Weekend Recap: Friday Action

by etrain11

There was plenty of action last night which has to get you pretty fired up for what could be coming next weekend under the big spotlight of Penn Relays. Let's talk about some of what we saw out there and, as usual, I will likely ramble a lot.

LHU Invitational
The meet began with a familiar sight: Griffin Molino winning the 1600m. Last year he won in 4:12.93, setting the track world on alert that this kid was more than an XC stud. However, by season's end he had fallen a bit from center stage. This year Griffin still threw down a dominant performance of "only" 4:20.89 but it seems like he is taking a more patient approach to the season, a strategy which should pay huge dividends when we hit the postseason. I'm really excited to see what Griff can do and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for an epic faceoff in either the 3200m or the 1600m with Hock or Perretta. Goodness the AA fields are going to be fun.

Second to Molino was Simon Smith of Towanda (who was entered in today's Shippenburg meet as well) who ran an impressive 4:26 for second. That's a strong time and a nice run when going toe to toe with a multi state champ. Smith is one of the top returners from last year's mile field but is also a dangerous competitor in the 3200m. The 1600m, thus far, has shown signs of being quite crowded, but the 3200m won't be a cake walk either. I'll be interested to see what Simon decides to do.

Also a nice run by Griffin's younger training partner Hunter Crawley. The sophomore ran 4:34 on basically even splits for third and beat a couple really solid names in Levi Ebersole and Quincy Amabile. Crawley was fantastic in the stretch run of XC and I wouldn't be surprised to see him make big strides the rest of the way.

Molino also won the 3200m in 9:47, beating Quincy Amabile who ran 9:51. At the beginning of the meet, we saw a great 4x8. AA Milton Area ran one of the best times for anyone in the AA division, running 8:13 (they also came back to win the 4x4 in 3:32). Second in the 4x8 was Mifflin County from District 6, who ran 8:16. D6 is going to be a fast race out front with SC and Altoona both expected to be well under 8 minutes, so perhaps that could pull MC down near the SQS by season's end. Definitely something to keep an eye on.

Butler Invitational
District 7's answer for the fast D1 area meets was quite an emphatic response across the board. Considering that the reigning XC state champs weren't even in attendance, this meet was fantastic. The meet began with a quality 4x8 win by the boys from Penn Hills, who ran 8:04. They beat a solid squad in Butler who ran 8:11 for runner-up honors.Taking third was Slippery Rock who I believe is from D10. I like this 4x8 as a sleeper (Josh Jones is off to a very nice start) plus, unlike Butler, their district qualifying should be relatively tame (depending on what Grove City does I suppose). Butler is a strong squad, it will just be tough to navigate a D7 that is underratedly deep. Yeah I made up that word. Worth noting also was the strong AA time by Seneca who ran 8:21, led by the Meyers twins.

In the 1600m, Jeff VanKooten (another guy who was entered in Shippensburg's meet today) had a dominating run of 4:17 to take the victory by about 5 seconds. JVK ran 4:14 low a year ago and was 3rd at states. He has had to deal with some heartbreak recently in XC and during indoors (he missed states bot times despite being among the top returners) and now he seems motivated and hungry for redemption. This guy is a scary force and he's running better than he was this time last year (meaning we could be in store for 4:12 or faster this go round).

He bested Andrew Koryak (4:22) and Jacob Heinauer (4:23) to get the victory. That's great runs for both of these two. Koryak has really excelled at the 1600m recently with a couple of hard fought silvers against two of the best of the west in JVK and Peretta. Koryak has always been more of an 800m specialist, but he looks like he is heading towards a possible 1600m-800m double at states (his 4:22 puts him right among the AA state leaders) which complicates an already complicated group. Heinauer was a strong miler a year ago who didn't get to showcase his full display of fast times because of the epic downpour at D7s. Heinauer also won the 3200m beating a quality field that included Will Loevner. Heinauer comes from a North Hills program that is arguably the most impressive 3200m program in state history. But the WPIAL is loaded at 3200m (McGoey, Wharrey, TGunz in AAA were all indoor medalists) so Heinauer may opt for the 16 instead depending on how things shake out.

