A Year In Review, Part Two

April

April brought a great start to the outdoor track season with the CR Kiwanis Invitation. Savage and Quinn went at it in the 5k getting close to a MR running 15:25 and 15:27! Logue upset in the 1500m running 3:57.49 to beat out James, Zingarini, and Jewett on his way to qualify for Penn Relays at the last minute. Ross Wilson got ready for Penn Relays as well running 8:40 in the 3k for victory, helping pull Sam Williams to the last qualifying spot in 8:41.46. 

At the Bruce Dallas Invitational we saw the LD squad open up big time with Jeff Groh running 4:21 and Cole Nissley running 9:37 both solo times, while Alex Coburn won the 800 over his teammate Kunzweiler and indoor silver medalist Christian Saunders.

The weekend before Penn Relays LaSalle ran a quick 7:53 in the 4x8 over Pennridge’s 7:56 making both teams look very dangerous while Pennsbury’s distance squad doubled a 18:06 4xMile into a 10:38 DMR. The Ritz brothers, Huemmler, Russell, and Max Norris all battled at the Warrior Invitational with Ben Ritz coming up with the win in a blazing 4:12.53 over Huemmler’s 4:12.88! Tony Russell ran 4:14.20 and Norris was 3^rd in 4:17.57 as he injected some speed before the 3k. Kevin Moy showed his first preview of the greatness that was to come as he ran 4:22.74.

In late April the widely anticipated Penn Relays finally began!

PA continued its strong year as distant event after distance event was stacked with PA competitors!

To open up the finals the Mile saw Jewett, Harriman, and Logue all pushing for top 8 finishes and Jewett was able to grab 8^th place running 4:16.07 in one of the fastest Penn Relays Miles of all time; the winner Sean McGorty (VA) running 4:04! The extra 107m seemed to hurt Logue as he placed 14/15 with a time of 4:18.63 and Harriman ran a solid 4:18.01 for 11^th. 

In the 3000m we saw Norris, Shearn, Wilson, the Martin twins, Williams, and Colwell all racing for the championship out of 26 competitors! After going out in the first 1500 in ~4:17, the field began to pick up the pace. Max Norris ensured that he stuck his nose up front and stayed out of traffic, putting him in great position with 400m to go when he began to really kick it in. Norris blazed by Stephen Shine in the last 100m to bring home the victory! Shearn and Wilson grabbed the 7^th and 8^th spots respectively. Wilson is the 4^th returner going into this season.

PA’s winning ways continued in the Distance Medley Relay Championship of America where LaSalle, O’Hara, Henderson, CR North, and Strath Haven were all competitors out of 16 squads! Northport (NY) got out to an early lead, but Kevin James ran a fantastic 3:04 split to keep O’Hara right in the race as did fellow PCL runner Andrew Stone. As the legs continued to roll O’Hara was right up front taking the lead at several points and Jim Belfatto dropped a huge 1:54.2 split to give Savage the lead going into the anchor leg. A slower opening laps from the lead back of CBA, O’Hara, and Northport allowed Coyle to catch up to the group with just 800m to go, as he began to sit in on the pack of 4. Coming up with 200m to go Coyle blazed into the lead and didn’t look back… ok, he might have looked back a few times, but he took the victory home for LaSalle in a courageous effort by all relay members. Coyle’s anchor split was 4:13.9! Savage hung tough until the very end, splitting 4:17.0, but the strong kicks of Rooney, Brannigan, and Coyle were too much for him as O’Hara took 4^th overall in 10:06.04. Russell also helped bring Henderson back into 8^th place with a 4:14.3 split of his own. 

PA continued to roll in the CoA 4x800m where Cumberland Valley and Bensalem battled it out placing 4^th and 5^th respectively! Kunzweiler had a huge leg of 1:53.17 to bring his team back into it. This would only be a preview of what was to come for Kunzweiler.

May

May started of extraordinarily strong with some fantastic results in all Distances. 

In the 800m Nick Smart got the best of Belfatto at Delco’s running 1:55.14 to 1:55.19, but these weren’t even close to the times dropped by others that weekend. Joe Logue made a desisive comeback after the Penn Relays Mile running a solo 1:53.25 at his home Invitational, while Jeff Wiseman took back the state lead just a day later running 1:52.72 at the Henderson Invitational!

