The Etrain 11: Seneca Unrivaled

If you are taking time from your schedule to read this blog, you probably already know that Pennsylvania’s track and field teams are separated into 12 different “districts” from which athletes can qualify for the state championships at Shippensburg. But did you know that the athletes from District 10 have actually qualified for PA states out of Ohio? When you think about (and admittedly I usually don’t), PA is a big state with boundaries that stretch far beyond Philly, Pittsburgh or Harrisburg. And even easier to overlook a small high school in Erie that only houses about 500 total high schoolers.

Seneca High School, housed under the Wattsburg Area School District, is tucked away in the top right corner of the state. Their Wikipedia page is two sentences long. But if you click over to the school’s website you will see the bright stars who have dominated the local headlines. The Seneca boys track team has represented Erie County proudly. Basically every picture on the front page’s slide show is related to them. Seneca finished 3^rd in the state as a team during Cross Country and 4^th during Outdoor Track. But what really makes the Seneca boys famous in their 4x800 relay. A team that ended the 2017 track season unrivaled across the state.

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In the fall of 2013, Donovan and Phoenix Myers competed for the first time in Seneca uniforms. Their impact was instant. After finished 11^th the previous season, Seneca Cross Country placed 3^rd in District 10 and qualified for the state championships in Hershey where they would finish in 6^th. Unfortunately, the twins freshman season ended in disappointment. At the District 10 spring championships, the Seneca 4x800 was edged out by one place for a spot in the state championship.

Back with a vengeance in 2014, Seneca powered through the start of the cross country season. With sophomores holding each of the top three spots in the line-up, the boys won the District 10 championship over Mercyhurst Prep and defending state champions Saegertown in an impressive upset. Donovan led the charge in 2^nd place overall. A week later, Seneca finished 6^th at the state meet for the second straight year with both Phoenix (15^th) and Donovan (18^th) grabbing their first ever state medals.

On the track, the same three sophomores that had led the team during the fall, helped lead Seneca to a runner-up finish in the 4x800 at Districts in a blazing fast 8:05.35. That made Seneca the #2 overall seed heading into the state championship. But any big dreams the program may have had were squashed on Day One as Seneca surprisingly missed qualifying for the state finals, again by just one spot.

After two seasons, the story of this school seemed to be that of near misses rather than great successes. Although the team had far exceeded the school’s recent results, they had yet to truly breakthrough on the state’s biggest stages. The team moved up to 5^th at XC states in 2015, but the squad was still left wanting more as they turned to the track. In fact, it wasn’t until the spring of 2016, when they finally found what they needed to get over the top: a great rival.

Harbor Creek entered the 2016 track season with some serious momentum. Senior Dan Kuhn had found his rhythm in the 800 and the team had some incredibly talented youngsters in Christian Babo and Ryan Stravaggi. Babo had medaled at states in cross country as a freshman while Stravaggi’s freshman season ended with a district championship on the trails. Together, these three runners and Justin Kita helped make up Harbor Creek’s 4x800 relay, a capable opponent for a Seneca team returning all their key pieces from their 8:05 run a year earlier.

In the school’s first match up, Habor Creek bested Seneca by less than a second 8:14 to 8:15, grabbing the meet record in their home invite. But then Seneca turned the tables at Baldwin, winning the prestigious invite in 8:04. Even the anchors got in the action. Donovan Myers dropped a blazing 1:56.21 800 PR at Butler while Dan Kuhn then turned around and dropped a 1:56.16 to surpass him.

Things came to a head at the Erie County Championships when Harbor Creek stormed back in 8:02.41 to defeat Seneca in the last match up before districts. To add insult to injury, Dan Kuhn edged out Donovan Myers for the individual 800 gold by just 0.03 seconds.

The 4x8 victories had been traded back and forth all season so it was no surprise that Seneca took back the gold at Districts. But what did turn heads was the fact that both relays busted under 8 minutes en route to the District title. Seneca ran 7:58.92 to Harbor Creek’s 7:59.35 in the duo’s closest matchup of the entire season. Seneca’s time was faster than even the winning time at states a year earlier.

Heading into the 2016 state championships, it was assumed that the alternating pattern would continue and that this race would belong to Harbor Creek and their superstar anchor Dan Kuhn. Kuhn had split a herculean 1:52 on the anchor at districts and if he could get it close enough to the front, the race would likely be over. But for Seneca, they couldn’t worry about the final just yet. They had to make sure they didn’t get bounced in the prelims for a second straight season.

Using the experience they had gained in their intense battles with Harbor Creek, Seneca left no doubt of their intentions for the weekend. The boys rolled through the prelims with the fastest time and then took aim at the finals and another rematch with Harbor Creek. Phoenix Myers started off the race brilliantly with a 1:56 carry, but Seneca dropped back into the pack on leg #2. Nervously, 3^rd leg Adam Hanes waited for the baton.

