Burdette Recap

I usually find things helpful to consider the order of events when I analyze a meet. Since I wasn't at this meet I have no sense for the team in between races or the exact tactics implemented, but I'm thankful I remembered to look up the order briefly before taking to the writing of this piece. I hope you enjoy.

SMR
Sneaky good running by the Easton sprinters here in the early season. They qualified for states in the 4x200m on a flat track and now add a sprint medley victory (3:48.78) over CB East (3:49.44). Easton may have had Colin Abert (5th at states in cross country, 5th in the 1600m last outdoors) anchoring them to victory and East may have had 1:55 man Oliver Boucher involved on their anchor leg. Regardless of who was involved, this is a quality win for Easton who will be a very interesting squad for both sprint and distance relay purposes in 2015.

3:48 isn't blowing anyone away (for example 25.0-25.0-50.0-2:08.0 gives you 3:48.0) but it at the very least indicates either solid sprint depth or a very capable 400m/800m leg.

Interestingly enough, Easton won heat 5 and CB East won heat 4 so neither team was in the fastest heat. Roman Catholic beat out Chester for the win in heat 6 3:50.12 to 3:50.87. Again no names are listed, so it's hard to speculate on exactly what these relays looked like. Also interesting to note, St. Joe's Prep was in the fast heat but was DQed for interference. They may have been trying to run fast using Fisher or Daly (more likely Fisher).

As usual, splits and names of those involved in addition to descriptions of the race are appreciated.

(Random side note: saw someone was DQed for a uniform violation. Look, I get that this a rule that we have and it needs to followed. But can't they like ... tell the kids before they run the race, hey you are going to be disqualified so you may want to fix that instead of just DQing them after the fact? Or am I thinking of these DQs wrong? Somebody explain this one to me?)

Mile
So I'll come right out and say it: I underestimated Paul Power. I wasn't sure he would have the right speed/strength combination to hold off the kicks of some of the other names in this group. However, Power not only won the race, he cruised to a 4:27.49 (I believe that's a state lead) which gave him 3k-mile PA #1 status. Power was really strong during cross running excellent races at various times during the year and now comes out blazing this indoors. His mark puts him close to Mallon, Palmisano, Scarpello and Hoey in recent years at this meet. Those guys all went on to do special things (everybody has PRs of at least 4:15 for 1600m and some serious state hardware).

John Daly came through for me in his second place effort, barely edging Colin Wills (4:30.16 to 4:30.19). I thought he could win this race in my predictions (he was my big sleeper for this meet) and after being absent from cross country (soccer player?) he gives St. Joe's a very capable anchor leg for a potentially scary good DMR. Wills never quite became the XC stud I thought he might, but he looked really comfortable returning to the track both at the Henderson 2 mile and this meet. Wills and McDevitt keep Malvern Prep in the hunt for a top notch DMR.

I had the right top 5, just in the wrong order as Tung (4:31.29) and Hanna (4:33.76) round out the top five. Tung gets a SQS here in the mile (although with a 20 person cap no mark is safe) and Hanna gets pretty close. I really like Tung's start to the year, especially because I feel his best may be still to come in the 3k. He has shown a nice combination of speed and strength between his sub 16 5k PR and his 2:03 800m mark in the early season.

Lapsansky from Easton runs 4:40 and Brian Hackman drops a 4:41. Hackman ran a really strong race at State College against Milligan in the mile and I suspect he will bounce back to a faster race before this season is over. He is a small school guy (top 15 in A states for XC) so solid racing like this is encouraging looking forward. One of my deeper sleepers (Jeff Montgomery) ran a nice race to win heat 2 in 4:44.97. Keep an eye on his progression this year. Liam Conway runs an excellent time for a freshman, 4:47, for 2nd in his heat and 11th overall.

William Schulz wins Heat 1 of this mile race in 5:00.82! So close to a sub 5! Not sure if he has ever broken the barrier before indoors or out (milesplit doesn't say) but after his 17:14 during cross, in the right race Will should break well free of the 5 flat barrier. Good luck to him going forward this season!

800m
The 800m at the Armory will justly grab the hype for the weekend action, but this race was incredibly fast in it's own right. Alek Sauer and Khai Samuels broke my old teammate Mike Palmisano's meet record of 1:58.2, smashing the mark with a 1:56.53 and 1:57.89 respectively. It was about time for this record to come down considering the new track and how well PA has done in the 800m this past season, but I honestly didn't expect Sauer to get quite enough push to burst free of 1:58.00 (Palmisano ran his fast mark in large part to a sit and kick strategy on excellent 800m man Zack Montijo). Khai Samuels really had a surprising day to make it happen.

