The Last Recap of 2016? Burdette Invitational

By Jarrett Felix

Just one day after Christmas, the Burdette Invitational was housed in the Lehigh fieldhouse. The meet marks the last major invitational of 2016 (on PA soil at least) and is a great opportunity to run fast before full on break fever sets in. The meet started with a SMR that has 400-200-200-800 legs of the four person relay. Wissahickon won the event, winning heat 3 of 4 with a final time of 3:42.85. It was over 3 seconds faster than heat 4’s winner (CB South) and almost five seconds ahead of the heat 3 runner-ups (Boyertown). The Wissahickon splits were apparently 53.0 (Rasheed Wright), 23.2 (Shamere Dunswell), 24.6 (Matt Selverian) and 2:03.3 (Chris Cameron).

In the mile, junior Brendan O’Toole from North Penn returned to potentially his favorite event after battling at 3k last week. He ran 4:36.91 to just edge out Syed Shah of Upper Darby who ran 4:37.11. They were the only two PA runners under 4:40 in the meet. Wissahickon junior Ben Hoyer was 4^th overall, winning his section of the mile with a 4:46.58. That time was about 9 seconds faster than the next best mark from his heat, set by Owen Zila of CB East.

In the most anticipated race of the day, a stacked 800 field did battle with junior Kamil Jihad taking the gold. He ran 2:00.52 to defeat sophomore Mat Eissler of Pennridge who ran 2:00.84. Jihad, who ran 1:52 last spring, is an early favorite for the state title in this event, but Eissler, Radnor’s Peter Cooke and Quakertown’s Hudson Delisle all were within one second of the stand out speedster. Cooke won his heat of the 800 at indoor states a year ago and, although he had a relatively quiet spring, I believe he may have been battling injuries. Delisle is fresh off a strong mile showing.

Collin Ebling of Pottsville in District 11 was 5^th in a time of 2:02.59 and North Penn’s Daniel Santiago ran 2:04 for 6^th. Ebling ran 1:57 as a sophomore last year in D11 and is a real talented under the radar guy. Keep in mind D11 produced two monster 800 guys last year in Joe Espinal and Calvin Schneck. Josue Marcelin became the second straight slow heat winner in the 800 for Paul Robeson as both Marcelin’s have run 2:06 in winning efforts over the past two weeks. Dave Whitfield of Boner placed 10^th in the open 8, but also split a 2:03 on the SMR not long before.

Juniors went 3 for 3 in the individual distance events as Avery Lederer beat out Evan Minor of out of state Voorhees 9:14 to 9:18 in the 3k. These two were the only runners to break 9:30 as Daniel Bici of Masterman ran 9:30 for 3^rd overall in a strong showing. Masterman has had state medalists the past springs in Julian Degroot-Lutzner and Joe Previdi.

In the distance relays, North Penn posted a dominant 4x800 victory. The 2007 meet record holders, eased to an 8:23.03 gold medal performance that was 17 seconds faster than the runner-ups (Wissahickon). North Penn was likely operating with at least a couple tired legs as O’Toole and Santiago both posted strong marks in open events. In the DMR, Cheltenham claimed gold for the second straight week, posting the first sub 11 of the year with a 10:59.50. Cheltenham likely won’t be playing around much in the quest for a state DMR birth after just barely missing a year ago. They seem focused and determined from day one and that could make them dangerous contenders down the stretch.

Close behind was CB East and Boyertown who each ran 11:03. CB East has earned state medals each of the past two seasons in the DMR, thanks in large part to anchor Jake Brophy, but they return a great core of mid-distance talent to fill in for him. David Endres, who led off in 3:18, is perhaps the most important developing piece of that group. Boyertown has been a solid program in the DMR in their own right, nearly stealing a state title in 2011. They likely got a strong anchor performance from Dominic Derafelo.

In quick sprint news, Abington’s 4x400 ran away with the gold medals, running a quick time of 3:29.16. They didn’t face off against Upper Dublin’s A team in a rematch from last weekend although Aaron Sooknanan of Abington and George Weems of UD did take the top 2 spots in the open 400 with Weems getting the victory in 51.48. Wissahickon continued to crush the slower sections with Rasheed Wright’s 52.10 victory in section 4 of 6. That was good enough for 4^th overall behind only the top 3 in heat 6. Junior Shamere Dunswell also won the 5^th of 7 sections in the 200 meters to place 3^rd overall. The winner of that 200 was Terrance Laird of Coatesville who ran a blazing fast meet record of 22.32. His time edged out the record previously held by Ernie Terrell of Norristown, a name that (slightly) older track fans will quickly recognize as an all-time great.