Late Night, Half Asleep Meet Recapzz

By Jarrett Felix

Well you guys are fortunate. As much as I love watching Pitch Perfect, comparing Stacy from Pitch Perfect to the new Wonder Woman because they look incredibly similar to me and freestyle rapping while doing the dishes, I also like typing up long winded sentences about running! So now that you have had a chance to review my mix tape on PIAA races, let’s turn our attention to the dudes trying to join that list later this spring.

Apparently this is the last weekend for Penn Relay qualifiers? I didn’t think so (I thought it was usually TFCAofGP weekend), but it looks like entries are already due so this was a big weekend for teams to get those last few fast times. Many of those last chance marks came either down south at Colonial Relays or CRN’s Kiwanis.

In Virginia, the boys of GFS took one more shot at a fast time, grabbing gold in the DMR with a 10:24.38. I briefly speculated post states about the odds of GFS switching over to the 4x8 to let Dahl have a go at the 3k, but I think this school will go for their second Championship of America title of the decade. They are arguably PA’s best chance at the victory (the other being the obviously talented squad over at Downingtown West). Dahl split a 4:11 indoors, but he will need to get the baton in contention near the front for that to really mean a lot. This win is a nice sign that the Tigers can do just that at the end of the month.

The bigger story of the race (to me at least), was the LaSalle boys who clocked a very strong 10:28.81. That’s a big time mark that puts them right in the mix with PA’s best squads (we don’t have a ton of sub 10:30 squads). Can that sneak into the CoA for the DMR? No clue (they also have a 4x8 around 8 flat though), but I certainly hope so. I’d love to see this squad go after this event. In case you didn’t notice, they got dudes out the wazzu (technical term) with milers running 4:32, 4:34 and 4:37 at this meet as well (and none of them were likely on that 10:28).

GFS also took 2^nd in the 4x8 (7:57) while LaSalle took 4^th (8:04). 

Personally, I really liked the weekend St. Joe’s had as well. We know their 4x4 is a top tier group, but their DMR ran sub 11 and their 4x8 ran 8:11. These both came after their distance team had a relatively quiet indoors (besides the occasional flash from Stephen McClellan). I like their fast start to the spring.

In other, individual news out of this one, Camp Hill’s Cooper Leslie edged out DT West’s Ryan Barton as both guys ran 4:21. Leslie continues to be a top tier miler and has been consistently in this zone, but Barton is dropping time in a hurry. He’s gone from like 4:40 to 4:20 in a span of twoish months. Barton ran 4:18 last year for 1600 after a relatively quiet winter. Now he’s rapidly ascending after a pretty good indoors. Look out world. Remember DT West had 3 sub 4:20 guys last year, and Barton is quickly becoming the x-factor for their top tier DMR. Tristan Forsythe of Winchester Thurston, the sophomore state medalist, ran 4:28 and added a 9:02.

But here’s the craziest result of the weekend (for me personally). Sophomore Josh Hoey of DT West ran 1:54.11 to win the 800m, running splits of 58-55 to do it. That’s a sick negative split and something like a 4 second open PR. Josh ran 4:19 as a frosh at this meet last year, so I think he likes this meet just a little bit. Honestly, the kid is looking pretty darn fit. Could he be the state champ in 1600 this outdoors even though the defending champion lives in his same house? It’s in play.

Let’s jump back to PA soil to talk about that Kiwanis meet I teased earlier. It was a pretty good day for the teams with “Central Bucks” in their name I’ll tell you that right off the bat. The CB squads combined for the top 4 times in the 5k, led by Josh Goetz and Will Schulz of East who ran 15:53 and 16:03 (awesome runs). They also had the top two spots and four of the top five overall in the frosh 1500 (some real talented youngsters in that zone, CB East has a killer group of freshmen). Jake Brophy won the 3k and Rock Fortna and Carter Zerweck (excellent race) combined for the top two spots in the open 800 and the only sub 2 times.