I may have predicted Samuels second, but I thought he was a borderline sub 2 flat guy at this point in December. Now he has a 1:57.89 on his resume that puts him into the running for a top 5 spot at states in the 800m and maybe even a sleeper pick for the title. As I mentioned in my 800m Lewis v. Ritz recap below, there is high probability that at least one of the guys in that duo will be doubling or completely skipping the 8 at indoor states. That opens the door for a surprise (like when Willig skipped and Hardy stepped in in 2012).

But Samuels (and the rest of the state) will have their hands full with Sauer. Sauer's 1:56 is excellent for this time of year and he made the kind of break through last outdoors that suggests big things may be coming in 2015. It's still a long way until states, but I believe he could hit a 1:52 type mark this year before all is said and done and that's something few have done in state history (although the last few years make it seem like that's not true).

Not to be overlooked is the breakthrough run by Brett Wolfinger who ran 1:58.99 for Quakertown and took a surprise third. Milesplit has his previous best listed as 2:01.01 for this distance, but he proved himself as a capable 400m man last spring (50.77). He's Qtown's best 800m man since the surprising 1:56.86 outdoors in 2012 of Alex Brulliea so he could break some serious school records before all is said and done.

Connor Holm defends his title valiantly with a 2:00.49 for 4th and Kamil Jihad comes through big time with his own SQS mark (2:00.60). The 800m has a 24 person limit so both guys will probably need something a little quicker, but it's just December. Jihad is just a frosh and he could do big things this year as he continues to learn.

Nice run by Matt Town of Perk Valley, giving this squad another weapon to use towards a DMR/4x8000m. He learned well from training with Dave Garton in previous years while PV had a secretly strong relay. I also have to give a shout out to Cameron Christopher of Wissahickon. He ran 2:05.46 to win his heat at Burdette by a mammoth 5 seconds. Wissahickon just discovered a real mid distance talent and they know how to coach those guys up (think near champ Stellato and state champs Crits, Cho and a DMR). Keep an eye on this guy.

3000m
The limited 3k had 13 men line up for the race and when the dust cleared, Colin Abert surprised me with a 8:55.89 (just off Power's state lead). This was huge for Abert who far exceeds his 4:39 mark from a week or so ago. He may also have been doubling off the SMR. The simple fact is Abert is a really talented runner who can do all sorts of events, but I've always believed he was best suited for the longer stuff. His front running grinding style will always leave him a little vulnerable, but I think it is best suited for a 3k where he can crush the spirits of his opponents with a strong run. This is the best indoor mark I've seen from Abert by far and he will be in the state title conversation no doubt at this event (assuming he doesn't end up in the mile as he has in the past).

Now that's not to say that's how it went down exactly. McDevitt has never been afraid to mix it up with a fast pace and give it his all. He came up just a tad short of the SQS with his 9:00.58 in his second place effort and was very impressive in his own right. That's no joke of a time for this early and he and Wills will make for an interesting DMR squad. The 9:03 marks by Maguire and Julian Degroot-Lutzner (4th and 3rd respectively) are also very impressive for this early. I'm really excited about how Maguire has been running. Having Hanna to train with has helped get him to another level and he continues to show massive improvements every week. McMenamin makes a big jump in 3k PR, lowering his time down to 9:09.

DMR
Boyertown barely edged out CB West 11:03.17 to 11:03.39, marking yet another nail biter for the CB West relay. Not sure exactly the names involved, but we may have seen a big carry on the lead off/anchor leg for Dylan Eddinger, one of the season's early leaders in the 400m and 800m. CB West has a lot of strong runners so it's unclear exactly who was involved in this relay, but I would bet Fortna was involved and Ian Davies (9:11 strong showing in the 3k) was not. Coatesville did well in this event running 11:13 for 3rd.

4x800m
Twin Valley won the 4x800m extremely convincingly 8:26 to 8:39. Things didn't pan out to give the TV guys a really fast relay at the meet (8:42 won heat 1, but 9:11 won heat 2). TV likely stacked up their relay with guys like Coakley and the Gearys to try and chase a fast state qualifying type mark and they ran a strong 8:26 despite having little competition (Neumann Goretti grabbed second with that 8:39.99 and CB South was third in 8:42.96). Don't sleep on Twin Valley. When these guys get in the right race they will make a strong statement.

One other small note. The 4x400m looked like it was sick. I imagine the imposing figure of Lewis took to the track fresh of his impressive 1:52.88, upset that he couldn't pull out the win over an instate rival and just threw down a massive split on the relay. Cheltenham runs 3:26 and gets the win over Pennsbury (3:29) and Penwood (the old state leaders, 3:32). Norristown is a team on the rise. They won heat 5 in 3:32.93 and have had strong showings in the 200m and 400m in recent weeks. Also props to Radnor who won heat 4 in 3:35 with what was likely a disappointed Andre Kelly who ended up getting DQed from the open 4 thanks to a false start. Radnor dominated their heat by about 5 seconds.