Penn Relays Wrap Up

by Jarrett Felix

It was an amazing Friday night at Penn Relays. Honestly, the DMR was one of the best races I've ever seen and, if I'm continuing the aforementioned honesty, after that unreal event, it was impossible to get truly psyched up for a while. Spare me a brief moment of anecdote sharing before I get into some recap of the PA specific shenanigans.

So I had the pleasure of watching the race with my college roommate Charlie Kline and fellow writer/current Penn athlete Sean Collins. Charlie's a Vermonter with a runner's average familiarity with high school athletics and Sean is in our writer Facebook chat being overloaded with the stuff, so it was a nice range of experience. But regardless of who I was with, everybody was on some level aware of Andrew Hunter.

In our section of the stands, there were a couple kids behind us who were making race predictions for the DMR. One found out more quickly than the other where Andrew Hunter was located and picked his school, Loudon Valley. The other picked the field I guess? He may also have picked LaSalle (incidentally, that was my pre-race pick). Regardless, as soon as the race starts, the one kid who picked against Hunter gets excited as LV has an early fall. All the same, the mood in our section (and probably the stadium) seems to be, Hunter is going to win the thing and it's a race for second. Even when Hunter gets the baton some 10 seconds back from a sub 4:10 miler, that still seems to be the general energy.

Slowly, the drama builds as Hunter continues to close down the gap. He catches LaSalle's anchor (Salisbury) with about 200 to go and the sprint is on. Salisbury fights him off hard and coming off the final turn the two are going all out. Hunter never seems to pull ahead, especially from our angle, until maybe the last possible moment. He makes a wild lean, almost falls, and makes the thing interesting.

Now at this point, there's not a lot of dudes left in the stadium (it's pretty late, fairly cold and there's no Jamaicans left to root for). That makes for an excellent silence as everyone is listening to see who gets the win. Now our announcer, good old Ron, comes on the loud speaker and says "LaSalle". That sends the kid who picked them in a real tizzy. He's running around the stands laughing maniacally. But Lopresti comes back on and says something like "Wait, I didn't mean to say that, we don't know who won yet".

Then, on the scoreboard, they flash the name Loudon Valley and then the name LaSalle with the same exact time! So we all instantly turn to laugh and the formerly celebrating now devastated kid in our section. A nice cherry on top of an epic finish. Conspiracy theories aside, it's one of the most amazing races in the history of April and might have passed the 2010 College COA 4x800m on my "best races I've ever seen live" list. Maybe, but probably not. Almost certainly not. I'll never turn on you, Robby.

Of course, there was a strong PA presence in this one. Cardinal O'Hara, the surprise indoor state champions, came into this race with a bit of a chip on their shoulder. Although they had won the state title the past two years, few really cared about their entry into the event. Most of the talk revolved around DT West and, on our Penn Relays preview show, just one panelist predicted a sub 10:20 time. But the O'Hara boys got there, breaking 10:20 by a small margin on what was not a perfect night for shorter distance running (especially if you are standing around cold in the waiting paddock). Rob Morro set the tone early, moving up from mid/back of the pack to jump all the way to 3rd by the time he handed off the stick. The Jones boys ran strong legs and gave Ryan the baton in a strong spot in about 3rd. Then Ryan James brought things home, busting out another big PR on the anchor with a 4:21. They ended up finishing 9th, but it's hard to argue this team didn't deliver with an optimal performance.

Now we will look to see what moves this team makes for outdoors. They have the pieces to put a strong 4x8 on the track (and maybe they will stack the relay at districts to get a state spot), but I think this team will ultimately be spread out in the individual events. Morro is an interesting name going forward in the 3200 and Ryan James has shown strong improvements in his track abilities this year so far (big speed improvements as well). Both guys (who've medaled in XC the last two years) would be fun to have in the deuce (a suddenly much more wide open deuce).

In the individual events, the favorites for the state title got, in the words of Elvis, "all shook up". A couple weeks ago, I was on the "Josh Hoey is the best miler in the state bandwagon" but then I backed off that logic hard. I picked him for 3rd PA finisher (shout out to Paul Hayes, who was in the Josh Hoey FTW camp). And I didn't think any of our PA guys would win the thing, let alone place top 3. But Josh Hoey proved he's hit another level this spring and continues to improve. Hoey won the open mile, something no PA runner had pulled off since Chris Spooner back in 2004. He did it with a beautiful kick from about 300 out (eerily similar move to the one his brother pulled off to win outdoor states last spring) and a massive PR of roughly 6 seconds! He was in a shaky position early in the race and had to swing way wide to get back into a good spot, but he managed to pull it off without sacrificing too much energy. His 4:11.90 brings him down to close to 4:10 for 1600 and makes him the clear PA #1 by time. This also is a faster outdoor mile than Kolor or Jaxson has run, making Josh the clear favorite for the outdoor 1600 title as we enter the month of May.

All of this comes as Josh is closing out the last semester of his sophomore year of high school. Now we've seen sophomores showcase this kind of speed, but rarely this kind of ability to win. That's the tricky one. Craig Miller and Zach Brehm are the guys who come to mind and both are two of the fastest sophomores in the history of the nation (especially Miller). Remember, Chris Spooner was the last guy to win this title for PA. The same Chris Spooner who would go on to break the state 2 mile record and win the 4x8, 16 and 8 outdoors (in AA) during that same season. That should give you an idea of how rare this kind of thing is.

