Weekend 4/18

Abington inv.

There was a lot of hype around the 800 field. I don't think it lived up to the hype, but by no means did it disappoint. Kyle Francis picked up the easy win in a very strategic, uncharacteristic race. Going out in 57 with Moy in the lead definitely through the entire field for a loop as a good portion take it out a bit faster. At about 300 Francis and Russell made moves and with 150 to go it was all Francis putting on the burners. His legs probably felt so fresh considering he usually goes out in 53. Russell had a great race and PR in 1:56.06. I knew he'd drop a PR and for his speed to endurance ratio, it was a good race for him. Steve Thompson throwing down a PR as well in 1:56. The most surprising result to me was Evan Emmanuel. He's only broke 2 flat in a FAT race one last year in almost june... the fact that he dropped such a huge PR is amazing and PC's 4x800 is looking really good. Kevin Moy with 1:57.48 to round out the top 5.

Kind of bummed at the 1600. Definitely though it would be faster, but a win is a win and C. Kazanjian dropped a district qualifying time to do it. Julian Degroot-Lutzner came in second about half a second behind in 4:28.03.Christian Kardish ran much slower than expected in a 4:30.30. The diamond in the rough came in 4th with Greg House dropping a massive PR and going 4:31.57. Definitely didn't see that one coming.

3200 was definitely the weakest of the distance events. Delaware takes 1st/3rd and we sneak one sub 10 in the field in Killian Nelson. PR for him, but just short of the district time. Maybe at Henderson he can sneak in a sub 9:50.

Cheltenham and Upper Dublin ran solid 4x800's with relatively no big names in their relays. Upper Dublin generally has good 4x800's, for the last decade they've put together (or had the pieces to) run successful 4x800's. Around peak time I can see this squad going close to 8 flat and maybe sneaking into States. The way they would have to train since D1 is so competitive would be to peak around districts and try and hold it for States. It's very challenging, but manageable.

Rustin Inv.

Josh Smith takes the 800 in 2:00, just four days after racing his PR in the event hempfield inv. He stayed pretty consistent which is always good to see and after his successful XC season and solid 800 speed, I'd love to see him get into a competitive mile. Teammate Joe Wheeler opened up his first open event this season going 2:01.77. This team has a solid 4x800, which I imagine they will run hot at Districts in an attempt to make States. By the way it's looking they'll have two sub 2 runners by districts, the bottom two legs are questionable though. Coming in third is Nick Villone in 2:03.98. I mention him because I think it's kind of a big deal for Rustin. They haven't had a very talented runner in a while and since he's only a sophomore he will continue to improve. Keep tabs on Villone.

Eric Diestelow and Connor Holm battling it out in the mile. Diestelow squeaks out the win in 4:25.15 while Holm places second in 4:25.71. Both PR's and both great races out of these two, especially Diestelow, looks like he's back! Colin McDonald ran a solid 4:29.89 for third. He's been steadily improving over these last two years and I expect low 4:20's and sub 2 by the end of the year. He has potential. The second half Radnor's dynamic duo, Watson Hanson. He's more of an 800 runner, but he has decent mile wheels, coming in 4th in 4:35.83.

Diestelow runs 9:47 off the double to take the easy win in the 3200. James Hare who's more of a miler took a stab at the 3200. He ran a 9:54.04 which just misses the district qualifying time. He had a breakout season last year and by that standard I'd expect him to go sub 4:20 this year.

8th Annual Black & Red Inv

Joseph Espinal took the 800 win in 1:59.76. Khai Samuels, Jarret Palmer, and Jack Houstin all coming in 2-4th in 2:01. This is my first time hearing of Espinal, but he set a decent PR in this race and I expect to hear more as the season progresses.

Again, Joseph Espinal takes the win in yet another PR of 4:25.51. It's hard to PR twice in the same day, but he didn't seem to have an issue with it. Hogan Dwyer of NJ took second in 4:26.24 and Jack Tidball takes third in a huge PR in 4:28. The season of PR's is upon us.

