Let the Indoor Season Begin!

by Jarrett Felix

As Jake Brophy has now crossed the line for the final time this country season (congrats to Jake on capping off his impressive career with an exclamation point), I don't feel guilty turning my attention towards indoor track (unless we can get an interview with Jake or something like that, but that's a story for another day). So let's move onto some of the early action! It may December, but it felt like spring outside today and that makes me excited for the quick stuff.

Ursinus Meet
This was a bit of a low key meet, but there were still some performances worth noting. In the mile, sophomore Jacob McKenna of Spring Ford took a convincing four second win at 4:46, about 4 seconds ahead of second place. McKenna was definitely on the upswing towards season's end for cross (awesome race at Pioneer) and this is a strong opener for the sophomore. Remember, it's still just December. Spring Ford also added an 11:15 DMR (apparently without McKenna based on the names listed) which is another solid opening season mark. Southern Lehigh comes out solid early with an 11:20, an intriguing time from this squad that doesn't have a big history of producing on the track.

But the performance of the meet will go to Downingtown West's Henry Sappey. The Senior was apparently looking to capitalize off his XC fitness and get a state qualifying type time in the 3k. He clocked 8:59.95 in about a 25 second win over teammate Jake O'Neill (probably looking to pull of the same strategy). Paul Power did a similar thing at this meet last year (I think he was 8:54ish) and I think it's a worthwhile strategy for sure. It's still just December, plenty of time to recover, retool and be ready to go in February (and more importantly May).

Worth noting, I believe this is Sappey's first ever indoor 3k (he was on relay duty a lot last year) and I think this is likely where we see him a lot this indoors. That being said, I'm not positive 8:59.95 is going to definitely get you to states (although it is under the "SQG", I suspect there will be a nice chunk of guys around this mark by season's end). I'm still impressed with the PR, especially after a week of traveling across the country and back.

TFCAofGP Division I
It was a pretty solid opening day for the Penn Wood boys. It looks like Penn Wood returns 3 members of last year's surprise 7:48 4x800m including Seck (second in the 400m today in 51 seconds, split 47ish at Penn Relays last year) and Dennis Manyeah (1st place in the 800m 2:01, split 1:55ish last year I believe on the 4x8). Jani Smith was the other returner from that relay, he was in the mile but got a bit caught up in a really quick race.

Speaking of that mile, Liam Conway from Owen J Roberts really turned the place upside down with a 4:28.38 gold medal to start off his season. It was a big statement for a guy who just barely missed out on a cross country medal this fall (think he's motivated by that right now?). Conway also happened to run really quick at 800m last year as a frosh (1:58ish I believe) which proved he has crazy good range. Opening in 4:28 in December is really, really quick. Usually we see 4:25ish at Burdette from state title contenders. Could be a big year for Conway.

But Liam wasn't the only guy running fast. PJ Murray of Conestoga clocked a 4:31 and fellow sophomore stand out Rusty Kujdych also ran under the SQG. Connor McMenamin was close behind, running 4:33 to give four guys times that would have put themselves in state qualifying contention last year. Strong race by sophomore Sean Rahill as well, dropping a 4:49 mark in his first high level track race. Also liked the fight we saw in the 1st section: Doug Luba from PW got a narrow win over frosh Nick Cataldi from North Penn (lots of intriguing young talent on this team) and Drew Ilik from Upper Dublin.

As mentioned Dennis Manyeah took the 800m title over 400m runner Sean Conway of Neshaminy who has proven himself nicely in the overdistance the last couple seasons. A couple of sub 2 guys from last year Hudson Delisle and Jack Armond both also broke 2:04 in their openers. Young Aidan Sauer from Pennsbury had a solid race to break 2:10 in one of his first major individual 800ms.

The 3k was an interesting battle between three rising stars from this past XC season. Bryton Henry from Boyertown took the win over Joe Breen of Souderton and Evan Hutton (not to be confused with staff writer Evan Hatton) of William Tennent. Henry ran a 9:25 mark edging Joe Breen by 0.35 for the W (Breen running low 9:26s).

Here's something else I found intriguing. CB East runs a 3:36 in the 4x4 and Abington runs a 3:39. CB East did it without Bropy (who was at Footlocker of course) and Abington did it without Isiah Smith and their members from their big time 4x8 (getting to that next). I'm curious if CB East can convince any 400 legs to move up an extra couple laps to help out on the relays (potential in the 4x8 and DMR for this squad).

