Inter-Ac League
Championships
Sam Ritz of GTA and Jaxson Heoy of Malvern Prep battled it
out up front with Ritz coming home with the victory. These two are looking
really strong and Ritz seems to be rounding into great shape. I’m thinking we’ll
see Ritz running strong at FL Regionals, and I wouldn’t be too surprised if we
saw Malvern Prep at New Balance Northeast Regionals. MP has a great front
runner in Hoey and his 8th grade brother Josh is leading a strong
pack of 4 guys who had a 22 second spread at this meet. I’m not thrilled to see
Josh Hoey running so well right now, mostly because it could be the case that
they’re putting too much stress on their bodies from early running causing an
early life peak. This could be what Sam Webb is going through now, although it
is too early to tell.
Also to note the Penn Charter boys look solid. Scott Mason
has been having a really good season and I think he’s right outside of the top
50 in PA. His stud teammate Ben Szuhaj had his first race of the season after
getting injured in August. I’m glad to see him back and racing, he placed 11th
overall.. not too shabby. I think we’ll see good things from him indoors.
PCL’s
Kevin James grabs a nice win once again and he’s looking
really great. I think there is no question he can break 16 on the state course,
although the past couple years he has fallen slightly short of expectations at
this meet. I think he’ll be looking for a blowout win next week to give him
more confidence going into the state meet.
The O’Hara boys really rolled putting 5 in the top 6 with
Nick Smart having his best XC race come at a good time. We’ll get to see if he’s
truly the real deal next week. If he can run with Belfatto this squad could
start looking to challenge under 100 points at the state meet, but I don’t
think even he can make them deep or strong enough to take down NA or WCH.
I was very impressed with Matt Brown of Roman Catholic. He’s
a name I haven’t really heard of with a 4:30 PR who is running strong. No
question he’ll make it to the state meet with an individual bid. Kyle Ortiz of
Achbishop Wood is only a sophomore and he placed 9th in the meet. He’s
put together some strong races this season and should also be headed to states
from D12. Bilotta of LaSalle had a decent race, but I think he is capable of
mixing it up with Pastore, who is very off and on. There are races where he
beats Morro by 20 to 30 seconds, but then loses to him weeks later. O’Hara will
need him to keep being consistently close to Belfatto if they want to secure 3rd
place at the state meet. But Bilotta should make it into the state meet as well.
That's all for Now Folks!
--ForrestCRN
Incredibly, it looks like they peaked at PCL's once again. They just can't take the foot off the throttle so they inevitably run out of gas.
ReplyDeletethey got 5th at NXN last year I think they know what their doing
DeleteIn PA, states is what matters.
DeleteAnd for 2 years in a row they've lost on a tiebreaker... Can't say they didn't peak well. If they scored 1 point better either year, you all would never say that. Don't see you critiquing 1 point for any other teams
DeleteFor two years they were the best team on paper, which means little.
DeleteSo much negativity, Forest I don't mean to hate, but this blog feels like a breeding ground for negativity and less like place where we discuss the merit behind teams
Delete-Long Strides
Ditto! Although the blog audience is mainly for and about current runners, there are also parents, alumni, younger siblings, and coaches that read it as well. As a parent, I used to read etrain's blog faithfully, mainly to keep up with the participants throughout the state. I would have meaningful discussions with my son about particular teams or individuals. Anymore, it is too annoying to sift through for the positive talk. My son no longer reads the blog - his coach tells his team what they need to know about the competition, the good and the bad, but not in such a derogatory way. Whatever happened to "Stay Classy"?
DeleteForrest, you put a lot of effort into continuing etrain's legacy and the research you do clearly shows. I thank you for your dedication. It is unfortunate that the tone of the blog has changed. Perhaps it is time to take a break. When people realize that they truly miss the blog, maybe those with the right intentions will come back and the other trolls will go somewhere else. The punks have ruined a good thing!
It's sports. There will always be trash talking. Get over it.
DeleteDitto, you're suggesting taking down the entire blog because your son doesn't like it anymore? It's your belief that the tone of the blog has changed and that's Forrest's fault so he should punish everyone? That's a little extreme dude. There's alway going to be posts you don't agree with. Forrest just like Etrain before him have the unfortunate job of having to police the comments for the inappropriate and vulgarity and even hacked type comments. Etrain even shut down the comments once because of bad language and that didn't work.
DeleteThere's nothing wrong with this thread at all, just people posting opinions. Ohara does go hard at every meet. Last year they were the best team on paper. When they lost states their coaches immediately stated in post race interviews that they were peaking for nationals anyway, not states. Etrain even had a poll of what people thought was more desireable, 1st at states or 5th at nationals, I can't remember the results but it was close. So people have different opinions that you, get over it.
