But any thoughts of injury or fatigue were wiped away quickly as Sam positively sprinted out the gates. His opening 200 meters was roughly 27 seconds, despite the fact that he was unabashedly staring across his body at the large scoreboard clock.
As the race continued to be quick, only Cardinal O'Hara tried to cover the pace in a gutsy move from their 1200 leg (Gavin Inglis I believe). Eventually, Sam was able to breakaway, splitting somewhere around 3:01 for 1200 meters and hanging off with a big advantage (couldn't even see the next exchange in the video unfortunately).
From here, Carlisle was in great shape. Their 400 and 800 runners cruised from the front, delivering splits around 51 seconds and 1:59 without any competition. Again, couldn't see much else in the video, but appeared that CR North was the top chaser on the middle legs. They likely had Mike Welde running the 400 and, since he had run 48.77 in the open, he was sure to make up some ground in a hurry.
Noah Affolder got the baton with a lead and, from here, it seemed things were over. Coasting along, Noah soloed a split around 4:20 only seemingly turning it on for the final two laps to cruise in with a smile on his face and a new state meet record on the clock.
The long last battle for 2nd looked like it must have been incredible. Nick Dahl of GFS, Nick Feffer of State College, Ryan James of O'Hara, Ryan Campbell of CR North and Evan Addison of LaSalle faced off in what appeared to be an epic anchor showdown with Dahl getting the best of the field and crossing the line 2nd. All five of these teams broke 10:30 (by a lot), marking the first time 6 teams were under the barrier in meet history.
The 7th and 8th place finishers were no joke either. Lower Merion and WC Henderson, sporting a pair of fresh line ups, finished in 7th and 8th, both in the mid to low 10:30s, again marking very fast times for the final medal positions. For both teams the success was a result of consistent dedication to the event not just on state Saturday, but also throughout the season.
Looking ahead, the most pressing question appears to be can Carlisle break the national record? They ran 10:13 this weekend, meaning they will have to cut roughly 14 seconds of time to get under 10 minutes. That's a lot of time, but it's certainly doable.
For starters, you give Noah fresh legs and incentive to go fast. Considering he's run the equivalent of 4:05 for 1600 at the Armory in a similarly solo performance, that could be your 14 seconds right there. Of course, that's a lot of pressure on one man (or whatever superhuman species he is), so if Sam and Isaac can drop a few more seconds each, that would help add a nice cushion. Each will be fresher this time around. The simple fact that the clock won't be on the other side of the track could save a couple seconds as well.
Looking further to outdoors, the DMR goes away with the exception of Penn Relays. At the Philadelphia meet, we will hopefully see many PA teams on the agenda. However, it's possible (likely?) that schools like GFS and Carlisle will focus on the 4x8, if they decide to do a relay at all, so their individuals can race in the elite high school sections. State College is almost a lock for a 4x8 as well. So the rematch someone like myself would dream of, seems like it just isn't in the cards.
Potentially crashing the DMR party could be a team like Shanahan who would probably field a nice roster of Hoey-Alleyne-Yoquinto-Hoey. My fingers would also be crossed that Lower Merion, Henderson and/or CB West could find an outdoor meet to chase a fast time and maybe catch a flier to qualify. Usually, PA has a team or two that makes a nice run at it during the spring.
But ultimately, when states rolls around, the DMR will be a thing of the past. So enjoy perhaps the best distance event there is while we still can people.
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