March Madness

In honor of March's NCAA tourney, I figured I would make a small little post this morning about some of the biggest upsets that I have witnessed in my brief window following the sport of track and field at the PA High School level. There were many great ones to choose from, but here are the ones that jumped out to me.

12. Haneef Hardy Indoor 800m 2012
It's rare to see a guy who comes in with the #1 seed pull off the upset, but that is exactly what Haneef Hardy's indoor season was to the hard core followers of the sport. Hardy was seen as a 400m guy with solid skills and decent ability to move up, but not the kind of skills that land you at the top spot in the 800m (his mile PR was just 4:52). He was facing off against guys like Andrew Stone, Ryun Holder (my pick), and Wil Bailey who all went on to be established forces that outdoor season. But Hardy just flat out dominated and stunned a lot of people running 1:53.30, a sizeable PR, and showing everybody he belonged with the best of them.  Worth noting, after a quiet 800m season outdoors in 2012 after his title, he finished the outdoor season running 1:52.58 at Henderson, a very impressive mark.

11. Luke Lefebure Indoor 800m 2010
In 2010 the talk was all about the new state record holder Tom Mallon. Mallon came in with a 1:55 season best, but everyone knew he could drop a ton of time at states considering the previous year he dropped from 1:57 to 1:51. Now in his senior year, Mallon was attempting to grab double gold in the mile and the 800m and that was perhaps what did him in. Things came together beautifully for the unknown Henderson 800m standout. He anchored Henderson's 4x8 in 1:54 the previous spring, but he had limited notable open marks. His season best was around 1:58, which landed him in the second of three heats, outside of the fast heat where things would get interesting.

After Dorian Rumble and Tres Moore helped make things fast, Lefebure unleashed a kick to the finish that brought him home in a 1:53.94. That time was going to be hard to beat. When the fast heat started up (a crew that featured Tom Mallon, Sam Ellison, Andy Flynn and Kyle Moran among others) things dawdled through in a slow first lap and right then it was over. Mallon (and probably Ellison more importantly) were not willing to take it out hard and all the big names just paced off the favorite in hopes of getting the W. Mallon ended up closing like a mad man but ended up running 1:56.17 which was beaten out by 3 men from the fast heat.

Lefebure instantly became a household name and backed up the state title by splitting 1:52 at Penn Relays and coming back to close out the season on his home track in 1:51.08 (which I believe is the school record at a very good Henderson school).

10. Tom Mallon Outdoor 800m 2008
Tom Mallon? Pulling an upset? Well believe it or not there was a brief period of time where Mallon was not the best 800m in state history. Before Mallon grabbed his first of three straight titles as a sophomore at CB South he was an under the radar multi-faceted distance man with good range. He had beaten stud Zack Montijo in a conference battle in the mile and run some key legs on an up and coming 4x8 relay. But Mallon really made a name for himself at states. He came in as the 3 seed behind heavily favored Tom Troxell from Cedar Crest and Nick Crits from Wissahickon. Behind him he had guys like Farina, Montijo, Franks and Capecci who were far more established names in the event at the time and had experience grabbing state medals on the biggest stage.

But Mallon gave 0 about all that. He kicked away from the pack on the final straightaway and got his name in the history books. It was his first of three straight 800m victories, a variety of sub 1:50 splits, sub 1:50 open marks and a couple state records indoors and outdoors. Oh yeah and I think there was a solid 4x8 in there as well? (at one point he held the indoor state meet, indoor state all-time, outdoor state meet, outdoor state all-time, 4x8 outdoor state meet, 4x8 outdoor all-time, and 4x8 NFHS) He finished his career with 7 state championships (4 open 8s, 1 mile, 2 4x8s). In my opinion, he's the greatest 800m man the state has ever seen.

And it all started with one upset back in 2008.

9. Cedar Crest Outdoor 4x800m 2010
After the madness that was the outdoor 2009 4x8 (10 teams under 7:50 with 7:47 not medaling!), the 2010 4x8 was riddled with expectations and compelling story lines. Indoors the state champs were Abington who beat out and up and coming squad from CB West as well as strong teams from LaSalle and Wissahickon. But Henderson loomed as the dominate force, returning all 4 legs from a 7:42 4x8 the previous year that included Will Kellar and Luke Lefebure (who had just won the indoors state title at 800m).

At the Penn Relays, Abington, Henderson, LaSalle and Penn Hills (a surprise squad from District 7) all qualified for the championship of America (with Penn Hills clocking the best time there). CB West regained their momentum from indoors at districts with the return of a healthy Nick Scarpello and won handily. But in a stunning turn of events the boys were disqualified in the prelims of the 4x8! Perhaps the best team in the state was going to miss the state championship!

