Indoor Preview 2017: In Case You Missed It

By Jarrett Felix

It’s usually a safe bet that I will have plenty of predictions, speculations and questions about a new track or cross country season, but when we talk about the 2017 indoor season, there are a few things that we already know will happen. Because they have already happened. Let’s take a quick look back at what you have missed during the final weeks of the cross country season.

Ursinus Invitational

I don’t usually talk about the sprinting very much, but I have to say Terrance Laird running 21.75 for 200 meters on a flat track in December is really impressive. Could potentially be a historic season for this kid. Definitely a name to watch in the 2017 sprinting discussions.

In other sprinting news, keep an eye on the boys from Bishop Shanahan. They already had 48 second 400 meter runner Keegan Hughes, but they also added Josh Hoey and Nate Alleyne who ran on DT West’s state championship 4x400 this past spring. Bishop Shanahan won the 4x200 at this meet and took the top 2 spots in the fast heat of the 400 (Alleyne 51.66, Hughes 52.00).

Using this as a transition to the distance events, junior Logan Yoquinto of Bishop Shanahan posted a very solid win in his first appearance on the indoor track this season, dropping a 2:00.62 to outduel Brandon Hontz of West Chester Rustin. Yoquinto is a strong talent who, as a sophomore last year, anchored Shanahan to an indoor state medal and split in the realm of 1:57 on the relay. The jury is still out on exactly what Shanahan’s relay/individual situation will look like with the graduation of their other three 4x8 relay members, but Yoquinto should at the very least be in the picture as a contender in the open 800.

As for Hontz, he ran his 2 flat 800 after doubling back from a 4:34 DMR split (shout out to our commenter who posted about this). That’s a real nice start for Hontz who ran 4:19 for 1600 last spring and emerged as one of my sleeper picks for outdoor states. This past XC season, Hontz ran incredibly strong but had a rare off day at Districts and ended up missing state qualifying. Clearly he and his teammates have used that to their advantage in the gap between seasons. Hontz came out the gates looking excellent while his DMR teammates helped post an 11:05 DMR which is a sneaky good time for December.

In the longer distances, PA’s Kamil Jihad really stood out to me (and to others who have commented as well). He ran a 4:38 full mile for second overall and added a win in the slow heat of the 3k. This comes on the heels of Jihad’s breakthrough XC season where he was district champ and finished in the top 50 at A states on the hilly Hershey course. To me, the last few meets for Jihad have been really encouraging. Keep in mind he ran 1:52 as a sophomore last year chasing Domenic Perretta at the outdoor state meet. And last indoors he was a 400-800 guy. He’s clearly been working on his strength and, so far, it’s paying off. Once he injects that speed we could see something really special from this kid. I don’t want to go too crazy on predictions this early, but I will say he’s my early pick for the indoor state champ.

Worth noting, Nick Wagner of Penn Trafford, I believe the top returner at 800 from last indoor season, won his section of the mile, running a 4:40.

Peter Borger of Malvern Prep, one of the breakout independent league stars this past fall, finished as the top PA runner in the 3k (2^nd overall) with a time of 9:22.23. This was just ahead of Boyertown’s Dominic Derafelo (9:23.40) and Shane Ainscoe’s 9:25.89. It’s worth noting that Derafelo was listed on Boyertown’s DMR that took place prior to this event. Boyertown posted a solid 11:13.67 for 3^rd place and 2^nd PA team in that event.

Maroon and Gold Invitational

So keep in mind that the Kutztown track isn’t exactly the fastest surface in the land, but it does have nice turns in my opinion that aren’t quite as tight as some of the other indoor tracks out there. That’s my basic one sentence thoughts on the track that housed this meet.

Moving right along, I liked what I saw from Bensalem at this meet. They’ve got a pretty nice record of putting together 4x4s and 4x8s and I’ve got this sneaking suspicion something will start to come together for them this indoor season. There were not a flurry of super fast times, but Bensalem did pick up a win in the 800 meters (Isaiah Thomas, 2:09.99) and a 2-3 finish in the 400 (Jordan Duncan-Murphy 53.57, Jon Champagne 54.55). They also finished with the top 2 4x4s overall, each of which ran 3:55.

Piggy backing on more of what has been said by our great commenters, Joe Cullen of Wyomissing (probably going to specialize at 800 this year) ran 9:30 for 3k to best Casey Ellis of Northeast Bradford. Both Cullen and Ellis were excellent this past fall during XC (district champs) who had big breakthroughs on the trails. Cullen is continuing to show great early season strength before we likely see a drop down for him. As for Ellis, I think his best event will probably be the 3k/32, but it’s hard to say how much indoor he will commit to coming from a small school and, apparently, being a wrestler (or perhaps former wrestler?) for NEB.

Pleasant Valley, who has quietly had a state medalist each of the past two indoor seasons, finished as the top PA squad in the DMR. Seth Slavin, the XC medalist and 3k medalist from last winter, was listed as the team’s anchor on the 11:23.94 squad. Gabe Sullivan, Slavin’s running mate for much of XC (15:57 PR), wasn’t listed on the roster. He and Ryan Murphy (listed as 1200 leg) were under 4:50 this past indoor season. We will keep an eye out for him in future results.

I believe those are the only indoor meets we’ve had PA distance action at so far this season. Let me know if there’s something else that I missed. Things are expected to really start to heat up next weekend when the TFCAofGP Meets start back up for the Philly Area schools. Also stay on the lookout for Footlocker Regional/National PA guys who will look to drop one very fast 3k off of their previous XC fitness early in the year to set up a state qualifying spot. I’m not sure I see that happening this year (all non-Philly guy qualifiers and a solid amount of time has passed since Regionals), but it’s always cool when it does.