Yale Performance List Discussion and Two Meet Results!

Albright College HS Invitational #1

Brook Wilson of Central York ran a very solid 2:03.52 to take the open 800 by 7 seconds! Hopefully he can find an invitational to race at in the coming weeks with strong competition to race against so he can try and jump into the top 24 in the state. He had trouble coming back in the Mile however with a 4:53 for 3^rd place. Seamus Breslin of Bishop Shanahan won in 4:48. 

Glen Mills Invitational

Rahi Shah of Bensalem gets the open 800m win in 2:06 over Chester’s Ryan Rucker. This is a really terrible track to race on and I bet they went out pretty slow, but good racing from both guys. Also to note is Haverford’s James Abrahams running 2:07.50. You may recall the sophomore ran 4:41 earlier in the year to win the Mile at TCFA meet. He’s improving and is a name to keep an eye on.

Kamil Jihad switches up events this week for the first time running a mile in high school and he wins in 4:42.63 by 5 seconds over Upper Dublin’s Riley Hannon. I’m sure Jihad closed really quickly after sitting on the leaders. I’d love to know how much faster he could go against some 4:35 milers or how he’d race in a 400. But he’s got the middle distances on lockdown for now. 

A 3200 was on the docket at this meet instead of the 3k and Tyji Mays and Alex Ramirez went 1-2 for Bensalem with 10:04’s and 10:19’s to their names. Both guys had strong XC seasons and are probably training for the 4x8, but it’s good to see them both succeeding at longer distances.

In the 4x8 Penn Wood put together a solid 8:22 squad to win the relay over Cheltenham’s 8:27. It’s always good to see these spring squads moving up in distance. Wissahickon dropped two seconds from last week with an 8:28 performance to place 3^rd.

Yale Invitational Meet Preview

Heat Sheets can be found here: http://www.yalebulldogs.com/sports/m-track/2014-15/files/HEAT_SHEETS.pdf

I’ll open the discussion with the 3k and boy am I pumped! After Great Valley began attending this meet to get some fast times out of Willig this meet seems to have really hit it off with PA runners. Not as many teams as I expect attend Armoury meets, but traveling to CT seems to be the thing. I’m still scratching my head at this, but hey, it makes for a lot of fun mid-January. So who is on the list this year you might ask? No Brendan Shearn’s or Tony Russell’s to look out for in the first heat… but WAIT:

PA gets strong representation from the fast heat with 3 runners: Nick Dahl, Dominic Hockenbury, and Andrew Marston. Quite the trio. Dahl recently opened his second with a 2 flat performance over 800m. He also PR’d this XC season in the 3200 with a 9:11. This kid loves to hang onto paces and clearly excels on the track. I think he goes as low as 8:40, but I’m thinking ~8:45 for the youngster, which is a blazing fast time. He’ll be competing against David Principe Jr. of La Salle, who is one of the top sophomores in the nation as well, so that story line is also something to be excited for. Going up in grade the next young man we have is Dominic Hockenbury. Hockenbury has yet to open up his track season (to my knowledge), but he finished quite well at Footlocker regionals for the second year in a row. The track isn’t totally his thing, but remember he solo’d 9:19 for the win outdoors last season in AA over 3200m. I think he’s got a solid shot at breaking 9 minutes, but I’m not sure the speed is there to go that far under the 9 minute barrier. Andrew Marston is our senior in the fast heat. He has opened up with a 4:28, but we know that distance is clearly his forte. He beat Dahl in a 3k during XC, but his strength on hills was able to give him the advantage. Marston, in my opinion, is the toughest to predict here, but I’m thinking something around 8:55ish, but I wouldn’t be too surprised to see him drop a real bomb here either.

In the 2^nd heat, featuring Alex Ostberg for some odd reason (the regional winner – coming off a bit of an injury) we have Colin Abert! I’m shocked he’s not in the fast heat, and I think this hurts him a little, but he should be able to race behind Ostberg and kick off what should be a solid pace for him. Honestly depending on Ostberg’s health, I think Abert can win this heat in 8:52ish. He’s got the kick we’ve seen so many times and I’m glad he’s really starting to move up in distance and race the 3k more.

