Noah Affolder: Coming For That #1 Spot

by Jarrett Felix

So there's some discussion lately about Noah Affolder among PA's all-time greats so I decided to try and match up some of his numbers with perhaps our greatest ever, current state 1600m record holder Paul Vandegrift. Now it's worth noting, in the interest of full disclosure, that Vandegrift was my coach at Upper Dublin for 4 years so I'm naturally biased. It's also worth noting that I've never seen any of his high school races while I've watched most, if not all, of the big ones from Noah.

I left out Noah's NY achievements, not because they aren't spectacular or because "they don't count", but simply because I'm not as familiar with the state and the performances. I've got a good sense of the PA record books from all my research and I decided it made the most sense to keep this PA vs. PA. So now, just as I did with the DMR indoors before Carlisle took that record, let's take a quick look at these two all-time greats.

Let's start with some numbers ...

Paul Vandegrift, Archbishop Kennedy 1 AA Class of 1987
PRs
1600m - 4:03.22 (#1)
800m - 1:48.8h (T-#3)
3200m - 9:07.6h (unconfirmed meet)

State Championships (11)
Outdoor
1600m - 1985 (4:14.50), 1986 (4:09.22), 1987 (4:03.22)
800m - 1986 (1:53.74), 1987 (1:51.96)

Indoor
1000y - 1986 (2:15.2), 1987 (2:14.94)
Mile - 1986 (4:23.0), 1987 (4:16.31)

Cross Country
PSU 1985 (15:51.8), PSU 1986 (15:39.4)

Noah Affolder, Carlisle 3 AAA Class of 2017
PRs
1600m - 4:05.81c (#4)
1600m (relay) - 4:04.95
800m - 1:53.84
3200m - 8:42.95e (#1)

State Championships (4)
Indoor
4x800m - 2017 (7:45.86)
Mile - 2017 (4:15.21)
DMR - 2017 (10:13.12)

Cross Country
Hershey 2016 (15:33)

Footlocker
Noah Affolder, 6th - 15:10.3 (2016)
Paul Vandegrift 4th - 15:08.1 (1986)

All-Time List
Noah - 9:56.18 Anchor DMR Indoor National Record (#7 Indoors or Out)
Noah - 8:46.08 2 Mile (#10 Indoor Performance, #7 Indoor Performer)

Recent Results
Noah - 14:18 5,000m on the Track

Vandegrift - 2x Penn Relays Champion, ran 3:49.4 with 56.2 second last lap in 1987 (retired meet record)

OK so there's a big old number dump for you to deal with. Now numbers on a piece of paper don't tell the whole story, but man these both look like New York Best Sellers if you are keeping up with the metaphor.

From a team perspective, Noah has piled on some truly phenomenal performances to add to his individual legacy. Without an outdoor season to brag about, he's already grabbed 4 state titles in 5 (or 6 if you want to count the XC team title) tries. He's also been apart of the second fastest 4x8 in meet history at PSU and the Meet, State and National Record DMR. His indoor quadruple with three golds and a silver is unprecedented and nearly helped his team grab a team title.

But individually, Noah has also dominated his 2 seasons of work in Pennsylvania. He holds the indoor state record for the mile after dropping to 4:07.24 uncontested wire to wire victory at the Millrose Games. He then followed it up an 8:46.08 two mile which smashed the old state record by some 16 seconds and is actually the fastest time indoors or out by nearly 7 seconds.

His 4:04.95 anchor leg relay split has only been bested by Vandegrift and Ken Lowry of Wissahickon (and arguably Sam Ritz if you want to convert 1500 times to 1600 times). All of those marks were outdoors at the end of the year in peak conditions. Noah ran much of his relay split completely alone with only the ghost of the record to chase, although he did have some bodies to lap in the closing stages of the race.

During XC, he was undefeated and record setting through until Footlocker Nationals where he took 6th. He followed that performance up with a win overseas in the Junior Championships at Edinburgh. He holds the course record on the new state course, the course record on Carlisle and the PA course record at Manhattan's 4k.

The biggest thing is that his story isn't done yet. He's still got this outdoor season to go and starting it with a 14:18 isn't a bad place to be. I don't keep track of 5ks on my all-time lists, but I don't think it's going out on a limb to say that's a state record.

On the flip side, Vandegrift was also phenomenal. While Noah specializes more in the 2-mile/mile range, Paul was more of an 800/mile type. In fact, when he hung up his spikes in 1987, he held the state records in both the 1600 and the 800 with times of 4:03.22 and 1:48.8 (hand time). The 1600 hasn't been beaten since although the 800 has been bested by John Lewis (1:48.33), Drew Magaha (1:48.82 auto time) and, depending on how you ask, Tom Mallon (1:49.01, was ruled a "record tying performance" at the time).

Vandegrift also held the state indoor record for 800, the indoor state meet mile and 1k yard records and the outdoor meet records for 1600 and 800. I wasn't there in 1987, but according to an article I found recapping his splits, Vandegrift ran his 4:03 with splits of 61.1, 2:03.5, 3:05.1, 4:03.22. He followed that up with a 1:51.96 running 56.1/55.8. That 1:51.96 was beaten for the first time this past spring when Domenic Perretta of Beaver Falls took it away after three years of trying (Dom ran 1:50.10 after a 4:17 victory in the 1600).

Again, I wasn't there in 1987 (one of commenters was so maybe s/he can provide more insight), but according to newspapers.com, the silver medal winners in Vandegrift's record setting double ran times of 4:16.47 (Nick Constantino who has a PR around 4:10) and 1:58.56 (Joe Waters who won the 1989 1600m championship and, ironically, attend Beaver Falls like Dom P).

In total Vandegrift captured 11 state titles to go with his 2 Penn Relays titles (I couldn't find results of the 1985 indoor state meet, but I'm assuming he didn't pick up an extra title that year).

Like I said, I've never seen Vandegrift run, but Noah is the best PA distance guy I've actually had the chance to witness. And that's saying something considering we've had Perretta, Zach Brehm, Jake Brophy, John Lewis, Drew Magaha and Tony Russell (among others) all come through this decade (shout out to John Lewis who isn't a traditional "distance" guy, but has an absurdly stacked 800 resume that I'll have to talk about at some point).

Fingers crossed that Noah can stay healthy and add to his resume. For now, I still rank Vandegrift ahead of him in a hypothetical, who's PA resume is more impressive, but there's time for that to change. Let me know what you think and, as always, stay classy out there.