And they won both relays which I think was supposed to be the focus of this section 6 paragraphs ago. But I get distracted by things, so just try to keep up best you can. CB West grabbed gold in the DMR with a 10:32 and CB East got a narrow victory over Pennridge in the 4x8 with an 8:01. I think CB East’s time will get them into Penn (and they apparently clocked it without Ata Shahideh in the line-up, I’m hoping he’s healthy and will be back for the Relays) and they will be dangerous once they get there. East qualified for the finals a year ago and might be better this year. Of course, CB West also made it to the finals a year ago at Penn and based on their indoor times they won’t have a problem in terms of qualifying times. I think, assuming they get back to the finals, they have a shot to topple State College, who currently holds the top team title. It’s gonna be tricky obviously, but I really like the last couple races I’ve seen from Carter Zerweck. He’s their x-factor.

Pennridge remains an interesting team for me. They ran 8:02 just behind East (did Brophy outkick Desko on the anchor? Or did Desko not run?) and they ran 7:40 last year in case you forgot. Tucker Desko also won the 1500 (4:02 on the double? See previous parenthetical thought bubble) with Espinal adding a 2:00 in the open 8. They ran a sick 4x4 and had dudes running fast times all over the place in sprints and hurdles and other stuff that I don’t really understand (once you starting jumping and stuff I’m out of my element).

Abington is still always going to be competitive as well. They ran a solid DMR behind their rivals at CB West and had Isiah Smith drop a 49.51 in the open quarter (plus a 3:23 4x4). They ran really well at Penn Relays last year, running fearlessly from the front and I think they won’t be afraid of the moment when they had to the University of Pennsylvania.

Other random notes from this meet: Zach Witroff with a strong 2:03.65 for Twin Valley to win the middle heat, William Tennent with a real nice 8:09.93 4x8 and HG Prep’s Mark Featherstone with a strong 16:39 in the 5k (did he even run XC? Kid’s still a junior as well).

Alright, Pitch Perfect’s over so I’m gonna try and focus up with some other quick recaps.

At Bruce Dallas, the more central teams started to show their stuff after a typically quiet indoors. The sprints included some blazing fast marks like 22.11 and 49.94 (admittedly from guys who had their fair share of success indoors) and the distance dudes followed their lead. Cedar Crest’s Jesse Cruise grabbed gold in the 800 with a 2:00.78 to beat out Lewisburg’s Andrew Permyashkin. It was a strong day for Lewisburg’s top 2 runners as Joey Bhangdia finished 6^th in 2:03.55. This could be a team to watch long term in the AA 4x8 landscape (they ran 8:22 in the 4x8 with a few overlapping pieces and XC stud Nick Alico). All in all there were 10 guys under 2:05 in the 800 with a lot of guys closely packed together. Morgan Cupp, the sophomore from Mechanicsburg, showcased some nice speed winning the 2^nd section out of 4 with a 2:03 of his own.

Both Morgan Cupp and Jesse Cruise (and heat 3 winner Sam Mancuso and some other successful 800 finishers) ran the 1600m, but none of them had enough to defeat Lake Lehman’s Dominic Hockenbury who clocked a 4:22.76. I really like the strides Hock has made at 1600 and I feel like his speed is consistently improving. Maybe this is the year he tries the 1600-3200 double. What would he try against Peretta in the 16? It would be kinda fun. Cruise ran a 4:28.18 for second and Cupp ran 4:29 for 4^th. Splitting the two was Freedom’s Will Alpaugh who also ran 4:28.

Lower Dauphin finished with the top two spots in the 3200, led by Kyler Shea and Colton Cassell. The pair of juniors who have had big success on the cross country grass, are off to an excellent start in the 32, both cracking 9:55 with Shea at 9:48 for the dub (as in W). Remember that LD has had Jeff Groh, Cole Nissley and Sean Weidner all in and around that 9:20 barrier in the last three years. These kids seem to be next in line.

