A new thing I'm going to try and start is different 'awards' throughout the year, ect. Mr. Underrated may be one of them, I'm not totally sure how it's all going to pan out, but just some new ideas I've been coming up with.
I apologize for not doing a write up on the Henderson Distance Festival; I got really caught up with my summer research. I'll note the really big things - 1. Joe Logue 1:51.01!!! How is a time like that PA #3? For a guy who ran 1:51 mid as a sophomore it's a shame to see him not dip under the 1:51 mark, but he might run at nationals (speculation) so we shall see. Either way he's had a fantastic career. The 1500's by Brehm and Hoey were really solid. No big surprises from either of them, but they raced to expectation, which can be tough to do consistently and they fit that ticket. Kevin James also drops a nice Mile PR and his teammate Nick Smart had a big PR in the 800 of 1:52.9. Lastly Casey Comber is a beast running 14:56 for 5k on the track! Good lord he's scary, watch out District 1!!
You may be wondering at this point: What about Reiny Barchet?
Reiny Barchet -- Mr. Underrated
I first saw the name Reiny Barchet as a junior looking over results after, what was at the time, the biggest meet of my life -- The District 1 Championships in 2010. It was demoralizing to notice that a freshman had just run 16:05 and placed 14th overall for West Chester Henderson. Yes, that ladies and gentleman was Reiny Barchet. He then went on to place 63rd at the PA State Championships, which is one of the highest placing in the past decade. As a freshman outdoors he ran under the difficult 10 flat mark hitting 9:52.99 to place second in the Ches-Mont league.
At this point all signs pointed to Barchet as being an outstanding runner, but there wasn't too much of a stir about him. He seems to be elusive in the rankings, even then.
Sadly as a sophomore he suffered multiple injuries and did not compete during the XC season. Outdoors however he broke another very difficult time for his grade - 9:30, when he ran 9:28.40 to place 9th overall at the district championship. This left him one spot out of qualifying for the state championship meet. He also won the Ches-Mont championship for 1600m
His junior year was a time for redemption on the XC course. His teammate, Tony Russell, took the spot-light however and often times we forget how great Barchet's resume is. Here are a list of his accomplishments from Junior year XC
- Ches-Mont League Champion
- Bronze Medalist (3rd place) at the District 1 Championships
- State Medalist (19th place)
- Runner-Up at the Nike Northeast Regional Championships
- 21st @ Nike Nationals (All-American Honors)
How many times does an XC All-American get forgotten? In an extremely tough, muddy day Barchet battled with the best in the nation to prove how great of a grinder he is. The man sticks to a pace and is really an XC horse. (I'll get back to this later)
Indoors he just missed out on medaling but ran a great PR of 8:51 to place 10th overall and outdoors he repeated as Ches-Mont 1600m Champion along with running a huge PR of 9:08.97 over 3200m. He was unable to repeat the performance but placed 7th at Districts and 22nd at States.
Instead of injury, his senior year Barchet battled illness throughout the season. Many weeks he lost time training, but made sure to race at invitationals for the sake of his team. After a rough 6th place finish at Ches-Mont's Barchet did what he always has done -- Whatever it takes for his team to succeed. He finished 6th overall at Districts and then came back at the state meet to run a blazing 16:05 to place 5th overall to ensure that Henderson would get the win. Then at Nike Regionals he stuck with the pack of Henderson runners to help them place well as a team, which only placed him 20th overall. Then on a rough day at Nationals Reiny continued to battle the sickness and placed 127th overall.
Outdoors Barchet ran a PR over 2 Miles with a time of 9:06.44 at the Henderson Distance Festival and wrapped up his career placing 3rd in the 1600 and 6th in the 3200 at the District 1 championships and then 10th in the 1600 and 7th in the 3200m at the PA State meet.
He then raced one final race in a Henderson uniform running an excellent Mile time of 4:11.51 to win the Boys Mile section of the Henderson distance festival. On his own track Reiny Barchet went out a winner, and my goodness he deserved it.
You might be wondering why I have only talked about Reiny Barchet's individual accomplishments at this point in the article, but I will get to that soon. Lets review his career quickly
-- 2x XC State Medalist; 1x Outdoor State Medalist
-- 3x XC State Meet Qualifier, 1x Indoor State Qualifier, and 3x Outdoor State Qualifier
-- 3x District Medalist in both XC and Outdoor Track
-- Broke 10 flat as a freshman, 9:30 as a sophomore, 9:10 as a junior, and 9:05 as a senior in the 3200
-- 3x Ches-Mont Champion
-- 2x Regional Medalist and National Qualifier for XC
-- 1x All-American in XC
I point out all of these accomplishments first to show how great of an individual runner Reiny Barchet really is, but he is the best team runner out there.
Barchet does anything and everything for his team. He has been on and contributed to Three District Title winning XC teams, Two State Championship teams, Two National Qualifying teams, a Multi-time All-American Indoors (2x DMR, 2x 4xMile). Is there anything you cannot ask of this man? He straight up gets the job done better than anyone else and lays it all out for his teammates.