Jack Tidball sets another PR in the 3200. Not sure which event came first, but it's definitely harder to run the 3200 after the 1600. Much easier for that to be switched around. Jacob Ross just misses the district mark, but comes in second in 9:54 with a new PR.

Twin Valley Raider Inv.

Josh Coakley takes the easy win in 2:01.90. He had a pretty rough indoor season so it's good to see him coming off the bat dropping a PR. Daniel Lorah came in second in 2:04.61 which is a bit disappointing since his PR is much lower than that. Hopefully he can bounce back next week to a sick 800/1600.

Jaren Luckanitz and Will Sponaugle had a great battle up front with Luckanitz taking the win in 4:27.63 and Sponaugle second in 4:28.91

16th Annual LHU Bald Eagle Inv.

Micah Cantaral easily took the 800 in 2:00.92 which is a PR for him with no competition, that's something every coach loves to see.

Griffin Molino! Wow. Dropping a nonchalant, unchallenged 4:12.93. Only a 12 second PR, no big deal. Honestly, I can't remember the last time someone went so low without any competition. Russell usually has it until 600-ish to go, but wow, good for Molino. He's only a junior too.

Molino came back in the 3200 to drop a 9:36.84.

Great Valley Relays

Penn Charter dropping a sub 8 4x800! 7:59.25 for the win. Boyertown going 8:05.09 is really impressive. I could only name two legs on that team so they're doing it perfectly to stay lowkey. Twin Valley coming in third in 8:05.52. DEast surprised me, I definitely thought they'd win in this field, but it looks like nothing is a given come districts this year.

O'Hara just adding on to their magical year going 7:32.06 in the 4x1600! If anyone has splits on that one throw them up, but I'm assuming big legs from Kevin James and Jim Belfatto.

CB West Inv

Pennsbury takes the solo win in the 4x800 with a solid 7:58.79. This team has such potential for this relay, but I'm not sure if they're going to run it hot or let their runners go open. I hope run it hot though.

Pennsbury comes back to win the DMR in 10:46.74 over CB West in 10:48.34. The time for Pennsbury isn't impressive, but the double is pretty solid.

CR North takes the 4x1600 win in 18:12.63. Ross Wilson must have ran out of his mind and carried them to this time. CR South not too far behind in 18:24.01. I wonder if Jeff Wiseman was on this team. Doubt it, but maybe.

Ship Jack Roddick Inv.

State College easily taking 1-2 in the 800. Will Cather goes 1:54.36 solo while Mason Post hangs onto second in 1:57.74. State champion Zach Brehm takes third in 1:58.87 Chris Golembeski takes fourth and the final sub 2 spot in 1:59.49. It must be nice to be on a relay that has a stud and who's worst leg is still a sub 2.

Dominic Deluca cruising in the 1600 going 4:17.87 for the easy victory. Brehm goes 4:23.76 for second, Austin Steler goes 4:25.13 for third and finishing out the top 5 are Sean Weidner and Matt Kravitz going 4:26.26 and 4:26.50, respectively.

Pat Reilly takes a huge win in the 3200 in 9:14.97 which is a HUGE PR. He hasn't ever broken 9:35 in the 3200, so a 21 second PR is kind of a big deal. Colin Abert finally finding his niche running a 9:20 which is good for a 20 second PR as well. Cather decided the 800 wasn't enough and wanted to try his luck in the 3200. His first 3200 went pretty well I'd say, placing third in 9:25.65. Cole Nissley was on his heels in 9:26.10. To round out the top 5 we have Ryan Grace in 9:28.95. This field isn't over yet, it had 14 district qualifying runners in it, by far the best we will see until Henderson Puma invite/Baldwin in two weeks.

Whitehall comes from no where and drops an 8:07 4x800! They have two solid legs, but beyond that I'm very surprised they ran this time. Good for them though. State College's what I'd assume would be B 4x800 ran an 8:14.

Kyle Adams took a shoot at the steeple chase and won in 6:30.65. Would have definitely rathered to see him in the 800, but not many high schoolers get to run the SC so I can't blame him for wanting to take a stab at it.