Sophomore Andrew Brown, one of Cumberland Valley’s break out stars during XC, added a 10:02.22 for 3^rd overall just ahead of Biglerville senior Daniel Wood. CV ran an 8:29 4x8 as well (without Yahya Soliman who is having a very strong start to his spring). Hershey, a strong XC squad, won the 4x8 in 8:22.68 by a nose over Lewisburg. Also worth noting, AA powerhouse Trinity ran 8:30 for 4^th. They always find a way to be competitive in the 4x8 and the pieces early on look good to keep the trend going.

At Altoona, David Snyder of Holidaysburg got the victory in the 1600 over a strong field that included Brett George and Will Kachman. His time was 4:33. Snyder also had a 4^th place finish in the 3200 (10:18). That race was won by Kachman, the multi time state medalist from Bedford (falls). He defeated Eric Kennedy of Kiski who ran a very strong 9:52 to finish a little less than 4 seconds behind Will. Kennedy was a strong miler last year, qualifying for that event at states as a sophomore (and nearly doing it again this indoors), but there’s a chance he could see some big results in the 3200 (the same way Brent Kennedy transitioned to the longer event as a junior/senior). Keep an eye on Eric if stays healthy this season. He’s shown some strong flashes thus far in 2016.

Altoona wins the 4x8 (8:25ish for a big win) and the 4x4. Represent the home soil.

At the Warrior Invite, Domenic Peretta did Domenic Peretta things. He ran 50 point in the quarter, 1:59 in the 800 and 4:28 in the 1600 for triple gold. NBD. Any chance he goes for the 32-16-8 triple outdoors this year? I really would love to see him race Hock (and some other high quality guys) at that distance, but I doubt he has much interest in anything outside defending his titles and taking a stab at those meet records (makes a lot of sense). But the triple isn’t completely out of possibility, especially at districts. As a sophomore, he used to do that triple all the time (that’s how I first noticed him) and now he’s decided to downgrade a bit to the 400 (that triple seems unlikely as they are basically all back to back with prelims and finals for all three).

Believe it or not other guys ran at this meet too, including Ben Heim who ran a strong 2:04 for Washington and took 2^nd in the 800 and Riley Lamison of Beaver who finished second at 1600 with a  4:34. Both those guys have been strong on the track and had nice XC campaigns (especially the junior Heim from Washington). Amadou Diallo from District 8 Allerdice won the 3200 in 10:11. That’s a strong mark for him after a very good XC season where he just barely missed out on a top 50 spot (the highest D8 finish since Ean DiSilvio).

At DT West, we were reminded about just how deep the XC state champs really were this past fall. The reigning XC and indoor state champs took care of business on home soil with a huge 3200 that featured a 9 second victory from senior leader Henry Sappey. His time of 9:44 was better than Liam Conway’s silver medal mark of 9:53. Ben Ryherd of West also clocked a sub 10 minute mark for 3^rd and Jake O’Neill and Shaun Bullock helped round out the remaining top 5 positions with 10 flat and 10:07 times respectively. Bullock ran a strong 1600 as well while DWest took the top 2 spots (and 5^th and 6^th overall) in the slower section of the 800, led by Evan Kaiser in 2:07.55 (his seed time was 2:07.75 so shout out to the coaching staff on that precision.

By the way, not to be outdone Spencer Smucker ran 2:01.48 when his seed time was 2:01.50. Dang these Ches-mont coaches are wired in).

Bishop Shanahan flexed some middle distance muscle, taking 1-2 in the 400 and the 800. Keegan Hughes ran a very quick 49.77 (he also won the 100m so dude has range) while sophomore Logan Yoquinto won the 800 in 2 flat. Chris Kolimago and Seamus Fromhartz were silver medal winners in the 8 and 4 respectively. Great Valley’s Brett Zatlin won the 1600 over Jack Carmody 4:38-4:39 and Carson Reuther of Henderson had a very nice showing in 3^rd at 4:40. Meanwhile West Chester Rustin won the 4x8 in 8:27, another strong relay performance under their belts.