Next year Reiny Barchet goes off to Colorado to run for the Buffalo's where he will be competing for a top 7 spot on the National Championship team. They return all 7 runners along with Jake Hurysz who was injured. Why would the best team in the Nation want Reiny Barchet? The answer to me seems quite clear, but I'll spell it out. Barchet placed 21st at XC Nationals as a junior in horrible weather conditions. He runs with a pack as well and puts everyone on the line for his teammate. He's tall and built like a horse, which means he's going to be even better over 10000m than he was over 5000m. I have no doubt, if he stays healthy, that Barchet will one day contribute to the Buffalo's amazing squad.
This concludes the first Mr. Underrated Post.
--ForrestCRN
You da real MVP, Reiny Barchet!
ReplyDeleteHe's also one of the most underrated cheap shot artists running in the State. He's the XC version of Brehm. It hasn't caught up to him yet but it will.
DeleteI wonder how WCH will look with out Mr. Underrated or the rest of that senior class. I wonder if Coach Kelly will make a miracle or if they will flop.
ReplyDeleteI mean they'll probably flop. With these guys they won the State Championship in 2012 and 2013. Prior to that 5th and then 2nd when they were freshmen. Before that nothing ever existed with Coach Kelly running the show.
Delete2009 - State Champs
2008 - 7th at States
2006 - 2nd at States
2005 - 5th at States
2003 - State Champs
2002 - State Champs
So yeah I guess a miracle will be needed... good point.
Maybe the most on point sarcasm I've seen in a while.
Delete-RTJ
It looks like they’ll need a miracle because they have nothing returning with any potential to build around. Well, nothing other than the following 1600 times:
DeleteKnapp – 4:25 (and 11th at Districst XC)
G Barchet – 4:30
Swart – 4:34
5 or 6 Freshman/Sophs – 4:50-5:00, ready to break out
2 incoming freshman, 4:42 and 5:00
Track isn't XC. Look at their XC times. Off the top of my head they will have Waltz, Barchet, and Swart leading the team next year. G.Barchet was a very talented freshman like his brother and got hurt like his brother. A fresh season for him and good summer training he will be a top competitor.
Delete-RTj
Don't forget about Knapp leading the charge, he was very strong last season. I'd be shocked if they don't make it out of District One.
DeleteSo much work to do preview wise! I hope all of you are just as excited as I am
RTJ, Waltz is a senior, he's gone. And freshman/sophs running 5:00 or better for 1600 is a good indicator of decent XC potential. From that listing there's already one sub 16, two others that will go sub 16:25 and 7 or so with potential to go sub 17. 2 or three will likely break out so WCH cannot be counted out next year.
Deleteknapp 15:38 in his second season, G. Barchet 16:08 in his second season, swart 16:35 (jv district champ) in his third season. Pretty solid top three, and Mr. Kelly can probably fill in the rest
DeleteKnowing Barchet, I can attest he has never underrated himself. Humility isn't in his vocabulary, nor is the word "team".
DeleteWhoever wrote that, I also know Barchet quite well and I completely disagree with that statement. He may not have underrated himself, but most people don't, and he always ran hard to help out his team.
DeleteHenderson also has two rising sophomores who did not run spring track but still ran sub 5:10. With that in mind Henderson still had 5 rising sophomores that did run sub 5. Along with two talented upcoming freshman they are deep with young talent.
DeleteComber's 14:56 5K sounds impressive and it is, but keep in mind it's on a track. That time would probably convert to about 15:36 on Lehigh, which is a fast XC course. I'm not knocking the outstanding performance just saying I doubt it translates into anything near 15:00 on an XC course.
ReplyDeleteThat's very impressive no matter what the surface. Look up Dustin Wilson and Brendan Shearn on the track for a 5k and it'll show you how impressive that is.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt he has a great future ahead of him. I think though that Barchet has actually been overrated at least the first three and a half years of high school. He had a break out track season this year-finally. But up until that point he's had one good race per year and not much else. He just doesn't fit the Mr. Underrated label, Forrest.
DeleteVery possible that Conestoga could pull out a team championship, return 6 of their top 7 and have a strong front runner in Andrew Marston. Hopping on the DWest bandwagon as well, they're going to do very well next year. They only lose their #7 from districts. This brings me to North Allegheny, I would have said this was their race to lose, but they only return 3 of their top 7 (McGoey, Seel and Wharrey). That's certainly a strong top 3, but those 4 and 5 runners need to show up big for them to win.
ReplyDeleteDon't they return seamus love as well?
DeleteSeamus Love no longer attends NA.
DeleteForrest and the Pa don't play community,
ReplyDeleteI just want to formally thank you for this post, it's very kind of you and obviously a lot of work went into it. I appreciate what you and the blogging community have done to change the sport so much over the past 4 years I've competed. Keep doing what you're doing as it makes the sport more exciting and easier to follow. Thank you
-Reiny Barchet