(Two comments on this, first off that DQ allowed UD to make the finals in the 4x8 at districts which was my only district final ever, so pretty cool, second of all that DQ ended up being a blessing in disguise for Kellar and Lefebure who ended up achieving some pretty significant indivdual results ...)

When Baldwin beat Penn Hills at WPIALs things got even crazier! Who would win? There were so many great teams! Abington, CB West, Baldwin, LaSalle, Penn Hills? Altoona with Wade Endress? CB South with Mallon?

Maybe some people should have taken a look at the District 3 results ....

Cedar Crest, a team completely under the radar all season clocked an unreal 7:49.03 at the district championships, a mark that many waved off as a fluke. The real teams who had been racing strong competition all year would rise to the top. Cedar Crest would be put in their place. Yeah about that ....

Cedar Crest stunned everybody by running 7:50 and qualifying for the finals and then behind the back legs of Jon Jackson and Alex Galli they brought down the hammer against Scarpello, Ross, O'Kane and Anderson and boom Cedar Crest was the surprise state champions in 7:43.64! High quality upset right there.

8. Max Kaulbach Indoor Mile 2008
I'm completely biased here because this was the first distance state championship I ever watched in person. Nick Crits was my boy, he was from our cross town rivals and every time we saw him he was unleashing a furious kick and leaving guys like Joe Dorris and Mike Palmisano, who I practically worshiped as track gods, completely in the dust. Then you had Vince McNally. McNally was a 4:08 miler as a Junior and had closed down in 2:00 the previous year outdoors at the state championship. He was a Footlocker finalist and he was determined to flip the script on what happened to him at XC states.

Those guys were the milers and the kickers and the class of AAA track and field.

But Max Kaulbach wasn't too worried about who was big in AAA track and field. The 2 miler (who went on to be a national champ and penn relays champ in the coming months) sat in on a brutally slow opening couple laps before McNally took over. Slowly they cranked it up and then it was time to kick. This was Crits's time. You leave it to a kick and Crits wins every time.

Except this time. Kaulbach, the 3200m man with no notable 800m PRs, comes blazing back by Crits and outkicks him for the win, running a clutch 4:15 mark. It was pretty awesome. Now Crits had his revenge by unleashing the sickest kick of all time outdoors that year (in a race that didn't feature independent league Max Kaulbach) and there are rumors he was suffering from illness, but Kaulbach's win was still a fantastic one.

7. CB West Indoors 2011
Ok, so maybe this one isn't as big of an upset as I'm hyping it up to be (I did predict the upset before it happened back in the day http://etrain11.blogspot.com/2011_02_01_archive.html) but perhaps it was just the way in which CB West took the title. Abington was coming off two All-Time state records at 4x8 and 4x4. Kyle Moran was in prime form and Will Taylor was beginning to enter top form. Abington was going after a team title and looked like a juggernaut of unstoppable forces. Their 7:45.93 seed time was a whopping 16 seconds better than CB West's previous best time, the #2 seed at 8:01ish.

But CB West kept their entire squad fresh for the relay at the end of the day, Abington doubled some key legs including Moran, who dragged Endress around the track in epic fashion in a really cool 800m race. Then the magic happened. All the legs came together beautifully for CB West and they not only shocked Abington to take the victory, the dropped 16 seconds off their seed time and broke Abington's state record with a 7:45.0 mark! Pure magic and a fantastic twist on the story that nobody could have predicted.

6. Will Kellar Outdoor 1600m 2010
Will Kellar probably wasn't even going to run the 1600m at outdoor states. He sacrificed individual glory to help Henderson win the DMR indoors. He was a key leg on a Henderson team that ran 7:42 the previous year in the 4x8 and Henderson was the state champs in XC that year. They were going for an impressive 3 peat in XC-DMR-4x8, one that I believe has still never been accomplished (?). But then tragedy struck and Henderson was DQd in the 4x8.

Kellar had to pull himself together and he managed to slide his way through to the 1600m finals in a field that lacked a bit of depth. The next day, Kellar skated through the finals and snagged one of the last spots to the state championships. He ran 4:18.52 at Districts and was a clear third behind Magaha and Perozze. Tom Kehl was rooming at states with a 4:09c PR at 1600m and a heck a lot of bad memories from indoor states. There was no Mallon in this race and he knew it. He had split 1:50 in the 4x8 that spring already. He was ready to out kick anybody.

