by Jarrett Felix
Let’s
round out the rest of this weekend with a few quick hits.
Dominic
Hockenbury isn’t just a two miler anymore. The reigning XC and 3200m state
champion has made it a point to improve his speed this spring and he has been
successful. Successful may actually be an understatement as the Lake Lehman
senior and Syracuse signee went to his future home state and dropped a 4:16.73
full mile in a very competitive field. I really like Hock’s chances at sub 9
this year for 3200 and it’s hard to not have high hopes for him in a loaded 3k
race at Penn. And, of course, the 32-16 double has to be in play with an
intriguing cross match of Peretta and Hockenbury.
On the
other end of the Peretta spectrum, 800 specialist David Fletcher is really
hitting his stride in the two lapper. The defending silver medalist in AA
behind Peretta dropped a 1:53.30 in a collegiate field at Bucknell. Shout out
to Eric Heatwole for the scoop (and the strong double). Eric also pointed out
this means the 800 at states looks a lot more competitive than it did even a
week ago. Fletcher not only moves within a few more ticks of Dom’s PR, but
1:53.30 is faster or equal to Peretta’s two outdoor golds in the 800. When he
has the extra junk in his legs he might just be vulnerable enough for the upset
to be sprung.
Of
course if Peretta is nervous, he sure didn’t look it this weekend. He doubled
4:15-1:52 (both hand times) for a pair of dominant wins at the Beaver Invite.
He also likely played a big role in Beaver Fall’s 4x4 victory (3:29, could they
be sleeper state medal contenders?). Finishing second in both events was
Jarrett Boyd of Freedom who added 4:30 and 1:57 marks. That’s a really good
time for this kid who has been slowing coming along a distance contender. I
believe he is in AA and he should be in the medal conversation for both of
these events if that’s the case. Jarrett’s had a good weekend I’d say. Besides
my loss last night of course but that was a Monday anyway.
In
other defending 1600m state champ news, Jaxson Hoey returned to his winning
ways down in Maryland. He and teammate Ryan Barton took 1-2 in the 1600 with
Jax taking the victory 4:21 to 4:32 for an 11 second margin of victory. Jax
followed that up with a strong 1:57 double to earn a second gold of the day.
For those who were at all concerned, it looks like Jax is doing pretty darn
well heading into Penn Relays. In fact, it was Josh Hoey who was out of the
line up in this one.
But in
the line up for DT West? Josh McLemore. He blazed a 53 second 400 hurdles (I
had no idea he even hurdled) and then came back with a huge anchor leg to
defeat Keon Rantin of Glenn Mills (one of the fastest 400 guys in the state) in
come from behind fashion. McLemore and DT West ran 3:22 for the 4x4 and will
likely be aiming for sub 3:20 at Penn Relays as there is no DMR on the schedule
for these kids.
Matt
Kravitz of North Pocono may be known more as a miler, but Kravitz made a strong
statement in the longer event this weekend as he crushed the field at Tamaqua
and dipped under 9:20 for 3200. Kravitz raced the mile last year fairly
regularly, but in his early races this indoors/outdoors he’s looked hard at the
longer stuff including a 9 flat indoor 3k. Considering Kravitz made huge
strides during XC (sub 16 at Hershey, top PA guy at Paul Short) especially when
you consider he doesn’t have quite the same 800 resume as many of these top
milers. I really like this performance and strategy. At the very least, this
gives him a ton of confidence in his strength going forward and a big base to
use to attack the mile.
And
that’s all I’ve got! I know it was a lot and spread across three posts, but
hopefully it gave you some more in depth analysis to think about on your daily
distance run. Or at least built up some suspense.
As a
reminder, tomorrow night will be our third edition of TheRoundHouse, but our
first with a PA flare. Sean Collins has some great stuff planned as this
episode’s moderator. You can catch the action live at 9 PM. Thursday night will
be a discussion night with the theme of “Penn Relays Relays” and I’ll drop a
post to hopefully help stir the pot.
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