Senior Year: 2009-2010 (Part II)

Best “The 11” Story

GFS XC

The Independent League doesn’t usually get much love, but 2009 was perhaps the most significant moment in the past 12 years where this league didn’t get its due. Part of the problem was that the AAA state championship race was unbelievably close between five awesome teams, but the other piece was that GFS just didn’t have much flash that year. What they did have was a strong pack of successful runners that group rolled through the independent league with five guys in the top 10 overall. Then, when the lights were brightest, they shocked the entire region with a second place finish at NXN Northeast. Gus McKenzie led the squad with a 16:20 and the team packed in behind to narrowly claim second with 156 points. They knocked out CBA, Henderson and the Rosa twins on their way to the silvers and qualified for NXN. Behind Gus on the scoring roster were Dave Waterman (the real key to their big day at regionals), Tom Waterman, Evan Caldwell and Ross Wistar.

Cedar Crest 4x8

After a dominant performance in 2009, District One was poised to continue their 4x8 excellence in 2010. Abington and CB West led the way during the indoor season, with the Ghosts pulling out the gold over the Yellow Jackets (again, I know this isn’t their actual name, but I like it better than whatever it actually is). But injuries added up for those two teams as Kyle Moran of Abington and Nick Scarpello of CB West both had issues. Scarpello made it back in time for states, but Moran was out of the lineup for the indoor gold medalists by the time things got to Shippensburg.

Meanwhile, other districts were trying to work their way into the mix. Cedar Crest, a relative non-factor in the 4x8 during 2009, ran an early season 8:08 for second at the Pan-Ram Invitational behind Central Dauphin’s 8:02. Then the relay broke 8 minutes for the first time at the Lebanon Lancaster League Championships with a 7:59. It was a solid mark, but wasn’t even the best in the district as Central Dauphin had them beat. But at the D3 championships, the Falcons stormed to a huge season best of 7:49.03 and won the title while 5 teams cracked 8 minutes.

It seemed like a fluke result as the tide shifted to the state champions in Shippensburg, but Cedar Crest didn’t back down from the challenge. They dropped a 7:50 in the prelims before unleashing a 7:43.64 in the finals to stun the field and take gold. Darren Dobroski led off with a 1:56 and Shaun Ditzler kept it close on leg 2 before Jon Jackson unleashed a 1:54 split to help break the race open. That set up junior Alex Galli on the anchor, being chased by a stacked field. With the pressure on, Galli held off a loaded herd to leave with gold. It’s perhaps the most surprising 4x8 victory we’ve seen in the past 12 years.

Sam Ellison

The guy’s my old teammate so it’s hard to not brag about him. Ellison joined the track team initially to do high jump and, although a big talent, didn’t seem all that interested in the running events during his first season. In fact, our sophomore year, I actually defeated him during my magic 56.9 400 meter time trial before Sam probably had even run a step. As a junior, Sam started putting in the work and it paid off. He anchored our 4x8 to a state medal and a school record, splitting in the low 48 second range. Then, as a senior, he decided he was going to take it up another notch.

Ellison had never run an 800 before his first indoor meet at Haverford. Here, Sam clocked a 2 flat for the state lead. In his second ever 800, he ran a 1:56 split on the 4x8 to pull us from way back to second and get us a state qualifying time. This happened at Glenn Mills. In his third ever 800, he became the TFCAofGP champion in 1:57.02.

Outdoors, he carried us to Penn Relays by running a 1:53 split on an 8:04 4x8 (you can do the math on what the other legs would have been), split a 1:52 at Penn Relays and then set our school record with a 1:52.38, leading wire to wire. This all happened in the span of about 8 half-mile races and 4 months. Sam was even getting some talk for competing with reigning state champ and eventual state record holder Tom Mallon.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be. Sam gave everything he had to the team which included quadrupling almost every dual meet and running the 4x8 and 4x4 at districts (we ran the SQS in both events but in District One that didn’t mean much). By the time he got to states, I’m not sure how much he had left in the tank (he ran 1:53 and took 8^th in the state finals).