Anybody except Will Kellar. In an unreal display of skill, Kellar, a guy who probably shouldn't have even been in that race in the first place, surprised everyone on the final straightaway, closing down in sub 60 seconds and diving at the line to outkick Tom Kehl 4:12.00 to 4:12.02. It was a massive PR for Kellar run in a pretty unorthodox way. I watched the race on TV a couple times, including once with a house full of non-track people and even they could appreciate the surprise.

That makes it a great upset.

5. Mark Dennin XC 2007
This is going back a ways from my younger readers, but this race was truly unreal at the time it happened. Chris Aldrich was coming off running 15:02 and Vince McNally had run 15:02 at a very difficult course a few weeks earlier. Both men were the clear cut top returners for states. They had really impressive track marks and great speed. It was Aldrich or McNally talks leading up to states.

But Dennin had something to say. He went to the front and instantly began pulverizing the pace at the very difficult state championship course. It was a gutsy and risky run. But in the end he not only broke his competitors spirit, he won the race by almost 30 seconds. It was one of the most dominating wins in state history by a guy who wasn't even supposed to win.

How did it happen? Aldrich, by many sources, was training through for a shot at Footlocker Nationals and it cost him. As for McNally he had to run the District 3 championships about 5-6 days out from the state meet, on the state course thanks to a rain cancellation. That's brutally unfair. Plus he ran it through mud and rough conditions. McNally basically changed the rules up for District 3 singlehandedly and made them push the meet back. Your welcome D3 kids.

But Dennin was no fluke result, let's not get it twisted. He was an All-American at Footlocker and second to Don Cabral at Regionals. Plus he won Penn Relays in the 3k and won the 32 outdoors at states. The dude was legit, but it all started with this stunner at Hershey.

(Worth noting, Jason Weller's upset wins over Paul Springer could have made this list because of how amazing Springer was and how gutsy Weller was but I chose to leave them off. But seriously Weller was super clutch.)

4. Zach Brehm Outdoor 800m 2013

This one you should probably remember well. The state championships in 2013 were in flat out brutal conditions, unlike anything I have seen in my time following the sport. That made for some slow times and some surprising finishes. 

Brehm came into the state meet as an up and coming name in the event, but he was just a sophomore sitting behind some of the biggest names in the game at the time. Kunzweiler was a certified 1:51 man. Brad Rivera was the defending indoors state champ with a 1:52 PR and a couple relay titles on his resume. Joe Logue had run 1:51 before and had a lethal kick. Plus you had Jeff Wiseman looming off his big time 1:52 runs. Andrew Stone had a couple state medals on his resume as well (and he would run 1:51 in matter of weeks after the state championships)

Brehm was the 7th seed, just 3rd in his district finals and his PR was way behind the 1:52-1:51 types he would be facing off against.

But sometimes upsets still strike. Brehm unleashed a kick in the final 100m, taking on the wind and getting by the likes of Logue, Rivera and Kunzweiler (who had that controversial fall). A sophomore snagging the state title in the 800m? Rarely done. Tom Mallon is elite company to have your name associated with.

Brehm went on to run his won blazing sub 4:10 mile at Henderson which completed a very nice resume (he had broken 9:20 in the 3200m at Districts and helped his relay run 7:52).

3. Matt Fischer Outdoor 3200m 2010

The 2010 3200m was the deepest it's been in state history. There were so many talent guys and the weather worked out nicely, meaning it was going to take sub 9:15 to medal. Well sub 9:14 and change as Bernitt was in the 9:14s and left without a medal. Wow.

The big names in the field were certainly guys like Brad Miles from North Penn, the XC state champion and Northeast Regional Champ, his teammate Sam Bernitt who was all-state indoors, Rad Gunzenhauser from Mt. Lebo and Ryan Gil from NA (both Footlocker Finalists) and Glenn Burkhardt who pulled his own big upset at Districts the previous week. You also had the North Hills trio, Tom Trainer, Jacob Kildoo and indoor state runner up Alex Monroe to contend with.

Fischer wasn't even the favorite on his own team, let alone the favorite in this race. But that didn't matter to him. After Miles took it out hard, Rad kept things quick, looking to defend his indoor title. But he couldn't quite hang on as things got faster down the stretch. Fischer was feeling good and assumed the lead to try and kick the final 400m and get the win. He pulled out a 60ish last lap and stunned the field to run an unreal 9:03.01 (his first time ever under 9:20). It was a truly spectacular win for a guy who was forced to drop out of the state finals the previous year due to injury. 

The race featured 13 guys under 9:20. 13! With an extra 3 under 9:22.

Fischer went on to have a pretty impressive career at PSU, especially in XC where he was a national qualifier for the Nittany Lions.