The Scoring Five: Henderson 3200m

by Jarrett Felix

Entries

West Chester Henderson's track has provided some of the best moments in PA track and field and the hope is tomorrow night will provide another. You can check out the current entries (more might still be to come) at the link above. You can also check out some past results on milesplit. Remember, this event really picked up steam in 2012 when Henderson and O'Hara were in the middle of an epic rivalry before regionals and it has proven to hold up as a great place to extend your season and keep things interesting in this long lay off between states and regionals.

This year's meet may not include Jake Brophy or the big three from DT West (both Hoeys and Sappey will be resting, as will #4 man Jake O'Neil), but it will feature the rest of the state champs from Downingtown as well as AA state champ Dominic Hockenbury and Independent State Champs GFS (led by individual champ Nick Dahl). That's a stacked field.

Here are my five quick thoughts on the entries:
1) How will DT West's depth do?
There has been a lot of talk around DT West's big three (deservedly so), but their depth has gone largely overlooked. They have been very strong this year and really came to play at states, apparently showcasing some strong depth in the alternates race as well. If this team is going to make the jump into elite status, they will obviously need to be firing on all cylinders through all scorers and this should give us a peak at what they can do on the back end. Ryan Barton stands out as a wildcard with tremendous upside, but I also suspect that there will be a ton of innersquad rivalry on race day. With their top four from states resting, it appears this meet will be something of a pseudo tryout for the final three spots between Barton, Ryherd, Bullock, Blair and Alsansky. Bullock had a big race on this track just before districts and has strong speed so he is a sleeper to make noise here.

2) Hockenbury vs. Dahl, a battle of two under appreciated state champs?
I have to say Hock has quietly been getting a lot of love behind the scenes, as some people I've talked to think he could have a huge stretch run to his season at regionals/nationals. This will be a nice test to make sure things are still on track as he squares off with a sub 9 minute 3200m man in Nick Dahl. Dahl ran 9:11 here last year in a battle with Sam Ritz which was, at the time, a PR. If Dahl PRs this time, we would see an unthinkable sub 9 time in November. I'm not getting my hopes up, but Dahl really has something to prove after a disappointing Manhattan and he wants to show he belongs in the conversation with the states elite. Guess what? Hock is in the elite.

I'm having a tough time picking a winner here. Let's be honest, Dahl's track resume is very strong, arguably better than his XC resume which gives him a nice leg up in this meet but Hock has just been on an absolute roll for the last three years! Hock beat Dahl indoors at Yale, but Dahl beat Hock last spring in the 3200m at Henderson's Invite. This is the rubber match.

3) Henderson and O'Hara making it an annual tradition
Look, neither of these teams blew the roof off the place this season (they were 6th and 10th at states), but they were both really strong teams and showed why they are two of the best programs in the entire state in 2015. I like that they seem to be trending towards making regionals an annual tradition for their team. I think this is the way to go, especially when you are a top flight program that will inevitably have strong teams with nationals type upside again in the future. Spencer Smucker will be an interesting story here on the track over 3200m after running a PR type time in the mile earlier this year. Meanwhile, Ryan James and Rob Morro will be in the mix as well. Morro has a pretty impressive track resume, including a 9:28 3200m PR and some nice 1200m, so he might be a sleeper for a big run at this meet.

4) Independents getting involved
It's nice to see the independent league racing with some PIAA talents to see where they stack up. Colin Wills and Grayson Hepp are both exteremely accomplished track athletes who ran phenomenal races at 3200m here last year (particularly Hepp) and finished 3rd and 6th at this year's independent states. Watch for both guys to challenge the 9:30 barrier. Khayre Ali (10th), sophomore Ryan O'Donnell (7th) and Owen Ritz (12th) were all strong finishers at independent states and are entered with solid seed times in this one. Plus you have the GFS pack that includes Zach Goldberg (8th), Daniel Stassen (14th) and Gordon Goldstein (15th) who will be looking for fast times. Keep in mind Goldstein has 2 flat track speed and Stassen ran 2:02 last year as a sophomore. That could translate nicely to the track.

5) Names you might have missed
Hempfield will be sending Justin Yurchak (sub 16 a couple times this year, top 35 finisher at states) and Nick Norton. I would have liked to see the full squad in action and maybe a possible regional trip for this team, but it looks like they are ready to shut down the season for the most part. Michael Geiger is coming off the best race of his season in Hershey and, now fully healthy, the Parkland Junior could make noise on the track. Joe Angelina and Avery Lederer of Penncrest are also signed up to compete for a possible sub 10. I really like what I saw from Penncrest in crunch time of the postseason and this school notoriously runs well on the track. That could be a winning combination.

Lastly, there's Nathan Shivers, an unattached runner seeded at 9:27. I believe this might be the Clearview Regional runner from New Jersey who has PRs (on milesplit) of 4:19 and 15:49. Kid could come in and crash the PA party with a big time and a big run. But it also may not be him, seeing as he has yet to race in 2015 XC (again, according to milesplit).

So who knows! I'll leave him out of the predictions for now, but here is my top five picks ...
1) Hockenbury
2) Dahl
3) Morro
4) Wills
5) Barton

Let us know your thoughts!