Thankfully, we didn’t burn Sam out from running. He went to Villanova and got some really good teammates right away. They won a Penn Relays wheel in his first trip back after carrying us in two races there in high school. Just this past winter, Sam clocked a 1:46 for 800 which was under the world indoor A standard. He placed 4^th at USAs and was in the top 20 or so in the world this year for the event.

AAA 3200m

Most years, the state 3200 is hot and humid and the times just aren’t going to cooperate. Every once in a while, we get a year where things break just right and the times are blazing fast. In 2010, we had just that. The outdoor AAA 3200 featured an incredibly 13 guys under 9:20 with a top 5 all under 9:10. Coming into the state meet, there were only three guys who had dipped under 9:20 at districts. Matt Fischer dropped a massive PR, going from 9:22 at districts to 9:03 at states and stunning a loaded field in his first year in the event. Junior Ryan Gil dropped what was then perhaps the fastest time a PA junior had ever clocked-sporting a 9:03.87 for second overall. North Hills had three juniors all under 9:20! Glenn Burkhardt, the District One Champ, ran faster than he did at districts and still placed just 15^th! It was unreal race from a depth perspective and it would not be matched for quite some time.

Best Race

AAA 1600m

There’s a lot of good things I can say about Tom Kehl. The Father Judge senior had incredible range-he split a reported 1:50 in the 800 while also having the ability to place 11^th at states in XC. In his best event, the mile, he went toe to toe with Tom Mallon indoors, just barely losing the fight for state gold. He then clocked a 4:11.0 full mile at the Penn Relays to take the strangle hold on the event outdoors. Once sophomore Drew Magaha of Upper Moreland emerged as the main opponent standing in his way of his first state gold by winning districts, it seemed likely that Kehl would be the gold medalist.

But we all know that’s never the way it goes. Kehl put down a kick at the perfect moment and surged for a home in a loaded race. But Will Kellar of Henderson, who had barely even qualified for the event at districts, rolled by him in an epic dive to the line. Kellar dropped a big PR of 4:12.00 to nip Kehl by 0.02 seconds. Behind these two, 8 other guys broke 4:17 (!) and it took 4:15.41 to get a state medal.

AAA 4x800m

I’ve said a lot about this race and I’ll say even more about it later, so I feel obligated to keep this brief. But here’s the basic idea. It took 7:52.58 just to make it to the finals. Then in the finals there were 8 teams under 7:50 and 7 under 7:47. Cedar Crest pulled off the upset win in 7:43.64 and 7^th place was close behind in 7:46.16. It was a near blanket finish for the medal positions filled with PRs and school records.

PTFCA DMR

Before Kellar nipped Tom Kehl at the line, he was nearly outleaned himself. Altoona was gunning for a team title and decided to throw their hat in the ring for the DMR. However, with questionable pieces at 1200 and 800 they seemed like a longshot. Meanwhile, CB South (with Tom Mallon), Henderson (the reigning XC state champs), Baldwin (state leaders) and GFS (national XC qualifiers) all seemed like better picks. It was sure to come down to the wire in this event and Henderson kept their key pieces, including anchor Will Kellar, completely fresh to focus on winning this event.

However, Altoona hung tough in the race, using a big 400 league from all-star state champion Brady Gehret to set the tone in the middle of the race. As things turned to the anchor, it was a four team battle between Kellar, Wade Endress of Altoona, Gus McKenzie of GFS and Bobby Bishop of Baldwin. On the last lap, it looked like Kellar had sprinted away from the pack and taken the gold. He raised his hand in celebration just as Endress, spurred on by the home crowd, dived to try and steal the victory. In the end, Henderson was the state champion-but it was tight enough to scare Kellar to always run through the line. He may owe that state gold outdoors to Wade.

Biggest “What If”

What if Henderson never got DQed?

This is perhaps the biggest “What if” in the entire history of the state. OK, that may be an over exaggeration, but this moment was huge. Let me set the stage. Henderson is at the peak of their powers. They’ve won the DMR indoors, they have the individual 800 state champ from indoors, they’ve won the XC state title and they return all four members of a relay that ran 7:42 a year ago. Before we even hit May, they have the PRs to run 1:52-1:53-1:55-1:57 and maybe challenge CB South’s absurd record from a year earlier.