The Henderson Invite stayed Hot all day long when Max Norris blazed a 4:12.73 over the 1600m distance to back up his 3000m Penn Relays Championship. Zingarini and Jewett ran solid times of 4:16.9 and 4:17.4 respectively as Jewett did most of the leading early on. 

But the real talk of the meet would be the 3200 where several of PA’s top athletes went at it. Brendan Shearn took advantage of Tony Russell’s lead in the last 400m running 9:04.51 for the victory as Russell faded to a 9:07.08. Ben Ritz was fresh after not being accepted into the Penn Relays placed 3^rd overall in 9:07.30. When all saw said and done 11 runners broke 9:15 and 21 broke 9:30!!! Just incredible and I’d love to see PA guys attempt to match such a feat this season! 

**Note: I think that this race is a great example of why PA should have Meet of Champions. Imagine if the Martin twins and Brent Kennedy were also in this race along with Rico Galassi? I have no doubt all 4 could have gone sub 9:10. The state meet is always in Shippensburg which has terrible temperatures and high winds, which yields slower races. 

The next weekend the league meets began as post-season is already upon us!

Out west in the North Section Qualifier for WPIAL’s Ethan Martin completed the double gold in 1600/3200, bringing 9 runners under 9:40 in the 3200! For such a small meet, I was impressed.

Sam Ritz had a breakthrough in the Inter-Ac League running a meet record and PR of 4:15.95 for 1600m as just a sophomore! Showing what would be to come from this young man. 

Connor Quinn reminded the world he was still a force to be reconed with running 4:21 for 1600m to beat out Joe Logue, but Logue brought his team home a 4x8 victory in 7:53, while also winning the open 800m.

At the National Conference, Kyle Francis outkicked Wilson and Zingarini running 4:16.34 to win the 1600m as 5 guys broke 4:24! Wilson came back to beat Webb in the 3200 running 9:21 to Webb’s 9:24. The 4x8 was also hot as Bensalem had to run 7:49 to make sure they beat a strong Pennsbury squad that ran 7:52! CRN placed 3^rd in 7:57. 

Mid-Penns was hot as well with Todaro running 4:17 for a 1600m win over Groh, Brehm, and Coburn, while Nissley got the 3200m victory over Groh (two second places on the day) in a 9:31 effort. The 4x8 got hot as well with CV winning in 7:53 as 4 other teams were sub 8:04 behind them.

PCL’s wouldn’t be shown up however with Coyle, James, Savage, and Stone battling and placing in that order with all of them running under 4:21! Coyle and Savage doubled back in the 3200m but were beaten by McDermott’s strong 9:19 clocking. 

The district Meets got off to a quick start on 5/13 as Rico Galassi turned heads doubling a 4:18.02 into a 9:15.78 3200 which destroyed his usual competitor Luke Jones. Galassi was tuned up and ready to roll for States. Over in the AAA field out of D2 we saw a nice battle between Deluca and Fetterman with Deluca winning in 9:23.00, while Alex Nole soloed a strong 1:55.69 putting him in the medal discussion for the 800m. Shearn responded to Galassi’s double dropping a 4:24 and 9:17 of his own the next day out of District 11, while in AAA Abert came off injury to run a solid 4:21.87 for a victory of his own. 

District 12 saw some solid times, with Coyle and James claiming victory’s in the 1600 and 3200m respectively while Will McDermott doubled an impressive 4:20/9:22 to get double silver. Savage, Pitone, and Bilotta all got Q’s into the state meet, while O’Hara’s 4x8 ran a nice 7:55 for the victory.

Over in District 6 State College held off a strong Altoona squad as they ran 7:52 and 7:54.9 respectively both showing strength going into the state meet, while Jon Colwell ran a nice double of 4:19/9:39. 