As mentioned, Abington killed it in the 4x8. 8:11.85 at this time of year is something pretty special and it turned out to be a 15 second win over CB West and 22 second edge of CB East. Really liked what I saw from these squads, especially Abington who flat out nailed this one (and I still think they might try and push Smith up in distance so he can run this relay at some point). I talked about Abington's strong history in my preview and noted they were returning some weapons. Could be a very exciting season. CB West (an old Abington rival at this point) had itself a nice opener as well running 8:26. Of course what's crazy about CB West's opener is they only did with half their best runners because ....

CB West and Pennridge went toe to toe in a fantastic early season DMR, both teams already cracking 11 minutes in the event. Pennridge won it in 10:55, indicating the preseason hype surrounding their returners from last year (a 7:40 squad in the 4x8) was justified. I'm curious how exactly they spread out the legs, but I expect Tucker Desko likely picked off where he left off last year with a big split. CB West really held it's own. They had some solid open performances, ran 8:26 in the 4x8 and still had guys left over to run 10:58 in the DM (remember, each athlete can only run one event in a TFCAofGP meet). Curious how exactly they split up their guys, but pretty excited for this team's relay potential looking ahead as well. Seems like a team that is highly likely to go for the 4x8-DMR double at PSU (although it's probably a little early for that talk).

CR North and Cheltenham also pretty solid runs, cracking 11:10 in their first relay showings of the season. Cheltenham had quite the nice day in the distance relays, I was impressed.

Division II
The 800m was something of a "Forgot about Dre" type moment. Lots of guys who were either non-existent or under the radar during XC, reminded us that it is track season. Kamil Jihad, who ran a blazing 1:55 as a freshman last year (as I said in the preview, really kid freshmen 800m runners last year) came back sporting a new jersey from Neumann Goretti but putting up the same results. He clocked a 2:01 to get the victory over another familiar name: Ahmir Gordon who ran 2:02.11 for second. Gordon ran a 1:55 of his own last year to get himself to Shippensburg and I like his upside in a good Strath Haven system this year.

Aaron Morris took 3rd overall with a 2:03. The man who dominated District 1 AA last year outdoors (running a solo 1:56) held his own in the race mixing it up with the top guys. Adding to things was Tom Hammond from Archbishop Ryan (2:04) and Andy Harmon from Wissahickon (2:04).

In the mile, Liam Galligan didn't run quite as fast as D1's Liam, but he still blasted a very strong 4:32.00 for the full distance, cruising to a 3+ second victory over Charlie Scales (really liked that indoor debut at 4:35). Galligan is a proven mile commodity and will likely be a contender for a second straight state medal after a big stretch run to the XC season. Patrick Donahue from HG Prep took 3rd in 4:40, one of his better races in recent weeks.

In the 3k, Bonner's Sean Sullivan showed where he endurance is at by taking a 9:17 victory over a couple breakout XC stars in Rob Moser (9:22) and Matt D'Aquila (9:23). D'Aquila raced regionals a couple weeks back, so I'm not sure exactly what his training has been like, but this is a solid early season mark. Moser really came on during XC and is no joke of a talent. But Sullivan seems to be the story here. I think this guy's best event is either the 800m or the mile (he ran 1:55ish last year as well) so moving up to 3k and taking care of business is a great sign. He has nice versatility a good clutch resume on the track, but is another guy hungry to prove himself after just missing an XC medal.

Props to Noah Falasco for a nice run. He's another 800m type but he took home 4th in 9:36 in this field.

Nothing too flashy in the relays, but a couple small schools made strong statements with victories. Bishop Shanahan won the 4x8 in 8:35, taking an 11 second victory. They are clearly indicating this is where there focus is at after running 7:53 last year. This is a team that historically races to their competition so I'm not too concerned about the time, but I like seeing the focus and an early statement (and of course a big win). Nice race from Springside grabbing silver. In the DMR, "A" Masterman rolled in the DMR, winning with an 11:18. Joe Previdi, the 3rd place finisher at XC states, was likely a big factor here. He's a name to watch this year following in Julian Degroot-Lutzner's footsteps. West Chester East takes 2nd with an 11:24, despite nothing having Brennan (2:05 low in the open 8) and Moser out of the line up. Those guys are two of their best talents, so there is nice upside for East in the relay.

Some great starts all around, but it's still just December! And the key word is "starts". We are just getting started PA.