PIAA 3200m Recap

by Jarrett Felix

AA
A long time ago, I went through a phase where I called Dominic Hockenbury, Dominic "Huckleberry". I'm not too proud of that. A not quite as long time ago, I went through a phase where I picked against Dom in seemingly every major state championship. I'm not too proud of that either. But I'm at least happy that, in his final race, I was able to jump on board (for one of the few predictions I got right).

Here's the thing about Dominic. He doesn't worry about what anyone else is doing, he goes out, runs his race and gives it everything he has every time. As a result, in Hockenbury's trophy case are 5 state gold medals and 3 more silvers over one of the best 8 year stretches in recent memory. He ended up outside of the state meet record (not too surprising considering the conditions, could find a way to hold this race at night in the near future??), but still ended up finishing off his race with a nearly 8 second margin of victory. In his three state title runs in the 3200, Hock ended up winning by a combined 30.25 seconds. That's pretty sick.

I would love to see him and Dahl and some others get together at Henderson for another battle over 3200, maybe finally clocking that sub 9 if the weather is right. From his interview, it sounds like that might be a pipe dream, but we'll see. He's definitely not 100% satisfied with how things ended which may provide the spark for one more go.

Zach Skolnekovich of Quaker Valley finished 2nd overall and will enter next season as the top returner in both XC and track for a state championship run. Skolnekovich crossed the line first for the WPIAL who dominated this race with 6 of the 8 medal positions (all the guys who finished the race for D7 ended up with state medals). Ben Bumagarner, just like outdoors, came through with a fantastic finish to move up to 4th. Will Loevner added a 3rd straight 3200 medal and Winchester Thurston's Ben Littman grabbed one of the more surprising medals of the day, taking 7th in a big Pr of 9:30. WT has been cleaning up on the medal stand over the past three years in this event.

Breaking up the D7 onslaught on race day was Bryce Descavish of Central Cambria. He too performed incredibly clutch on the big stage for the third time in a row. Bryce finished as the top team scorer in XC and now adds a bronze medal in a loaded field to his accomplishments. Despite the fact that many guys around him had faster PRs or season's bests, Bryce excelled through the heat and top competition with a strong 9:22 mark.

AAA
Matt Kravitz wasn't the name on top of everyone's contenders list heading into the Saturday's state championships. In fact, some people on my writing staff even went so far as to say he should have been in the 1600 at states. Of course there was a small forshadowing for Kravitz's gold as Penntrack's Merbz96 said simply, "Don't sleep on Matt Kravitz" just days before the title was awarded to the North Pocono senior.

Kravitz has always been a strong runner, but during his senior season he really turned things up a notch. Matt finished as PA's top runner at Paul Short and then finished 3rd in AA State XC Championships at Hershey, with a time under 16 minutes. Up until his trip to Shippensburg, Kravitz had been completely untested. With all due respect to his competition, Kravitz had dominated everyone he faced en route to a pair of sub 9:20 marks and a 4:17 1600. However, he didn't attend the big meets like Baldwin or Henderson. He didn't have the flashy school next to his name and he came from District 2: a district not many seem to care about until you make them care about it.

But at states, he made us all care. I was trying hard to watch the race via Periscope while riding in the car up to Delaware and managed to see the outlines of Kravitz outkicking the field in a blistering close. I believe he was under 60 seconds or so for the last lap, but would have to check. The 32 switch proved to be an extremely clutch decision and he drops a massive 10 second PR to leave with gold. A classic reminder that PRs don't tell the whole story as, for the second straight year, the top guy in the field run massive personal bests to cross the line first.

The District 1 vs. WPIAL debate had raged all season and, in the key moment, the 7 came to play. District 7 took 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 10th with their top 5 guys and showcased just how strong their area has been this year. This came on the heels of last season where D7 put just one guy on the medal stand in 7th. Nick Wolk, as he has done all year, led the charge with a PR of 9:10. Marc Migliozzi of North Allegheny, Jake Susalla of Plum and Todd Gunzenhauser of Mount Lebanon rounded out the top 5. It was a tale of three different stories this season for those three guys as Migz went from relative unknown, buried on a loaded NA depth chart, Susalla overcame a disappointing end to last season with a perfectly timed peak and T-Gunz, the WPIALs top returner in this event from a year ago, lived up to high pre-season expectations with another medal. The guys each finished with medals in XC and medals in the 32.

How about this for a surprise. The top returner from next year's 3200m state championship is ... Zach Lefever! The junior from Ephrata had a solid 2015 track season, but probably wasn't even the best 2 miler on his team (Nate Becker is another strong 3200 man). Now Lefever, after a monster XC season that met an untimely end with a hospital trip just before Hershey, Zach finally had a chance to show just how talented he is. After a strong 9:22 PR, he runs 9:19 in the heat with a negative split to finish as the top junior. I wonder how far up this XC Top 50 rankings this will put him ...

Big shout to Kevin Lapsansky of Easton. He grabbed 7th in this field with a pretty large 3200 PR. Running behind Colin Abert for most of his career was pretty tough, but quietly Lapsansky has grabbed 2 XC medals, multiple D11 championships and now a state medal in the always packed 3200. Great career Kev.

And speaking of great careers, although Jake Brophy finished "just" 8th in this race, the kid has had an amazing career. Three state championships, a sub 9 3200 and a resume that puts him up there with the greatest distance guys are state has ever seen. He's a selfless team player who wasn't afraid to risk his own individual success to help his teammates. Congrats to Jake on a fantastic career.

Worth noting, awesome races from guys like Moser, Livolsi and Shea who finished 11th, 12th and 13th in this race. Moser proved he was a gutsy, determined runner this season, emerging from obscurity to a 9:21 3200 guy who nearly stole a state medal. Livolsi was buried in a pack of loaded LaSalle talent and has since made a name for himself individually as a top flight distance runner. And Shea, who barely even punched a ticket for the state championships last week, runs a Pr at the perfect time and finishes as the #4 returner for next years race.

Lots of young guys will be back with a ton of valuable experience now under their belts. Should be yet another amazing 3200 finish in 2017.