Sam Ritz State Record, McDevitt Shows Speed, and Brophy Debuts at 3k

I'm planning a post to discuss this more down the line, but Sam Ritz set a state record with a blazing 4:10.50 for the Mile in Boston! It's a huge run for Ritz after a fairly underwhelming 1k at the New Balance Games. He continues to drop time after a fast start and now runs faster than Russell did a year ago by roughly a second. In addition, this is the fastest mile Ritz has ever run indoors or out, beating his 4:11 and change from two years ago in the "Zach Brem runs 4:09" jaw dropper at Henderson. It sets up Ritz as a 10+ second favorite with less than a month to go until the state championships and should make for an interesting conversation of records, doubling and much more. Stay tuned for the follow up post.

Also at the meet was the boys from West Chester Henderson, who dropped their seed time in the increasingly stacked DMR race in PA. They dipped down to 10:48.16 in Boston in a loaded race. That's a fantastic run, but far from a clincher for states. I'll be interested to see how they try to pursue the next few meets (are they qualified for MOC in the event?). They have to balance that goal with Knapp's 3k goals (again, 8:58 is not necessarily a lock, especially with this much fast racing left).

On the bright side for the Henderson boys, I'm almost positive I saw Alex Knapp and Gordy Barchet (and maybe some others) on the live TV broadcast bonding with Dejen Gebremeskel and getting some quality airtime. So the 20 people watching track on TV this weekend likely caught a glimpse of some of our finest runners.

Things at TFCAofGP are heating up as well (probably not a coincidence that things moved back to Lehigh and times got faster). It was unbelievable to see how deep some of these fields were and this meet capped off an unreal week of performances that completely rewrote the state performance list (which I should have updated by Monday night if all goes well).

For starters there were 18 MoC qualifiers in the 400m! Including John Lewis from Cheltenham, running a blistering 49.32 to run away from Norristown's Andrew Dillon (50.49) and CB East's Oliver Boucher (51.62).

The 800m added 11 guys, led by Rock Fortna's strong win over Dave Marrington (2:00.11 to 2:00.70). Fortna has shown a nice mix of speed and strength already and I think a big CB West 4x8 could be on the horizon. I like Marrington's consistent dedication to the 800m, but I'm curious he will be able to fit that into what will likely be a busy state schedule. I hope he can because I like his upside, especially for outdoors (has he run an open 4 recently?). There were ton of good times in all these events so I can't mention everyone, but worth noting was Quakertown frosh Hudson Delisle who ran 2:02 and adds a nice second star to Quakertown's 4x8 (Wolfinger ran 1:58.99 at Burdette).

In the mile, break-out star John Daly (or should I spell it john Daly? It feels like every result he is listed in has a lowercase j ...) battled Sam Webb of Pennsbury (or at least I assume it was Webb, last time apparently it was Sauer ...) and Webb got the best of him, running 4:26 to Daly's 4:31. Myself and many others were impressed with Daly's 4:17 split at the Armory, but 4:31 may end up being a borderline state time and certainly isn't a fast heat time so Daly will have to run it again in one of the championship meets to seriously compete for a medal. That being said, I'm thinking he ends up fresh in the DMR and Prep goes after Gold (DMR is going to be awesome). As for Webb, he still hasn't attempted that 3k (maybe coming at Last Chance) but he gets a MoC qualifier in the mile so he can race it there and set himself up for that event at states. Pennsbury has team title hopes which means Webb will be chasing points individually as well as on the relay, which sounds like a mile-4x8 double. Awesome race by a name on the rise, Tucker Desko of Pennridge, to drop a 4:36, edging out Joe Maguire of CR South.

The 3k was fantastic. The long awaited Jake Brophy 3k debut coincided with Casey Comber's first all-out 3k effort and it was fantastic. Comber and Brophy always bring out the best in one another and here again they dueled to a fantastic 8:45-8:48 Brophy over Comber run. This is a fantastic run for both runners and makes Comber's spot at the state meet close to locked up. That's a nice time to have on file considering Horsham has been pushing hard to try and round a DM into shape. As for Brophy, it confirms what we likely already knew: he's an unbelievable talent at the 3k, but he will have a tough choice with a fantastic relay looming (more on this later). Andrew Hanna ran a great 8:56 for 3rd and continues to improve his own time in that event up a few more slots. He has his own relay obligations, but suddenly thanks to a few solid 800m performances the past few weeks, the 4x8 seems like it could be the more logical choice for South which opens the door for a more reasonable (but still very difficult) double for Hanna/Maguire in the 3k. They have to drop the time, but they have great pieces. I still feel they should give the DMR a shot, but the 4x8 does make some sense.

