State Recap: DMR

If there are still a few of you out there who don't think I'm bias then, well, you're not gonna like to hear what I'm about to say. I'm thrilled O'Hara got the W on Sunday in the DMR. To be fair, I also would have really enjoyed seeing gold for Stoga (4 seniors who sacrifice it all for the team? Gotta love that), but OH had to get a state gold sometime and now they got it. 

The fact of the matter is, numbers don't lie. The best anchor in the field has won the majority of DMR titles (see my DMR preview for a full breakdown) and KJ's PR of 4:12 was comfortably ahead of the group of Daly, Dahl, and Marston, his most likely opponents on race day.

Don't get me wrong, I picked against them. And don't get me wrong I didn't doubt James. As great as James was on Sunday, his teammates really set him beautifully. That's a solid time (10:21) and it will be interesting to see what they do at Nats when James has a few more bodies to chase. Remember Belfatto split 4:11 last year solo and James just ran about 5 seconds faster than him in the open mile.

Stoga puts together a second fantastic team performance. I have a ton of respect for these seniors and their overall attitude. Marston was/is a stud who could have potentially been right there for gold in that 3k, but he and his teammates cashed in their chips and came away with a great silver. This was a flip of XC when Stoga beat out O'Hara for 2nd and the last team medals. In Cross, Stoga won because they were better through 5 guys. The DMR, unfortunately, only counts 4. 

Regardless, major props to this class of 2015 at Stoga who helped transform this team from a virtual no name distance wise to one of the best in the state. District champs and a couple state silvers. No too shabby.

St. Joe's, GFS and DT West were all rewarded for their decision to keep the relay fresh at states. All 3 teams broke 10:30 as an amazing 5 teams were under said barrier (usually close to penn relays cut off time). Apparently young Josh Hoey split a 4:19 on the anchor for West, an excellent split for a freshman. That also probably means Dahl and Daly had their own strong splits to help their relays. 

Malvern Prep ran excellent to grab 6th. Their 10:31 would be all state most years, but this year was an exception. A fresh Wills and McDevitt probably go a long way towards making up time, hopefully they can cut off a few more seconds and get this squad to Penn. 

We could have quite the dual at Penn in the DMR with all these squads and maybe a fresh CB East or Pennsbury. East doubled all their key legs in the DM and still manage a solid 10:37.

However, that was only good enough for 8th as the Bonner boys continued to stay hot, dropping another 10 seconds from their relay to get to an impressive 10:35. Wow. That's nearly 25 seconds in a span of two weeks. 

You also have to appreciate CRN sticking their nose in it. 10:40 is a great time that medals most years. It's also their best performance of the season in the most important moment of the year, which is all you can ask for. 

As mentioned in the 4x8 post, that's all I can say without some splits and such so feel free to share them either in comments or send directly to me if you are hoping to be super anonymous. 

Thanks for all your help this week making the blog great! I'm still holding out hope for a few interviews so keep it posted for the latest news and discussion.