The 2016 4x800: Could it be PA's best ever?

by Jarrett Felix

For those of you who don’t know, I consider myself something of a PA High School track historian. I keep a file of all the top marks I can find from PA’s history through some good, old fashion research. Recently, I’ve started working toward compiling a 4x8 list. This proved to be pretty tricky business and I’m still likely missing a lot of teams (especially from the Pre-PTXC era), but it gave me a sense of what some of the all-time best squads looked like.

Even if you consider only recent seasons, PA has had a number of amazing squads. We’ve had four schools under 7:40 with a slew of others under 7:45 and 7:50. The deepest year PA has likely ever seen in this event was 2009. This season, CB South set the state record with an absurd 7:33.48 mark and the next 9 teams to cross the line at states were all under 7:50. In total, adding in Abington’s Nationals performance, PA finished the year with 9 different schools clocking relay bests under 7:47. Only 2010 had more than 5 in my recorded history, but that 2010 season the state champ would have only been about 6 or 7th in the 2009 state final.

Although it sounded crazy (and if you look at the faces of my fellow writers you could see that), I went bold on Episode 3 of TheRoundHouse and said the AAA 4x800 record could be in jeopardy this season. Part of the reason I said this was, admittedly, because Paul and Evan took my two most logical responses, but the other was not necessarily because I wholeheartedly believe there is a team out there ready to crack 7:33, but I do sincerely believe that the 4x8 in PA this year is the deepest it’s been since 2009-2010. And that means we could see something historic when the competition really gets going.

Keep in mind, to run even 7:47.00, you have to average 1:56.75. And right now the top 4 times in the state probably struggle to match up with 7:33.48 (an average of 1:53.37). But it’s still early and you can see a lot of teams trending in the right direction. At the front of the pack, there is State College, who joined an elite group of teams on the indoor leader board with their 7:45.60 this winter. They packed up four guys around 4:26 in a dual meet and now they will be loading up the open 800 at Shippensburg looking to make a statement. SC returns 3 guys from their 7:41.50 performance last outdoors where they dropped roughly 14 seconds off their indoor time.

Then we have a couple familiar faces in the pole chasing positions: Abington and CB West. Both of these schools are in that elite club of sub 7:40 characters and have gotten off to hot starts this spring. Although Abington has not quite unleashed their guys in the open races in early weeks (no Broadus or Mitchell to be seen), they have dropped multiple 7:57 marks and a slew of 3:19-3:20 type 4x4s. Meanwhile, CB West got open PRs from Rock Fortna, Jake Claricurzio and Carter Zerweck in their last meet. Both of these schools return 3 from last year’s state medal winning squads.

One of the biggest surprises on the Penn Relays entry sheet was the fact that Pennridge wasn’t in the 4x8. This team returns three from a 7:40 squad last spring and added two super freshman, who of which just ran a 1:57 for 800. Tucker Desko, who ran 1:53.38 this indoors, is on fire ever since he made the slight step down in distance to join this relay. Austin Howell just ran under 49 seconds for 400 as well. Of course the Rams don’t seem too concerned with the 4x8 as things currently stand so I may be getting over excited. But I also know this program has placed teams in the top 5 at states in 2012, 2014 and 2014 (with an indoor state title in there) while producing 4 guys who have run at least 1:54 in the open 8.

If you are talking history, however, you can’t leave out North Penn. The 4x8 powerhouse has produced sub 7:47 relays in at least 12 seasons since 1980 including a 7:38.79 in 2008. Sure, North Penn hasn’t shown flashes of low 7:40s potential, but they have a slew of young talent who is rapidly ascending. If they commit to the relay and use all their pieces (particularly 400 stand out Dante Watson) they could jump in to an already crowded party.

But there’s more. CB East made the Championship of America last year and holds three time state champ Jake Brophy in their back pocket. They also have a 1:56 returner, an intriguing up and coming frosh and a slew of talented runners that nearly grabbed an indoor state medal without their most well-known star. The boys from LaSalle showed just how dominate they could be at the Knights Invitational, led by strong performances from Patrick Grant and Evan Addison. They’ve been around the block a few times when it comes to state championship trips and hold at least 3 guys with sub 2 minute 800 PRs. Penn Wood returns three of their own from last outdoor states when they toppled some heavily favored squads and ran 7:49. Their core is developing very quickly in the middle distances and there is so much speed here it’s hard to not be excited. Plus there’s Bishop Shanahan who returns 4 guys from their 7:53 a year ago, including a sophomore in Logan Yoquinto who has made impressive strides dating back to the indoor season. They were one of a slew of teams to crack 8 minutes indoors.

