9 AM in Essex Junction

Well another state championship is officially in the books and with it came a variety of surprises, close finishes and positive memories. Congrats to all our state medalists and state champions! There were a ton of impressive performances that deserve recognition, too many to honor here, but feel free to comment and compliment your fellow athletes who impressed you most here on the site. 

Everyone who qualified for the meet should be proud of their accomplishments this season and I hope everyone can appreciate how far they have come. If you are disappointed with how things ended, just remember that, no matter where you go next year, there's always another race. Maybe it's cross country, maybe it's track or maybe it's just the race of life. But there's always a chance to get use disappointment and turn it into a positive. Just ask the Carlisle boys and Sam Affolder. Or maybe Freeport's Rob Reichenbaugh. We don't always know when our next shot at redemption will be, but I'm confident you all will be ready.

But enough of the preaching. For now anyway. I'll be doing plenty of sappy writing in the next few weeks as I begin work on this year's Etrain 11 Series. These posts talk about some of the biggest stories of the track season and are more feature style articles than the recap/prediction stuff you usually get out of me. Usually, I like to try and talk with some runners/coaches to try and get more interesting interview tidbits to make the pieces go. If you are a reader of the blog and see your name or the name of someone you know on the list below and would like to reach out to help tell your/their story, feel free to email me at jarrettfelix1130@gmail.com or hit us up via twitter if you prefer that. We will honor anonymity if you would like to stay out of the spotlight. 

Here's some names for which I have story ideas already bouncing around my head. Feel free to suggest others in the comments below or reach out directly via email. If you would prefer to not have a story written, reach out and let us know. We will respect all wishes. Depending on time, I may not write about all of these if I don't have the contacts, but we will see what we can do.

Ben Bumgarner and Zach Skolnekovich
Carlisle Distance Squad
CBW, Pennridge, North Penn, Pennsbury, Penn Wood, Abington 4x8
GFS Distance Squad
Lower Dauphin Distance Squad
Matt Scarpill
Nick Wagner
Seneca Valley Distance Squad
Seneca 4x8
State College 4x8

Again, comment with your other suggestions. 

By the way, I will also be bringing back the Etrain Oscars this year for a second edition. We will have another vote to decide winners over the coming month, but for now we need nominees! I'll be posting the categories again soon, but I'll be rolling forward most of last year's award titles if you want to get a jump on sharing nominations. Would love to hear suggestions for new awards that you think would help honor some of our finest. 

My apologies for the delay in the state race recaps. They are coming, but I was doing some marathon coaching/cheering and then today has been a non stop travel sesh back from Vermont. Shout out to my best friend Charlie Kline on his BQ. None of you know him I'm sure, but he earned a shout out nonetheless.

So that's all for now. This has been Etrain via the notes section of his iPhone, typing on an Amtrak train after 9 hours in a car. The kid will be back at it again with a clear mind and a good keyboard soon. Lots of cool stuff left to come. Don't touch that dial. 

2 comments:

  1. My thoughts after attending the meet:

    - Awfully close to interference on Norwin in the 4x4. The CB West anchor almost pushed Norwin's anchor in the back after he moved from the outside of lane 1 to the inside of lane 1 with about 40 meters to go. Watch Norwin's feet in the video here: https://twitter.com/tjj5009/status/868554543151403008 I didn't think it was interference watching it live but that angle made me reconsider.

    - Best moment of the day was Sam Affolder's point over to Isaac Kole as they took 1-2 in the 1600. The Affolder's have been amazing team players (willing to triple/quad for the team) since they showed up and it is somewhat fitting that a runner they helped mentor takes the title with Sam on his hip.

    - The Feffer brothers really impressed in the 4x8. Not sure what they split but Joey Feffer ran an unbelievable leg to give his brother a chance.

    - It's even more amazing that Carlisle won the team title with Deshawn Millington medaling in the triple jump. He also decided not to show up for high jump on Satuday (literally didn't come to the meet). I can't imagine how discouraging that was for Carlisle at the time.

    - Anybody know what happened in the 4x1 that caused a long delay? I was near the finish line and couldn't see but I heard an official got ran into? Not sure if true but if so -- how does that happen?

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    1. Watched in on PCN. 3rd leg of a AA team tweaked his leg pretty badly. Got out too early on the exchange, and when he went to turn back to check where the baton was, the he planted slipped right out underneath him because of the rain. Hopefully he just hyperextended it and didn't tear anything, but he was down for a decent while. He ended up getting up and completing the 3rd leg, only to collapse again on his leg. Best wishes to that dude for a quick recovery.

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