In-depth Analysis of AAA Boys Distance States

I wanted to start this post by public apologizing for the ruckus that I caused on Penntrack these past few days. I over-reacted to having another one of my posts deleted, but it is something that I've dealt with multiple times in the past and it was out of line for me to rage on their forums. I'm not that type of person, and I understand it gives me a poor image, which is why I am apologizing and promising to all of you that it will not happen again. I will be calling Don Rich later tonight to personally apologize to him and his team as well. I wish I could work in tandem with them, but every time we attempt to work together things seem to fall through and I just got frustrated over something insignificant and lashed out. I repeat that this will not happen again. Not much else to say about that, so moving on.

Milesplit has a poll up on the top performances of the week and right now State College's 4x800 is second place! Go on and vote to try and boost them to the top! http://usa.milesplit.com/articles/129314-poll-top-national-boys-performer-from-5-24-weekend#.U4Yj3iiopp4

In depth look at states: We know how the races played out up front, but who else stepped up to the plate, had good and bad days, the state medalists and the ones who just missed. These posts will be for those runners who are really top notch, but might not be the top of these deeply talented fields. 

Boys 1600m AAA

Brehm and Caldwell stole the fame and the top two places in the 1600, but who else should we talk about? I know I talked a bit in my other posts about him, but Jeff Van Kooten is scary good. This kid peaks so well, and he has done so consistently all season. In XC he had a rough season, but come the state meet he placed 15^th overall! Outdoors he had some decent 1600’s, but then he dropped a 4:17 in pouring rain and then hit 4:14.05 at states! He closed incredibly well and should not be overlooked next XC season. Nathan Sloan barely broke 4:20 last year and its rare seniors drop a ton of time. I thought Sloan could be a 4:16.80 runner at best this season, but he dropped a bomb in the state finals of 4:14.67 to place 4^th! Really great stuff from those two guys out of district 7. 

Behind them Colin Abert ran a very solid 4:17.23. After a strong second place finish at the XC state meet Abert looked to run in the low 4:10’s this outdoor season. It was quite an ambitious goal for the junior. Sadly sickness and injury during the winter months really delayed his training, but he came back strong and a 5^th place finish is really solid for the junior who is the 3^rd returner next year. He’s scary good and the top returning XC runner in the state for AAA.

Ryan Grace. Talking about guys who had big days, Ryan Grace should be at the top of that list, and in my opinion he had one of the best doubles at the state meet. First he split 1:54.80 (according to Jarrett) and came back in a PR of 4:18.43!! I’m super impressed with the North Penn senior. He really jumped all in this track season after his breakout XC year (15:47 5k). He continued to race strong and was never scared of a pace or a runner. 6^th place outdoors, 8^th place indoors and anchored two very strong relay teams.

Jim Belfatto didn’t have a great day at states, and I hope he’s not burning out. Belfatto has had some amazing races in March including a solo 4:11.90 at nationals to win the DMR in 10 flat for his team, which is just incredible, and then hung with Tony Russell at the Penn Relays on a blistering 2:02 open half, eventually he would fade, but he lead O’Hara to a second place finish. He leads paces and sticks his neck in every race. It’s always excited to see Belfatto on the track and hopefully he ends his outdoor season on a strong note at Henderson and nationals. 

Connor Holm! After sneaking onto the medal stands indoors from the slow heat in a 1:56, how was Holm going to do outdoors? He dropped a great, 5 second, PR of 4:20.50 at his lead championships, and continued to roll at districts placing 7^th in 4:20.64. How would he handle the trials at states? Just fine, dropping another PR of 4:20.06. Running 4:20 3 times in a row right off of a 5 second PR is extraordinary. Major props for the fantastic consistency from him during the championship season. In the state final he did what he had to in order to grab the 8^th place medal in a 4:21.29. It would have been awesome to see him PR again in the finals and dip under 4:20, but that is too unrealistic. Holm is only a junior and I have a feeling we’ll see big things from him next year. 

Cole Nissley and Reiny Barchet ran 4:24.42 and 4:25.98. The fact that both of them went for the 32/16 double shocks me. They’re both strong, XC minded runners, but it’s gutsy to try and do both. Barchet had a very solid race in the 3200 to grab a medal (more on that later), while Nissley was hurt from the trials the day before and only ran 9:37 to place 20^th. Both guys really went for it, and I give them a lot of credit for trying. I’m sure you guys remember from XC how much I ranted about my love of Nissley’s consistency and he ends with just that outdoors. Slowly dropped time all outdoor season, and I’m sorry to see him leave without an outdoor state medal. 

