An Underrated Spectacle

If you want to weigh in on the next round in the exciting Henderson v. O'Hara series, I made a post on it below that I would love to hear your thoughts on. The DMR race will be taking place on Friday at 7:30 PM. There is a solid chance it will be broadcast live on www.armorytrack.com under the webcasts section for free so stay on the look out for that if that's your thing.

The DMR is going to be quite fun, but I don't think the 4x800m (and 4xMile race) are getting enough play out here. In 2011 Abington and CB West became the best 4x8 squads the state had ever seen indoors, each team rocketing off some 7:45 type marks (CB West won the state title, Abington won the national title). That was a fantastic series of races, especially for Abington who ran 3 All-Time caliber 4x8s that year. CB West was so good because they dropped from 8 flat to 7:45 by states. Shows how slow Glenn Mills' track is. In 2012 Pennridge's 4x800m squad ran it's own 7:45.93 which puts them #3 All-Time in state history indoors ahead of squads like CB South and North Penn who have notched marks well under 7:40 outdoors.

So let me just recap here the top 4 teams in state history for the 4x8 are ...
1. CB West 7:45.06
2. Abington 7:45.21
3. Pennridge 7:45.93
4. North Penn 7:47.48

#5 is State College who ran 7:47.75 this year already at the Millrose Games. Keep in mind this mark is significantly faster than anything that Pennridge, North Penn or CB West had at their resume at that point in the season (Abington ran 7:45.93 around the same time). Abington, Pennridge and North Penn all ran their fastest times at the national meet in All-American type efforts (North Penn and Abington ended up as national champs when the dust cleared, Pennridge was 6th in an astoundingly deep year).

So what am I saying here? I'm saying how come we haven't played up the possibility of a State College state record in the 4x8? And better yet, did we forget that O'Hara is also in this race and looking for a rematch? Their mark of 7:50.98 is no joke either remember.

The 4x8 goes down on Saturday at 6:25 PM, meaning Cather will be fresh and go after the 800m the next day. Thus, State College is throwing a completely fresh team out on the track. The O'Hara boys will have roughly 24 hours to recover from a DMR the night before and then turn around hungry in the 4x8. O'Hara's job is certainly a tough one, but they are still worth mentioning as a team that can run a top 5 mark in state history.

Also worth noting, although I don't think they are a sub 7:50 team, the DT East squad in the slower section of two in the 4x8 should be very fun to watch. They could surprise some people after their impressive showing at states and Caldwell is very strong on the anchor.

Since no else has given it real discussion, let's discuss it here. The doubters will say State College didn't launch an impressive time at the state meet in the 4x8 despite having 3/4 fresh legs on the relay. They didn't show off the skills that a 7:45 team has on that day. While true, the race was far from set up for success for SC in the same way Henderson was able to walk easily away from the field in the DMR. Besides States you run for the win first and foremost and they got that pretty comfortably. Now nationals is where you chase the time.

Here are the legs they have by season best. Not in even PR people just by open season best.
Will Cather 1:54.05
Kyle Adams 1:57.0h
Mason Post 1:57.2h
Chris Golembeski 1:57.7h
Which adds up to about 7:45.9

Now anyone who has ever seriously run the 4x8, they should know a couple things.
#1 There is almost no way you are going to get everyone on your team to have their best day ever on the same day. Those are the magic days and when they happen you really have to appreciate them.
#2 On a relay you can split a lot faster than you run in the opens if things set up nicely for you. All these PRs are from open races, this year, indoors. 3 of the came in what was essentially an inner squad time trial.


So, although these ideas kind of contradict, you can see that there is clearly room to drop a lot of time here for each individual and, if the stars align, there is potential for everything to come together and give this team a 7:43ish type mark on a magical day. That is some top 10 all time US type potential for the boys from State College. Post has been on an incredibly impressive development path this season and has really discovered some impressive 800m chops. Cather has taken the next step into the states elite and Adams and Golembeski have become more than just little known relay legs on a solid relay, they are slowly becoming household names in the open 8. Everyone that is on this relay has run the fastest they have ever run and is running with a lot of confidence. That is a potent combination going into a meet where they will see the best competition they have ever faced. Watch out state record.

As for O'Hara, let's not just forget about these guys. Although I don't think they have the fire power to beat State College, I do believe it is going to be a lot closer than states. O'Hara has two 1:54 guys on paper, which not many schools can say and Smart might end up being a 1:53 split when all is said and done. Kevin James has managed to clock a 1:56 split already this year, which is pretty significant 800m wheels indoors for a guy who probably specializes somewhere around 5k (although he has proven on multiple occasions he can move down no problem and run strong relay legs). Nolen hasn't run as fast as the other 3, but with those kind of training partners and the competition that he will get to race against, he might be on the edge of a break out type mark. The team only needs a 1:59ish mark out of him and they are suddenly a much more formidable team. I wouldn't be surprised if he breaks out a nice PR (if he didn't already have one at states, I don't know what the splits looked like). Keep in mind Nolen is fresh while is POC will all have a DMR in their legs.

So how fast exactly do I think these teams can run? There is so much variability when you look at relays which is why I hesitated to throw out specific splits in my DMR preview that I did earlier, but I'll give you the following "best case scenario" type situations. I think these are fairly reasonable estimates for splits with some wiggle room for faster or slower. Admittedly, these marks are going to be on the optimistic side, but I think that makes it more fun.

SC: 1:57.5, 1:56.7, 1:56.5, 1:53.5
OH: 1:54.4, 1:59.8, 1:56.5, 1:53.9

What do those times yield?
SC- 7:44.2
OH- 7:44.6

The #1 and #2 times all time in state history.

I'm not saying it's going to happen, there are plenty of things that could slow down these two teams out there, but there is certainly a very plausible situation where we see marks like these thrown down up at the Armory. (Fun fact, the following splits would set up Cather and Smart to get the baton at the same exact time and race for the win, an interesting rematch of the indoor state 800m final where Smart just beat out Cather. I think that would be a fun rematch to see, but there is a very good chance Belfatto will take on the anchor role on this relay instead of Smart).

So let me know what you think for this race! I think this is a really underrated and under appreciated opportunity for PA to show their stuff on the national stage. Good luck to these teams (and DT East! Big time sleeper out of Heat 1)