The weather has been nice and times have reflected it. Great job to everyone that competed this week. Here's also a link to Etrain's blog: http://www.therealtrain.blogspot.com/ . I have so much respect for Etrain and so does Forrest. This blog wasn't made to compete, but rather to fill the void of losing Etrain's. I'd definitely suggest you to check out this blog because it's very well researched and written from the master himself. I will try and post as much as possible, but I'm sure Etrain will continue posting frequently. Both blogs will be up so it's readers choice, hope you all had a happy Easter!

-RTJ

Abington inv performance list

This meet generally has a lot of great performances throughout the years, most notably two years ago when Magaha broke the State record in 1:48. I expect this year to be just like the rest in terms of the 800m: Fast.

There are a lot of big names on the list for this 800, but ultimately this is how I see it playing out. Kyle Francis being Kyle Francis and leading it out in around 53 low. I expect Kevin Moy and Ramsey Kerkula to take it out with him the first 200 and come in around 54 mid. In the chase pack will be Steve Thompson, Eric Stratman, Soham Kamat, Seamus Collins, and Evan Emmanuel in around 56. Russell in around 57. Francis creates a big gap with 300 to go and puts on the burners. Moy and Kerkula go at it, but are dying because of the fast starting pace. In the chase pack, Thompson, Stratman, Kamat, Collins, Emmanuel, and Russell are all gaining ground on them with 250 to go. Russell makes a big move and is in fourth now with 150 to go, Stratman, Kamat, and Thompson go with with him. Emmanuel and Collins fall off a bit. Francis takes the win and 2-5 are all about a second from each other. Here's how I see the rest of the heat going.

Kyle Francis- 1:51.76
Kevin Moy- 1:55.95
Ramsey Kerkula- 1:56.35
Tony Russell- 1:56.55
Soham Kamat- 1:56.68
Eric Stratman- 1:57.04
Steve Thompson- 1:58.95
Evan Emmanuel- 1:59.01
Seamus Collins- 1:59.34

It wouldn't surprise me if Andrew Marston and Greg Dix snuck into this group as well from the next to hot heat. I can see both going around 1:59 low.

The 1600 is certainly way less stacked, but we get to see Kardish and the Kazanjian brothers go at it. It'll be good to see how their miles go to see what kind of shape they're in. Not very knowledgeable on this Kyle Kroon kid, but from a little research he's a sick 3200m runner and has some nice mile/800 speed to go with it. I see the race ending something like...

Kyle Kroon- 4:17.42
Chris Kazanjian- 4:22.54
Jilian Degroot-Lutzner-4:23.45
Christian Kardish- 4:24.97
Matt Kazanjian- 4:25.64

The 3200 is really the Delaware show. Not sure why Garrett is running it again but he will easily take the win. It appears as though Jack Hagood is there solely to pace Ben Boswell and maybe Michael Flanagan. Marston is in it, but it's 30 minutes after the 800 so I'm not sure why really. Maybe he will use it just to get some extra distance in or turn the day into a workout day. I can't imagine him going too much under 10 though under those circumstances. The race isn't exactly stacked though, so he could still place top 5.

Stephen Garrett- 9:30.55
Jack Hagood- 9:45.53
Ben Boswell- 9:45.59
Michael Flanagan- 9:47.42
Andrew Marston- 9:58.35

This meet is really all about the 800. I expect fast fast times, especially since it's at night under the lights. Not sure how wind is going to be there, but I don't expect it to be too out of hand.

-RTJ

Weekend 4/4

There were a plethora of meets this weekend and the weather varied for each. Mostly sunny and a bit of wind was this weekend, which is a major upgrade from last weekend. The times tell that story as well. Let's get to it.

DWest invitational

Ryan Mucha taking the win in 201:37 at his home invitational followed very closely by Pat Hopkins of Methacton in 2:01.38. Diestelow coming in third off the double with a solid 2:03. Looks like he's rounding back into form nicely.

Paul Power took the easy win in the mile in 4:34. Not as fast as I would have liked, but it was windy and I'm hoping that's the cause of his time. Sophomore Henry Sappey is running PR's and looking good thus far. He was a 2:02 freshman and I think he could go sub 4:30/2 flat by the seasons end.