The 16 also featured a 4:29 from Liam Raehsler from AA Clarion (in a winning effort no less) and a 4:32 from frosh Tristian Forsythe of Winchester Thurston. The meet featured 13 men at 4:32 or faster.

In the 800m that followed, Elias Graca took center stage, leading a thrilling 800m field with his 1:53.7 to beat Mike Kolor of Seneca Valley who ran a sizeable PR of 1:55.0. Koryak rounded off the top three doubling back in 1:57. Graca is money, so much so that we have gotten to a point where a dominating 1:53 PA #1 time barely phases us. That's a sign of elite caliber running. Kolor stole the show here in my eyes as he proves his speed is phenomenal, running a very fast time and holding his own. Kolor isn't going to just hand over a 1600m title to VanKooten and when the two of them do inevitably square off it could be legendary. Get me a Graca, JVK and Kolor Mile at Baldwin under the lights (and hopefully throw in McGoey, Peretta and others for good measure) and I'd be ecstatic. That would be a killer race.

My boys from Penn Hills doubled back from their 8:04 4x8 victory to produce 3 sub 2 minute performances in the open 8. Terrell, Bailey and Murray ran 1:58.8, 1:59.0 and 1:59.1 in the meet to showcase some excellent ability. I'm high on this Penn Hills squad and I think they are a legit state contender, especially if one of these three has a big breakthrough from stud to star in the next month or so. They added a 3:27 4x4 win for good measure.

In the aforementioned 3200m, Jacob Heinauer won a tightly contested race 9:35 to 9:36 over Loevner as both men were at or near their PRs. Also running a strong race was third place Aaron Benka who doubled back from the mile to run 9:37 for third. Benka could be a sleeper in the 3200m looking ahead, but unlike XC he is AAA now which makes it hard to crack the top 8 in a loaded group. That being said, if he gets into the state final and can hang tough to a fast pace, we could see a time down near 9:20 which would be sweet. Liam Raeshler doubled back from his 1600m run to grab 4th in 9:41 in the 3200m.

Tamaqua Invitational
Jim Thorpe looked real nice. They had a strong team during XC and then got wins in the 400m, 800m, 1600m and 3200m at this meet to go with an 8:20 victory in the 4x8. I like this team to a be a AA 4x800m contender looking ahead. They looked excellent at this invite.

Warrior Invitational
I'm going to try to keep the rambling to a minimum about this one because I'm sure much of this will spill over into the Penn Relays posts I have planned for the near future (see my post about my upcoming post schedule for all the info on that).

The big race of the day was the 1600m, which featured a flurry of the fastest times in the state (including two of the state leaders in sophomore Nick Dahl and frosh Josh Hoey), but really the biggest story line was the triumphant return of Jaxson Hoey who returned for DT West to run a blazing 4:16.39 and beat a strong field. This is obviously huge news for Jaxson who appears to be fully healthy and ready to roll this spring. And honestly, this is mainly a big deal because Jaxson is in the PIAA now. Not to sound mean, but I'm not really concerned with the independent league balance of power the same way I am with the 1600m at states (which could now be a Brehm v. VanKooten v. Jaxson type showdown plus whoever else wants to get involved). Outdoors the only state golds go to the PIAA so those are the ones where fans and bloggers alike will be paying closest attention. All the more reason to have everyone come to the PA MoCs this year and make it a big deal so we can have Ritz, McDevitt, Dahl, etc. mean something in the grand scheme of outdoor track.

But enough ranting on that. Hoey's win was also big for DT West who now boasts two sub 4:20 milers on the season and added Ryan Barton's impressive 4:21 and Henry Sappey's strong 4:24.0 to the mix. That gives them 4 milers all at the SQS or better and ... all of them are coming back next year. Boom. This was a big statement for DT West who now goes into Penn Relays with some sizeable expectations for their 4x8. That being said I can't help but think they missed their calling with the DMR. Based on the fact that GFS was the last team in, it appears that DT West would not have been able to compete in that event regardless BUT you have to imagine their DMR would have been sick this year and maybe PA's best team.