But to get to states, you have to qualify. In the preliminary round of the 4x8 at districts, the action was tight. There were three heats, each stacked with talent, and only the top 3 in each heat were going to advance automatically. In Heat One, Henderson was the favorite with other squads like Strath Haven, Souderton and Penncrest vying for a spot. After three legs, things were still tight as all the legs jockeyed for position in the home straightaway. Simple math said that only three of these four teams were guaranteed a spot. And, although we didn’t know it at the time, the times from this heat were so slow that only the top three would get in the finals.

As the legs panicked to find position, there was tangle between Henderson and Penncrest and Tres Moore hit the deck for his team. The team in 5^th (my team, Upper Dublin) scooted past Penncrest as they were seemingly knocked out. However, upon review, Henderson received a DQ, Penncrest was advanced to the finals automatically and Upper Dublin, now somehow in 3^rd place, was advanced on place. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have made it in (7:56 was the fastest non-automatic qualifier for the district 4x8).

So right away there are ripple effects. First of all, we made the finals in the 4x8 and Sam Ellison had to run an extra race to further tire himself out. Plus, I got to run in a district final. Those are probably the least important facts of the equation. It’s also worth noting that Haverford, who took 8^th in the final, got to advance to states in Henderson’s spot.

Henderson is now out of the 4x8 so they have to scramble to figure out what individual events they will contest. Kellar jumped quickly into the 1600 prelims and managed to advance. He finished 3^rd in the finals with a time of 4:18 and punched a ticket to states. He may have never even run the 1600 if the 4x8 had made it through and, therefore, he never would have been state champion in the event. Luke Lefebure had the 800 and he qualified for the finals without much trouble. In the finals, he used his fresh legs to run a 1:52.92, a time approximately equal to the then district record. That was good enough for the silver and within 0.21 seconds of knocking off Tom Mallon. At states, Lefebure dropped a 1:51 and took another silver. That was a huge result for Lefebure that may not have been possible if he was doubling off the 4x8. It solidified him as a legit middle-distance runner and perhaps played a role in his recruitment at Stanford. Stanford benefited from the Lefebure edition as he helped the team win an NCAA crown. The ripple effects go all the way to the NCAA!

My Personal Best Running Moment

Alright, we’re in to everyone’s favorite section of these posts – when I talk about my unimpressive running career! But the jokes on you, because apparently this post I have been doing that the whole time. I think this is the most name drops I’ve ever had which is impressive considering I’m one of the kings of name dropping.

10^th at Districts in XC

I ran at one state championship in my career and that was indoor states in the 4x4 (I was a newbie to the 4x4 and standing waiting for the baton on the second leg of the fast heat when our lead off leg fell coming off the last turn, it’s a whole other story for another time), but I feel like the greatest team accomplishment I was a part of was a performance in which we came nowhere near qualifying for states. Those in District One know that the league is stacked with great teams so our Upper Dublin squad just wanted to keep our head above water. The week before districts, we had lost a heartbreaker to Wissahickon in our league championships. That broke a championship streak for our school that the class of seniors a grade above us had pioneered and it felt like crap. We went into districts with a little extra chip on our shoulder, but I wouldn’t say expectations were high.

I remember the first 200 meters I sprinted out to get good position all of a sudden found myself running near guys like Tom Mallon and Brad Miles. Whoops. It was a pretty terrible idea, but I backed off and found a good pace after that. The good news is, it pulled my teammates out a little more aggressively than usual and, unlike me, they actually had some room to back up a more aggressive start.

The first mile was so muddy that year and I remember expecting to be in the low 5 minute range through the mile-then I went through in like 5:20. It was absurd. It would have been easy for us to panic or get discouraged about that slow opening time, but we kept our heads up and fought through the next stretch. It was clear I wasn’t going to PR down the stretch of the race, missing it by a couple seconds, but I put on the best kick I could and tried to get to the line. I remember my coach was yelling at me that the guys were running really well and that I had to push. But after the race, when I talked to everybody, nobody seemed to have had a PR. So what happened?

