4/12 Weekend

Pretty swamped with work for the front half of this week, so I'm just going to speed through things as best I can. Ideally later in this week, I'll break down the potential for 4x8s state wide and take a deeper look into who is doing what at states. And of course once relays are announced for Penn we will have some more interesting to discussions.

We start out west for this one at the Butler Invite. Seneca Valley stepped up and gave me some solid evidence that they are going to be one of the teams that needs to be mentioned as we look ahead at the 4x8 at states and WPIALs. Great performance by Foster to win this race in 1:57.07 and Kolor ran a strong double to run 1:58.69 (I'm assuming the mile was first as it is at most meets). Cool to see Fox Chapel's Elias Graca drop a 1:58.07 which was a good bit faster than his seed mark. That could make that Fox Chapel 4x8 idea I through out last week a tad more interesting, but I doubt we will see it. Good individual to watch at least going forward.

Nate Sloan got a huge win with a 4:19 mark that got him a 2 second victory over both Brent Kennedy and Colin Martin, two of the best 2 milers in the state right now, who each ran 4:21. It will be interesting to see how Martin translates this 4:21 over to the Penn Relays. Also worth noting was Kolor's 4th place finish in 4:24 for SV. Carter Smith of Eden Chrisitan with a nice sleeper performance in there running 4:33.01 to dominate his heat and beat his seed mark by over 12 seconds. Caleb Wakeley had a solid under distance race and Grove City flexed some muscle with Ryan Budnik running 4:31.

Colin Martin took down the 32 in impressive fashion (not sure if the 32 was first or second here but I'm assuming 2nd). It was a quality double for him has he ran 9:25 and beat out surprise second place finisher Luke Regan who drops a big bomb with his 9:27 (30 seconds faster than his seed!). Will be interesting to see how Regan carries this momentum looking ahead. He beat out Kennedy and Sloan (9:30 and 9:32) who both had solid doubles themselves. Kennedy gets stronger every week after the long layoff with no indoors or XC this year. Will Loevner, surprise indoor state qualifier ran a 9:36, Wakeley ran 9:37, Tanner Quiggle of Seneca ran a 9:36.00 as well. Very nice group of runners there. 13 guys sub 10 with a lot of doubling names.

Interesting to note, Fox Chapel ran a pretty nice 3:28 to win the 4x4 over Seneca's 3:29 (quite the triple for Kolor). Maybe they have guys to move up to 800 from this group and run solid marks. Hampton, Nate Sloan's school, was third in 3:31.


The Warrior Invite was pretty epic. Tony Russell came out the gates blazing and ran an absurd 4:09.53 for 1600m to beat the rest of the field (that included Jaxson Hoey and Sam Ritz who qualified for Penn as well as Billy Caldwell who just missed) by over 6 seconds. Apparently there was a rabbit out there for this race. People are hating on the whole rabbit but from the sounds of things 1) the rabbit didn't help all that much and 2) look at any top race at the world level: they are all rabbitted. If you look at any world record above 800m it was probably rabbited (and the 800m world record was rabbited most years as well, it's just that Rudisha is a beast). Russell has already proven he can win races without rabbits after winning XC twice and indoors in the mile. He wanted a fast time and no one is going to help him out (and really why should they if they aren't as fast as him and they feel like they have better kicks) so they got a rabbit together. Looking through the results I'm sure the 20 kids under 4:30 aren't complaining.

Russell quickly puts himself in an elite conversation. He has to seriously consider Magaha's state meet record, Springer's 32 state record and maybe even Vandegrift's state record in the 16 (although I think this is certainly the hardest of the bunch). I need to see Russell run something in the 1:51 range for me to believe his best even is not 3k/32. Clearly he can win the state title in the mile but long term  I see him as a 5k guy who is going to be quite good if he can stay healthy at PSU. I think in the right race at Henderson with a good rabbit and competition he would 100% be under 9 and around 8:50. Sub 4:10 this early is huge and he is quickly approaching all time great status.

