By
Jarrett Felix
It’s an
excellent time of year for track and field. Although the weather hasn’t exactly
reflected it, we are in full on spring track mode. And the first big moment of
the spring track season is beginning to release its entries. The Penn Relays
are an historic event and, considering we are on relatively home turf, it’s a
huge stage for PA teams and individuals to try and go Kooks and Shine On. Yes,
that’s a song. Yes, I like the Kooks.
The
individual entries were just released today and, as was pointed out to me last
year, that still doesn’t mean anything is set in stone. I believe all these
individuals can scratch if their relay qualifies and they choose to pursue that
avenue. But it does give us some insight into where cut offs were and which of
our non-philly area runners will be imported (for lack of a better word) for
Penn weekend. I scanned results kinda quick, but here’s who I have in the
distance events. They run a Mile and 3k at this meet. Relay invites should be
out next week around this same time if memory serves, but don’t quote me on
that.
Mile
Jaxson
Hoey, DT West
Mike
Kolor, Seneca Valley
Nick
Dahl, GFS
Josh
Hoey, DT West
3,000m
Jake
Brophy, CB East
Dominic
Hockenbury, Lake Lehman
Nathan
Henderson, JP McCaskey
Jeff
Kirshenbaum, Methacton
In
summary, PA will be well represented individually and hopefully we can bring
home some hardware. In not quite as concise summary, let’s take a look at some
of the logical (and sometimes not as logical) storylines that come into play as
a result of the official release.
1) Will
there be scratches?
I
think I lean towards relays over individual events in terms of intrigue (just
more moving pieces to discuss) so my mind immediately jumps to what these
entries mean for individual events. Because there are scratches, we could still
see Dahl and the Hoeys (and possibly even Brophy) disappearing from the
starting line come race day. Both of these teams have excellent DMRs (mainly
because of the legs who entered in this individual mile) but its not a guarantee
that either squad will throw down an A squad in said event. West has been
unpredictable at best when it comes to their relay choices (they don’t have a
4x8 qual either I don’t think) and GFS has arguably just as strong of a 4x8
team as their DMR (or at least good enough to make you think twice about what
to do with Nick Dahl). Besides these three, I don’t expect to see any scratches
barring some type of injury or something. My gut reaction right now is all the
guys I listed end up racing individually with the Hoeys being the most logical
cross outs.
2) Can
Jake add to history?
Jake
has had a pretty prolific career already, but he’s looking straight on at a
chance to add a particularly noteworthy artifact to his paleontology
collection. Every year, there’s a state champion for PA (in fact, there’s more
than 1), but it’s not every year that we get a Penn Relays champion. We had the
champ over 3k in 08, 09, and 13 but all-time greats like Springer, Weller,
Dustin Wilson, etc. have never left Franklin Field with the gold and the watch.
Brophy run sub 8:30 a year ago with a blistering kick (classic), but can he
take it up one more notch and put that finish on when he’s up with the leaders?
And don’t forget, assuming CB East gets in, Eddie Redmayne will also have a 4x8
carry in his legs to add extra difficulty.
And
to make things even more interesting, Jake has a couple PA guys who will be
gunning all out with fresh legs against him. Dominic Hockenbury is no longer a
Penn Relays rookie and he will be unafraid to follow any pace early. If someone
else can help keep things fast rather than a solo trot, he could run something
very quick and break Jake’s kick. Hock has seen it before as gutsy front runner
Dominic Deluca ran a blazing fast 8:21.89 3k at this meet just a few years back
for top PA honors. And, hey, don’t sleep on Nate Henderson. Henderson gave both
Brophy and Hock a real scare at the state meet, but was just a gear away from
being able to close over the last 2 to 4 hundred. Henderson is still just a junior
and the pressure will be on for his first Penn Relays, but he’s getting
consistently stronger with each race and tends to rise to the occasion when the
spotlight gets bright.
All
the same, I think most people have enough faith in Brophy right now to expect
him to be the #1 watch in terms of contenders for the watch. He has some pretty
big wins under his belt, but this could arguably be the most impressive one to
date if he pulls it out.
The
good news: no Andrew Hunter.
3) The
Curious Case of Germantown Friends
Still
lots of mystery to me with this team and their relay decision, but they threw a
nice curve ball at me today when they revealed Dahl would be in the mile rather
than the 3k. The school record holder in the 2 mile (as a sophomore) is a bit
more established in the longer distance and I believe he has a qualifier from
New Balance Nationals when he raced the 2 mile. However, he picked the mile
after his blazing fast anchor leg on GFS’s DMR (4:10.39!). We’ve seen a ton of
development in this kid’s speed (split a very impressive 1:55 leg on their
indoor 4x8) and it looks like he will see just how far along he is in his
progression at that event. I’m very excited by this development. Of course,
there’s still a relatively decent chance he scratches considering the Tigers
have a top flight DMR. But Dahl has scratched from states the last two years
indoors and Penn Relays outdoors for 3k last year as well. So maybe they go 4x8
(where they are, as mentioned, very strong) and then let Dahl finally have a moment.
And guess what, I think GFS could be a Championship of America type team in the
4x8.
4) The
Mile Jinx
PA
has done a nice job with the DMR and the 3k in terms of Championship of America
crowns. We’ve actually killed it in the DMR. But the mile hasn’t been our
event. Despite some strong talent in the event, PA hasn’t grabbed gold since
2004 when Craig Spooner was around. Can any of these guys take down gold? I’m
thrilled to have Kolor coming in from out west as he had a very productive
indoor season and is rapidly ascending. He’s run 4:12ish for the mile outdoors
as has Jaxson Hoey (who has run 4:11 indoors) giving PA a killer 1-2 punch in
the event. Of course, you can make an argument that Josh Hoey is actually PA’s
best miler right now after he ran the state lead in the mile and the 800,
including an impressive negative split. Currently, I tend to be convinced by
that argument.
The
good news: no Andrew Hunter.
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