Guys, The Two Part Recaps Are Back!

By Jarrett Felix

Gotta say Pennsylvanians, this was one heck of a weekend. The PA contingent represented the state to the fullest with excellent performances both in and out of state. Obviously, we had a ridiculous 1-3 finish up in Boston, but in New York PA was unbelievable as well. There were so many heat winners and section winners across the board and our awesome depth was on full display. Back home on flat tracks, fast times were dropping as well. Through all the efforts, the state rankings were completely rewritten. It looks incredibly likely (to me at least) that it will take at least 1:59.5 banked to make states in the 800, by far the quickest year in the 3-year implementation of the maximums.

Basically, I’m trying to say two things here. #1 – I’m proud of you guys. You killed it. #2 – This recap will have to be a two parter. There are too many props I would like to give out to squeeze it into one reasonably sized post. If you wanted to spent a half hour reading a post, then you would just go read the running diaries (which by the way has its ownwebsite now)! It’s recap time! Let’s do this thing!

Franklin & Marshall Invite #2

Shout out to the F&M Meet. They put on a great meet out in Lancaster and the strong group of District 3 talent showed up and put on a show. So they get the starting spot in a crowded weekend recap. In the 1600 meters, Nate Henderson of JP McCaskey dipped into his first individual indoor event of 2017. It worked out pretty darn well as Nate ran 4:20.05 to win the race by over 10 seconds. Henderson, who has raced the 3k/3200 at all the major state championships he has participated in, has underrated speed. Remember, he split a 1:53 last spring and also soloed a very fast 4:14ish for 1600. Henderson also doubled back to post a 2 flat in the 800 for 5^th overall. I’m excited to see how Nate approaches this indoor season. He gets a late start thanks to his Footlocker appearance and, historically speaking, a national appearance often makes guys put their focus in the mile over the 3k. He’s also got a sleeper DMR team that could may sneak in to the state picture if Nate drops something big. Stay tuned to see what he’s got to give.

PA’s second best finisher in the 1600 also had a strong double. That was Kamil Jihad who ran 4:32 before adding a seasonal best 800 victory in 1:58. As of now, Jihad still sits outside the top 10 in the state for this event thanks to the madness at Ocean Breeze (we’ll get to that, but probably tomorrow), but even on the double nobody can beat these guy. He’s still undefeated at 6 or 800. He defeated Austin Padmore who ran a big season best to dip under 2 minutes for the first time. Padmore, who has run 1:56 low in the open outdoors, joined a list of 15 runners who improved their seed times on Saturday with marks below 2 minutes even for banked track equivalent. That’s not even counting the Sunday boys, Sam Affolder and Nick Feffer, who appear to have been well under 2 minutes (those results have not gone final as of the writing of this paragraph).

Josh Endy of Boyertown had an awesome race, dropping a 2:02 for 7^th overall and first in his heat. Ephrata also had a nice showing with a pair of top 13 finishers in Shue and Morales, including a heat winner in Shue.

Did someone say Ephrata? Ok, fine I just set myself up for that transition somewhat clumsily, but it gets the job done. Zach Lefever, the 4^th place finisher from XC states, rolled in his first marquee race of 2017. Lefever dropped an 8:58.30 to win the 3k over fellow state medalist Nick Norton (9:10) and Manheim Township’s talented youngster Ian Miller (9:11). Boyertown went 2 for 2 in the “that was a nice race they had there” performances as Dominic Derafelo picked up a nice seasonal best with a 9:13.27 for 4^th.

Lefever, who if you remember back was the #1 District 3 finisher at outdoor states for the 3200 last year, is off to his best ever indoor start. I think he has the chance to surprise some people in the state 3k final and maybe mix it up for the victory. That race is still pretty up in the air as it doesn’t appear either Affolder will give it a try. If Henderson doesn’t run for some reason, or honestly even if he does, things could be wild. It is worth noting however, that Zach may need to dip down a little faster in the coming weeks to keep his state spot. He is currently 11^th on the rankings I have in front of me (6^th if you count my current projected scratches) but his time is about a second slower than what the cut off ended up being in 2016 (faster than the 2015 cut off though).

Guys, I gotta tell you one last thing. Boyertown had one more “hey I like what you did there” race! They dropped an 8:28 in the 4x8 (with some doubling pieces maybe?) to take the silvers. That moves them ahead of DT West with the conversion and slips them into the state qualifying picture. I think they will be #17 at week’s end as Cumberland Valley may have knocked them out. But don’t sleep on Boyertown. I think they may pop one more strong DMR before this season is said and done.

TSTCA Meet #3

Eat your heart out District One! We have another meet to recap outside of the Philadelphia Area! The TSTCA has finally gotten a little lucky with weather and they’ve managed to already post 3 different meets before February! Shout out to the TSTCA. The extra meets should really help the western schools get the reps they need for states and could lead to a couple surprise performances (maybe a surprise winner?) when PSU hits.

The big match up of the day came in the 800 meters. Ryan Thrush of Brookville went head to head with Nick Wagner of Penn Trafford. Both guys have run 1:56 this year and moved into the state title discussion. Thrush got the best of Wagner in this match up, running 1:58 to defeat Wagner’s 2 flat. That’s a big win for Thrush (who has PRs of 48 and 1:52 I feel compelled to mention) and further solidifies his case for a state title in the event. It looks like Hoey will run the event (maybe fresh?) so that could be an up hill battle, but I’d very interested to watch a fresh Thrush duel with a fresh Hoey.

Winchester Thurston’s Tristan Forsythe held his own in the battle, grabbing 3^rd in the 800 with a 2:02. Forsythe has also run a top 5 time in the state for the mile this year. Elias Zajicek continues to be a consistent 800 performer in his own right, running 2:03 for 4^th just ahead of Seneca Valley stand out Sam Owori. Jake Schneider of Seneca got the win in heat 4, running 2:07. Put him together with the Myers twins and you might have a pretty nice DMR/4x8. Keep your eyes peeled.

