I’ll spare you most of the sentimental stuff I put out
there during XC as I start to look back on this blog’s last indoor state
championship. The following post will capture my five biggest takeaways after
an initial skim of the results. I’ll be doing more of a deep dive in the coming
week with my full breakdown on all the events.
1. Liam Conway
gets the double
In 1993, the indoor state championship switched from a
Mile-1,000 format to a Mile-800. Before today, there had been just one double
gold individual winner-that counts both the mile-3k and mile-800 doubles. On
Sunday, Liam Conway doubled that list as he sits next to Wade Endress as the
only other two time individual gold medalist in 25 years of indoor state championships.
This is a truly remarkable achievement, with the stage being set for this
possibility a year earlier when Conway successfully completed a double medal winning
double at PSU.
In the mile, Conway used his strong tactics to pull off the
win and post a new indoor mile best en route to the gold. When it came time for
the 800, I personally really doubted that he would have enough left in the
tank. In the beginning, he lagged off the pace, but he stayed focused and raced
poised before rolling through to a second state gold. When the pressure was
mounting on the biggest stage we have in the state, Conway delivered.
Last year, Liam entered the indoor state meet hoping to
leave with his first state medal. He left with two. This year, Liam entered the
indoor state meet hoping to leave with his first state gold. He left with two.
2. Seneca Valley
goes all in – and wins
Personally, I always enjoy when a team goes all in to try
and win a relay. Seneca Valley could have had a very strong 4x8, mixing it up
for gold and certainly a top 3 spot. Their top two individuals, Seth Ketler and
Sam Owori, would have been likely medal contenders given their PRs and racing acumen.
But that wasn’t what mattered to this squad. Seneca Valley became the first
Western team to win the DMR at indoor states and rolled to an impressive 10:21
victory. Sam Owori set the stage with a blazing 3:07 lead off and Seth Ketler
brought it home with a smooth 4:24 anchor, but the guys in between-seniors Luke
Bellack and Alex Dixon-really helped set the stage for the championship. Dixon
had the fastest 800 split of anyone in the race.
In XC, Seneca Valley had an awesome team. They likely
believed they had the potential to be state champions or at least get on the podium
but-unfortunately-it just wasn’t their day. In the final standings, Bishop
Shanahan snuck ahead of them by just 3 points and knocked them out of the top
5. As they entered the anchor leg on state Sunday, again Shanahan sat ahead of
them, but this time they were able to flip the script. Seneca Valley also
knocked off the 4th, 2nd and 1st place teams
from XC states (as well as the AA state champions) on the road to redemption.
3. State
Qualifying System
I started with some uplifting tales, I’ll end with some
uplifting tales, but in between I’ve got to get a quick vent session in. States
is truly a remarkable day. For some people, you only get one chance to compete
a state championship. Often times, we can take the opportunity for granted, but
for a lot of seniors who worked for four years to try and get to this moment that
one little race is remembered for the rest of their life.
So it hurts to see spots thrown away when we know there
are only a certain number up for grabs. Note that this didn’t just happen once
or twice or only on the distance side. We had at least 1 scratch in the 4x2,
4x4, 60m dash, 200m, 400m, 800m, Mile, 3000m, 60H, and Triple Jump. I counted
17 open spots that, in theory, could have been filled by another athlete or
relay across those events. That’s not just the work of one team, that’s a
systematic issue across the state.
I’m not involved in the selection process, so I’m not
saying I have a perfect solution, but I ask teams/the PTFCA to consider a few
things. 1) Maybe we can extend the window of when a team has to make their
state entries a little longer so that we can give coaches/athletes a bit more
time to think about how best to distribute themselves across the events. 2) Can
we have some type of alternate system so that the first couple guys out can be
on call and they can be added if a spot opens up? Maybe not on the day of
states, but if they can get a couple days notice, I’d bet a lot of athletes would
shoot up to PSU for the chance to run at states. 3) I’m asking everyone to
please remember that there are only select spots available. Use the time you
have to think and consider those who are being shut out of the meet as a result
of your decisions.