Diestelow coming in first with a comfortable margin in the 3200. Not sure how this race went, but I'm assuming him, Zatlin, Cook, and Alansky were broke away early and were together through the first mile, then Diestelow/Zatlin broke away, and then Diestelow put on the burners and created a gap with 600 to go. For a first 3200, that's not bad at all.

Springford absolutely killed the 4x800, soloing an 8:04. I have an idea of three of the legs but the fourths a mystery. They are looking pretty good to get a bid to the Penn Relays and there we will be able to see if they can compete for a top 5 spot at States.

13th Bruce Dallas inv.

Jeff Groh came off his injury indoors in a big way dropping a solo 1:56 which is a pretty big PR for him. Looks like that's all in the past and he's ready to roll. Brook Wilson also showing he's ready to take outdoor by storm, dropping a PR himself as well and taking second. Jonathan Pearlman showing he's got some speed at this point in the season running 2:03 off the double. I look for him to drop a solid 3200. LM knows how to train successful, distance runners.

800m State medalist Austin Cooper won the mile in 4:31 over fellow 800 runner Austin Stetler in 4:32. Cooper placed 10th at States in the mile in 4:23, so this 9 second gap is slightly concerning, but nothing to be too worried about. Pearlman had a solid performance running 4:32, just getting some speed under his legs.

Cole Nissley soloed a 9:40 in the 3200m. He has 9:22 speed so by the end of May I wouldn't be surprised if he's challenging for a medal at States.

Cedarcrest and Central Dauphin battled it out in the 4x800 with Cedarcrest winning in 8:13 to CD's 8:14. Very solid running by both of these teams this early.

Haverford Inv.

State medalist Connor Holm took home (ha) the win in the 800m in 2:02. He's a 1:56 runner so this is fairly disappointing, but he peaks hard towards the end of the season. He was also off the double from the 4x800. He might have only run as hard as needed to take the w. DEast had two solid pieces of their 4x800 in the race with Tom Fitzgerald going 2:03 and Adam Carcella going 2:04. Both were a part of the 3rd place 4x800 at indoor states and look to continue to roll as the season progresses.

James Hare of Marple Newton took the mile in 4:28. He broke out last year going 4:21 and only looks to get better. He edged out Alex Kim of Haverford who ran a 10+ second PR in the race. PJ Murray? I've never heard of him, but he just dropped a 4:30 out of no where. Teammate Nick Cruickshank just behind in a 4:33. David Fowler ran a 4:35, which surprised me seeing as he's a 4:24 1600m runner and Haverford's number one guy. Or was at least. I hope he's healthy and can bounce back from this race.

Radnor killed the 4x800 going 8:01. I'd love to know splits and runners on that. I assume Connor Holm, Andre Kelly, and Watson Hanson were on the relay, but the 4th is relatively a mystery. Upper Darby ran a solid 4x800 as well going 8:07. Kerkula ran a 1:57 at the dual meet so I assume him and Greg Dix split huge on the relay.

TSTCA Outdoor Championships

James Smith continued his outdoor success going 1:56 and taking the win. Dylin Wilhoite came in second going 1:58, improving 6 seconds from just a week ago while of the double and getting revenge on Anderw Koryak who beat him in the mile earlier. Koryak runs a 1:59 off the double, which he also ran a PR in. Very successful day for him. Mitch Endress and Billy Dougherty both going 2 flat to round out the top five. This has been the second deepest 800 field in the state so far.

Andrew Koryak opened up his day in the mile winning in a 4:30, which was a PR. Beating out Dylin Wilhoite who ran 4:33.

Matt McGoey soloed the 3200 in 9:26 which is 3 seconds off his PR and definitely a good sign for the rest of his season. Teammate Hunter Wharrey ran a 9:46, not bad for his first 3200 ever. This is also his first outdoor season. I look for much improvement over the season.

Altoona wins the 4x800 in 8:23 with no competition. I think they can cut a lot of time from that, not sure if they ran that hot though.

Warrior Track Classic

Sophomore Domenic Peretta destroyed the 800 and the 1600 going 2:00.23 and 4:29.60. Excellent times for a sophomore to come out and run, especially after not doing indoors.

