Legendary 800m

If you haven't watched yet, you may want to take a quick peak: Marine Corps 800m
(thank you very much to the provider of this link in the post below).

The link above shows the first two 800m runners in PA history to ever crack the 1:53 mark in December, Sam Ritz and John Lewis, at the Marine Corps Holiday meet at the Armory on December 29th. As the announcers said, not a bad Monday for a couple of PA's newest legends. 

Lewis ran 1:50.01 this past summer to cement his place in distance lore (currently ranking in the top 10 or so 800m times ever for PA high schoolers). Before that moment his sprinting achievements had outranked his distance ones, thanks to an indoor state title at 400m and another top 5 finish outdoors in the same event. Already sporting multiple golds and a variety of state medals in events like the 400, 4x4, 800 and 4x8, Lewis took to the track this indoors with high expectations. The Clemson recruit was quickest through 600m in the race before Sam Ritz took over with about 100m to go and held off Lewis's best efforts to close, winning the race 1:52.81 to 1:52.88.

Ritz got off to a killer start to his indoor track season after an underrated XC season that included a top PA finish at Manhattan and a top 7 PA finish at the Footlocker Regional meet in addition to an independent league championship. This 1:52.81 caps off a stretch of running that included a 4:14 mile and 2:28 1k and gives him supreme confidence in his speed and sets things up now for the discussion of multiple state records in addition to the difficult mile-800m double at the state championship. Unlike Lewis's 1:52, Ritz's mark is a lifetime best for indoors or outdoors (about 2 seconds better than his previous PR). It also marks Ritz's first sub 2 800m ever during indoor track (according to milesplit). Of course his real first sub 2 may have been en route to his 2:28 1k win last week at the armory. 

There are many things to consider here about the legendary 800m run we just watched unfold in only December. Yes, only December.

1) The Magaha and Willig comparisons from 2011-2012 are flying all over the place and certainly these comparisons are just. I'd agree with others in saying that the 1:55 and 1:54 solo, flat track efforts of Magaha and Willig are at least comparable to the 1:52s that came on the fastest track in the world in fierce competition on Monday, with the 1:52s being more impressive to me because 1:52 is faster than 1:54 and 1:55 and when it doubt I prefer to go by what actually happened rather than what could have been.

But think about Magaha and Willig that year. Willig runs 1:51.25 at Yale and sets a PA state record. Magaha gets mono but by the time he is even remotely healthy again he runs 1:48.82 to take the state record in the outdoor 800m. So Magaha and Willig went on to become state record holders at the 800m (even though the mile was likely each of their best events and the event they won their state championships competing in). Can Lewis and Ritz chase the indoor and outdoor state records this year? It's certainly in play.

2) Notice what I said above. They set those records, even though it wasn't their primary events. Both Lewis and Ritz may pass on the 800m at states this year. Lewis has a state title to think about in the team competition and if he can get 10 points in either the 4 or the 8, the 4 is the one that keeps him fresher for double and triple duty. He may want to defend his title in the 400 as well, a certain amount of honor is on the line. The 400m-800m double is verging on impossible (I've seen some pretty rough attempts including my old teammate Sam Ellison) and Lewis can always chase a national title in the 800m if he wants and give himself the best shot to run fast against the nation's best.

As for Ritz, he's always been a miler (4:11.73y as a sophomore), although he has proven his speed is sharp and he could come down in distance like Magaha, Willig, etc and still excel. The logical comparison is Wade Endress in 2011 who pulled off the mile-800m double gold that included a 1:51.73 state meet record (broken by Franics last year). But the fact is running on the double is difficult and you have to be in really strong shape to run a couple PRs with tired legs. And you need help. Endress got pulled by Moran in 2011 (similar to how Ritz got towed by Lewis this past race) and Mallon got pulled by Palm to his record before Endress in 2009 (although in this race all parties involved were fresh). 

The good news is between Ritz, Lewis and Sauer the competiton needed to produce fast times could definitely be there. Especially considering there are more names on the rise we haven't fully understood the potential of just yet.

3) Underrated piece of this whole puzzle: Cheltenham's relay potential. We knew they were going to have a dangerous 4x4, it's a quality program that you know, won the state title last outdoors in the event. Lewis and Brissett make for a dangerous, potentially record setting, relay that has two guys who could be well under 50 seconds in the right relay. The Cheltenham 4x8 is looking dangerous as well (anytime you have a 1:52 leg things are quite a bit easier). They had 2:01, 2:05 and 2:06 guys in the open at the armory this past weekend and it's still just December. Lewis ran a high quality second leg on Cheltenham's medaling squad back in 2013 in the wind bowl and he loves to deliver on the relays. I wouldn't be surprised at all if a 1:51-1:58-2:02-2:02 relay was on the track by March and that adds up to 7:53-7:55ish which gets you into the conversation.

The event I'm most interested in, however, is the sprint medley relay. With Brissett on the 400m leg and Lewis on the 8, this team could have back legs of 48-1:51, and a program with stud sprinting year after year you could challenge for a national title in addition to maybe a state record. Especially if Lewis continues to drop time. It's still very early and when you have one of the best 200m and 800m runners in state history on the same time, you never know what the ceiling is.

4) Is running this fast this early a good thing? We don't really know for sure because no one has been this good this early before. But if you look back at the history of sub 1:53 guys indoors in general here is what you get for an indoor outdoor comparison.

Indoors then Outdoors
Vandegrift: 1:52.3-1:48.8
Mallon: 1:51.79-1:52.02 (the next year was 1:53.04-1:49.01, split 1:49 in 2009 on record setting 4x800m)
Endress: 1:51.73-1:53.76 (injured for part of outdoors)
Moran: 1:52.81-1:54.42 (split 1:52.3ish on 4x800m at states outdoors)
Willig: 1:51.25-1:52.16 (injured for part of outdoors)
Rivera 1:52.43-1:53.70
Francis 1:50.55-1:49.57
Wiseman 1:51.36-1:50.37
Logue 1:52.02-1:51.09

The good news is that last year all three of the big names dropped time and impressed at the outdoor state championships. However, before that things were somewhat streaky with injuries hitting top guys like Endress, Willig and Sanders and guys like Rivera and Moran not being able to notch a faster open 800m outdoors for a variety of reasons. Ritz and Lewis will have to be careful with their training and effort this winter and also in the early part of next spring if they are going to continue to drop times for the races that are most important.

Let's face it, peaking at the right time is part of the game. Few remember that Kyle Francis looked very unlike himself for the midsection of this past outdoor season because he ran fantastically at the most important meet: the state championships. If these two guys go on to challenge the 1:50 barrier this year (a mark that only 2 men in this history of that nation have eclipsed) this race will be remembered as a stepping stone in a historic season.

All of these marks in December get me very excited for what could be on the horizon in the future. But it's still only 2014. Who knows what is in store for 2015. 

Happy New Year my friends.