So Much To Recap!

Well in the interest of time and efficiency, I've split my recaps into two sections. This is the first one and I'm typing up the second as well speak. Should be plenty to discuss heading into Penn!

Warrior Invitational

Well I’ll tell you what, PA is starting to get fast. The Warrior Invite produced a slew of fast marks Friday night including some monster runs by a few PA youngsters. Junior Nick Dahl entered the 800 over the 16 at this meet and clocked a massive PR in the half, running 1:54.20. He defeated Quakertown’s indoor state medalist Brett Wolfinger, who also had a monster race, running 1:54.85.

Obviously, props to Wolfinger who is having a terrific season indoors and out, but Dahl really impressed me with this victory. After watching his 1:55 lead off leg indoors, something like this was certainly in play, but I didn’t think he would run quite this fast. This speaks volumes about where this kid’s speed is at heading into the Penn Relays Mile where he has been amazingly overlooked behind the Hoeys and Kolor. Maybe it’s because we still think of him more as two-miler, but his range and speed have drastically improved from last year. So let’s not sleep on this guy for much longer.

GFS teammate Jonnie Plass ran 1:59.18 to dip under two minutes and Grayson Hepp ran a 50.7 in the open 400, indicating both guys will be ready for the Penn Relays 4x8 on Friday morning. Bishop Shanahan’s Logan Yoquinto won the 4^th of 5 heats in 2 flat while Perkiomen Valley’s top 4 runners clocked 1:57-2:00-2:03-2:03 (adding up to about 8:05). That’s a very impressive result and puts this team in the state qualifying mix in the loaded district one. Matt Town led the way for this team in 3^rd overall, running 1:57.20.

In the 1600, it was a good day to be named Liam. Liam Conway and Liam Galligan took the top 2 spots in the open 16, running 4:15 and 4:16 respectively. Conway continues to roll after his 1:54 last week with another massive breakthrough down to 4:15. Hard to believe this kid ran the 3k indoors and was a stud during XC considering his speed. He’s put together a great resume and it will be fun to see what he decides to do at districts. Meanwhile, Galligan adds a pretty big 1600 PR after his breakthrough indoor season. He’s another guy with potential to jump up to the 32 and do damage, but he’s gotten very comfortable in this event and 4:16 is very quick for April. He was a medalist indoors in the mile.

Colin Wills of Malvern Prep continues to improve at the 1600 where he moves down to 4:17.98. And Henry Sappey of DT West drops an impressive PR of 4:18.47. I believe that’s a pretty big drop of Sappey’s old best and now gives West 4 guys with PRs of 4:18 or faster. That’s pretty mind blowing. Would love to see a 4xMile out of these guys at some point, although it doesn’t seem to be in the cards. Keep in mind their 5^th-6^th-7^th milers ran 4:28 (Ryherd), 4:32 (Bullock) and 4:34 (O’Neill) in this meet as well. What a stable of horses.

Unionville stand out Kent Hall dropped his PR down under 4:20 with his 4:19.92 and sophomore Hudson Delisle ran 4:24.02 for 10^th overall. Jake Ilgenfritz of Avon Grove added a 4:24 and Joseph Cardie, Galligan’s teammate, won his section of the 16 in a strong mark of 4:27.15. Pretty darn fast day all around with 36 guys under 4:40.

In the 3200, Salesianum’s Andrew Hally ran away with the victory, however PA held it’s own behind him. Rob Moser continues to excel at this distance, finishing as the top PA runner with a 9:36 PR. Jack Carmody got a little revenge on teammate Brandon Hontz as both runners pushed each other to a 9:40 clocking. Rounding out the district qualifiers was Owen J Robert’s Abe VanHelmond who dropped a strong 9:41.

Henderson won the 4x4 in a very solid 3:25 (they have a real nice stable of sprinters this year) just edging out Perk Valley by 0.05 (I’ve already touched on PV who looks awesome so far outdoors). Meanwhile Bishop Shanahan got in a solid tune up for Penn with an 8:07 victory, defeating West Chester Rustin, who ran 8:12 for second.

Abington Jack Armstrong

In the 800, we saw an impressive win from CRN Junior Bryan Keller, who really surprised me with his 1:56.28 gold medal winning time. Keller defeated James Abrahams of Haverford (who also ran a strong 1:56) and Aaron Morris of Springfield (the AA stand out dropped to 1:57.9). Keller becomes the ace for a very strong (young) CRN squad who also watched sophomore Sam Early crack the 2 minute barrier with a 1:59.37. This team heads into PR with a ton of momentum, especially considering their milers ran 4:25 Heintz), 4:26 (Campbell) and 4:29 (Haldeman) for top 6 finishes in that event. Only Heintz is a senior from this group, Keller is the only junior and the rest are sophomores.

Although Keller’s result was a surprise to me, the stunner of the day was Owen Ritz. The latest member of the Ritz family dynasty dropped a monster time of 4:21.88 in the 1600 to PR by roughly 13 seconds and win this race running away. That is an absolutely HUGE drop to make when you are already running that fast (mid 4:30s is no joke) and suddenly Ritz becomes one of the top names in the state. Owen is still just a junior and could become the third member of the Ritz family to break 4:20 over the next few seasons. That would be one heck of a relay squad.

