Etrain Shorts: What Are You Ephrata?

In track and field, sometimes the most important thing to do is turn your brain off and race. For the boys from Ephrata, they’ve gotten pretty used to racing-and racing well. This season, Ephrata is undefeated in the 4x800, the glamour event of Pennsylvania middle distance. Early in the season, they picked up victories with more modest times of 8:27 and 8:26, but then they unleashed an 8:06.02 at Franklin & Marshall to secure a spot among the elite. Their mark currently stands 4^th in the adjusted state standings.

But this started long before this season. In XC, Ephrata got a big push from Nate Becker first and then Zach Lefever next into the forefront of state running. Becker was a two time top 50 finisher at states before Lefever jumped to 4^th in the state in 2016. A year ago was the first time we saw monumental work from Ephrata on the track. Lefever was a key part of the evolving 4x800 relay, but it’s clear that despite his star power, the relay was/is much more than just him.

Using the culture established by their former anchor, Ephrata has soared to big success on the track. Tyler Shue has led the team individually, winning two golds and a silver in individual action thus far this year at 800 meters. Shue, just a sophomore, ran 1:58.14 at districts last spring when he was a frosh. Shue is joined by Alex Morales who holds a 1:58.40 best from last May’s LL championship. These guys have some excellent raw speed to work with and are gamers on the race track.

Behind the speed demons is a more strength oriented runner in Andrew Foster. Foster, who joined Lefever and Becker as yet another top 50 finisher from Ephrata, has been active in the 3200/3k the past two seasons. He ran a 9:42 last year and has already clocked 3 performances of 9:20 or faster for 3k on the indoor oval. Then, the team can lean on Tanyon Loose to round out the quartet. Loose, who it appears is taking Lefever’s spot after his graduation, has run 4:35 for 1600 last April and seems to be finding a nice rhythm as a key component of Ephrata’s successful relay. Keep in mind an 8:06 is an average of 2:01.5 per runner-only Shue has topped that in open results this year. That means every leg on this team is dropping some big time splits.

Last year, Ephrata was also very fast in the regular season. After opening with an 8:20 victory, Ephrata popped off a 7:56.98 on April 22^nd. They also posted an 8:00 for the victory at LLs before setting their relay record of 7:56.17 to take 3^rd in a stacked district. They beat multiple programs that went on to compete in the state finals and were right in the mix for gold along with team champs Carlisle and powerhouse Milton Hershey (led by Austin Padmore). This young group was bounced in the prelims of the state 4x8, taking 11^th in 8:03, meaning they had to watch the state finals a year ago. That should hopefully be a valuable stepping stone for this program as they look ahead to a dog fight in the 2018 PTFCA Championships.

My guess is they won't be Ephrata much this year.

Sorry, it's not an Etrain post without a terrible pun.