Wilson Gets Title - 8:56, State College - 7:41, Brehm - 4:11, Francis - 1:49.57!

3200m Results:

  1   180 Wilson, Ross        12 CR North 01          9:11.19    8:56.29R  10   

Deluca took it out hard, and a bunch of runners went through the 1600m in ~4:28! Russell put 40m on the field with 800 to go and the race was really strung out, and Martin moved passed Wilson going into the last lap. With 300m to go Wilson pushed passed Martin on his quest to catch Russell. Wilson had 30m to catch up to Russell with 200m to go, but he put on a huge move and began to blast around the turn! With 50m to go he finally caught up to Russell and they battled for a bit, but Wilson was too strong as Russell faded in the final meters.

After 31 years Mike Connelly's record has fallen to not one, but two runners. Connelly is one of the top runners in PA history and placed 2nd and 4th at XC nationals during the early 80's. Wilson's 8:56.29 is really incredible and he split 4:28/4:28 to do it, my goodness. It was a valiant and gutsy effort by Deluca. If he had someone else leading it out in 4:25 I bet he can run ~8:55 and I hope we see him at Nationals.
Here are Wilson's splits recorded by Don Rich: 66, 2:15, 3:31, 4;28, 5:36, 6:45, 7:51, 8:56.

3 guys went under 9 minutes over 3200m's, the 3rd being Colin Martin who ran 8:59.90! Good lord these guys came out ready to roll. Behind him was Kevin James who ran 9:03.19 and the junior now has an ever tougher record to try and break next season. Imagine running 9:03 and getting put in the dust! That last lap nobody was paying attention to a dude running a time that would have won states almost any other year. Kevin James is in amazing shape (Brendan Shearn ran 9:04 in high school) and is an absolute stud as a junior. Props for not shying away from the big dog seniors and running an amazing time.

Dominic Deluca paid the price for taking the race out so hard and died, but he finished 5th in 9:07.33 (4:21/4:46) . Sam Webb came up big once again and placed 6th in 9:08.11, which is another PR for the junior. He ran 9:13 last year and coming off a huge injury after XC he has now dropped 5 seconds this outdoor season after not racing indoors. It's really phenomenal and he's going to be scary next season. Reiny Barchet had a tough day, but he still medaled running 9:11.35 (which would have been second last season!). And Matt Mcgoey grabbed the last podium spot in 9:12.32, which is a nice new PR for the junior. Right behind him were two more junior studs who missed out on the medal stand, were Aaron Gebhart (9:17) and Casey Comber (9:18). (I will watch the race at 5PM tonight so I can discuss them better)

  1   180 Wilson, Ross        12 CR North 01          9:11.19    8:56.29R  10   
  2   655 Russell, Tony       12 WC Henderson 01      9:07.68    8:58.26R   8   
  3   236 Martin, Colin       12 Fox Chapel 07        9:10.74    8:59.90#   6   
  4    65 James, Kevin        11 Crdnl O'Hara 12      9:19.45    9:03.19#   5   
  5   183 Deluca, Dominic     12 Dallas 02            9:03.54    9:07.33    4   
  6   474 Webb, Sam           11 Pennsbury 01         9:11.91    9:08.11    3   
  7   652 Barchet, Reiny      12 WC Henderson 01      9:17.50    9:11.35    2   
  8   403 Mcgoey, Matt        11 No Allegheny 07      9:16.00    9:12.32    1   
  9   396 Gebhart, Aaron      11 New Oxford 03        9:16.15    9:17.27  
 10   270 Comber, Casey       11 Hatboro Hrshm 01     9:17.33    9:18.56  
 11   184 Reilly, Patrick     12 Dallastown 03        9:18.90    9:19.40  
 12   449 Kazanjian, Chris    12 Penncrest 01         9:17.21    9:22.60  
 13   297 Kennedy, Brent      12 Kiski Area 07        9:21.57    9:24.28  
 14   319 Groh, Jeff          12 Lower Dauphin 03     9:13.91    9:24.71  
 15   174 Marston, Andrew     11 Conestoga 01         9:17.50    9:25.17  
 16   520 Seiger, Zach        10 Red Land 03          9:31.08    9:30.34  

4x8 AA Results:

Jack Dicinto ran a 1:58 split. Wyomissing went out hard and hurt the team quite. A bit. Lake-Land’s second leg got a huge lead on the field by splitting 2 flat. Kyle Shinn (Wyomissing) made up about 15m and took, but Washington’s runner took the lead going into the final leg. They were about 3m ahead at the exchange, but Washington took a 10m lead in the first lap of the anchor leg thanks to Cortés Levi who increased his lead over the next lap as Washington wins in 7:58.­­35. Andrew Miller was running 1:57’s earlier this season, but he did not look good at all on the anchor leg.