Well, the race was super slow overall. We all ran within spitting distance of our best race and that turned out to be pretty good. As a team, we beat Wissahickon to get our revenge. And it turns out we did it by 16 spots in the team race. Our #1 guy Pete Schartel had a monster race and nearly cracked state qualifying while our #5 guy Ryan Desch delivered a great run despite having a broken nose (again, another story for another time). In the final standings, we were 10^th overall and the top placing team who didn’t have a single guy qualify for states.

No, it doesn’t sound like much, but to us it was a big result. We ended our season on the right note after being crushed emotionally a week before. And to our gang, that meant everything.

Trojan 4x800m

I’ll try and keep this brief. The Trojan Track Classic is a magic meet. When the lights are on and the sun is setting, times just seem to get magically fast. I can’t prove it with science or anything, but I can prove it with what I witnessed on race day. For me, I got one final sprinkle of the magic dust before graduating. I’d be trying to get under 2 minutes for the 800 since I was a sophomore and ran 2:04. On the lead off leg of the 4x8, I finally got there. I can still remember getting to 200 meters and my friend Tom Lorenzi yelling at me that I was at 1:28 and that I was going to do it. The final split was 1:59.8.

At the time, I counted it as much first sub 2. Now that I’ve done it in the open 800, I count the open 800 as my first sub 2, but this is still a memorable moment that I will always look back on fondly.

By the way, the Wissahickon boys got my picture in the meet program to promote the “etrain” brand. That was pretty cool of them. As much as it sounds like we hated them from a paragraph earlier, we did. But we also liked them a lot. It doesn’t sound like it should make sense, but if you were there with us, then I think you’d understand.

PA’s Fastest Seniors

800m (1:55)

1. Tom Mallon, CB South 1:49.01

2. Sam Ellison, Upper Dublin 1:52.38

3. Jaquil Hargrove, Norristown 1:53.14

4. Charles Ross, Abington 1:53.36

5. Sam Negley, Plymouth Whitemarsh 1:53.39

6. Victor Costello, North Pocono 1:53.61

7. Dan Muelners, Souderton 1:53.6h

8. Kevin DiFlorio, Horsham 1:54.15

9. Tom O’Kane, LaSalle 1:54.32

10. Dennis Logan, Baldwin 1:54.70

11. Charles Anderson, Penn Hills 1:54.92

1600m (4:17)

1. Tom Kehl, Father Judge 4:09.61c

2. Will Kellar, Henderson 4:12.00

3. Vince Perozze, Perkiomen Valley 4:12.52c

4. Rad Gunzenhuaser, Mount Lebanon 4:13.96c

5. Ed Donnelly, Haverford 4:14.13c

6. Nick Gibson, Canon MacMillan 4:14.37c

7. Tom Mallon, CB South 4:14.72ic

8. Chris O’Sullivan, St. Joe’s Prep 4:15.41

9. Nick Scarpello, CB West 4:15.4h

10. Kevin DiFlorio, Horsham 4:15.6h

11. Kevin Day, Lansdale Catholic 4:16.22

3200m (9:20)

1. Matt Fischer, Unionville 9:03.01

2. Alex Monroe, Indian Valley 9:07.24

3. Rad Gunzenhauser, Mount Lebanon 9:07.33

4. Vince Perozze, Perkiomen Valley 9:11.87

5. Seth Robbins, Cumberland Valley 9:14.11

6. Charles Lockwood, Dallastown 9:14.91

7. Sam Bernitt, North Penn 9:14.97

8. Brad Miles, North Penn 9:15.25

9. Scott Armstrong, Perkiomen Valley 9:19.15

4x800m (7:47)

1. Cedar Crest 7:43.64

2. CB West 7:44.13

3. Abington 7:44.65

4. CR South 7:45.46

5. LaSalle 7:45.54

6. Penn Hills 7:45.99

7. CR North 7:46.16

8. Quaker Valley 7:46.46

9. Baldwin 7:46.99