Lastly, Matt Brown out of district 12, the man I predicted would pop out a great race to make the finals, and he did just that. Sadly he did not have another 4:20 race in him and he fell off the pace early. Brown ends high school with a 4:20 PR and a bid to the state finals, something that seemed quite far-fetched during indoor season when he was running 4:30’s. 

Boys 3200 AAA

Yes, two runners broke the State Meet Record and 3 guys went under 9 minutes. Yes Kevin James, a junior, ran 9:03.19 and Dominic Deluca helped the 4 runners with his blistering starting place to end in a 9:07 (PR of 9:03 and 8:21 3k), but who else did we miss in the ruckus behind these super stars?

First man, 6^th place finisher in 9:08.11, the junior, Sam Webb. My goodness, talk about comeback seasons, Webb would get the award no question. After breaking his leg during regionals Webb didn’t run all of indoors. Outdoors he started off pretty strong with a 4:20 1600 at Henderson’s Warrior Invite. Then in the 2 Mile he ran 9:29, so the 1600 was looking like his best event considering he ran 9:14.87 at the meet last year. Webb however was not deterred from the 3200m distance and stuck with Ross Wilson at Districts and dropped a massive PR of 9:11.91!  How would Webb follow that up at states? By running another PR of over 3 seconds. This kid is not afraid of anyone and it’s awesome. With so many strong juniors returning next year for XC, Sam Webb has got to be one of the runners to look out for. Oh did I mention that he doubled back and split 1:58.7 as the second leg of Pennbury’s 4x8? Yeah, that happened. Sam Webb – Beast.

Reiny Barchet will be attending the University of Colorado in the fall, and I’m pumped for him. He’s got a great distance running body and I believe he will really excel at the 8k and 10k distances in XC for the Buffalo’s. I’m not sure how much we’ll see him race and I hope he doesn’t get lost in the pack (they return all 7 runners from their championship team last year and get back Jake Hurytz who is an animal). Enough about College though and more about Reiny. He ran 9:11 to place 8^th at states, which is really solid for him, but his body of work is really fantastic. I ripped the guy in XC for lack of consistency during races, but he placed 5^th at states during XC and ran 9:06 for two miles at Henderson’s Nike meet. He’s such a pure distance guy and I’m ecstatic to see him going to such a great program in college.  Also, he ran the open 400 at Ches-Mont’s (53.56), just thought I’d point that out, because I find it hilarious.

Matt Mcgoey is the last of our 3200m medalists and boy did he have a solid year. He medaled in all 3 seasons (24^th – 16:35 in XC, 6^th indoors – 8:45.76 3k, and 8^th outdoors – 9:12.32 3200) and PR’d both indoors and outdoors at the state meet. Talk about peaking perfectly. XC he looked to be a ‘teen’ medalist, but 24^th is a medal, which is tough to do as a junior and he placed 3^rd at WPIALs. He’s not someone to be overlooked next XC season and could be a top 5 guy in AAA. 

What about the rest of the field? So many runners had great days and I’ll start with the senior class. District 3 champion Patrick Reilly placed 11^th. At the start of the outdoor season he solo’d a 9:14 to really push his competition into dropping fast times early in the season. Sadly come states he didn’t have the same spark, but ran a very solid 9:19. He ran 9:18 the week before and during the season also dropped a 10 second PR in the 1600, running 4:20.48. A great season overall for Reilly. Right behind were 3 more strong seniors who will be missed greatly: Chris Kazanjian, Brent Kennedy, and Jeff Groh. All 3 runners had such amazing careers. Kennedy and Groh showed such talent as sophomores with Kennedy medaling at the state meet and Groh running 9:27 outdoors to place 9^th at the state meet. Chris Kazanjian was able to stay fairly injury free and had a huge XC season, while the other two were plagued with injuries. They both railed and made it to the state championships outdoors. To all 4 runners in this paragraph you were fantastic runners and PA track and cross country will miss your presence. 

Now to the non-medalist juniors – Aaron Gebhart, Casey Comber, and Andrew Marston. Both Gebhart and Comber ran just a second off of their PR’s at the state meet, which is really fantastic. Comber ran under 9:20 3 times this season and has a 4:19 PR in the 1600 to his name. A sophomore that nobody had heard of turned into a junior that everyone strove to be. His hard work and dedication have really shown through and from my time meeting him at districts he’s such a light-hearted fun loving kid. Really an awesome season overall. Gebhart is my boy out of district 3. He caught my eye after a big 28^th place finish his sophomore year and he has not backed down from challenges and always races big at district and state championship meets. This is a great finish for him and we can expect to see big things out of the 3 of these guys during XC. Marston is the best pacer I’ve seen. He must have an internal clock or something, but at Districts and states he clicked off the same 400 time every lap. He’s going to be a big threat in XC next year with these other two.