CR North is one of my favorite teams from this outdoor season so far. They’ve been monsters and, just last night at Abington, we saw a 1:56, a 1:59 and another 3 guys under 4:30. This team is deep, this team is young and this team is good. O’Hara just ran 8:01, Bonner has two 1:55 guys waiting in the wings and we haven’t even talked about District 3 or District 7, each of who will be in the mix when the time comes. District 3’s Cedar Crest has made the state finals each of the last two years and has a killer anchor leg in Jesse Cruise, who ran 1:55 last year as a sophomore. Plus there are the AA squads like Camp Hill and Wyomissing. Who’s to say their in district rival won’t push them soaring to new heights like the 2012 Chambersburg-Cumberland Valley duo? Can Seneca Valley drop something killer with Mike Kolor involved?

I’m going to assume DT West doesn’t even touch the 4x8 this spring. But they could certainly be a sub 7:47 team if they pursued it. Or what about the defending champions from Pennsbury? I doubt they will just go quietly into the night this spring.

And we can’t forget about the independent league. I’m not sure there has ever been an independent team that has gone under 7:47 (GFS went exactly 7:47 back in 2008), but this GFS squad isn’t your typical school. They have two 1:55 legs of their own and a stable of guys right around 2 minutes, hoping to dip under. The Tigers have a ton of speed and at Penn Relays this year we could see that speed in action.

So I’ve mentioned 19 teams in this post. Even if half of them don’t pan out, we still have an elite 10 that could go after some all-time performances. And I would be lying to myself if I thought there wasn’t a strong chance a team will emerge from the shadows and throw down some monster marks this May. It happens every year. It’s not really a matter of if, it’s a matter of who.

Sometimes, records aren’t about just one person or one team. Sometimes it’s about a group of runners. Just look at last year’s 3200m outdoors? Or the year before? Yes, Brehm and Ross Wilson were animals, but they had some of the greatest competition ever. As individuals, who knows how fast a 4x8 will run this year. But as a group? Well, now we are talking.

The quest for a top mark all starts with the Penn Relays, where PA will send a ton of talent to the line, hoping to send the most schools to the final since … well the 2009-2010-2011 seasons. Let’s get excited folks. Don’t miss the official Penn Relays previews, predictions, shows and discussion next week.

By the way, for those who care, the current cut off for my list is 7:47.00. If you run two sub-7:45 relays with the same four runners in the same year, then you don’t appear on the list twice. If you change at least one guy (like CB West 2011) you could end up on the list twice. Here’s the top 50 for my list. I’ll be amending my PA All-Time list link hopefully sometime in the near future and I will add this as a tab. Should hopefully be a cool feature. If you have splits or relay histories to add, please let me know and I will continue to expand the list!

	Team		Year	Time
1	CB South	1	2009	7:33.48'
2	Wissahickon	1	1982	7:36.24'
3	Abington	1	2011	7:37.79'
4	Pennsbury	1	2015	7:38.42'
5	North Penn	1	2008	7:38.79'
6	Chester	1	1982	7:38.83'
7	CB West	1	2011	7:38.97'
8	Coatesville	1	1983	7:40.00'
9	Upper Dublin	1	2009	7:40.04'
10	Conestoga Valley	1	2005	7:40.06'
11	Butler	1	2001	7:40.22'
12	West Chester Henderson	1	1997	7:40.23'
13	Pennridge	1	2015	7:40.56'
14	North Penn	2	2005	7:41.04'
15	North Penn	3	2002	7:41.32'
16	State College	1	2015	7:41.50'
17	CB West	2	2011	7:41.51'
18	Coatesville	2	1977	7:41.61c
19	Cardinal O'Hara	1	2003	7:41.89'
20	Cardinal O'Hara	2	2000	7:41.93'
21	State College	2	2014	7:41.99'
22	West Chester Henderson	2	2009	7:42.01'
23	State College	3	1969	7:42.2'
24	North Penn	4	1981	7:42.46'
25	North Penn	5	2009	7:42.47'
26	Penncrest	1	2009	7:42.67'
27	North Penn	6	1997	7:42.76'
28	John Harris	1	1966	7:43.10c
29	Cumberland Valley	1	2001	7:43.20'
30	North Penn	7	2007	7:43.22'
31	West Chester Henderson	3	2014	7:43.24'
32	LaSalle	1	1996	7:43.3'
33	Simon Gratz	1	2006	7:43.43'
34	State College	4	1981	7:43.47'
35	Cedar Crest	1	2010	7:43.64'
36	North Penn	8	1980	7:43.65'
37	Souderton	1	2009	7:43.69'
38	CB East	1	2014	7:43.70'
39	Cumberland Valley	2	2012	7:43.81'
40	Chambersburg	1	2012	7:43.84'
41	North Penn	9	2006	7:43.90'
42	JP McCaskey	1	1991	7:43.97'
43	Baldwin	1	2007	7:44.08'
44	CB West	3	2010	7:44.13'
45	Carlisle	1	2009	7:44.20'
46	Wissahickon	2	1991	7:44.30'
47	North Allegheny	1	1970	7:44.30c
48	Lewisburg	1	2004	7:44.44'
49	Pennridge	2	2012	7:44.49'
50	Abington	2	2010	7:44.65'