2018 Indoor State Recap: Individual Events

Mile

Obviously, the mile lost some of its appeal without the reigning PA #1 in the field, but we still got a matchup between four bona fide stars-and those stars did not disappoint. LaSalle’s Evan Addison had the lead early, taking it through the 809m in about 2:11. The top 4 guys by time asserted themselves right at the top – Conway, Beveridge, Addison and Wirth. Beveridge. Wirth slipped back a bit at the end, but with a lap to go there were three runners within a second. Ultimately, Conway took command on the ultimate turn with a 27.86, but Beveridge put up an awesome battle with a 28 second final lap of his own. Keep in mind, Noah entered the season known best for his prowess at XC/3200 and now he ends the year going toe to toe with a guy who has finished in the top 3 in the state for the mile/1600 three times. As we look ahead to outdoors, it seems that we may see Noah back in his potential sweet spot-the 3200. I’d love to see him match up with Rusty again and hopefully push each other to sub 9.

For Conway the storyline becomes-can he duplicate this outdoors? Especially if Hoey is back on the line. At this point (as I’ll discuss in another post in the queue), I’m not sure we see Hoey in very many more high school only meets so it’s possible Josh is already done competed at PA State Championships. But if Conway does get a shot at him, he will be hungry to show that his mile win wasn’t a fluke and that he can contend with the mighty national record holder. That could make for another fun championship storyline this coming spring.

If there’s no Hoey, Evan Addison and Tyler Wirth are set up to be the prime contenders. That being said, last year we saw Matt Scarpill, Jesse Cruise, Isaac Kole, Bryan Keller, Sam Affolder, Liam Galligan and Owen Wing on the medal stand-none of which competed indoors in the state championship for the mile. Yes, only Conway had an indoor mile and outdoor 1600 medal last year (in AAA). I’d say that’s an atypical trend, but one to keep in the back of your mind when flipping ahead to spring.

As exciting as seeing the top 4 duke it out for medals was, it was equally exciting to see some newcomers get on the medal stand. Tyler Wirth will be the top returner, but Cameron Binda and Aiden Tomov joined him as juniors on the medal stand. Binda ran a 4:22 for a big indoor PR and a huge breakthrough on the oval this winter. Tomov ran an aggressive race at the front of Heat 1 and was rewarded with his own nice PR at 4:25 and a victory in the slower heat by a nose over Elias Lindgren. Mount Lebanon’s Patrick Anderson was the top sophomore in the field, taking 10^th overall in 4:29.91.

Shout out to Connor Shields and the Warwick coaches. Shields had a strong season, but didn’t have that blazing fast seed time so it looked like he would be left completely out of the state meet. However, the coaches entered Shields into the meet with his 4:34 seed that was well over the standard and hoped for the best. He got into the meet and nearly stole a medal with a big indoor best of 4:29.55 for 9^th place overall. That’s an awesome job seizing the opportunity to compete and gain experience. The junior now heads into outdoor with a little extra confidence after running in the low 4:20s a year ago as a sophomore. Watch for Shields as a sleeper out of District 3.

Will Merhige ends the year as the top independent runner in the mile (and the top independent distance medalist). The senior consistently dropped time every race that he ran. Merhige was entered in a lot of miles in a row this season and clicked off solid marks in the high 4:20s before popping off this big 4:22 PR. Merhige hung tough in the fast heat, hanging in the pack until the final 400 meters and then closing well at PR pace. We will have to keep an eye out for Merhige and Lindgren (as well as Peter Borger) when the tide switches to outdoors as they aren’t in the PIAA and likely won’t get a lot of coverage when we hit the postseason. Hopefully, we can see them match up against our stars throughout the regular season and continue to prove they need to be mentioned in state elite discussions.

800m

We knew entering into the race that Heat 2 had a chance to steal the show and man did they set the stage for a terrific final. As expected, the Pennsbury boys were active early as they took Heat 2 through 400 meters in 55 seconds. That left the rest of the heat hanging on for dear life as Brett Zatlin and Matt Eissler clung to the 3-4 spot. By 600 meters, Zatlin had moved into second behind Aidan Sauer of Pennsbury and on the last lap he had just enough to go by Sauer and win the heat-both guys were under the impressive 1:55 barrier.

For Zatlin this was a huge breakthrough result. He entered the meet with a best at 1:57 and completely skipped the 1:56s and 1:55s to find himself in pole position for the state championship with one heat to go. For Sauer, this result was excellent as well as he got a lifetime best out of the race. It’s unclear exactly what happened with Pennsbury’s 4x8 (injury to Scratchard?), but ultimately it’s nice to see a talent like Sauer rewarded with an awesome race and new PR in the open event. If Scratchard can come back for outdoors, a Pennsbury-CB West (Shanahan?) match up would be fun.

In the fast heat, Robert Dupell’s first lap 26.49 indicated we could see a fast enough pace to make the winner of this heat the state champion. But 400 meters in, it didn’t look like that winner would be Liam Conway. The mile champ was in last place in the heat through the opening two laps. However, he made a nice move on the 3^rd to get himself in position. Of course, Ephrata’s super sophomore Tyler Shue had a similar idea. The District 3 standout moved into the pole position by the bell in a move wise beyond his years and then it was just about holding on. Ultimately, despite a 28.43 last lap, he was not match for Conway’s 27.65. Conway completed the double and wrote his name in the history books. But Shue was rewarded with a silver medal, a gigantic open PR of 1:53 and a legion of new supporters. Both guys came out of this one pretty good.