Lastly Zach Seiger. To PR as a sophomore at the state meet in 9:30 is really something. It’s rare to see a sophomore break 9:30 and I’m not surprised it was this sophomore out of Red Land. He showed us big things during XC and finished the season with a 28^th place finish (exactly like Gebhart… a trend?). To also come up big on the track is another thing and to PR back to back weekends at Districts and States is huge. He’s one to watch.

Boys 4x800m AAA (And 800m)

 – Note – Most of the information I am using are splits from Etrain’s collection, so thank you very much Jarrett. They can be found here - http://www.therealtrain.blogspot.com/2014/05/2014-states-splits.html#comment-form

--  And if you guys have any splits to offer him please post them up!

One thing that made the states 4x8 so excited this year is that most of the teams out front had pure consistency on their legs. State College having Will Cather as a big anchor put them away from the rest, but most teams were even across the board. Just look at Henderson and CB East’s team splits, all between 1:54 and 1:56! That means some awesome training groups and sessions keeping these kids together, which is wonderful to see.

It’s a shame Pennridge’s team wasn’t totally in it. They’re legs however were very consistent all season in the 1:58 to 2 flat range with Logue being a beast of an anchor. Logue ran 6 amazing races at the state meet and probably deserved athlete of the meet. He split 1:54 to get Pennridge into the finals of the 4x8, ran 1:54.76 in the open 800 to make finals, split 47.9 to get Pennridge’s 4x4 through the trials. Then he came back the next day and split 1:51.90, ran 1:51.45 in the open (a PR) and split 48.20 in the 4x4 at the end of the day. My goodness, what a weekend. Logue has been tearing up the track since his freshman year when he split 1:57 and 50.0. He has improved his strength in order to double and triple for the sake of his team, and he does so without fail. I don’t think he gets enough credit for how difficult his job is and has been over the past two years as a middle distance stud. I think the 1500 will be his bread and butter in college. Also if he runs the 800 at Henderson’s distance festival I have no doubt he has the capability to break 1:50. 

I’m very impressed with Seneca Valley’s performance. I thought they had a low 7:50’s capability and they really came up big when it mattered. They ran 7:55 at districts and then dropped a 7:51.13 at states! Despite a 2:02 leg before him and the knowledge of the 800m open finals, Brett Foster put it all on the line and dropped a massive split of 1:53.3 running with Boyertown’s Eli Mercado who split 1:53.1. It’s tough to see them in the video’s I’ve watched of the event, but they must have been working together as they scorched the track in order to get medals for their teams. Doing so caused them to miss the medal stand in the open 800, but I love runners who will put it all on the line for their relay squads. It’s tough to see that Boyertown placed 9^th and Mercado placed 11^th (still running 1:55) in the open 8. Mercado had a truly fantastic outdoor season. Foster will be back next season with Mike Kolor for SV and the two of them will be a duo to watch out for.

Penncrest continued to prove me wrong as they just kept on dropping time in the post-season. They placed 6^th overall in a strong 7:50 mark. They had a big anchor leg from Evan Emmanuel who split 1:54.5. Brendan Hanna subbed in for Chris Kazanjian and ran a 2:02 leg, which isn’t bad at all. Chris was running 2 flat and 2:01 all season and I think it was good of them to let him go for the 3200. 

One of the big teams was Pennsbury. Liam O’Connell splitting 1:56, Sam Webb splitting 1:58.7 on the double (don’t worry I won’t rant again), but the real story is Alek Sauer splitting a 1:52.9! He came out like a rocket and never stopped to get his team into 7^th place and just off of 6^th. His open PR came at districts and was a time of 1:55.39. Then at states he PR’d in the trials of the open 800 with a 1:54.69 (not sure what he split earlier in the day on the relay), but he wakes up the next morning off a PR and decides to split over a second and a half faster!! Are you serious?!? Instead of dying in the finals of the 800, like I expected him to, Sauer stepped up to the challenge again and ran ANOTHER PR of 1:54.38 to place 5^th! My goodness gracious. Did I mention before that he’s a junior, because well, he’s a junior. Pennsbury track is coached well and I have no doubt we’ll be seeing some amazing times from Sauer next year.

Also shout out to Dylan Eddinger for taking the reins on the opening leg of the 4x8 for Boyertown. The dude’s PR is 1:59.29 in the open 800, but he was totally cool with leading the whole first leg and dropping a bomb on the field. He looked so good in the last 200 as he dropped everyone, splitting 1:55.20! He is also a junior, so keep an eye out for this young man. 

--ForrestCRN