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
Jeff Wiseman actually ran the mile! I had his split at 4:22! And he went out in 2:15! Pretty impressive if you ask me! I never thought he would run anything over 800.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I heard, too! If Wiseman can run almost a sub 4:20 mile, I think he's ready to unleash in the 800! Very impressed by his mile time, too.
DeleteAdmittedly not a ton of analysis in this post, but it is much appreciated after a long gap...thanks, RTJ!
ReplyDeleteA few observations gleaned from penntrack pics:
- Wiseman led off his 4x1600 and dominated the field
- Brehm and the rest of the 1600 field didn't try to go with DeLuca, who went out hard just like he did at indoor states
- Looked like Groh, who finished in 9:38, led the 3200 for a while, or was at least with the lead pack. I believe that he is coming off an injury, and missing time definitely hurts more in the longer events. Thus, he was able to drop a 1:56 a few weeks ago, but is not in his best 3200 shape. He could probably run low 4:20s right now.
Other stuff:
- WC Rustin, while easily the weakest of the West Chester schools, did actually have Chris Coates run sub 16 and around 9:30 last year.
- Dominic Hockenbury dropped a 9:22 at Ship for a huge win, not sure if a lot of people noticed that.
- Jacob Ross is from Abington Heights, I'm sure he qualified to his district meet with that 9:54.
- Josh Coakley ran 4:28 as a freshman, which went totally under the radar. He hasn't improved much, but this year, there are 2 very fast frosh that I'm aware of: Matt Scarpill of CB South (4:28) and Nick Dahl of GFS (4:24). When was the last time a freshman broke 4:20? I bet one of them pulls it off.
- The District 1 3200 is going to be really interesting, and I think we could see several guys like Arita and Balla running in the mid 9:20s but missing the cut for states.
Forrest/RTJ: I wrote the above post. I am senior sliding really hard, not running right now because of injury, and very passionate about the sport. I'd prefer to stay anonymous to others, but I'd love to write a blog post or two if you guys would want me to. Please contact hsrunner17@yahoo.com if you're interested (I know, not too creative, but it works)
Deleteyeah, what's with that shot at Rustin?
DeleteI’m sure that wasn’t meant to be an intentional shot at Rustin, rather an acknowledgement of Villone. Rustin has had some talent recently and some talent now in addition to Villone. In XC, sophomore Carmody finished 56th at Districts in 16:28, that would make varsity on any team in the state except Henderson, and maybe O’hara and N. Allegheny. Freshman Hontz was the 5th freshman D1 finisher at 16:52 which shows promise, and he has a 4:49 1600 under his belt already this year. They’ve got a few other underclassman under 4:50 in the 1600. Their program isn’t even close to the other West Chester schools but there is some talent there.
DeleteDefinitely talk to Forrest about posting, I know the owner of the blog and Forrest, so I'll ask but won't make any moves on my own. Sorry about the lack of analysis, I tried to do most off the top of my head when it came to PR's and performances within the last two years, but obviously I could have added more. Just wanted something out for people to read. A few notes...
DeleteDeluca went hard at indoor states because Cummings went hard and he wanted to keep pace. I don't think that was his strategy by any means.
Hockenbury did have a very solid win in the 3200. Other people performed nicely in the 800/1600 as well. I completely left out AA, I apologize.
Coates wasn't really on the map until his last two meets of high school (in track). I just meant they have a sophomore with a ton of potential, the wording could have been better, admittedly.
Coakley is a bad indoor runner, but judging form his 800/1600 he's in the best shape he's ever been in. Dropping 2 PR's in 2 races is great.
Lastly, when I say things about teams on posts... I mean that strictly to the season, not for all teams they have. XC isn't track so when I say that I meant strictly track. They've had some solid XC runners in the past.
-RTJ
Rustin is the newest of the 3 schools, The coaches really dont have as much experience so in a couple more years they might be competitive with West Chester East in XC. Henderson is by far the oldest of the three schools. If this has to do with anything.
DeleteRustin may fare better in the West Chester scene next year. WCE graduates Cummings and WCH loses what is arguably one of the best PA teams of all time. Diestelow and Knapp are still around and no doubt WCH will come up with others, but Rustin has a chance to maybe not be so overshadowed.
DeleteHowever, Chesmont dominance is over. The teams to watch next year are Conestoga, Pennsbury, NA and CRN, though DWest should make some noise out of Chesmont.
- JEB
Malvern? I know theyre not piaa but they got to be in the hunt for a nationals bid
DeleteMalvern is pretty solid, too bad they don't go to states. No offense to WCH and OH but it will be nice to see some different teams vying for the state title next year. Of course that assumes they can't reload, which is not a given.
DeleteLet's be realistic Ohara and Henderson will both be in the hunt for a state title even tho both teams lose some people especially on the Henderson side
DeleteHenderson will lose to Rustin next year, mark my words. RJJL Kelly.
DeleteGriffin Molino 4:12.9, by himself. Awesome.
ReplyDeleteJeff Wiseman led off with what was closer to a 4:25. ~4:24. Arita led off for north and went 4:32. Also, Comber ran a solid second leg for Hatboro and got them in the lead for a while. Ross anchored for North and ran ~4:19
ReplyDeleteYou guys should check out etrain's last post and chime in on the comments. So far only two other people have made a prediction in the comments section. I think it would be great if we could get 7-10 predictions in there before the race goes off.