District 7 was a huge meet once again as Ethan Martin pulled off an impressive double Gold in the 16/32 running 4:18.12 and 9:17.20. His brother Colin finished second in the 16 and third in the 32 running 4:18/9:19 of his own, while Brent Kennedy gave Martin a run for his money placing just .1 seconds behind in the 3200. I think Martin’s double is the most impressive of the weekend, despite Galassi’s solo’d races, mostly because Martin had to pull off two fantastic kicks. In the open 8 we saw 6 guys within 1.3 seconds of each other that all qualified for the state meet. Dylan Wilhoite pulled off the victory in 1:55.88.

District One produced some big races as well with Huemmler winning the 1600m in 4:13 over Russell, Zingarini, and Moy, all of whom went under 4:16.02. Ross Wilson claimed his first District title as he ran away from the field in the last 400m to clock 9:14.81. 10 runners went under the SQS mark, but sadly only 8 could go. Max Norris placed 6^th overall which would be his first loss in weeks . . . a bad omen to come. The 4x8 sent 8 teams as Bensalem and Pennsbury battled once again for a title, much like leagues, but this time both chopped off a second with 7:48.03 and 7:51.45 clocking’s. Jeff Wiseman took advantage of Rivera’s quadruple and took home a district title for himself in 1:52.95 after going out very hard. Logue closed for 3^rd in 1:53.73 as 8 runners dipped under 1:56, while last year’s 800m champion Steve Yannacone finished 4^th. 

District 3 was not to be outdone by district one as we saw the greatest quadruple I have ever seen in a track meet from Zach Brehm. Todaro and Brehm first battled in the 3200m where Todaro got the better of him as they blazed a 61 last quarter to run 9:18 and 9:18.45 respectively. Brehm came back to beat Vinny Todaro in the 1600m 4:13.40 to 4:13.47 and was later DQ’d on a controversial call. Their quick start helped 9 runners go under 4:24. Later in the day Brehm also raced on the 4x8 splitting ~1:54 to help his team run a 7:52 that was good enough for second place behind a strong CV squad that went 7:48 (4 other teams went under 8 flat!) and finally finished his weekend with a 3^rd place finish in the open 800m running 1:55.46. Unless he attempts to recreate such a feat I doubt we’ll see another one like it for quite some time. Kunzweiler put on a show of his own as he split 1:53 in the 4x8 and then won the open 800m in 1:51.68 to put him into a new state lead!!! Quite a weekend!

On a cold windy weekend the state championships began with a shocking result, Jeff Wiseman, District 1 800m champion misses the finals! Who would challenge Kunzweiler? With the wind who would take it out hard in the 3200m? These questions were answered soon enough!

To start Saturday off Rico Galassi and Brendan Shearn battled hard against the wind and each other, much like the year before! This time however Galassi came out on top running 9:12.48 to Shearn’s 9:13.33 in an unbelievable dual. 6 runners were pulled to sub 9:28. In AAA the pace went out slow as everyone was afraid to take the lead, but with 1k to go Ross Wilson took the lead and began battling the wind. With about 250m to go Ethan Martin took over the reigns as his strong kick in sub 29 brought him home his first state goal as he ran 9:10.74 for the victory! Wilson made a final effort to beat out Todaro for second as 9 runners, capped off by Conner Quinn ran under 9:21.2! Max Norris tried to make a move with 400m to go but faltered and fell back into 8^th place. 12 of the top 20 runners return this season which should make for a spectacular race!

In the 4x800 Bensalem’s Kyle Francis took off to the races during his leg and split 1:52.90 to secure the victory for his team over CV. Pennsbury finished 3^rd as only 7 teams went under the 8 minute mark. 

Ryan Smathers went into the 1600m as a strong favorite after his solo win last season and he did the same once again winning by 7 seconds over the field in a 4:22 clocking. Huemmler and Coyle repeated the battle from last season, but this time Huemmler claimed victory running 4:16.25 to Coyle’s 4:16.62! Huemmler grabbed both indoor and outdoor titles at the distance which is a rarity in the PA scene. Dan Jaskowak had an impressive bounce back race as the baller finished his high school career with a 3^rd place finish in 4:19.53 as he beat out James Zingarini by .02 seconds! 7 runners went just around 4:21 and the medals were capped by Harrison Schettler.