Want to know a fun fact? One of the best 400 meter performances came at O’Hara this weekend as Keon Rantin ran 49.19 for a run away gold in this event. This kid has some serious potential for outdoors. Shout out to Glen Mills. Neumann Goretti had to settle for silver in that 400, but Kamil Jihad got the team a gold in the open 8 as he defeated Bonner’s David Whitfield for the win, running 2:00.90. But then Bonner, who had similarly settled for silver like NG came back to win the 1600, using indoor medalist Sean Sullivan to earn gold. He ran 4:30 to just barely edge out a very strong run by Patrick James (who also ran 4:30). Gavin Inglis of O’Hara and Jacob McKenna of Spring Ford also cracked the 4:40 mark for the full mile distance. Great races by both runners. And, hey, although O’Hara had to settle for silver in the mile, they came to win the 5k! And they kind dominated it. They took the top 4 spots in the race behind Rob Morro’s quite quick 15:40 time. Ryan James was second in 16:05. And just as O’Hara dominated the top spots in the 5k, Spring Ford took care of business in the 3200, grabbing the top 3 spots behind John Conner, who clocked a pretty quick 9:44 for gold. Zach Smith was second in 9:53.

What a fun little symmetrical set of results.

Let’s jump from one writers old team to another as we head to the Lebo Invitational out west. Greensburg Salem took a well deserved victory in the 4x8, running 8:24 to beat out Lebo’s 8:27. I really like the running from GS this year, dating all the way through the fall and the winter. Are they still AA for track? I thought no, but I’ve been wrong about these things so many times, I’ve got ask. I could see big things happening for them. Lebo would have their revenge in the individual events thanks mainly to a 1-2-3 sweep in the 1600, led by Ian Harris’s 4:35.05. Todd Gunzenhauser also grabbed gold in a quick 3200 battle with a 9:41.00. He beat out Chartiers Valley stand out Joseph Westrick who ran 9:49.

Two freshmen may have stolen the show in this one as Mark Brown of Greensburg Salem ran 10:01 for 3^rd in the 32 and CV frosh Elias Zajicek ran a 2:04.66 to win the 800 by a nose over Frankie King of GS. Something about kids named Elias in the 800 in the western part of Pennsylvania? Or just a really forced, really specific excuse to mention Elias Graca run 1:50 again this past weekend? You be the judge.

One of the best races you probably didn’t notice was the 1600 at Selinsgrove as indoor state medalist David Fletcher went head to head with indoor mile state qualifier Brody Beiler in a good old fashion District 4 battle. Fletcher ended up coming away victorious with a very impressive 4:21 to Beiler’s 4:23. District 4 doing work so gotta give them a quick little shout out. Williamsport wins both the 4x8 and 4x4 in this one with an 8:25 and 3:36.

And lastly we close out with a meet that I’ve surprisingly won two gold medals at (not because of me, but because of fantastic anchor legs by dudes named Sam): the PW Colonial Relays (AKA the other Colonial Relays). Wissahickon won the shuttle hurdles in this one, running 1:06. I mention this not because I’m particularly interested in the shuttle hurldes, but rather because I feel like Wissahickon just always win the shuttle hurdles. So respect Wissahickon. Begrudged respect.

Of course their rivals Upper Dublin got a big win in the 4x8, clocking 8:16 for a 20+ second victory. This team has nice squads at 4x8 and 4x4 and may be on the verge of making a jump to elite status soon. I like the coaching staff over there. Yes, I’m bias. They still need to prove they can run sub 8, but they’ve run some high quality 4x4s and that could potentially translate up a relay in due time. And soloing 8:16 at the beginning of April is pretty darn nice as well.

Wissahickon won the sprint medley by 22 seconds, continuing the dominant trends from this one and, in a tighter race, LaSalle won the DMR over Upper Dublin (by 3 seconds). Keep in mind that LaSalle had their “A” squad down in Virigina at the other other Colonial Relays and they still had a squad strong enough to take gold up north. Props to LaSalle for sure.

And that’s it! I’ll take my pillow now and let you guys read up and share your thoughts. Good night Train Station.