Results (12/29 and 12/30) UPDATED 4:25PM with Burdette Classic Results

Marine Corps Holiday Classic
Sam Ritz entered the open 800m late in order to battle the 1:50 man John Lewis. The race couldn't have played out better with Lewis opening up the race in 55.6 with Ritz following up in 56.2. Lewis continued to hold the race until the final stretch where Ritz slowly overtook him to finish in 1:52.81 to Lewis’ 1:52.88 (Ritz’ final splits 56.2/56.5). These two guys are clearly continuing the 800m prowless that we have seen from PA runners in recent years. As I posted on Etrain’s blog last night, this is what everyone wanted to see 3 years ago from Magaha/Willig. Throwing down a 4:14 and 1:52 in December from someone like Ritz is just crazy and the 4:12.61 and 1:51.73 indoor state meet records look to be under real threat if Ritz wants to go after it. Tony Russell came up just short (.04) last season and it shows just how difficult the solo race can be. Now, if he can battle a healthy Jaxson Hoey, who ran 4:17 indoors last season, he might have better encouragement, or potentially Kevin James will race the Mile. Lewis has been teasing mid-distance fans over the past 2 years by running fantastic times during the regular season, but refusing to run the 800m at States. If he and Ritz go after the race together we could see Endress’ 800m meet record fall, but Lewis seems like such a clear favorite in the open 400 (He’ll probably run 47.8ish) that I’d be shocked if he didn’t choose this route again.

Penn Wood’s runners didn’t have as much success as anticipated with Ahmere Ponzo running 2:01.47, which is still a pretty solid time, although banked, early in the season. His teammate Dennis Manyeah ran 2:05.72. In the ‘regular’ 800, Cheltenham runners had more success with Kyle Davis placing second with a time of 2:01.26 and Isaiah Watts running 2:05.22. Could this team bring some success to the 4x8? With an anchor like Lewis if they can get one more solid leg 8 flat seems like a solid possibility.

Speaking of 4x8’s, PA’s Central League dominated the relay race at the Corps Classic. Penncrest took the win in 8:08.73 (by 4 seconds) and Strath Haven placed 3^rd in 8:12.97. Both teams look to go low 8’s by the end of the season. I love Penncrest’s combo of Evan Emanuel and Soham Kamat. They also return Brendan Hanna (2:02.47 - open) and Colin Tyson (2:04.00 – open) from last season and I think this team will be better than their 7:50.80 outdoor time last season (outdoors) and indoors breaking 8 seems like a real possibility. Strath Haven has done some fantastic things in the past with their 4x8’s, but they’ve been very average (8:10’s) in recent years. Maybe this will be their breakout squad.

If anyone has relay splits please post them!
Robert J. Burdette Indoor Classic


800m
As predicted the 800m meet record of 1:58.20 fell not just to one, but two runners in Alek Sauer and Khai Samuels! Sauer took the win in a very strong time 1:56.53. Sauer’s 1:52.9 split from last year’s states seems to be already showing itself. Samuels is having a big breakout season on the track and he must have held on for a nice time. Sauer is really quick, so Samuel’s must have hung pretty well for an even split would be my guess. 1:57.89 this early is very solid, and as we’ve seen before the 800/DMR double has worked for him early on (I bet we see this at states).

No idea who Brett Wolfinger is from Quakertown, but the junior, who’s PR was 2:01.01 from last year’s Henderson Invitation, seems to have moved up in distance and this race was perfect for him as he dropped a nice PR of 1:58.99.  We see another 400m man moved up in distance for success. Connor Holm and Kamil Jihad also had very solid days grabbing the SQS with times of 2:00.49 and 2:00.60 respectively. Jihad is looking like a total stud as he drops another 2 seconds off his PR. Boucher for CB East had a tough day running 2:04, but the mid-distance could be his thing if he has a breakout race in January.

Mile –
Paul Power shows off his speed and that he won’t be messing around this indoor season as he drops a win by almost 3 seconds in 4:27.49 to continue the tradition of runners breaking 4:30 at this meet. This speed by Power impresses me, because I never thought of him as that type of a runner. Frankly I think this was a big race for him. The late entry John Daly placed second just edging out Colin Wills of Malvern Prep in 4:30.16 to Wills’ 4:30.19. Both runners will be key DMR pieces ad St. Joe’s Prep squad is going to be really solid.

Ryan Tung looked pretty food I 4^th with a 4:31.29 to also get the SQS. Andrew Hanna had himself a nice finish with a 4:33.76, but I think we’re going to see better things from this young man later in the season. Lapsansky had a tough day after a long XC season with a 4:40 6^th place. Also to note Liam Conway, Owen J. Roberts freshman stud, opened up his season in a 4:47!

3000 –
OH BOY! The 3k was unreal! I didn’t have faith in Abert after his 4:39 season opener, but he showed up big time dropping PA #2 with a time of 8:55.89! I would really love to see Abert continue to go for the 3k/3200 during track. He’s got some nice speed on him as we’ve seen over the past two years, but I think he could really push guys like Brophy and James over this distance and it’s great to see him succeed early on. Behind him runners were not messing around with 7 runners breaking 9:20 (Slavin was 8^th in 9:20.53). McDevitt placed second overall with a 9:00.58, which just misses the SQS. He had a strong XC season and this comes as no surprise.

I thought Degroot-Lutzner and Maguire would be in the 9:10 range, but Etrain’s predictions were more on point for sure as both runners went sub 9:05 with times of 9:03.33 and 9:03.65 respectively!! Both runners are looking really strong with D-L running a slew of solid races in recent weeks and Maguire broke out during XC, but is clearly coming into his own on the track. He and Hanna will be big time on a DMR team. McMenamin didn’t waste any time on the track: the 10^th grader from Souderton ran 9:09.23 in his first race this indoor season. Central Bucks runners also came to place with Ian Davies of West running 9:11.79 and Connor Sands of East running 9:19.50. If anyone has splits on how these guys ran, please post them up!

4x4 – Not totally what I talk about, but Cheltenham drops a 3:26.21 after being in the Armoury just yesterday. . . that’s pretty awesome. Also Pennsbury breaks 3:30 early in the season.
4x8 – Nothing crazy in this relay with Twin Valley winning in 8:26 on a 13 second leave over Neumann Goretti.

SMR – Easton Area came to play with a 3:48 over CB East, Roman Catholic, and Chester. I wonder what runners were doubling back from this race such as Abert, Boucher, and Jihad.

DMR – Nothing too big in this race, but solid 11:03’s from both Boyertown and Central Bucks East who were 1^st and 2^nd respectively.


--ForrestCRN