4x8 AAA Results: (Sorry for the Randomness, these are just notes I took while watching)

First lap- 13:46 – Alex Milligan lead off for State College instead of Golembeski! First lap out in 57 seconds, which is pretty solid for the group led by Boyerown’s Dylan Ettinger. Eric Stratman ran behind them.

Second lap – 14:43 (57) – Dylan Ettinger was the top finisher in the leg with a 1:56.9 split.

Third lap – 15:42 (59) – Sam Webb second leg for Pennsbury. Pennridge and State College were 8^th and 7^th after 3 laps.

Fouth lap – Seamus Collins ran second leg for Henderson and finished in

17:38 – CB East took over and battled with Henderson on the 3^rd leg.

CB East, Henderson, State College, and Penncrest were the top 4 going into the anchor leg. East handed off in first, Henderson second, State College 3^rd, and Penncrest 4^th

5:47 after 600m

Cather, Thompson, Jake Brohpy (Frank ran 3^rd leg) with Ryan Grace coming on strong after the first lap. Cather pulled away from the field in the final 200m. Henderson second, CB East 3^rd, North Penn 4^th, Pennridge 5^th.  Second Best time in the nation this season in 7:41.99!! 

It looks like Pennridge came on too early at the start of the season and they died out in the 4x8 at the state meet. Cather looks so smooth and almost effortless pulling away from the 1:54 man Steve Thompson who held off Jake Brohpy (ran a wonderful leg!), but Cather 'only' had to run a 1:54.4ish split to get the win. This team can drop more time, no question. Cather did what he needed to do to get the W. Thompson and Brohpy both split ~1:56.8

  1 State College Area 06                             7:52.25    7:41.99#  10   
  2 West Chester Henderson 01                         7:52.41    7:43.24#   8   
  3 Central Bucks East 01                             7:53.18    7:43.70#   6   
  4 North Penn 01                                     7:53.33    7:45.35#   5   
  5 Pennridge 01                                      7:53.05    7:48.78#   4   
  6 Pennsbury 01                                      7:52.94    7:50.75#   3   
  7 Penncrest 01                                      7:53.06    7:50.80#   2   
  8 Seneca Valley 07                                  7:53.49    7:51.13#   1   
  9 Boyertown 01                                      7:53.35    7:51.77# 
 10 Saint Joseph's Prep 12                            7:54.06    7:53.57  
 11 Central Dauphin 03                                8:00.12    7:58.73  
 12 Cedar Crest 03                                    7:54.79    8:05.26  

More to come! But as we hoped, the racing have been wild and so much fun to watch today!

Boys 1600m AA Results

Domenic Perretta controlled the pace and clearly was the best runner in the field as he covered a strong move by Curtin and kicked it in the last 120m. This kid is really strong, but slightly shorter. I have no doubt he’ll win the 800 later today; he looked so easy at the finish line. The top 5 runners are all returning next season, which will make for an exciting race and not to mention Griffin Molino who ran 4:12 earlier in the year but choose to run the 3200m instead. Not sure if he got injured, but he did not run well at all in that race. Also Kyle Gonoude who placed 3^rd in 4:23 ran his PR in the prelims of 4:21.50, which would have placed him second. Poor prelim running by the youngster, but it’s a lesson learned.

 

  1    31 Perretta, Domenic   10 Beaver Falls 07      4:31.23    4:19.82   10   
  2   321 Curtin, Sebastian   11 Mrcyhrst Prep 10     4:31.27    4:21.91    8   
  3   484 Gonoude, Kyle       11 Salisbury Twp 11     4:21.50    4:23.38    6   
  4   488 Sweet, Nick         11 Sayre Area 04        4:29.91    4:24.33    5   
  5   556 Smith, Simon        11 Towanda 04           4:28.47    4:24.93    4   
  6   296 Parsons, Jeremy     12 Maplewood 10         4:27.71    4:24.94    3   
  7   171 Smith, Carter       12 Eden Chrstn 07       4:31.40    4:25.51    2   
  8   144 Vella, Tyler        12 Danville Area 04     4:31.31    4:26.13    1   
  9   525 Trimble, Colten     11 South Side 07        4:31.43    4:31.92  
 10   308 Degroot-Lutzner, J  11 Masterman 12         4:31.30    4:35.62  
 11   273 Morgan, Nathan      11 Lakeland 02          4:28.02    4:38.29  
 12    34 Kachman, William    10 Bedford 05           4:29.09    4:40.65 

Boys 1600m AAA Results

First off, Tony Russell dropped out of the 1600 after this 8:58 effort. He ran a really hard and gutsy race, and I won’t take that valiant effort away from him, but dropping out of the finals of another even because you’re tired is so disrespectful. Unless he got injured, run the race. You planned on it, and he took the spot of another runner who could have had an opportunity to shine. Reiny Barchet, Cole Nissley, and Will Kachman (AA) ran in the 3200 and came back to compete in the 1600 (None of them medaled, but they toed the line and put it all out there). 