The 3^rd heat is stacked with PA runners including Alex Knapp, Colin Wills, Will Swart, and Gordy Barchet. Potentially a bit fast for Swart and Barchet, but I think they should both be able to handle ~9:10ish pace. I don’t know too much of their track backgrounds, but that would make sense with the XC times they hit. I’ve got no idea what to expect from Knapp. He had a great ending to his XC season at states and regionals, which hopefully translates to the track, but he’s never been too much of a track runner, so we shall see. I’d love to see him run between 9 flat and 9:05. I think he’s got the talent and coaching to run just under 9 minutes, but I’d be surprised to see it come together like that, especially this early. Lastly, Wills has run a solo 9:15 for Malvern Prep this season and I think he can go ~9:07ish, but like Swart and Barchet, I’m afraid too quick of a pace early may really hurt him, but I think he can hang out pretty well.

In the 5^th heat we’ll get to see races from guys like DTW’s Ben Ryherd and Charlie Barton along with ‘Stoga’s Jack Iffert and Nick Boccella. These two district one new school powerhouses are going at it again, but this time on the track. Also to note is Joe Newmann of GTF getting into a quick heat. And ofc is the other heats are a slew of DTW and Henderson runners getting to show their chops over the 3000m distance. 

There are some big surprises in the open Mile. FL National qualifiers Benito Muniz and Ari Klau will be taking on Sam Ritz, who has run 4:14 twice now this season, along with 4:13 miler Kieran Tuntivate from DE. The biggest surprises, however, as the other two PA guys: Eric Diestelow and Billy McDevitt. McDevitt and Wills combined for a solid sub 11 DMR and McDevitt as also run 9 flat for 3k, while Diestelow has run 4:33 (or 4:34, I can’t remember) for the Mile. They must have entered pretty quick to get into the fast heat, but I’m interested to see how they navigate this race that is going to go out really fast by all indication (Ritz was out in 3:09 for 1200 last weekend). Hopefully Ritz can take the title here. I’d love to see a 4:25 from McDevitt and Diestelow to go sub 4:30. 

The biggest shock of the performance list, no questions asked, is Michael Kolor of Seneca Valley travelling to race in this Mile. WOW. Not in a million years would I have seen that one coming, but, if it’s not obvious, this is quite an exciting shock. Kolor medaled in XC after a very strong track season that saw him go 4:20 for the Mile and split 1:55/6 in the 4x800. I’m really, really excited to see what he can do in his opening season race. I’m hoping something along the lines of 4:25, but anything sub 4:28 would be a nice start for this young man. I think he’s a shoe in for a medal in the Mile this indoor season.

In the 3^rd heat we’ve got Henry Sappey for DT West and PJ Murray of Conestoga. I love that these teams keep getting put in the same heats, and hey, it makes sense Sappey opened his season with an apparent 3:19 split, which is solid from the XC breakout star, but I’d really like to see a sub 4:30 from him this weekend. Murray had a great track season for a sophomore (4:29 1600), but it didn’t translate to as big things as some may have hoped during XC (although he did very well). He jumped quickly to success on the track this indoor season, however, as he ran 4:29 in the Mile to open up this season. I think he could take this race in ~4:26/27.

In the 4^th heat is HGP’s Patrick Dineen who just ran 4:38 at Haverford and Josh Hoey’s first open race as a DT West kid. Still no sign of his older brother Jaxson, but Josh split 2:08 to open his season and I think under 4:40 would be awesome for a freshman to start indoor open racing. He should be able to do just that.

In the Open 800 we’ve got Greyson Hepp of GTF racing against Barton and Drownling (I hope I didn’t mess that up) from DTW along with a few Malvern Prep runners such as Mueller who just ran 2:08. Hopefully Hepp can get in a fast heat (they don’t release heat sheets for the 800 due to large numbers of scratches late in the meet) and really perform. Maybe a 1:57ish is possible form him after that 2 flat, but I’m thinking 1:58 mid will be his time. Also Jimmy Cooper of Conestoga will be in the 800 as well. Not sure what to expect from him. 

In the DMR Championship we get to watch GTF take on Conestoga, which should be a lot of fun. Both teams have a ton of potential with big legs. Around low 10:40’s for both teams would be really solid in my opinion. Both teams have the 12/Mile solidly covered (Hepp/Murray and Dahl/Marston), but the 800m and 400m slots are both question marks that could really hurt these teams overall times. In the regular DMR we will see Malvern Prep put something together, which could be a lot of fun, and it’s a shame they aren’t in the Championship race, but ~10:45-50 seems reasonable for them.

In the 4x8 we’ll see two DTW squads and Henderson going at it. I’ve got no real expectations here from either team, but they both have strong relay hopes for the state meet (or should) with the pieces they have. That being said both teams are clearly focused on individual events for their ‘true’ season opener.

--ForrestCRN