chestmonts) the team has a top 5 returning for XC that includes two sub 9:10s and 3 roughly 9:30s. Moy is having one heck of a season and so too is Stratman. We will get to both of those guys. Barchet rode the confidence to a nice win at Chestmonts in the 16.

Still more 3200 gossip! Wistar a huge 9:11. He is great at just sticking his nose in there and riding the pace to a fast 32. Sam Williams 9:12! Congrats to him on a great race, he has been solid for a long time just hasn't been able to get in some of the same fast races as these other D1 AAA guys. Running indoors has done wonders for Williams and Jewetts race fitness this spring. Dominic Deluca 9:13! Huge day! That was definitely my biggest surprise of the race. Unreal day for him to drop that PR, he is just a junior. He was a big factor early in the year in XC and faded a bit down the stretch, but this 9:13 proves he is in top shape once again. Sam Webb 9:14 as a sophomore. That is a killer mark. He and Kevin James are clearing a nice path for the youngsters. Conner Quinn's mark was solid for sure, but Penn Relays was definitely his better day. Hard to run two fast 32s back to back but he did it.

Down the list you gotta like Valaroso's mark of 9:21, he is a top guy in the AA ranks this year for sure. Sam Ritz ran a 9:22 as just a sophomore that is fantastic. Brendan Billotta ran a great 9:25 which is awesome for his individual confidence. He and Magee are likely going have to find a way into states without the 4x8 which they have proven they are more than capable of, but the O'Hara boys will take away a bunch of spots across the board so it will be interesting to see if Billotta can match this performance in the 32 at districts against Savage, James, Pitone and Pastore who are all primed for something solid.

Ricky Waltz and Alex Knapp ran solid 9:42 and 9:45 marks. Amazing that these guys probably won't get to run at districts, I strongly dislike that rule. D1 guys already have a tough enough time getting to run at districts considering the qualifying standard and then are screwed out of states even after hitting the qual mark. But I'm getting carried away, I don't have time to rant about it. Ultimately the race had 37 guys under 9:50!

But the other races at Henderson were quite entertaining in their own right. The 1600m was great because we finally got to see Max Norris's full potential over 1600m. He had been slighlty underwhelming in the 1600s that I had seen him in and truly amazing in everything over that distance so it was only a matter of time. But he owes a big thank you to Curt Jewett who layed it on the line to make this race. Gotta give props to Jewett for his running, but ultimately Norris had a fantastic day and you can't knock him for using Jewett to his advantage, that's a smart strategy and it is how Norris has won as many races as he has this year. 4:12.73 is moving and sets him up nicely to take down the state title in a few weeks at 3200m. Maybe he will consider the 32-16 double, that would be very entertaining and would be interesting to see if he could pull it off. James Zingarini had a nice PR of 4:16.9 for 2nd in this race. He is a solid race and a defending AAA state medalist so you always have to keep him in mind going forward. I still think he has more room to drop time wise.

Looking a bit farther down the list I was thrilled to see Ken Leidal run that 4:18. He was running great indoors before the injury and I'm happy to see this mark. The fact of the matter is the 16 is not as deep as the 32 so this sets him up really well to compete at states in the weeks to come. Bobby Hill continues to drop time with a 4:19. Another name to watch in the AA race. And of course a huge PR for Eric Stratman who is now under 4:20 with a 4:19 mark of his own. That may open up a spot in the 32 for someone else (likely Collins now) and gives Henderson another individual with state qualifying aspirations. Conceivably they can have 5 individuals qualify for states without much issue.

Behind these guys Ben Mueller and Matt Sankey ran 4:20 and 4:21 which are great marks that should help them compete well at D3s. Curtis Watro really surprised me with a breakthrough 4:21. The 1600m at D1 is quite deep itself and Watro is just another guy with great ability that will throw his name into the race. Nice to see Pearlman's 4:25 followed up with a 4:26 win at Central Leagues.

The 800m showed that Jeff Wiseman is for real and is hungry for a state title this year. He breezed to a 1:52 mark and should be at least 1:51 by season's end. I'm excited to see how that state race plays out, lots of talented guys at 800 and Wiseman should be the freshest of the bunch besides maybe Stone. Alex Nole got in a fast race and good things happened. Great 1:54 for him, Tunkhannock's second straight sub 1:55 guy, they do a great job over there. Really impressed by Kevin Moy's range. He has had an unreal track season, dropping 1:55.0 and 9:32 to go with his 4:22ish mark. That is fantastic range for the breakout star. Billy Caldwell was very solid at 1:55 of his own. A string of other breakout performers like Ferrarialo's 1:55 from Malvern Prep and Alek Sauer's 1:56 from Pennsbury are worth noting as well. Sauer, O'Connell, Harriman and Webb could really surprise people in the 4x8, but individual goals may be too compelling here.