Will Griffen of Cheltenham, who was fresh off a very impressive and under the radar 3200, ran 4:26 to earn the bronze in this one. Shout out to Christian Troemel of Abington, the sophomore who ran 4:36 to win the second of three sections in the 1600. Upper Dublin’s Ben Brugger was just behind in 4:37.

In the 3200, Joe Maguire ran away with the race, clocking a 9:25 for gold. That’s right around Maguire’s PR depending on what his indoor 2 mile converts to, and he did it with an 18 second margin of victory over Joe Previdi of Masterman. That’s a pretty strong result for the senior who is quietly lurking as a sleeper medal contender this outdoors.

Previdi’s Masterman team ran an 8:26 4x8 for 4^th and showed nice results from Manfred Thomas and Per Loufman in the open events. I’m interested to see how this team develops down the stretch to stay in medal contention yet again in the AA 4x8. That 4x8 was won by Abington who ran 7:57.17. They also added a 3:20.45 victory over Penn Wood and Upper Dublin in a hotly contested 4x4. Abington has been very relay oriented in the last couple weeks so I can’t say for sure who out of their key runners is healthy, but they seem to be rolling right now. I’m excited to watch them in both relays at Penn.

O’Hara finished 2^nd in this one at 8:01 and will be PA’s lone representative in the DMR at Penn. Not sure what to make of these guys, as I drastically underrated them a few weeks back at indoor states for the DM. They have some clear talent and nice speed and I’m hoping for no falls or baton drops so we get to see this team fresh in the COA. I’ll touch more on them in my preview coming soon, but I like what I’ve seen so far.

Shippensburg – AA

The Camp Hill boys have been active so far this season. They won the 4x8 again with an impressive margin of victory and then Cooper Leslie continued to throw down victories, winning the 1600 and the 800. He seems to be mastering this triple and looks like that will be what he attempts at the state championships at the end of May. Hard to argue with his results so far. Camp Hill followed up their 4x8 win last weekend with an 8:09 victory of 18 seconds over Lewisburg (who has a nice team that I will think will continue to develop looking ahead). It was a nice statement win, even with Wyomissing lurking.

Gabriel Allgayer surprised me in that 3200, running the fastest time of the day in that event with his 9:25. It’s a classic case of the independent league guys getting overshadowed because they are not in the PIAA unfortunately. Allgayer’s 9:25 is up there with the state leaders and it came against some strong competition, mainly Bedford’s Will Kachman, who ran 9:39 for silver. Kachman also won the 2k Steeple and finished second to Leslie in the 16.

Shippensburg - AAA

With all the talk about the best runners in the state, it appears, as was pointed out to me by some of my writers, I’ve been overlooking State College’s Alex Milligan from that top tier of elites. We remember him more for his relay anchor ability and his presence as a star on SC’s high caliber 4x8, but Milligan made a huge statement about his individual ability and range on Saturday. The State College senior won the 3200m going away with a time of 9:26 and then doubled back at the 800 (a drastically different event) to defeat indoor state silver medalist Matt Wisner by over a second (Wisner, I believe, was doubling off the 4x8). That’s one heck of a double for a guy who, last year, dropped his 1600 PR to 4:17 and finished in the top 5 or so at states on the double from a massive 800 PR. So honestly, should Milligan be in the individual state title talks? And for which event?

His SC teammates were no slouches either. Nick Feffer had one of his best races of the year, winning the 1600 in 4:20.66 over Brody Beiler of Selinsgrove (4:21.17). Feffer was joined in the top 6 by teammates Owen Wing (huge run of 4:23) and Anthony Degleris (4:28). Then in the open 800, Feffer and Degleris doubled back to run 1:59 and place in the top 5, while SC’s #5 and #6 800 guys also cracked the top 10 overall after a 4x8 run earlier in the day. Throw in a 3:25 4x4 and you are looking at a pretty good day for the Little Lions, heading into Penn Relays as arguably our best shot at a Championship in the 4x8 we have had in some time.

But there were plenty of other great performances to celebrate as well. Carlisle and Cumberland Valley dueled to an 8:07-8:08 finish in the 4x8. I feel like both teams still have some room to cut time and make the district 3 championships very interesting. David Snyder from Hollidaysburg in D6 ran a 4:23 for 16 and doubled back to win the steeplechase as well. Both Kyler Shea and Zach Seiger dipped under 9:40 for 3200 behind Milligan in a race that featured 12 guys under 10 and 9 guys under 9:50 (really sick race). District 3’s 3200m championship is going to be really fun. There are a lot of guys packed together in a fairly wide open field (behind Henderson of course). One of those top names in the D3 32 is Morgan Cupp who opted for the 16 this weekend and dropped a strong 4:26. Lastly, Calvin Schneck of Whitehall had a nice breakthrough in the 800, dropping to 1:58.27 and finishing 3^rd in a loaded field.