Now onto the race: With Russell out of it, nobody felt the need to take it out hard and it went through 800m in 2:12. From there Zach Brehm took the lead and started hammering a strong pace and they went through the 1200 in 3:14. Billy Caldwell put on a huge serge and took the lead on the back stretch, but Brehm was not to be denied. The two battled, but with 100m to go Brehm slowly pulled away to grab the win in 4:11.73 (closing in 57 seconds!). Caldwell held on for second in a big PR of 4:12.99!! I can’t stress enough how great of a race Caldwell had and he really lived up to the hype I brought onto him after his strong 4:20 mile at the end of last outdoors. He really blossomed senior year. Back to Brehm, the kid is a horse. He is so strong is ridiculous. He just powered home. After running well in a torrential downpour last weekend the boys from District 7 were pumped up for good weather. Jeff Van Kooten and Nathan Sloan placed 3^rd and 4^th respectively, both running 4:14. Van Kooten collapsed at the line, but Brehm quickly went over to him and held him up and helped him walk off the track as they talked. Really great sportsmanship there (also to note Ryan Grace also helped initially). 

Colin Abert revamped his season after a tough indoor season and ran 4:17.23, which is pretty solid overall for the junior. Ryan Grace comes off a big split to help North Penn place 4^th in the 4x8 to grab 6^th place! That’s the best distance double of the day so far and I’d love to know what he split in the 4x8. After he had a tough junior year he broke out during XC and kept the ball rolling through the track season, very well done Ryan Grace. Jim Belfatto just didn’t look like he had it today placing 7^th overall. He had a tough day, but I think we’ll see him bounce back come outdoor nationals. Connor Holm was able to snag the last spot in 4:21 over the tired legs of Nissley, Barchet, while Brown just wasn’t in the race from the start. We’ve got 4 returning medalists for next season!

 

  1    75 Brehm, Zach         11 Carlisle 03          4:18.27    4:11.73#  10   
  2   193 Caldwell, Billy     12 D-Town East 01       4:18.52    4:12.99#   8   
  3   486 Van Kooten, Jeff    11 Pittsburgh CC 07     4:18.41    4:14.05    6   
  4   266 Sloan, Nathan       12 Hampton 07           4:17.19    4:14.67    5   
  5   214 Abert, Colin        11 Easton Area 11       4:16.90    4:17.23    4   
  6   408 Grace, Ryan         12 North Penn 01        4:19.59    4:18.43    3   
  7    62 Belfatto, Jim       12 Crdnl O'Hara 12      4:16.85    4:18.90    2   
  8   511 Holm, Connor        11 Radnor 01            4:20.06    4:21.29    1   
  9   320 Nissley, Cole       12 Lower Dauphin 03     4:19.95    4:24.42  
 10   652 Barchet, Reiny      12 WC Henderson 01      4:18.82    4:25.98  
 11   528 Brown, Matt         12 Roman Cath 12        4:21.73    4:26.07 

800 AA Final Results

Berretta let the race go out in 55.1 as he sat back in second place. He took the lead right as the bell sounded and didn’t look back, closing in 58.9 for a time of 1:54.01. He is a little bit shorter and is very strong. Hopefully he continues to grow in the next two years, or we won’t see much improvement. But anyway you look at it a sophomore doubling 4:19/1:54.01, I'm impressed.

  1    31 Perretta, Domenic   10 Beaver Falls 07      1:57.71    1:54.01   10   
  2    70 Goodson, Jonathan   12 Boilng Sprngs 03     1:58.14    1:54.75    8   
  3   155 Garrett, Andrew     12 Delco Chrstn 01      2:00.99    1:55.63    6   
  4   335 Fletcher, David     10 Mount Carmel 04      2:00.40    1:55.98    5   
  5   290 Scullin, Nicholas   12 Lewisburg 04         2:00.75    1:56.52    4   
  6   603 Maloney, William    12 West Catholic 12     1:58.25    1:57.01    3   
  7   539 Steely, Andrew      12 So Columbia 04       2:00.61    1:57.47    2   
  8   589 Koryak, Andrew      11 Vincntn Acd 07       1:59.40    1:57.49    1   
  9   390 Kibbe, Ethan        12 Nrthrn Potter 09     2:00.23    1:58.81  
 10   180 Wilt, Devin         12 Fairfield 03         1:59.06    2:00.87  
 11   327 Hinkel, Ben         11 Minersville 11       2:00.52    2:01.65  
 12   268 Arzie, Mark         11 Lakeland 02          1:58.99    2:06.96  