Another solution is to, of course, set a qualifying time
for states and anybody who hits it is in. That way, a scratch doesn’t directly
affect someone and we don’t have to worry about all this. This almost
definitely isn’t going to happen because we are terrified of having too many
heats of certain races, but maybe we could make the standards harder and then
add teams if we need to. For the record, this year there was only one distance event
(the 3k) where all the guys that raced had the current state standard. And that
only left out one guy who could have easily been added to the 3k field for a 13
person heat.
Sorry, I’ll get off my high horse now. Plus, this is the
last time I can preach with this crap since my last indoors is in the books, so
you won’t have to worry about this anymore going forward.
4. Tyler Shue
I’ve been trying to get people to notice Shue for the
last few months. Now I think I can stop worrying about that. The Ephrata
sophomore started the day by running a 1:54 split and blowing away the rest of the
lead off legs on the 4x800. That gave Ephrata enough of an early age to claim
bronze in the relay. Then, doubling back after this solo performance, Shue made
a hard charge on the toughest lap of the 800 and tried to steal an individual
gold for himself. If it wasn’t for perhaps the Athlete of the Meet in Liam
Conway than he would have done it. The sophomore stopped the clock at 1:53.85
which, as far as I can tell from my research, is the fastest indoor 800 ever
run by a sophomore. Tom Mallon and John Lewis, the last two outdoor state record
holders, ran only 1:56 during their sophomore seasons. That time also would
have won states 8 different times since 2001. And by the way, he was on the
double. The relay meet order has only recently changed, but we haven’t seen a
4x8-8 double this good in a long while. Let alone from a sophomore.
5. Spring Ford
The Rams from Spring Ford are quickly becoming the
clutchest team in the state. During XC, they were 4th in Hershey
after almost being left out of the state meet entirely. They came within a few
points of knocking off the district champs from DT West and posted two top 50
finishers. After two heartbreaking years struggling to get a chance on the
Hershey hills, it seemed like the storybook ending to this distance squad’s
story.
But the Spring Ford boys are graduated yet. Although they
are an east coast team, Spring Ford doesn’t race in the TFCAofGP and they
proved you can have success outside its borders. In key meets like Burdette and
the PTFCA Carnival, they established their credentials and got a SQG mark. They
entered a fresh relay just like Seneca Valley, but unlike SV they were just the
8th seed on time.
Without the flashy names or revered history, the Rams
simply rammed their competition in the closing stages of the race. Zach Smith
set things off nicely with a 3:11.12 to hand off in 4th. The middle
legs were absolutely blazing as Stephen Chapman clocked a 49.62 and Milan
Sharma produced 1:58.90, making for the best middle distance crew of anyone in
the field. So much for being just an XC squad. Then Jacob McKenna continued to
prove he’s one of the best guys in the state. McKenna dropped a 4:23.49 and
held off the charge from anchors like Brian Baker and Evan Addison. In the end,
Spring Ford posted a 10:23.11 and grabbed the silver medals at the state
championship.
It’s an unbelievable storybook ending. But I’m guessing
they will go ahead and write another chapter in their story this spring.
Obviously, there was also an impressive national record
this weekend set by one of our own, Josh Hoey, up in Boston. I will provide
some thoughts on that in a coming post (spoiler alert: it’s really good), but
wanted to keep this one state championship specific.
Thanks to those of you who have stuck around for the past
few months during this lame duck term. I hope you enjoyed the coverage.
Although the indoor season is considered the “least important”, it’s an
important one to me as I keep the qualifier list here on the site running all
year long and hopefully provide coaches/athletes a glimpse at the qualifying
picture. Trying to give everyone the best opportunity to get the most out of
yourself and get to states is really my biggest goal and I hope that the time
and effort that went into that list helped at least one of you out there to run
on the big stage.
Tyler Shue is the real deal.
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