Pennsbury added a MoC qualifying effort in the 4x8 to their portfolio to keep their opens open for the stretch run of the season. They are set up nicely to get things right where they want them for state Sunday, good news for a team chasing a title. Strong run (and well timed) by DT East to run 8:18 and stay relevant in the tight 4x8 battle (seriously, just 12 teams!). CB West ran 8:22 without likely their best runner (Fortna) and Neshaminy ran 8:26 without likely their best runner (Marrington). Cool stuff, nice to see that depth. Another fun thing to think about (hypothetically): Cheltenham ran 8:34 without John Lewis, meaning if they had a 2:10 leg on that relay (very possible) they could potentially drop somewhere in the vicinity of 20 seconds by switching him out for Lewis (getting them to 8:14 and into state qualifying position). Remember they don't have to put Lewis on the relay at states, they just have to hit a time and then can run whoever. That would be a bummer for teams who would actually run the relay with their best guys, but hey it 100% could happen. Especially for a team that wants every point it can get (and thus all the qualifiers it can get in events that will only have 12 participants!).

Bensalem had a strong showing in the DMR (10:56) beating out a CB East DMR ran 10:58 without Boucher and Brophy! Wow. CB East is really good. I kind of thought of this team as being carried by Brophy during cross, but at districts they proved that just wasn't true. They followed it with an excellent run at XC states and have dominated this indoor year with incredible depth. Props to Boyertown for the 11:03, that's a strong mark.

And oh yeah, that was just Divison I. Beforehand Division II had it's own excellent series of performances.

Billy McDevitt brought the house down in the 800m with a phenomenal 1:57.12 to win by over three seconds in another deep 800m (7 under the MoC qual time). McDevitt and Wills have now run impressive marks from 3k down to 800m and it's hard to slot anyone besides Ritz ahead of McDevitt in the mile race. Can these guys carry Malvern Prep to a DMR title in addition to a pair of top notch individual medals? It's in play. These guys look great. Behind McDevitt were some strong performances from Quentin Francis (2:00.68), Noah Flasco (2:00.90) and Ahmir Gordon (2:00.92). All three are juniors and will be key pieces on some 4x8s in the upcoming weeks I'm sure for Neuman Goretti (sleeper alert), Upper Merion and Strath Haven (one of my sleepers from early on).

In the mile, Julian Degroot-Lutzner followed his strong 800m from Glenn Mills with an impressive 4:28 win over Eric Diestelow. I'm a big fan of what JDL has done this year and a tight half second win over Diestelow (an excellent miler) has to be a nice confidence booster. Lutzner has a very real possibility of qualifying for states in the Mile, 800m and 3k. No idea what he will choose to do (could all three be in play?), but he's a medal threat in the mile and will give it his all to try and sneak Masterman into the DMR.

Awesome to see Jon Perlman back at it after some injuries in XC. He ran an excellent 4:31 for what I believe is his first race back. That's good. Real good. Keep an eye on him over the next couple weeks.

Great bounce back run by Twin Valley in the 4x8 (8:16.33). Just add another strong time to the 4x8 conversation. This team has great potential in both relays, but I was impressed by their DMR early in the year. I'm thinking we may see something big from these guys in that event at one of these championship meets coming up. And then hopefully a few more individual performances to see what Coakley and the Geary's can do. Solid win for Bishop Shanahan in the DMR (11:02 to beat HG Prep). Is there any way we can get these guys on a Banked Track with huge competition before the season is out? I'd consider funding it if money is an issue (kidding, but only mostly). These guys have been running their hearts out and competing valiantly. I'm thinking they take a bit of time to regroup, run some solid individual events and then double up on the DM and 4x8 at MoC to make one last run at states. I'm incredibly biased in the fact that I'm rooting for them to advance. I just like the way they are running and winning and competing.

Finally we have some WPIAL action! Don't sleep on these WPIAL kids among all the philly hype. The captain of my "Don't Sleep on Me or I Will Make You Pay" team is Elias Graca. He has hit his stride out West and gets yet another win at Youngstown (is this a banked track?), running 4:26.60 for 1600m to beat Andrew Koryak (4:30) in an excellent race. This is probably a big PR for Graca on paper who seemed to be a 4-8 type on the track for most of his years but after his XC season, it was clear he could stretch his range up to this event. This is really exciting for Graca who will be the ultimate sleeper pick for state gold in the 800m in a race that I feel has the potential to get crazy. Andrew Koryak is pretty darn good as well. Solid 4:33 for Jeff Van Kooten and nice 4:36 runs for Eric Kennedy and Noah Smith.

Canon Mac continues to show strong potential in the relays. They too dropped under 8:20 this weekend (a ton of teams dropping massive time with still a month to go, this is going to be mayhem). C-Mac's 8:17 is a great run, especially if this track was flat. Strosko from Mac had a solid double, running 2:02 on the back end. Another nice run by Nick Wagner (2:01.15) to win the 800m.

One thing is for certain people: the stretch run of this season is going to be absurd. At the very least, this new qualifying procedure makes the final few meets of the season very, very, very important. That's exciting for fans, but it's gotta lead to some sleepless nights for the coaches (and probably some athletes). Just remember, you can't control what anybody else does. Go out, have fun, race hard and good things will happen.

Carnival preview and Ritz record post coming this week along with a ton of posts in the other sections of the blog from my awesome group of writers as soon as I get the time to put everything up.

As always, stay classy and keep running great. Like seriously, you kids are doing fantastic out there so far.