Another fun fact, the 1600m state champ has been an underclassman a lot. We are talking 2004, 2005, 2007, 2011, 2012, 2014, and 2015 (AAA exclusively here, but still). The last time a sophomore won gold was that 2004 race. The runner? Craig Miller, naturally.

Although our other guys didn't manage to crack the top 5, they still performed admirably during the weeknd. Kolor ran a strong 4:16 in his Penn Relays debut for 7th and was up in the mix throughout the race. Dahl made a strong move on the third lap, despite having a 4x8 carry in his legs and, although he couldn't quite find the extra gears on the last lap, he still ran what I believe is an open PR at 4:16. Kid is still just a junior and is learning a lot about how best to run the mile. I like his upside.

As for Josh's brother Jaxson, he didn't have the race he wanted Friday night, but the kid showed a lot of heart running for the West 4x4 the next day. He delivered a pair of 50 point relay splits on a couple sub 3:20 relays and helped the team compete as one of the top philly area schools. I wonder if we could see Josh in the 16 and Jax in the 8 come outdoors to try and grab double golds? I guess we will see what happens going forward.

The 3k was another fantastic race and, although PA didn't leave with the gold, I would say our state did leave with a lot to brag about.

Nate Henderson, a junior from JP McCaskey, had been known for his impressive mid race surging ability (at least by me), but had struggled to close an elite 3200 out with a final kick. Well, after a 4:14 1600 and a blazing 1:53 4x8 split (I've seen as fast as 1:53.1 reported by people at the meet), it was clear Nate was turning it up a notch. In his Penn Relays debut (something I thought would cause him to struggle) he ran a poised race, moving up at the right times in the crowded, fast paced field and then made a big surge to try and steal the thing with a lap to go. Ultimately, the race belonged to Eric Van der Els (shout out to Alex Fox who picked this on our recent episode of TheRoundHouse), but Henderson still held his own all the way through the line. He ran a big PR of 8:24 (converts to 9:01.13 for 3200m) and finished as the top PA runner in a field that included Dominic Hockenbury and Jake Brophy. With the victory, Henderson may now be the favorite to win the state title in the 3200 (an argument I made on the third episode of TheRoundHouse) and perhaps become only the second junior in state history to break 9 minutes for 3200.

Dominic Hockenbury added to his long list of top marks, running 8:27 (converts to 9:04 for 3200m) and placing 8th in this loaded field. A sub 8:30 3k is no joke and was also a big improvement on his time a year ago. Hockenbury will likely now turn his attention to rematch with Brophy at the Henderson Invite and then to the outdoor 3200 state record. Meanwhile, Brophy placed 12th in 8:30.11 for the 3rd PA finish. He looked a little uncomfortable in the race and never seemed to find his rhythm. It was a fast pace from the gun and perhaps that through him off his game a bit. However, Jake recently ran 4:15 in a dual meet (a very quick time) and is still one of the most proven state performers in Pennsylvania. He will be tough to beat, especially in a field where there are a lot less guys running sub 9:10 pace. Don't sleep on a motivated and hungry Jake Brophy.

Moving to Saturday, we had two PA 4x800s that qualified for the Championship of America: State College and CB West. After running very fast times in the previous day's preliminary heats, the teams were still recovering a bit on race day. Meanwhile, the Jamaican schools were ready to go from the jump. Things went out very quick and the PA squad's ended up a bit back from the 1:53-1:54 type pace. The top two Jamaican squads really ran away from this field, running 7:33 and 7:35. Those times are #4 and #5 in the event's history and the two fastest times from Jamaican teams in meet history. So it was going to be pretty tough to beat these guys.

State College managed to move up the field through and take 4th place overall, running some strong marks across the board. Nick Feffer really shined with a low 1:54 split that was extremely impressive (he held on valiantly after a real quick opening quarter). They ran 7:44, a comfortable state lead, and there's still room to drop here as well. I believe this mark is also faster than Pennsbury ran a year ago (and they went on to break 7:40 at states) so they are in a pretty good spot.

As for CB West, although they only finished 11th, they showed a lot of upside during both races. They have 4 guys who can run under 2 minutes and they have a gutsy group of guys. They mixed it up valiantly at the front of the field in prelims and put up a good fight on tired legs in the final. I'm very interested to see how they handle Pennridge (and the rest of a very deep district one) in a couple weeks (State College won't be there as they are in D6). The 4x8 landscape is still very in flux and, although SC ran very well, they didn't put down anything that makes them seem invincible (like North Penn in 2008, CB South in 2009, CBW & Abington in 2011) so no one will be afraid of them come states. That should bring out the best of all involved.

And isn't that what we all want to see?

More recaps on the non-Penn Relays events to come later in the week. We will also have another episode of TheRoundHouse this Monday night (and possibly another episode later in the week). Monday's episode will cover the biggest stories from around the nation (at all levels) and will be on at 8:15 here on the blog and on YouTube. If we have the man power (and the demand) we will put together a PA specific show later in the week.

So if you want it, comment away and tell us what's up! We will do our best to give the people what they want.