Hoey is doing really strong things a sophomore and Malvern Prep has a really fun to watch team right now. I am curious how their DMR and 4x8 shake out going forward but we won't get to see them do anything big besides Nationals and Penn because of the way the independent league is set up. But keep on eye on Malvern.

Henderson put on a clinic of distance running. Barchet had a huge day dropping to 4:16.04 for 3rd. That is a big time PR. Right now this team just threw down 4 marks under 4:19 (Stratman 4:17, Collins 4:18), Moy has a PR of 4:16 as well, and Russell is under 4:10. That's a squad that can get a national championship in the 4xMile and if things peak right maybe even finish as a top 3 team ever at that distance. That would be huge.

Caldwell gets another nice PR in the 16. He seems to be getting comfortable at that distance. It will be interesting to see if he tries to go back down to 800m this year or just get stronger and run the 16 at states. The problem is that 4x8-16 double is no joke. He is a good doubler, but I prefer to see him get after in the open 8.

Conestoga has a big day as well. They are really rounding into shape nicely. 4:19 from Gunnar and 4:20 from Marston. That's sweet. They have the pieces for a real fun 4xMile at nats if they push it that far (4 guys at 4:30 or better) and they could try a 4x8 (but I sincerely doubt they will). Marston is going to be a serious factor in the 32 outdoors. The list just keeps getting longer ... Also Conestoga is going to have a nice XC team next year.

Sam Webb is back! He was buried in this stacked field but he ran 4:20! That is either a PR or very close and he is coming off serious injury. That is some clutch running from him. Pennsbury is going to have a 4x8 squad worth noting yet again (assuming Sauer isn't injured as he didn't race this meet).

Nice races also by Dahl from GFS (4:24) and Garton from PV (4:23). A lot of really great performers at this meet.

In the open 8 the race wasn't too fast but we did see a couple 2 flat marks from DTEast and an emerging 2:01 leg from Pennsbury in Matt Mulvaney and Strath Haven had 2 guys at 2:02 and 2:01 with a few other guys at 2:03 and 2:05 and 2:06.

At Pan Ram, Cole Nissley and Aaron Lauer ran strong 4:21s to take 1-2 in the 16. They beat out Brad Foust who ran a strong 4:23 and could have been doubling off the 4x8 (don't know how was on Altoona's squad). Altoona is one of the biggest question mark type teams going forward in terms of poential and I am not sure how their relay vs. individuals situation plays out. But Foust is off to a good start. Nissley and Weidner make a nice two-three punch behind Groh (Weidner ran 4:27). Jonathan Goodson asserts himself well on the AA scene with his 4:25 mark for 4th. That is a name to remember as a contender for top medals at 800m or 1600m this spring. Seiger emerges nicely on the track with a 4:35. Seeber from CV gets his own 4:34. Both are young guys making nice starts. In addition soph Thomas Nicewicz ran 4:29 for Mecanicsburg. Stroh of Altoona ran a 4:29 and Ben Wilson from Central Dauphin ran a 4:29 as well.

JD Groff got a huge win beating out Nissley and Lauer on the double. Groff ran 9:35 to get the win over Nissley's 9:42 and Lauer's 9:49. Groff and Regan at different meets made cases for why they were going to be factors in the 32 this year. Groff has a tough district to compete with at 3200, but he is now a name you have to remember going forward.

Ladies and Gents here comes Cedar Crest. This team is very dangerous. The first thing that jumps out at me is they apparently have 3 guys with the same last name on their relay team. It's a family affair over there at Cedar Crest which is pretty cool. And all their names start with J! Jared, Jordan, Jesse and Jarrod! Two versions of my name! And oh yeah they ran 7:57 to beat Milton Hershey (8:05), Altoona (8:06) and CD (8:10). Watch out rest of the state, this is a legit force.


Here comes Patrick Reilly to the outdoor scene. A dominating 9:35 3200m race to start out his year is quite nice. Zach Brehm gets two easy wins. We will have to wait that much longer to see exactly what Brehm can do. I think he is carefully saving himself for season's end, but he will certainly have a target on his back.

I'll be back later to do more analysis (mostly of the district 1 TFCAofGP variety) later on tonight.