Forrest, you're doing a great job, keep it up, it's the best time of the XC year!!!!!
Ditto, who are you to suggest Forrest "take a break" from blogging? Last time I checked, reading any blog has always been a choice.
DeleteIf the comments upset you, don't read them & instead focus on the post itself or not at all. Insulating yourself from what you perceive to be the comments of bad people and trolls is your option. You yourself come off as rather arrogant and judgemental, by the way but I would never take away your right to express your opinion even if it offends me.
Forrest does a good job and is a great resource for area runners-he obviously is a great fan of the sport. As the above poster said, there will always be trash talking in sports & add to that, there will always be trolls online. You sound mature enough to know the difference and make your own thoughtful decisions.
The PCL is a few good individuals and then O'Hara, just because O'Hara dominated doesn't mean they peaked, just that there getting their stuff together
DeleteI disagree with this comment. The PCL is lopsided for sure. However, I honestly think that in 2011 and 2012, the PCL was one of the strongest conferences in the state. This year was definitely weaker, but I think O'Hara will have more competition next year as La Salle returns 19 of their top 20 PCL finishers, which included 7 freshman. All of their top 20 this year broke 19 minutes.
DeleteI'm on Szuhaj's team. He ran easy for 2 weeks, after missing about 8, before running this meet. The kid's got heart.
ReplyDelete*god given talent
DeleteHi Ben
DeleteI doubt josh hoey is running very high mileage because typically malvern doesn't get above 45 miles a week
ReplyDeleteWho does more than 45 a week, that's a lot.
DeleteJosh is running less than 15 miles/week.
DeleteTeams known for (significantly) more than 45 miles a week: CRN, Cardinal O'Hara, Henderson, La Salle many many other teams...
DeleteI can assure you that henderson, ohara, CRN, WCE, and DTW are running mor than 45 miles a week. Thats just teams off the top of my head
DeleteCOH Coach Kennedy said that his team ran 70 miles the week of the PCL championship meet. (See post meet interview on www.pa.milesplit.com)
DeleteI'm sure Henderson runs at least 60 a week.
ReplyDelete10 miles a day? no way.
DeleteYes way. I don't think a lot of people realize how much mileage teams put in. Anything 50 and above is pretty significant but it definitely happens. The Ches-mont teams (with the exception of GV) do relatively high mileage. NA and CRN put in a good amount. Ohara hit around 90 I think at one point in the summer. Pretty much everyone or at least most of those on the top 50 list go over 50 miles a week. Exceptions could be Wade Endress. RTJ usually uses him as an example of a low mileage and successful runner.
DeleteThat stuff gets exaggerated.
DeleteAny high school kid doing over 50 per week is a serious risk for injury and/or post high school burn out.
Delete- College Coach.
Why do people always say that about WCH? It is urban (or suburban) myth.
DeleteMy understanding of the training that Henderson does is that it is by no means a one-size-fits-all program. Like Forrest previously said, not every runner has success at the same mileage & the trick is to fine tune the individuals mileage for optimal results. That's why their coaching is so good and they tend to not be hampered by many injuries. Probably O'Hara runs it the same way.
DeleteTo College coach-That's stupid. The problem is that 1/2(or more) of the college coaches out there don't know what they're doing. They just run high mileage and do crazy workouts and end up getting kids hurt. Places like O'Hara, Henderson, CRN, NA run mileage that fits their athletes. The coaches care about the kids and they get better. They don't just throw them in a meat grinder and hope that some of them survive. Henderson has about 10 kids running in college right now. Some are running well, some are not, but a lot are still running. CRN and O'Hara also have a lot of kids running in college. Any college coach who shies away from kids coming from a good program, is not a very good coach.
DeleteWarm ups count too. Rembember on track workout or hill days the twenty minute warm up and cool down can add close to five miles, it adds up.
DeleteAlso they run seven days a week. With a long, easy run Sunday that can be up to 20% of weekly miles.
DeleteWCH does not run 7 days a week.
Deleteto the kid who said ohara hit a 90 mile week... I don't think any kid in this state will do a 90 mile week in high school
DeleteHenderson only occasionally does 7 day weeks. They take Sundays off (do long runs during week) but they'll occasionally do an easy run on Sunday. Read the training log on runners world about them. But they run twice a day sometimes. Also for more info on o haras mileage see the runners world article "endless summer"... And read Kevin James xc who to watch
DeleteBut like another poster said this is training specifically for their varsity nd those that can handle this
DeleteRoss Wilson's interviews give some insight into CRN's training. Or at least for him personally
Delete