Owori was apparently on the double in that 800 performance as the Seneca Valley sophomore just finished a thrilling mile battle. The top 6 runners were all at 4:34 or better with Owori running 4:32.36 and defeating Eric Kennedy, the outdoor state medalist, but one hundredth of a second. But that was the battle for second. Sam Snodgrass of South Fayette got some revenge this weekend on Owori and dropped a season best of 4:28.80 to move into a potential state qualifying position in the mile. His teammate, Aaron Pfeil, ran 4:33. The two together combined for one of the best 1-2 punches in the state this past fall and were both top 10 performers in the AA state championship. Speaking of XC, A state champ Noah Curtin ran what might have been his first meet of the season for Mercyhurst, dropping a 4:40 and taking 9^th.

Ben Littman won the gold in the 3k dropping a 9:20. He bested Seneca Valley’s Seth Ketler (9:26) and Norwin’s Matt O’Neill 9:26. O’Neill may have been on double duty after a sub 4:40 mile performance. State medalist Amadou Diallo was also under 9:30.

Indiana Area dropped an 8:30 to win the 4x8. They’ve done a really nice job with the relays and seem to be putting a lot of focus into dropping a nice time. Hopefully they get the chance for some competition at one of the big championship meets (North Allegheny? Seneca?) and maybe they can dip under 8:20. Meanwhile, if you were wondering where Butler top 50 XC finishers Noah Beveridge and Brett Brady were during all the individual festivities, they were busy with the gold medal DMR. Butler dropped an 11:03.46. Seems like we could see them take another shot at this relay down the stretch. Keep in mind schools like Seneca Valley (sub 11), Winchester Thurston (lots of pieces, great time last year), South Fayette (Snodgrass-Pfeil) and more could run awesome DMRs if they get after it. Hopefully we see a loaded one down the stretch like the 4x8. We’ll see where the West wants to focus.

TFCAofGP Meet #7

Division I

Alright east coast fans, you can stop protesting against me and tune in. I’ve moved on to the Philly Area meet of the week. We were back at Glenn Mills for another exciting meet. In the 800, sophomore Collin Ochs continues to prove himself as a name you gotta know for 2017 and beyond. The youngster ran a 2:03.23 to defeat a couple 4x8 phenomes in Cameron Mitchell (2:03.60) from Abington and Dennis Manyeah (2:05.46) of Penn Wood. Ochs and teammate Evan Kutney make up a dynamite 1-2 start for a potential 4x8 in the future at South.

Souderton’s Joe Breen continues to have a fantastic season. He easily ran away with the mile title, running 4:37 to defeat Upper Dublin’s Ben Brugger and CR South’s Gavin Ricchini (they both ran 4:49). Like I’ve said before, you may not know Breen’s name because of his proximity to Connor McMenamin, but he’s a monster. He’s had a couple nice performances and could potentially pop something quick at the end of the season (similar to McMenamin last year honestly) and make a run at a SQG.

Evan Hutton of William Tennent picked up a season best in the 3k with a 9:17.37. CR South posted another top 3 finish (Ian Welborn was 3^rd) and LaSalle apparently still has good dudes left who didn’t go to Ocean Breeze. Greg Galbreath ran 9:28 for second in the 3k and his teammates left with DMR golds. Neshaminy was the 4x8 winners in 8:39.

Division II

I’m running out of nice things to say about Rustin’s Brandon Hontz, but I’ll give it a shot anyway. Hontz dropped a big time 4:33 to win the mile over a formidable opponent in Peter Cooke (4:40) but a solid margin. For Hontz it’s yet another big win in a smaller meet setting. He’s just a consistent performer. No matter where he shows up, you know he is going to run hard and put up a good time. I’m rooting for him and hoping that maybe that Rustin squad can snag a DMR spot before all is said and done.

Bishop Shanahan’s Josh Hoey wasn’t the only gold medal winner this weekend. How about Jonathan McGrory’s season? He’s quietly doing an awesome job representing the team and he posted a 9:26 for gold in this one. It’s probably too early to be talking XC, but I will mention that McGrory, Yoquinto, both Hoeys and Jack Ettien are all going to be around next year as well. Just saying, if they decide to pursue it, it could be interesting.

In a good old fashion West Chester duel, East beat Rustin 11:32-11:34. Ches-mont competitors Great Valley were 3^rd in 11:49. Gotta imagine that was a fun one for all involved. Maybe not the fastest times, but sometimes the rivalries and the competitive fires make up for that stuff. Congrats to East for sneaking out the win.

CSU Run at the Rec #2

Apparently there have been two of these? I’m not sure I ever discussed #1 so my apologies. But #2 had some real good stuff. North Pocono took 1-2 in the 800 finish as Randy Bocan and David Hanes ran 2;05 and 2:06 to get the victories. Hanes also ran an 8:59 for 3k to get the runaway gold. Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that’s actually faster than teammate Matt Kravitz ran last indoor season. For those who don’t remember (it was a bit of a shocker), Kravitz won the outdoor state title in the 3200. Just throwing that out there.

That’s all for now. Ocean Breeze, Susquehanna and New Balance Grand Prix to come tomorrow! Stay tuned!

Oh and one more quick thing. If you haven’t yet, you should definitely check out “The Commit”, a group of posts that our own Garrett Zatlin has been working hard on. He interviewed Nick Dahl a little ways back about Yale and now is talking to a Division 3 man (shout out D3) in Matt D’Aquila who is headed to Middlebury next fall. Both kids clearly are super smart, dedicate runners and great teammates! Any school would be lucky to have them.