In District 7 Ethan Martin showed people what's up by beating Ryan Smathers in the mile. Smathers is a very strong miler and Ethan Martin proved me wrong, the kid has got speed. Maybe not Max Norris speed, but he has wheels to close with a guy like Smathers and that is more than I thought he had. Martin may try the 16-32 double at states as well which just further complicates the picture. Meanwhile Brent Kennedy ran a fantastic 32 to beat out Martin (great double back in 9:14) and his brother Colin (also a great double back in 9:14). The D7 guys can't be underrated going into the post season. Kennedy rounding into shape off whatever he had indoors is a great sign and the Martins have been phenomenal for some time now. Oh yeah, all these guys are just Juniors!

In other news Sophomore Matt McGoey ran a 9:23 which is normally good enough to easily be top soph in the state, but right now I believe he sits 4th! The depth at this event is phenomenal. McGoey could get down to 9:12 this year and still not be a serious factor at states. But that's a great sign for NA to see McGoey stepping up like this. He should be sick in XC next year. That NA team is the only team that I see that on paper has any sort of shot of beating Henderson (even though O'Hara has some nice pieces too, I hope they don't get too upset for me leaving them out of this convo). And obviously right now Henderson is killing it to the point where they look fairly unbeatable at the state level.

Some 800m guys developing nicely for D7 as well with Wilhoite running low 1:56s and Beiech following close behind. It will be interesting to see what Kiski does with their 4x8. Kennedy is going to have one heck of a time trying the 32-4x8 double. I like the potential of the relay for sure though.

I'll talk about the WPIAL Regionals and the Conference Championships in the next post just because this post is already crazy long. That should be around by the end of the weekend but we shall see.

Keep running fast! It's an unbelievable time to be following PA distance running with the amount of depth the state has right now.

Sorry

2013-05-06T15:41:00.002-07:00

I'm sorry to say that it's finals week for me here at Muhlenberg so I won't be able to do anything more than watch people talk and look up the occasional result until Friday or so. So try to keep the conversation going and I'll try to get good stuff like recaps and previews and everything set up when I get back.

Also I'm probably going to be at Districts and hopefully at states this year doing coverage for the blog. I'm hoping to be wearing my shirt that says etrain on the back which should indicate to everyone who I am. I'd love to get interviews and in depth coverage and I have an iphone now so videos should be fairly easy to get.

Anyway try not to be too harsh on my boys here at Muhlenberg and D3 running in general, enjoy the fast times that have been dropped, and be prepared for big things when I return to the scene.

Peace and talk to y'all in a week.

-train

Henderson Invite

2013-05-02T11:35:00.001-07:00

The Performance List is now available here: http://pa.milesplit.com/meets/131620/attachment/247461

So what do we have to look forward to at this meet? Well the 4x8 here is usually less than exciting because most teams choose to stack the individual events. We do have a few teams with solid credentials like Red Lion and Twin Valley who are both seeded at 8:06. We will see what teams they choose to put on the track.

The 1600m has a very solid string of entrants. Right now the top seed is Curt Jewett fresh off his big Penn Relays mile. He will take on PA's other stud from the individual race at Penn, 3k champion Max Norris, who will try lower his 1600m PR down closer to Jewett's. There are plenty of signs that Norris has the wheels to run fast as long as he keeps his head in it, but Jewett has been on a roll lately, he will be very tough to beat the rest of the way. Also in the race is Andrew Stone from LaSalle, running a bit of over distance as the 800m seems to be his specialty. However, if he can hang in there during a fast paced race, his kick will be dangerous. There is potential here for a big breakthrough. James Zingarini of Council Rock North will be in attendance. The man is very accomplished at 1 mile and will be in his most competitive mile he has run since indoor states and probably will be the fastest paced 1600m event he will get all year. He is due for 4:15ish and this is his big chance.

The race is loaded with talent beyond this front group including Steve Yannacone and Ken Leidal, two guys who have been paired off often on this blog because of there similar return from injuries and there similar potential. Both guys may be running a bit off their best event (8 for Steve, 32 for Ken) but both are coming off very strong performances last weekend. I am really excited to see both of these guys mix it up. Leidal could definitely be around 4:15 if things click right. The race will also include Jack Magee of LaSalle who dropped a 1:55 at Penn and was a key member of the championship relay. Now relay season is all but over for LaSalle so it is time for Magee to show he can get to states as an individual again in the 16.

Bobby Hill of Wellsboro is a AA sleeper, fresh off his close finish with Barrett Kemp where he ran 4:22. Tom Seykora is also a sleeper in the AA realm out of Devon Prep. He just PRd at 800m. A few District One guys will look to shine as well including Eric Stratman and Connor Linse as well as Curtis Watro and Jonathan Perlman. Perlman is my big sleeper here. He had a killer stretch run this indoors and really came on strong. I haven't seen anything from him outdoors yet so I am optimistic that he can drop into the mid to low 4:20s at this meet. Matt Sankey from Daniel Boone has a lot of potential in this race as well, leading a couple D3 guys with strong credentials like Ethan Gatchell and Ben Mueller of Red Lion and Warwick respectively.

