TFCAofGP is Underway!

By Jarrett Felix

A couple quick notes that I’d like to mention. First of all, shout out to Garrett Zatlin for doing an awesome job live tweeting about the TFCAofGP Meet last night. Hopefully those who were following along enjoyed themselves. Also, we’ve heard the demand for some etrain shirts continue to grow, so we’ve made a small investment in an order. We will keep you updated on how and when we are going to make them available for purchase as we continue to figure out the logistics of the operation.

Now on to the meet. Last night, both divisions of the TFCAofGP competed together in their first event of the season. For those who don’t know, this is essentially the philly schools and, during indoors, this group tends to produce a lot of the fastest times in the state because 1) they have strong organization with weekly meets on decent tracks, 2) they house D1 and D12 which just so happen to be two of the best districts in the state and 3) there just seems to be a bigger emphasis on indoor in these areas whether it is cultural or because they have the better organization and tracks. Just my two cents anyway.

As for the actual times, let’s break it down. We start with the 400 meters where Downingtown West junior Chase Semanyk won the individually 400 from the 8^th of 9^th heats with a 52.33. As you may have read in our relay preview, Chase was one of the breakout stars from this past spring track season and in just one race he’s made it clear that his ascension isn’t finished. That 400 mark is a pretty solid time for the first meet of the season, especially since it appears he won his section by roughly a second.

Jumping up to 800 meters, Rusty Kujdych got out hard and made the most of a fast start to grab the victory in a 2:01.27. Considering Kujdych focused on the 3k/3200 the past two seasons, this is a nice display of speed for the District One cross country champ. In second place, was Christopher Cameron of Wissahickon. Cameron ran 1:56.9 last year during outdoors and is part of an under the radar Wissahickon team that seems to always bang out middle distance talent. Cameron may be an early sleeper candidate in this event.

Also placing well in this meet were Christian Craig of William Tennent (2:04.55), Miles Green of St. Joe’s Prep (2:04.84, one of the SJP 800 prospects I mentioned last week) and Aqeel Bacchus of Bensalem (2:05.61). Paul Robeson’s Jude Marcelin won the middle section of this race in 2:05.37 defeating Twin Valley sophomore Trey Hill (2:06.30).

Quakertown’s Hudson Delisle ran 4:38.61 to win the mile over sophomore David Endres of CB East. Delisle has been a consistently strong presence on the track since his freshman season and ran 1:55 as a sophomore last year alongside Brett Wolfinger. Brett Zatlin of Great Valley edged out Lower Merion’s Theodore Neckowicz to grab 3^rd. Worth noting, Twin Valley had another high placing sophomore in Dylan Servis who finished just behind CRN’s #5 man during cross Ethan Koza in the middle of 3 sections.

CB South’s Matt Scarpill defeated Matt D’Aquila in the 3,000 meters with a winning time of 9:11 to D’Aquila’s 9:14. Brian Mass of CB West was also under 9:20 with a mark of 9:19.83. Scarpill made it to the fast heat at states last winter for the mile and has produced a variety of sub 16 performances during XC. This is a big win over a pair of guys who ran in the low 9:20s for 3200 last season and could potentially indicate that Scarpill is thinking about moving up from his usual event. Ryan Leahan of Coatesville, who had an excellent stretch run during XC, ran 9:20 for 4^th and is definitely a name to remember going forward. In total, 7 guys cracked 9:25.

The 4x800 proved to be the marquee event of the day for distance fans as Pennsbury loaded up their team and delivered. The 2015 state champs in this event, Pennsbury stormed to 8:16.81 to dip under the SQG in the event. They pulled five other teams under 8:40 behind him including the always dangerous LaSalle squad (8:22) and the reigning XC champs CRN (8:25). I talked a little about Pennsbury in my sleepers post for the indoor preview and it looks like they are ready to step out of sleeper position and into the spotlight from Day One. Also worth noting, Pennsbury dropped this time despite the fact that Javier Linares ran 2:06.15 in the open 8, likely indicating he wasn’t on the relay. That means they’ve got at least 5 guys with solid speed in December.

Cheltenham won the DMR going away, apparently thanks in large part to a monster anchor leg from Will Griffen. The SOL American League XC champ anchored his teammates to an 11:08 mark to start the season. They were a borderline state qualifying relay in this event last season and this year they bring back some key pieces in Griffen, Crosby (sub 2 last year), Watts and Grant.

A couple final notes. LaSalle wins the novice 4x800 going away with a time of 8:58. That’s a little under 2:15 a man for a relay that is usually made up of freshman and sophomores with little to no indoor track experience. Also small shout out to my alma mater Upper Dublin who ran 3:30.74 to win the 4x4 over Abington in a tight battle. That’s a big early season victory for UD who, on paper at least, graduated their top 2 400 guys from last year.

Assuming there was no doubling, Abington dropped that mark without Aaron Sooknanan, one of their best 400 guys (he was 4^th in D1 at this meet with a 52.93). Look for the Abington middle distance train to keep chugging along even with the graduations of Keion Broadus and Isaiah Smith. Upper Dublin ran 3:19.07 last spring for 7^th at states in the 4x4 while Abington ran 3:17.87 for 5^th.