Colonial Relays

Andrew Marston took the win in the 3k going 8:45, which is a PR for him. His fitness level is there and with this win I hope his confidence is too. I'd like to see him get an invite to the Penn Relays and race with the big boys. I think he could hold his own. 

Gunnar Sjoreen ran 4:26.63 for a full mile. In 1600 terms that would be around a 4:24, which is a sizable PR for him. Conestoga is looking quite good at this point in the season.

Germantown Friends ran a solid DMR in 10:32 for second. I only know two of the members and I assume they were the 1200/1600, but from what I know a 10:32 is a huge surprise. One that could possible land them in the Penn Relays. LaSalle didn't do so hot and Brendan Bilotta only ran the anchor leg on that DMR, so I'm hoping it was a pretty fast one.

Council Rock Kiwanis Inv.

Jeffery Wiseman killed the 800 in 1:54.13. Extremely fast for this point in the season. He's looking really good right now, Francis should be worried. Sophomore sensation Jaxson Hoey ran 1:58.08. He continues to roll and in a couple years he is going to be dominant. He already is beating very talented runners. Alek Sauer going 1:58.62 off the double and Dan Ferraiolo going 1:59.00. Both are very talented runners and have relays that can make noise at a high level. Sadly MP is independent league. Matt Schulberger rounding out the top 5 going 2:01.50 off the double.

The 1500 shocked me more than any race out there. Colin Abert taking out some of the States' best going 4:04 in a dominate run. I've heard it was very windy for this race, which makes it all the more impressive. He's definitely a grinder, but wow. If that was a 1600 I would imagine he'd be around 4:22-ish, which is so much better than he's been doing. Good to see he's back in top shape. Joey Logue going 4:10. He set the MR last year so the conditions had to be brutal. He was also off the double. Kyle Francis and Ryan Grace going 4th and 5th in 4:15.53 and 4:15.68. Kyle Francis opening up his season to an unfortunate 3rd place. I'm sure he will remember this for his next race. Grace ran a 4:25 in the rain and wind last week so I'm surprised to see him so far back. The return of Sam Webb! He went 4:16 which I think is great, all things considered. Glad to see him finally racing after almost a year off.

Ross Wilson and Kevin James battling it out in the 3k. Wilson going 8:37 and James going 8:39. Great times and both should get bids to the Penn Relays, if they already didn't receive one. Nick Smart showing how much range he has going 8:54. Casey Comber going 8:56 showing he's back in shape and ready to run a fast 3200. Brian Artia rounding out the top 5 in 9:06.

Jim Belfatto continuing his hot steak from indoor winning the 5k in 15:42. A windy day is definitely not when you want to be running a 5k but he did just fine. His range is also great as well stretching from the 8-5k. Alexander Balla coming in second in 15:52. These two broke away from the field fairly early and Balla held his own against Belfatto.

CB South ran a solid DMR easily winning in 10:48. I'd like to see how they could run a 4x800. They ran 8:05 and placed 7th indoors so I look to see them run a hot one and soon.

CB East dropped an 8 flat on the field! I'd love to know who was in this relay and the splits for them. They usually have a solid 4x800. Pennridge went 8:02 with what I'd assume was a very fast split by Logue. Pennsbury dropping a fast 8:06 as well. I definitely expect them to run this relay loaded at States. HGP running an 8:15 as well as Twin Valley which surprised me a bit. Both have a solid front runner, but not too deep after that.

Hopefully next weekend we can see solid meets without extreme winds or rain.

-RTJ

Hot Topics

Hey guys. Are there any topics you would like to talk on? I have a few ideas, but I'd like to hear your opinions on it. It can vary anywhere from specific athletes and teams or as broad as an event in general. I was thinking on a few things like:

The 800
The 4x800
Brehm
Russell
Francis
O'Hara's future
Henderson's future
State College 4x800 likelihood

I want to talk on the Penn Relays, but until the invitations are all given out, I want to hold off on that for a little it. Let me know on any other topics you guys have in mind.

-RTJ