Back to Haverford

By Jarrett Felix

It has been an exciting week of indoor track as the season is really beginning to break into full stride. I began working on a piece yesterday analyzing some of the top team’s options between the 4x8 and DMR and I noticed that two teams, Council Rock North and LaSalle, both had some nice upset but both still had few results to go on. I decided to wait a little longer on the post and, bang, results out the wazzoo. Not sure that’s the correct spelling for wazzoo but I think you catch my drift.

PA High School athletes took back over Gary Lutnick at Haverford for another exciting midweek invitational. For the second straight year, LaSalle has taken this meet as an opportunity to flaunt their impressive depth. After last year’s meet, I was sparked to write an article on the team’s achievements. They had an impressive 7 guys under 4:50 in the same indoor race, led by Patrick Grant’s 4:34 and followed by a couple 4:40s. This year, they crushed their historic performance from a year earlier with 7 guys under 4:45 and 10 guys at 4:50 or faster! In total, LaSalle had 14 runners break five minutes last night. The depth was extremely impressive. But perhaps more importantly, LaSalle was much stronger at the front of this group. Once again led by Patrick Grant, who ran a blazing 4:26.93, LaSalle had four guys at 4:34 or faster (i.e. the same time Grant ran a year ago). Evan Addison finished 2^nd overall with a 4:31.37, Eddie Goebel added a 4:34.45 and Brendan Price clocked a 4:34.64 to round things out. That’s a very nice 4xMile and gives the team some serious flexibility if they choose to pursue a 4x8-DMR double at the state championships. I could see a Grant-Headen (although more likely end up being Nelson?)-Price-Addison DMR doing some serious damage in the state meet or, if Grant continues to excel down towards a 4:20 or under type split, they could switch up the order.

Of course, CR North wasn’t messing around either in this race. They added 6 guys to the sub 5 festivities (there were 33 guys total in the race who cracked the barrier), led by sophomore Ryan Campbell who clocked a 4:34.23 for 3^rd overall. Their next three runners, Bryan Keller, Ben Heintz and Matt Hadleman, ran 4:39, 4:41 and 4:46 but finished with the top 3 overall spots in their heat, meaning that they might have been able to run something quicker in the loaded fast heat (8 guys at 4:40 or faster). And don’t forget that their 5-6 guys, Tim Haas and Alex Breslin, also took 1-2 in their heat, running 4:52 and 4:54. So although CRN didn’t have the same special performance as LaSalle, they had a pretty spectacular day with real potential to continue improving. Remember, North has already run 8:19 for the 4x8 (faster than LaSalle) and clearly has the pieces to run a solid DMR as well (perhaps a better DM than 4x8).

I really like the development I have seen from sophomores Addison and Campbell. Campbell had a brilliant stretch run to his XC season and has carried that momentum through seamlessly to the track to become a key leader for this up and coming relay squad. Meanwhile, Addison, who was pretty strong on the track last year, has taken a strong mini-leap among the LaSalle pack. He was excellent during XC and there are signs that suggest he is more of a track guy than an XC guy, which could mean he is just getting started this year.

But this mile had even more to offer! Holy Ghost Prep, not ready to be left out of the fun, had three guys at 4:40 or faster in the fast section with two more sub five guys in the meet. HG Prep couldn’t get by Bishop Shanahan in the absurdly competitive District 1 AA XC race and perhaps that disappointment has helped motivate them for winter track. Prep has a pretty nice history in the relays indoors and seems like a potent DMR threat after this run. Patrick Donahue ran a very strong 4:34, Kevin Dineen added an ultra-impressive 4:38 and D1 champ Callahan Lennon dropped a 4:40 to round out the trio. Definitely be on the lookout for a fast DMR attempt for these guys sooner rather than later.

Believe it or not, there were, in fact, other events at this meet. In the 800m, junior Stephen McClellan from St. Joe’s Prep finished second overall and tops for PA with a 2:03. This is a nice debut for McClellan who did not run XC for Prep, but did run 1:54 last outdoors as a sophomore. I think he could really come on strong as the season closes out and he continues to get stronger in training. McClellan also has some pretty fast training partners to work with as St. Joe’s took 1-2 in the 400m with Miles Green and Robert Dupell. They also have Benny Walls (3^rd in the 200m, 6^th in the 400m), so they should be no joke in the 4x4 once they go for it.

Brendan Eagen of HG Prep took third in 2:06.88 (another DMR piece? Or perhaps rounding out a nice 4x8) and Syed Shah from Upper Darby was PA’s 3^rd finisher in 2:08. Ryan Campbell of CRN doubled back from his mile to run 2:09 for 5^th overall.

The 3k also featured some strong races on tired legs as PA’s top 3 finishers all had contested the mile. Tim Haas of CRN was PA’s top dog at 9:37 after winning his heat of the mile in 4:52, then LaSalle took the next three spots let by Eddie Goebel and Stephen Paul.