Well
folks, we didn’t have to wait all that long for the first races of spring to
commence. Over at the Rustin Invitational, we saw some of the first signs of
spring flowers blooming as a few PA stand outs returned to the track. A little
too heavy on the metaphor? Perhaps, but I can’t help it. I’m excited to be back
talking about the races!
In
the 800m, we saw one of the best fields of the day. Out front, state medalist
Sean Conway of Neshaminy battled against the 9th place finisher from
the indoor state meet Jack Armand of Garnet Valley. This time, Armand got the
better of Conway, clocking a 1:57.81 for the victory. This is an excellent
start to the season for Armand and adds yet another 1:57-1:58 type mark to his
resume. He’s very consistent so far the past few weeks and he’s a tough racer.
Meanwhile, Brett Zatlin of Great Valley took 3rd at 2:03.03 ahead of
the Heat 1 winner from the indoor state meet in Peter Cooke of Radnor
(2:03.41). Cooke was also in the 1600m (4:45) so not sure which race he was
doubling in (I’m guessing the 8 based on a typical order of events but who
knows). Three other runners cracked 2:07 in the opener, including Conway’s teammate
Liam Krimmel. Rustin’s own Billy Covert ran a very impressive half, crushing a
2:06.18. According to milesplit, his previous best was only a 2:14.47 (from
this meet last year), although milesplit doesn’t have much in the way of dual
meet results. But still, it was an impressive run.
At
1600m, there was a different Conway who took center stage. In fact, if you
combine Sean Conway and Liam Krimmel you kind of get his name. Liam Conway, the
sophomore from Owen J Roberts, grabbed gold in 4:30.98, defeated the Spring
Ford duo of John Conner and Zachary Smith by 7 and 9 seconds respectively.
Conway continues to roll after an impressive indoor season that featured three separate
state qualifying type performances in each of the distance events. Kids got
range. But outdoors, I think we should be on the lookout for what his team can
do. The surprise squad from this fall’s Foundation Invitational had a strong
showing in this meet behind Conway’s victory. Ethan Conway finished in the top
10 at 800m while Abe Van Helmond took 3rd in the 16, running
4:40.10. Owen J also got a 12th place finish from Quinten Sherwood
who ran 4:51.
Of
course, Owen J’s Pac-10 rivals, Spring Ford, also threw down their own platter
of top marks. Besides Smith and Conner, who each broke 4:40 in the 16 for
silver and bronze, they also got a top 10 finish from Patrick Power
(4:48). Spring Ford also capitalized on the
relays, taking 3rd in the 4x8 (8:32) and 2nd in the 4x4
(3:34). Then, in the 3200m, teammates Jacob McKenna and Shane Ainscoe finished
2nd and 4th in the 3200 with McKenna cracking 10 minutes.
That
3200 was won by West Chester East’s Rob Moser who ran a 9:41.06 for a 16 second
victory. Moser continues to roll after an impressive indoor track season that
featured an 8:56 3k at the Carnival. You have to be impressed by the ascension Moser
has been on this year, dating all the way back to his strong XC season. This
field was no joke either as beyond the Spring Ford duo it featured big names
like Jake Ilgenfritz, Josh Faber, Dylan Smiley and Jack Carmody. Two of those
guys are past top 50 finishers at XC states. East also got a strong run from
Sebastian Hoyos(5th) ahead of West Chester rival Brandon Hontz (7th).
Downingtown
East won the 4x800 narrowly over West Chester Rustin with a time of 8:23.45 to
Rustin’s 8:24.68. We saw flashes of this kind of potential from East during the
winter, but this was a little bit out of left field from Rustin (in my
opinion). They had a strong relay last year, but also graduated some key
pieces. I’m interested to see how they round out the squad in 2016.
PTFCA
Track Classic at Plymouth Whitemarsh (mistakenly said GV before) is coming up this weekend and should have some
strong fields (usually we see flashes of some future Penn Relays qualifiers).
You can check out the fields on milesplit and I’ll recap the action here on the
site as well.
After the first 2 or 3 meets or so, the 800 has jumped out as fastest and deepest field so far, hands down. Donahue's 4:24 was strong by itself, but the 4:24 2:02 double is really, really impressive. Other doubles I liked were Matt Eisler's from Pennridge. Kid is only a frosh, but ran 4:36, then doubled back in a 10:21. Not flashy, but really impressive for a kid's first HS outdoor meet. Springford's depth was really really solid at Rustin, though I think they'll really need to find an ace in the 800 because they seem to favor the longer distances over the middle distance. Think Pennridge could have really made a crazy Penn relays DMR, Eisler, Howell, Espinal, Desko, right around 10:20. Everything else was the usual suspects, the two Conway's cleaning up, Moser continuing to surprise people about just how good he is, and Deast quietly doing quite well in the 4x8. On a final note, this will sound kind've crazy, but was slightly underwhelmed by both of the Hoeys down in Raleigh. Will be interested to see what they can do.
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