More Winter Action

by Jarrett Felix

Well I'm back home in the great state of PA this week to celebrate the New Year and attend my girlfriend's sister's wedding (if you can follow that) and it feels good to be back. I just spent the past half hour listening to in depth analysis about the importance of Ish Smith to the Philadelphia 76ers offense and really reminded me how depressing it is to be a philly sports fan these days. Fortunately, there are plenty of things happening in the track world that get me a bit more amped about my hometown. So let's talk track.

Marine Corps Holiday Classic
If you read my Burdette Recap (link attached), I alluded to the fact that we could see some Abington relay action at the Armory in this meet and, in a rare moment, I actually made a decent prediction (just call me Nostraindamus). Abington won the 4x8 by an absurd 14 seconds with twitter splits reported at 1:59-1:57-2:04-2:00, totaling a US #1 8:01.01. This likely was largely a solo effort based on that margin of victory, but it also speaks to the ability of sophomore Cameron Mitchell who I believe ran that second leg for Abington. He's a super talented youngster who is a name to watch. And oh yeah, if you were concerned about that third leg (likely newcomer to this year's relay Aaron Sooknanan) they have plenty of depth ready to push him in practice and keep him dropping time. Their "B" team ran 8:18.62, which is a top 5 or so time in the state, to take 4th place overall. That's an average of about 2:04.5 per man, meaning we should have some nice innersquad rivalry on this roster. I really like that and I think that will help improve everybody on this team looking ahead.

Abington also added a 3:24.76 4x4, finishing just a step behind PA's other top notch 4x4 program, Penn Wood, who ran 3:24.73.

And hey, speaking of Penn Wood, if you check the invitational 800m results, you can see Penn Wood's own Dennis Manyeah at the top of the page, having won the race in 1:56.13. That's a new PA #1 passing Wisner's mark from Burdette just a day earlier. Manyeah was a strong relay runner for the Penn Wood teams last year (4x8 and 4x4) and ran an absolutely monster 600m to start his year. He seems like a 400m type moving up which I think gives him a lot of upside, especially indoor. Speedsters/front-runners have won most of the indoor titles. John Lewis and Haneef Hardy were 400m guys before jumping up to 800 while runners like Brad Rivera and Kyle Francis were able to win titles by just pounding the pace and running the legs out of top notch kickers.

Mike Kolor of Seneca Valley, more of a miler type it appears, added a strong 800m to his 4:18 mile, running 1:56.30 for a narrow second to Manyeah. According to our own GZ who was on site, Kolor got out a bit poorly and ran a killer final lap to battle for the lead and earn silver. Gotta imagine a Mile-800m double at indoor states is in the work for Kolor and he could be a contender at both.

Not to be out done, Tucker Desko of Pennridge, who was noticeably absent from the Burdette results, ran a blazing fast 1:56.34 to win the "Varsity" section of the 800m by an impressive 4 seconds overall. To me, this is the most impressive result of the three and suggests Desko is ready for a huge year. I still kinda feel like Tucker's best race is the mile, so I'm hoping we see him take a stab at that event. Remember he was more of a mile/2-mile type last year before jumping in to help out the 4x8 and becoming a stud in that event (1:53ish split last outdoors for the 2nd place relay).

A few other solid results came from Pennridge's Jeff Espinal (2:01.76), Emmaus's Greg Jaindl (2:04.59) and Penn Wood's Jahi Smith (2:05.04).

One of my favorite stories so far this indoor track season comes from Cheltenham High School. The school is primarily known as a sprint powerhouse and rightfully so, they have rolled through a variety of 4x4 state championships and produced multiple 3:13 4x400m squads over the last decade. But early in this winter, Cheltenham has really proven themselves on the distance side of things. Cheltenham added a 10:52 DMR to their resume at the armory to boost their solid individual performances they posted earlier this year at TFCAofGP.

Ocean Breeze
One of the best performers from the indoor mile at Burdette rolled to a very strong 9:37.13 full 2-mile in New York on Wednesday. Seth Slavin, who ran 4:38 to win one of the slower sections at Burdette, made a big statement in the 2-mile to put himself among the early state leaders. The time is probably worth under 9 minutes for 3k by most conversions and I believe the PTFCA will convert it down to 8:59, putting Slavin in a position to potentially fall into a state qualifying spot. Although, admittedly, it's early and PA already has three guys under 9 minutes for 3k when you add Kirshenbaum and Sappey.

Garnet Valley ran a solid 8:33 for 4x800m and Ahmir Gordon, prominent 800m runner from Strath Haven, ran 51.42 seconds in the open 400m for 6th overall.