3/29 Weekend

I contested my own racing this weekend and the results were pretty unspectacular across the board, so I wasn't surprised to see some of the slow times out there after the dust cleared this weekend. It's cold and it's still just March. Which is why my first point is, I'm not reading too much into anything! If somebody had a bad day it very easily could be some combination of the elements taking a poor effect on performance or a coach telling an athlete to shut it down and run conservative. No one wants to get injured out there in a meet that means basically nothing.

But all the same that doesn't mean some runners can have impressive performances.

I'll get to the track carnival in a bit, but first let's talk about the results up in Altoona. Mitch Endress drops a solid 2:01 and absolutely dominates that field, next closest was 2:06 from Chet Schwoyer of Williamsport (who may be a member of their sub 8 returning 4x8 but I honestly have no idea who was on that relay). Schwoyer was District 4 champion in the 1600m last year outdoors. Brett George of Altoona was 3rd, also in 2:06. Altoona also had the 1600m champ, Brad Foust, who ran a solid 4:31 to outlast established Kiski runner Patrick Miller (who I believe has split down around 1:56 a couple years back as just a sophomore). Eric Kennedy, Brent's younger brother I am assuming, ran a 4:40 for third and, as just a freshman, is making a nice transition to the high school scene.

In the 3200, it was drop out city as the results show just 8 runners finishing the race with a ton being late scratches. Out of the ruckus emerged Brent Kennedy who flat out dominated his return to the track with a 9:31 to win by over 30 seconds. He beat out Will Kachman, sophomore from Bedford with nice XC marks, and Dominc Stroh, Altoona's District 6 XC champion who ran 10:08 and 10:15 respectively.

Very nice relays, Altoona 8:17 over Williamsport 8:20 (don't know how the doubling and such worked here schedule wise) and Altoona had a strong 4x4 win in 3:27.

Now onto the PTFCA meet. First off, David O'Such running 50.32 in that weather? That's a nice for Spring Ford who, as mentioned earlier this week, has some very intriguing relay potential once again. They have nicely developed into a very respectable mid-distance program. The boys opened up in the meet with a huge 10:46 to finish second behind an established Radnor team who ran 10:45. St. Joe's ran 10:49 for third in another solid time.

The 4x8 was also fairly quick (likely because the weather didn't get too bad until later in the day) and as a result Malvern Prep put together a nice relay win in 8:06 going toe to toe with Carlisle (who also ran 8:06). North Penn, a powerhouse in the 4x8 and state medalists in the winter, was third in 8:11. So as far as I see it, if this was a version of NP's A team, then this is a big step forward for Malvern and Carlisle. I believe Malvern is certainly better suited to make a run using their DMR and they clearly have a strong anchor/lead off leg in Jaxson Hoey who once again picked up some community wide respect by helping his team to the win over Brehm and Carlisle.

Ryan Grace really impressed in the 16. I'm assuming he wasn't featured on North Penn's 4x8 (but if somehow he was this is an incredible double), but he really just went out and dominated this field that included Brehm (on that very tough double), Shalala, Diestelow, Hopkins and McDevitt (also possibly on that difficult double from the 4x8). Nice race for Tim Givens of Twin Valley in 4:42. I like the sleeper potential for those chaps.

For Grace, in the past few weeks he has established himself as more than just a good state miler, he is a state medal contender (grabbing one indoors) regardless of how stacked we believe the field can be. 4:15ish by season's end is a time I would throw out as something to shoot for out of him. He can get into that Trimble territory.

John Lewis gets a very nice win the open 8 over a slightly depleted field relative to what we thought. I hope a situation arises where we can see Lewis in a legit race at 800m. I feel he is fairly underrated at this event just because he has so many ties to team title hopes. Not that I feel like he is complaining about grabbing 4x4 gold, individual 400 gold, and overall team gold, but still.

John Carroll second in 2:01 (off the 4x8 double I assume) bolds well for Carlisle. Just about finding some other legs to plug in to get them under 7:50. Hoyt from Penn Charter had a nice 2:01 for 3rd rounding out the most notable marks.

In the 32, with Kevin James out, it was Belfatto time. He easily dominated that 32 field with his 9:37. The guys he was racing are no slouches either. I really like Huckleberry moving forward to have a big spring (he was third in 9:43). The Kazanjian's have always been better outdoors than indoors, and considering their XC season's they are just beginning to brush the surface out here. I think we could see Nick Bonaventure esque times (9:20.00 at Districts) out of these guys which should translate into the state medal conversation. Chris was 2nd in 9:43 and Matt finished 5th in 9:52. Plugging into the missing spot in the top 5 was Casey Comber who ran a tough race to get himself a 9:45 mark (which may actually be a 3200 PR, even if his 3k marks are far superior). Matt Willig had a nice race running 9:55 to edge out Scott Mason (also 9:55). Overall, I'm a big fan of this group of guys. This was a nice chance to see some under the radar types running gutsy races in brutal condition.

The D1 32 will once again be memorable. The Kazanjians, Comber, and Willig all likely will toe the line against anyone Henderson trots out, possibly Kardish, possibly Grace or Tung, Shalala, Marston, Brophy, Power, ... and the list goes on with a bunch of more names who I am sorry to leave out for the sake of time. Sometimes it's just unfair how deep District One can be.

Might try to make a post about what the District fields may look like in the coming weeks as more results come in. Should be fun.