800 AAA Final Results

Gosh darn it. I knew I should have stuck with my boy Kyle Francis. He didn’t run fast at Districts, and I guess he knew it didn’t matter as much as states. After Wiseman took it out in 25 high with Francis on his back they came through 400 in 54.0. The rest of the field was around 55.50. On the backstretch Francis tried to take the lead, it looked like he was going all out, but Wiseman held him off. (Not sure the 600 split). Coming off the turn Francis gave it one more try, and this time Wiseman broke. Francis powered home to win in a time of 1:49.57, which just misses Tom Mallon’s state record -- 1:49.31! Wiseman held it together very well in the final stretch and finished in 1:50.37! That was an absolutely incredible race to top off possibly the best overall distance day the Pennsylvania State Meet as ever seen. 8:56, 7:41, 4:11, and 1:49 were the winners… Wow, just wow.

Joe Logue came back from the 4x8 to finish 3^rd place in a fantastic time of 1:51.45! No doubt in my mind just about any other year Logue would have won an individual state title in the 800. Zach Brehm ran a smart race and sat back. 7 runners ran 1:54 and Brehm led the pack to take 4^th in 1:54.24. Alek Sauer proved me wrong as he came off the 4x8 to run 1:54.38! That’s a huge PR for him and it was on the double, very impressive. Behind him Cather did his best to double back hitting 1:54.56, beating out one of the few fresh guys Marcus Smail, who was 1:54.64. Smail did not run well at districts, much like Francis, but he ran exception at states this weekend and really earned his medal. 

Dave Garton did his best to keep with the pack hitting 1:54.71 to grab the last medal just over Dylin Wilhoite by .07 seconds. Eli Mercado was feeling the double as well, but still hit 1:55. Nick Smart however died pretty hard and finished last with a time of 2:00.87. 

  1    29 Francis, Kyle       12 Bensalem 01          1:55.01    1:49.57#  10   
  2   181 Wiseman, Jeffrey    12 CR South 01          1:54.21    1:50.37#   8   
  3   458 Logue, Joseph       12 Pennridge 01         1:54.76    1:51.45#   6   
  4    75 Brehm, Zach         11 Carlisle 03          1:54.54    1:54.24    5   
  5   472 Sauer, Alek         11 Pennsbury 01         1:54.69    1:54.38    4   
  6   597 Cather, William     12 State College 06     1:54.53    1:54.56    3   
  7   260 Smail, Marcus       12 Gr Latrobe 07        1:55.89    1:54.64    2   
  8   477 Garton, Dave        12 Perk Valley 01       1:56.06    1:54.71    1   
  9   438 Wilhoite, Dylin     12 Penn Hills 07        1:54.93    1:54.78  
 10   562 Foster, Brett       12 Seneca Valley 07     1:54.69    1:54.95  
 11    46 Mercado, Eli        12 Boyertown 01         1:55.40    1:55.33  
 12    72 Smart, Nick         12 Crdnl O'Hara 12      1:54.58    2:00.87  

O’Hara decided to keep their 3 studs fresh for individual events, and I’m not sure how well it paid off overall. Kevin James proved why he’s such a stud with a great time of 9:03, so he gets a 10/10 on performance. Belfatto looked like his junior year self, which I was sad to see. 4:18.90 is not a bad time and he got a medal, but the guy split 4:11 indoors and has run 4:15’s all season. And not sure what happened to Nick Smart who has split 1:53 and really looked poised to place very well. 

--ForrestCRN

Shout out to Central Bucks South girls 4x800m! They broke the state meet record by 4 seconds running 8:51.49!!! CB South now holds both the boys and girls 4x8 state records. The national records is 8:48... just saying, these young ladies are incredible.  

Again, I rarely talk about girls racing but Maddie Vallalba of CB West won the girls AAA 800 in 2:09.65 and had an absolutely stellar kick to make up a 15m gap in just the home straight away. I rarely see girls truly turn it on at the end of a race, but oh man did she do that. I’m extraordinarily impressed. 

Also Kennedy Wisner had a great 16/8 double to win double gold as she ran by herself in both races winning the 16 in 4:45 and 2:09 (63.6/65.8). Briana Swartz was the top in the state indoors no questions asked, but as Wisner was coming off injury she really broke out and had a wonderful outdoor season.