The anchors that will be involved in the DMR, Nick Dahl and Andrew Marston, both ran 4:18 in the open which is a great mark, especially considering that both are likely 3200m men at heart. Marston is about 2-3 seconds faster than he was this time last year in the 1600m and looked phenomenal in his 3k earlier down south. Dahl is still just a sophomore who ran 9:11 on the track back in November. Both guys have high ceilings this outdoors.

Paul Power also had a huge day, running a PR of 4:17 and taking 3rd overall behind two runners with PRs at 1:54 or faster (Hoey and Delaware's Ben Boswell). That's big for Power who has proven his worth at the 1600m and cruised to a 9:20 in the 3200m last weekend. There was a point during indoors where I was a little worried Paul may have peaked too early in December, but I was dead wrong. He medaled at states indoors and is on an absolute tear to start this outdoors. All three of these men could be dangerous in the legendary Henderson 3200m (and heck maybe Jaxson and the DTWest army are in there too, I hope so).

Strong showings as well from Diestelow (4:24), Brian Hackman (4:25 is one of the top AA times this year) and Bishop Shanahan's Chris Kolimago who ran 4:32 to win heat 4 of 5.

In the 800m, Quakertown's Brett Wolfinger had a strong breakthrough, cracking the 1:58s and skipping down to a 1:56.81 for second overall behind the aforementioned Boswell's 1:54. This is big for Wolfinger who had been running solid for weeks, dating back to indoors but couldn't quite pop one in this event. Now he does and he catapults himself into the list of contenders at 800m. Not to mention the fact that the Qs have a sneaky good 4x8. Behind Wolfinger were a slew of other long awaited PA breakthroughs. Killian Nelson ran 1:57.43 for third in what I believe is his first open sub 2. He has been killing it on the DMR so this is a nice result. Then there was freshman Liam Conway who found his legs in a big way, dropping a huge 1:57.78 for 4th. This was stunning to me. I thought Conway was already having an excellent freshman year, but this time blows his other marks out of the water. Really fantastic run to add to a super talented class of freshman.

Seamus Fromhartz from Bishop Shanahan ran a 1:58.11 for 5th, another excellent time. I was curious to see what individual successes would spawn from the battle tested Bishop Shanahan 4x8 and Fromhartz and Kolimgao really came through on that front today. Should be fun to watch them at Penn. Grayson Hepp adds a solid 1:58.37 and Avon Grove's Matt Jacob breaks 2 minutes out of one of the slower sections.

A few other marks worth noting included Jimmy Cook's 2:00 (excellent range from 3200m to 800m and I believe this time came on the double from the 4x8), Spencer Smucker, super frosh from Henderson, ran 2:01 in his first spring track race of interest, and Owen Ritz ran a sneaky 2:05 to win his by nearly 2 seconds. Also Perkiomen Valley has the pieces for a 4x8, WC East could be dangerous and Conestoga might have the speed to get involved in the 4x8 as well as Cooper had an excellent run last night.

Unionville took the top two spots in the 3200m last night in 9:43 and 9:47 for Kent Hall and Mike Delvecchio. Stoga added two sub 10 minute 3200m runners to their excellent night in Iffert and Boccella while Avon Grove got a nice lift from 3rd place finisher Jake Ilgenfritz (9:47). Rustin won the 4x8 and Henderson won the 4x4. For those of you who are fans of the Chesmont (feels like 90% of my readership often times), you guys are going to have a really fun championship meet down the line.

That's everything I've heard so far Friday wise. Good things happening already on Saturday. Stay tuned for more recaps tomorrow (hopefully we get some Abington results to go along with Shippensburg and the others).

Peace.