2017 Indoor Preview: Some Sleeper Picks

by Jarrett Felix

The 2017 Indoor Season is under way and, because I’ve been trying to patiently wait for the XC season to begin, lots of people have already started up a variety of interesting discussions. But hopefully, I’ll be creating some new discussion with this post by trying to pick out a couple sleeper picks for the 2017 Indoor Track Season.

Eric Kersten, Pennsbury

As a sophomore, Kersten was the gusty lead off runner for a Pennsbury team that won indoor states, qualified for the Penn Relays Championship of America and then won outdoor stats with a sub 7:40 clocking. On that state championship relay, Kersten led off in about 1:55 for the 800, a terrific sophomore split. During Kersten’s junior year, we didn’t see that much of him until the end of the season when Pennsbury’s 4x8 started to sneakily come on (that’s another sleeper for you), but this past fall Kersten race 15:50 for 5k and placed in the top 20 at the state meet in Hershey. This is a big talent from a program that has put together some very impressive mid distance marks and I think we could see him make some noise this winter in a potentially open 800 meter contest.

Will Griffen, Cheltenham

For those of you who weren’t diligently keeping track, Cheltenham’s Will Griffen was one of the best two milers last winter. He only ran 9:22 for 3k indoors but he ran a 9:43 two mile at Ocean Breeze. He also ran low 4:30s for the mile and helped Cheltenham clock a real quick 10:45 (they got absolutely robbed from states, but I don’t want to get into that right now). In the spring he ran an awesome 9:21 for 3200 meters (yes his 32 was faster than his indoor 3k) and qualified for states. This past fall he ran 15:52 at districts and dipped into the top 50 out at Hershey. By the way, Cheltenham (who is known as a sprint school) has had some relay nice distance performances lately. Don’t sleep on their leader.

Austin Howell, Pennridge

I’m not sure how much people know about this kid, but he’s super talented. His main focus has been the 400 which makes sense (he’s run 48.93 in the open) and as a result he’s got no open 8s on record from last year. But the past two seasons he has really excelled on the 4x8, including a roughly 1:53 anchor split last spring to lead Pennridge onto the medal stand without their best runner (the now graduated Tucker Desko). Howell might still end up being a 400 centric kinda guy, but if he decides to dabble in the open 8 he will be an instant title contender.

Lower Dauphin

Carlisle grabbed a lot of headlines during the fall and they’ve already made huge noise as a potential record setting squad this winter. They deserve all that love, but let’s not forget the team that followed on their heels for the majority of this past cross country season in Lower Dauphin. LD has had a medal winning DMR at states before and this year’s squad has two state medalists from the fall plus arguably their biggest talent in Kyler Shea. They also ran 8:02 for the 4x8 this past spring and bring back at least most of those pieces if not all.

Ben Bumgarner, Waynesburg Central

Alright, I’m not sure this guy is technically a sleeper considering he just won the state championship this past fall in cross country, but I haven’t seen him show up in a ton of talk yet as a potential state champ so I threw him here. He’s clearly made consistent improvement each season throughout his high school career. He has a resume for peaking at the right time. And, at least on the west coast, things seem pretty open on the track for the long stuff. Especially when you considering the other top distance stand out from the WPIAL (Zach Skolnekovich) is going to be, at the very least, getting a late start on the indoor season (wouldn’t surprise me if he doesn’t have much of an indoor season at all considering the history). Bumgarner had a solid indoor season last year and then broke through with a sub 9:30 3200 meters at outdoor states in the hot weather.

Ben Littman, Winchester Thurston

Tristan Forsythe is the returning state medalist for this school after his first section win in the mile a year ago, but Littman is a strong runner in his own right. He won the WPIAL championship this past fall and finished in the top 5 at A states. He also dropped a medal worthy performance last outdoors in the 3200 like Bumgarner. It’s unclear how much any guy outside of the Philly Area will focus on the winter season, but with a training partner like Forsythe he could end up having a very nice season.