ReplyDeleteFound interesting dual meet results:
ReplyDeleteBensalem dual meet win over CRN by a small margin. Wilson ran ~4:17 for the win in the mile. Second and third went to Kyle Francis and Brian Arita both running 4:27. Wilson and Arita came back in the 3200 running ~9:40 and ~9:50 respectively, uncontested. Francis won the 800.
Cheltenham had John Lewis run the 300 hurdles, thought that was interesting.
Ryan Grace running solid triples and really getting some speed in him before Penn Relays.
Henderson winning Penn Relays dmr...not bad...
ReplyDeleteSplits? Nothing on website yet.
Deletehttp://pennrelaysonline.com/Results/results.aspx?en=373
ReplyDelete1 Henderson (West Chester, PA) 10:03.77 Eric Stratman (3:07.78), Steve Thompson (50.85), Kevin Moy (1:55.17), Tony Russell (4:09.99) C
ReplyDelete2 Northport (Northport, NY) 10:10.86 Mike Brannigan (3:04.21), Devin Sullivan (50.61), Justin Leopold (1:59.40), Tim McGowan (4:16.65) D
3 Cardinal O'Hara (Springfield, PA) 10:11.17 Kevin James (3:07.79), Connor McCullough (51.48), Nick Smart (1:53.65), Jim Belfatto (4:18.27) A
4 Christian Brothers (NJ) (Lincroft, NJ) 10:16.04 Blaise Ferro (3:10.75), Mike Zupko (50.37), Mike McClemens (1:54.46), Tom Rooney (4:20.48) M
O'Hara struggles as the favorite, always have.
ReplyDeletehenderson a class above
ReplyDelete^^ If the above comment is from a Henderson runner, you obviously don't know what class is.
Delete^^ Henderson showed a lot of class today. Rather than stack their 4 x400 with distance guys who ran the DMR they let other guys on the team get the Penn Relays experience.
DeleteStop throwing so much shade at Henderson and O'Hara about stupid crap. This is a running blog, right?
DeleteTwo great teams who always put it all out there. Props to them both.
Henderson has no class after what they did at the unionville invitational. Running 2 hot 4x8's but they attempted to get away with running Reiny on both squads... Leadoff of one team, anchor for the other... Running a workout during a race is fine, but doing something like that is just unacceptable.
Delete^^ I hope that's not true. Running workouts at a dual meet is understandable, but not at in invitational. Doing so demeans the event and insults the competition. It does look like OH did put their distance guys in the PCL 4x400 for another meaningless victory. It''ll probably come back to haunt them like when they tried to shut out the field at PCL's in XC, they failed, and then it cost them at states when they lost by 2 inches. Maybe it's all gone to the coaches heads on both teams.
DeleteUnwritten rules in track? surprising there's been no bench clearing brawls then.
DeleteIt's not like they "tried to get away with it." They stacked two 4x800s and Reiny Barchet was told to sprint as long as he could on his anchor leg (he led off for the other relay.) He ran 300 before calling it quits. They had every intention of having that relay either dq'd or DNF'd
DeleteWCH was probably knocking out their district qualifying for the 4x800 at Unionville. They're big invite this Friday is usually stacked in the individual events, particularly the 3200. I'd suspect they're considering a serious run at the 4x800 at states, since most teams have someone off the double in that relay anyway. On paper, they've got 7:45 or so which would give them a shot.
DeleteO'Hara maybe just wanted to see what they can do in the 4x400 and Penn Relays is the place to do it for a fast time. 3:21 is no joke.
-RJJL
Henderson did stack two 4x800 teams at Unionville as a workout. They'll learn some humility next year when they graduate their core and struggle to make states in XC.
ReplyDeleteSo what? Do you have to state your intentions every time you enter a race? Their 2 workout teams still had them pretty far ahead of the rest of the pack. Call it whatever you want, they were still throwing down some hot splits.
DeleteLet's call it what it is...NO CLASS
ReplyDelete^...or SOUR GRAPES.
DeleteHaters are gonna hate. WCH can do no good in some people's eyes. It doesn't seem to bother them though. While you're whining about them showing up at meets to do workouts, they're lapping you.
Running workouts at an invitational is so wrong, it's like a football team running up the score. Competition should have an element of respect for the opponent.
DeleteCall it whatever you want. They were extremely competitive and certainly looked like they were all in. Who cares if it was a "workout"-they won, right? Whatever your intent is, does it matter as long as you go hard? They weren't dogging it, rather they raised the bar for anyone who choose to try and compete. I would have been happy to have my team out there being paced by them.
Delete^^ Some people just don't know what sportsmanship is.
DeleteYeah, i don't see why anyone should really care about them running a workout at an invitational. Or Ohara running a fast 4x400 with distance guys. None of this actually affects anyone else.
ReplyDeleteOne kid on one team ran one workout at one invite. An 800 has no strength benefit and with the most competitive and historically fast 3200 coming up this friday I would want to get a strength workout in too. Get over yourselves. Stop trying to nitpick everything any runner with talent in the state does to bring them down. They're all in high school.
ReplyDeleteWho's running the 3,200 on Friday? It's going to be fast
ReplyDeleteThe performance list will probably be out late Thursday, but it should be stacked. Dallas is on the teams attending so assuming DeLuca is running, there's some real potential to go sub 9:00.
Delete