Kamil Jihad of Neumann Goretti ended up with the bronze just a shade ahead of Zatlin at 1:54.59 to Brett’s 1:54.65. For Jihad, it’s his best ever indoor finish and second straight medal. He will be gunning for that elusive outdoor 800 title this spring against, most likely, Tyler Leeser.

Big shout out to David Endres and Collin Ebling. It was unclear entering the state meet if these guy’s 1:55 breakthroughs were just flashes in the pan or a real indication of fitness. Personally, I was pretty skeptical of both guy’s ability to get on the medal stand, especially the junior Endres, but they both delivered. David dropped another PR, getting to 1:54.90 and making him the fastest indoor 800 runner in a school that includes some all-time greats including 1993 state champ Jeff Heath and 1999 outdoor champ Kevin Nishiyama.

Matt Eissler of Pennridge had a heck of day in his own right. The junior was a state medalist a year earlier, but lended his talents to the 4x800 at the start of the meet. His 1:56 anchor carry lifted his team from 4^th to 2^nd in the final standings and got Pennridge 8 points in the team race. He also added a key 4x4 leg on the 4^th place relay in the state. In between he managed to sneak in a heck of an open 800 at 1:55.37 (I think an open PR?). At some point, this kid is going to pop off a huge time. I’m not sure when or if it will be in the open or a relay, but I’m feeling a 1:52-1:51 kind of time from Eissler before this year ends. You heard it here first.

In total we had 11 guys under 1:57 in this race including non-medalists Jonah Hoey (a sophomore at 1:56.01 indoors would be a huge story if it wasn’t for Shue), Jarnail Dhillon (1:56.67) and Ethan Zeh (1:56.93). Radnor looks like they’ve found another medal contender in the 800. They are coaching ‘em up nicely down there.

Lastly, have to give props to Collin Ochs of CR South. He qualified for the state meet last week with a big run and then he unleashed an awesome final lap in the first heat of states individually to clock 1:59.07. CR South had a 1:55 split on their second leg (was that also from Ochs?) and took 4^th in the state for the 4x800 as well. I love that CR South has stacked the 2^nd leg the last few years on the 4x8. Just think it’s a cool move.

3,000m

The Rusty Kujdych show is getting good. The Neshaminy senior has now clinched the first two legs of the triple crown-winning the XC State Championship and the indoor 3,000. How many guys in the last 15 years have won an individual state championship in the fall and the winter? Craig Miller (2006), Jason Weller (2007), Ryan Gil (2011), Tony Russell (2014), Jake Brophy (2016), Noah Affolder (2017). How many went on to complete the triple crown in the spring? Just one – Jason Weller in 2007. That’s the history that Rusty will be up against as he enters outdoors.

This was a huge win for Rusty as he rolled through a solid field to win by some 12 seconds. This is the biggest win I can remember since Colin Martin got the state title in 2014 with a similar time of 8:30.82. Martin went on to finish the season under 9 minutes for 3200. I’d imagine that Rusty has that sub 9 number in mind and he honestly may get down to 9:05ish at Nationals before we even hit the outdoor oval. He is very fit right now.

Let’s give big props to the 2-3 finishers in this race. Mitchell Etter and Tyler Rollins edged themselves ahead of the small school guys in the closing stages of this race to earn marquee state medals and drop some nice PRs. For Rollins, he only got a state qualifier last week with a time not much under 9 minutes. In this race, he dropped a monster 8:45 PR and pocketed the silver medal. This guy is ascending at the right time. As for Etter, I was worried about how he would handle this big stage, but the State College runner used that home track advantage to produce a huge 8:42 and second place finish. This is two clutch races in a row for Etter as he needed a PR about 10 days ago just to get into the meet and now he tops a great field for the silver. I’m eager to see how these two carry their momentum into the outdoor season where the competition looks poised to heat up in the 3200.

Brendan Miller and Tristan Forsythe represented the A classification well with 4^th and 5^th place finishes in this event. Forsythe took the pace out aggressively early and stuck is nose in the race, jockeying in the top pack through 2400 meters. With Hoey opting out of the mile, it would have been interesting to see Forysthe in that mile field competing for gold as well-hopefully that didn’t weigh on his mind in this race. As for Miller, he gets some revenge on Forsythe after finishing runner up to him during XC and sets himself up as the favorite outdoors in the 3200 (Tristan likely tries to defend his 1600 title outdoors). Miller was in 2^nd place with 400 meters to go but couldn’t hold off the kicks of Etter and Rollins as all three jockeyed throughout the final 800.

Spencer Smucker and Dan McGoey added their first track medals to XC medals from the fall. Manheim Township’s Ian Miller became the first MT medalist in this event since Craig Miller (who has the meet record at 8:22). Miller’s 8:55 result was great as he has run a ton of 3ks this year and could have easily been too fatigued to deliver a PR on the big stage. Instead, he came through clutch and took 7^th place. McGoey earns a 3k medal as a sophomore, joining a pretty exclusive club of all-timers. Penncrest’s Patrick Theveny was less than a half second away from doing the same. He ran a great race and was one lap away from a state medal of his own as he and McGoey flipped places on the last lap. I was still very impressed with Theveny’s season and hanging tough with the 3^rd place finisher from XC states should hopefully give him some confidence looking ahead. The Theveny-Lederer 1-2 punch should be excellent this spring.