Hanes wasn’t talked about in the same way as the Myers twins on the distance circuit, but his speed was good. The question was how well could he translate that speed to the 800. Making strides all season, Hanes picked the right moment to pop off a big race. He split a 1:56.0 on his carry and gave Donovan the baton with a nice advantage on everyone else. And from there, it was over. A 1:53 solo anchor gave Seneca the state title in a blazing fast 7:51.07.

The emergence of Hanes as a star was the key. The Myers twins had been a killer 1-2 punch since the beginning, but Hanes was a newcomer. He was a strong sprinter, but now he was becoming a well rounded distance runner too. As Adam continued to gain strength, he moved into the team’s top 5 in XC and placed 21^st at Districts that next fall, helping Seneca clinch a 3^rd straight district title. Then he sprinted home his final XC race, placing 50^th in the state after not being a varsity runner the previous season. His finish helped Seneca place 3^rd in the state, their best finish of the decade. Also chipping in was #5 runner Jake Schneider, the lone sophomore in the team’s top 7.

Turned out, Schneider could run a pretty strong 800 as well. As the team looked ahead toward spring and a title defense, the sophomore was a nice injection of urgency to the group of seniors. He didn’t have a gold medal in his trophy case and he was hungry to add one.

Right from the start this Seneca team made it clear they would make it difficult for any team to unseat them. On April 1^st, Seneca dropped a 7:58.50 at South Hills. Then they dropped a bomb, unleashing a 7:49.05 at the Butler Invitational to defeat a loaded group of AAA schools and top the state rankings. All of a sudden, Seneca wasn’t just good for a small school. They were good for any type of school. And they were ready to prove it against the biggest powerhouses the state had to offer: State College and CB West.

Seneca traveled all the way across the state to the Penn Relays in Philadelphia in the last weekend of April. In the second heat, the Seneca boys ran 7:50.12 to punch their ticket to the Championship of America, the only A school to accomplish this feat in recent years. Jake Schneider delivered a big second leg at 2 flat to hold ground before Hanes and Donovan powered home. A day later, as all three times raced on tired legs, the Seneca boys narrowly defeated State College and CB West in the Championship of America, backing up their 7:49 with a head to head victory.

The Seneca boys could have sat back and settled on their achievements, but they continued to attack and stay hungry. They remembered how it had felt to miss out on state qualifying or state finals or state medals. They had suffered through disappointments and been defeated by rivals. But they were champions now and they liked how that felt a lot better.

The relay stormed through the rest of the year, winning every single 4x8 they contested including an Erie Country record of 7:51, smashing the record Harbor Creek had set just ahead of them the previous year. As they cleaned up at the District 10 championships, getting wins from Hanes and Donovan, only one last race stood on the horizon.

With individuals qualified in the 400, 800 and 1600, Seneca could have tried to conserve energy in the 4x8 and chase individual success. It would have been easy. They came in as far and away the fastest seed. They were the defending champions with the same core. But they had started as a 4x8 school, from the time they missed the state finals, to the time Harbor Creek last defeated them. And what was important to this school was pursuing a state record in the relay. Leaving one last mark that no one could take away.

But on race day, Wyomissing surprisingly took things to them early. The silver medalists from 2016 and state champions from 2015, this school was looking to shock Seneca and steal the state golds for themselves. After one leg, Wyomissing took a strong early lead and put 2^nd leg Phoenix Myers in a hole. But, fitting to his name, he rose out of the ashes behind him and sprinted off at full speed to catch the front pack. Hammering through his leg, Phoenix handed off with a blazing 1:55 carry and gave the baton to Adam Hanes, knowing that Hanes could do what needed to be done.

Just as he did a year earlier, Hanes sealed the race with his carry. The sub 50 second quarter miler, who held school records in the 400 and the 200, rolled through his leg and never looked back. Pressing forward as if he was being chased, Hanes clocked a 1:54 split and blew the race open for his anchor leg. Now it was a simple race between Donovan Myers and the clock.

The senior sprinted out as fast he could, knowing he need to split around a 1:52 to get his team under the 7:44.44 record belonging to Lewisburg from 2003. In his urgency to try and lift Seneca to the top spot, he may have gone out a little too quick and his legs caught up to him on the second lap. Despite this fact, he willed himself forward, stopping the clock for Seneca with a winning time of 7:48.92. One last school record for the dream team of Myers, Hanes and Myers.

In the 2017 season, no other PA team was able to defeat Seneca in head to head competition. A year after rolling to their first state championship, the Seneca boys came back with a vengeance. They not only raced top notch AA talent during their season, but also traveled across the state to take on and defeat the top 2 finishers from the AAA state championship in the 4x800.

Ironically, what this small school needed most to solidify their resume, to grab that 7:44 state record that was floating just outside their reach, was company. They won the state championship by some 12 seconds over the next closest team. No one else was in sight as Donovan took the baton or even as he sprinted home the final 40 meters, desperately trying to get his legs moving faster. What they were missing that day was exactly what had helped make them into the all-time great relay they had become. A rival.