Looking down the list a bit farther the 16 is still loaded with talented guys like Pat Hopkins of Methacton, Trey Crump of West Chester East, Nathan Willis of Friend's Central and Josh Pardoe of Red Lion. All have run between 4:30 and 4:28 before and could be on the verge of a solid time drop. Crump definitely looks dangerous after a solid 32 last week.

In the 800m, LaSalle's Andrew Stone is entered again, looking to pull of a great double back victory. The 16 is likely his focus but it would be a nice confidence builder to come back with a solid 1:53-1:55 if competition is good. And competition should be good. Jeff Wiseman, 3rd at indoor states, will look to return in his first ultra competitive 800m of this outdoor season. He has a great shot at 1:53 or faster. Billy Caldwell and Kevin Moy flank him as a couple of guys who are right on verge of 1:55ish performances. As mentioned, I'm a big fan of Caldwell and I'd love to see him perform well at this meet. Caleb Gatchell of Red Lion is a potential sleeper at this meet. If things break right for him, he can go out and win the race.

A couple of other guys are seeded high looking for big PRs including Dave Garton, James Chappell of CB South and Dan Ferrairolo of Malvern Prep. Garton has the most potential, having already run 1:55 before on more than one occassion. But Chappell of CB South is most interesting to me. CB South has had a lot of really strong 800m guys over the years and maybe Chappell is next. He doesn't have the open times to back it up, but clearly his coach has a lot of confidence that he can go out there and drop a big PR. CB South has 3 other guys seeded at 1:59. Should be interesting to see how well their 4x8 stacks up after this weekend is done.

Also in the realm of sleeper is Alex Nole. He ran away from a field of 2 flat guys last weekend with his 1:56.95 mark and now finally gets good competition at this Henderson meet. He has the potential to really drop a big PR if he can hang on to this fast paced race. Pennsbury's Liam O'Connell has been on my sleeper list for a while now. He and Alek Sauer will show their stuff at this meet in the 800m. James Zingarini and Curt Jewett will double back from the 1600m. I'm not expecting much, but neither have very fast 800m PRs so this is a great chance to double back in 1:56 and show off some great range.

The race is deep with guys like Billy Wolffe, Ryan Markle, Colin Meyers, Jordan Jackson, Colton Snyder, and Jason Hall all in the race with chances to drop nice PRs. Abington has a slew of guys in it with the potential to drop a big PR. They can really show off the talent they have for their 4x8 relay this weekend as well. Jordan Jackson is a big sleeper. He is a very solid AA guy and so too is Colton Snyder. Going down the list a ways Patrick Grant and Eric Diestelow are entered from LaSalle and West Chester East. Both should be fun to watch run. Grant is also listed in the 1600m, he is a sleeper there as well.

One thing is clear about the 800m at this meet. After this weekend, a lot of teams will have really shown their hand in terms of the 4x8. Shoulda waited to make my post. Dang.

And finally, of course, we get to the marquee event of the Henderson track classic. The quest to break 9 minutes as on and folks, quite frankly, I think there is a great chance it happens this weekend. The field includes the following studs:
Brendan Shearn
Tony Russell
Sami Aziz
Mac Emery
Ross Wilson
Connor Harriman
Sam Williams
Conner Quinn
Ben Ritz
Brendan Billotta
Sam Webb
Reiny Barchet
Lyle Wistar
Aaron Valerosa
Sam Ritz
Dominic Deluca
Chris Cummings
A pair of 9:20 guys from Delaware

Now I'm certainly a little worried that Shearn, Quinn, Williams and Wilson are running this 32 right after running really hard races at Penn Relays over 3k, but I'm super excited they are not passing on this chance. I know that the pace will be fast, it will just a matter of who can drop it down. I thought for sure I'd see Coyle in this line up as he wasn't entered in any other individual events, but he is out of the line up this weekend. Any reason why? Would have loved to have seen him in this race, with his finishing kick, if he could hang on to a fast pace he could be under 9. Instead we will see if Russell, Shearn and Aziz can help hammer the pace and help get these guys to big PRs.

In the end the guy who may end up stealing the show is Ben Ritz. He had an off day at Penn and I'm sure he comes into this race hungry and ready to drop time. He has a 9:19 PR now to his name and he just needs to come out and hang on to a fast pace and kick. Harriman too may be a sleeper, I'm not sure he can win, but he has a great kick of his own.

This will be a big chance for Tony Russell to come up big and get a quality win over a state caliber field in the 32. He has been doing a decent amount of speed training as of late so he should be ready to close and handle a fast opening couple laps. I'm super pumped to see this race, it is very deep and filled with talented guys. Too many to even talk about over such a small window.

Going to have to watch the race and find out! If anyone hears any live results or anything comment them up!

Good luck to everyone this weekend!