Flash Back

It’s crazy to think how much can change within even a couple months. But in just over two months, the entire PA landscape could be flipped on its head. Think back to March 2016. It’s hard to believe where things stood in comparison to where they finished up. Wait, what was that? You don’t remember March 2016? You have the short term memory that comes with being a millennial? Well, don’t worry, I’ll give you a little flash back.

Joe Espinal was a little known 1:55 guy

Espinal was a 1:55 guy in 2015, but only sort of. He ran a 1:55.9 hand time in a dual meet, but hadn’t dropped anything faster in invitational action. Espinal actually seemed more like a miler. In 2015, he ran 4:19 and qualified for states by winning the district title in the 1600. He missed a qualifying spot in the 800, bested by Khai Samuels of Pleasant Valley.

The experience that came with back to back trips to states in the 1600, allowed Espinal to enter the 2016 meet with a little extra confidence. After running 1:55.67 to defeat a strong 800 field at districts, a new PR, Espinal rolled to a 1:54.50 in the prelims at Shippensburg. That set him up as the surprise #1 seed in the State Finals. And it also sparked perhaps the greatest comment in the history of the blog.

A day after his 1:54.50 PR, Espinal decided to drop his PR a little bit more. How about 1:51.09? That Wilson Senior cut another 3.41 seconds off his best to stun the field and steal the 800 state title. But he earned that title. His 1:51.09 puts him alongside Joey Logue of Pennridge on the State All-Time list. By my count, he’s in the top 25 800 runners eve to grace the PA high school scene. And up until state meet Saturday, he was easily outside the top 300.

In fact, the top 800 runners in the state were mostly unknown

Joe Espinal was actually a super star in the 800 world relative to some of these other top dogs. 2^nd place finisher Matt Wisner and 3^rd place finish Jaxson Hoey were indoor state medalists and well known stars. Brett Wolfinger of Quakertown was running in his first outdoor state final, but had an indoor medal to his name.

But the other state medalists were relatively unknown. Derin Klick of Lebanon and Justin Miller of General McLane both made massive jumps down the stretch run of the season to became 1:53 800 runners and medalists. Miller didn’t have a sub 2 time on his milesplit resume prior to 2016 and Klick was sitting at 1:57. Dave Whitfield and Justin Jones, a couple unknown PCL runners, entered the meet among the state’s best seeds with 1:53 and 1:55 district times respectively. Plus a couple State College kids that you may not have expected got in on the party.

And in the AA race, Dom Perretta got a battle he never couple have predicted, facing off against sophomore Kamil Jihad, Dave Fletcher and Dan Kuhn of Harbor Creek (who split 1:52 multiple times outdoors). In total, we had a gaggle of 1:52-1:53 types who came out of left field to become super stars and re-write the state leaderboard. Shout out to Ryan Thrush and Donovan Myers who had 1:52-1:53 type ability but opted for other events as their focus. And won state gold.

Jaxson Hoey was the most likely Hoey to win the Penn Relays Mile

After a terrific indoor campaign that included one of fastest miles in state history, Jaxson Hoey came into the outdoor season as the man to beat in the 1600 meters. He was the defending champion after his first season in the PIAA ended with a dramatic victory over Jeff VanKooten. But in the end, his brother, Josh Hoey, turned it up a notch from 4:17 miler to 4:11 mile at the Penn Relays for one of the biggest upset victories in meet history.

Jaxson, who struggled through sickness in the early part of the outdoor season, turned out alright. He transformed from miler to 800 meter runner and grabbed a district champion in his off event. Then Jaxson dropped a 1:51 800 at the state meet for a tight third overall. The 1600 state title didn’t end up going to either Hoey as a surprise upset was pulled off by State College’s top dog.

Alex Milligan was the most likely 800 meter runner to score for State College

Milligan was the top dog on paper, running a 1:53 split as a junior and anchoring the indoor state champions in the 4x800. But as the outdoor season progressed, State College got a lift from two other runners. Nick Feffer and Anthony Degleris qualified for the state meet out of District 6. But Feffer left it close. The junior qualified by just 0.01 for the state championship.

But once he got in, he made the most of it. Feffer ran 1:53.50 to finish 4^th in the state championship 800 and Tony Degleris added a new PR of 1:54.17 for a critical 8^th place finish. Those were part of a crazy tight finish in the team title race.

And, oh yeah, State College was a big long shot for that state team title

One of the most exciting state title battles in state history began with a beat down at the indoor state meet. Downingtown West scored 76 points, yes 76 points, while State College was the only team to score more than 20. That put DTW in cruise control for the state title.

In the time since that meet, State College developed a school record caliber 4x400 relay, expanded their individual credentials and prepared for revenge in the field events. But in the meantime, DT West continued to improve. Henry Sappey switched to the 1600, Jaxson and Josh Hoey were both individual title threats, and Josh McLemore became one of the all-time greats in the sprints.

When the dust settled, it all came down to that 4x400 relay with State College pulling out a silver by a nose, perhaps thanks in part to a storm that threw off the qualifying for the event and made it a 4 heat final.

Who could have predicted that?

A couple other favorites of mine …

North Allegheny became a 7:51.71 4x800 squad with all underclassmen. Their “big dogs” Migliozzi and Stupak ran individual events and stayed off the relay, but the Tigers still pulled out state medals for the first time in over a decade.

We talked a lot about crazy 800 performances, but how about Keion Broadus of Abington? He’s still probably a relative unknown at this point, but he split a 1:51 to anchor Abington to a silver medal at states over CB West, Pennridge and North Penn among others.

The WPIAL took over the 3200. Although they didn’t get the title in AA or AAA, they did pepper the medal stand and the state leader board. Skolnekovich and Loevner were among the sub 9:20 performers in AA while Wolk, Migliozzi, Susalla and Gunzenhauser took spots 2 through 5 in the AAA state final, beating some great runners.

By the way, Matt Kravitz won the 3200 that year. He was barely sub 9:20 before the state final, but ran a big PR in hot weather and threw down a kick for the ages to outlast a loaded two mile field.

Adding to that long list of 800 talent, Mike Kolor ended the year as one of the very fastest with a 1:51.22. That came just after Carlisle’s Matt Wisner dropped a surprise 4:14.37 full mile to kick down many of the state’s best milers and move among the leaders in his event. Both guys showed some surprising crisscrossing range.

Let me know your favorites and share your “unthinkable” predictions for two months from now in our comment section.

Now back to More Life.