Penn Relays Gets Popping

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.