Weekend Recap: Part 2 (a bit less rambling)

Warning: Although I tried to keep my rambling to a minimum, this is still quite the long post. So be prepared and feel free to skip around. Be sure to check out Part 1 to find out about the action from the TFCAofGP meet.

Also by tonight I will have the Meet of Champs ranking section of the blog up to date to include this year's outdoor action so if I'm missing someone let me know.

GL Wildcat
The District 7 4x8 picture is still very up in the air. My favorite to win the title out West is probably Penn Hills (more on them later), but it's developing into a deep and intriguing field. Throwing their names into the mix are the Norwin boys who won the 4x8 in 8:25 without Trey Quealy (2nd in the 400m, reported 1:55 split last year), won the 4x4 in 3:33 and got a second place finish from Tyler Laugherty in the open 800m. That open 8 was won by Eric Kennedy who continues to improve as just a sophomore with a ton of talent and range. Keep an eye on him especially as the season gets rolling.

Olympian Invitational
I'm not sure if Jim Thorpe is still a AA team outdoors, but if so keep an eye on their 4x8. I have no clue who the favorites are in this event as things currently stand, so it's a matter of waiting to see which squads will break out and who has the potential to drop. I liked this Thorpe team during XC and now they posted an 8:28 to win the 4x8 by 15+ seconds.

Dylan Gearinger came out the gates blazing for AA Berwick. He won the 16 by about 10 seconds, running 4:29 and also won the 3200m in a sub 10 minute mark. Keep in mind Gearinger had an excellent stretch run to his XC season that included an impressive 15th place finish at the XC state meet in a loaded AA race. Gearinger could be a sleeper pick looking ahead this outdoors with his clear ability in both of these longer distances. Also I heard he is headed to Haverford College next year and they will probably turn him into a sub 15 minute guy before all is said and done. Just remember where you heard it first.

Arcadia
Ritz flies across the entire country, gets out in 4:31 but has trouble hanging on in the fast heat and ends up finishing in 9:17. I'm sure he's disappointed, but it's really hard to go coast to coast and excel. I'm predicting he's back with a vengeance at Penn. On the bright side, I think this ups the chances that he races the 2 mile at Henderson in the beginning of May which could make the field one of the best we've seen.

Pirate Invitational
This was the meet I mentioned briefly in yesterday's post referring to the nice work the Pennridge boys have been doing. What shouldn't go overlooked was the excellent run by Quakertown. The Qs ran 8:09 to beat out Pennridge's 8:11 in basically a two team race. That's really impressive for the Qs and I'm curious to see where they go from here. Wolfinger has been strong this year and the Quakers had an excellent DMR a year ago so there is potential here for them to be a sleeper looking ahead.

Artic Blast
Cooper Leslie won both the 1600m and the 800m in 4:33 and 2 flat, plus he ran a leg on Camp Hill's second place 4x8. Not sure if XC stud Beheny runs outdoors, but he would be a nice piece for the relay. No Brady Wilt for YS either but some solid marks for Wagner and Lofties in the 32.

Hempfield Black Knight
I'm on the Hershey bandwagon hard core. I was already in during XC when I picked them to make states out of the loaded D3 and still stand behind them now. Rabon had a great indoor season and now the team has added back into the equation their top 35 state finishers Sponaugle and Demko to the mix. They ran 8:12 and 3:31 in the relays at this meet while also adding a win for Sponaugle in the 800m in 2 flat with Rabon taking third in 2:03 and Myles Marshall running a 2:03. On paper this is a sub 8 minute team by season's end in what is developing into quite the mystery field for the D3 4x8 title.

Ephrata is a team who's name you have to remember. They ran awesome at District 3 Champs in XC and they return basically everyone for next year. They killed it this weekend in the 3200m, sweeping the top three spots. Becker, a top 50 man in XC last fall, led the charge.

One last thought, Matt Wisner refuses to lose. Yes he was 4th overall in the 400m (time of 51.98) by he won his section (heat 4 of 5) meaning that if my memory is correct, he has won every heat that he has been entered in besides his heat of the Indoor Nationals 800m for the entire indoor and outdoor track season.

Brookville
Keep in mind Grove City was a really good XC team. I honestly feel like if they didn't have some unfortunate luck they would have been right there with York Suburban when the numbers were counted up (and news flash: York Suburban was also a really, really good XC team). Grove City started out their outdoors season with a solid showing: McConell ran 2:06 for second in the 800m, Budnik ran 4:38, Benka ran 4:39 and DePew won the 3200m (they were also second in the 4x4 and first in the 4x8). There were also some nice wins for the D9 guys as Raeshler won the 1600m in 4:36 and Ryan Thrush won the 8 in 2:04.

Pan Ram
The 4x8 was a huge statement win for the boys from Cedar Crest. Based on the names listed, Cedar Crest beat Altoona's "A" squad" (which is a sub 8 team on the right day although they may have been doing some type of workout because all of their guys were doubling/tripling). The final was Cedar Crest 8:20, Mount Caramel 8:33, Altoona 8:34. This is also a huge run for AA Mt Caramel who might just be the favorite for the AA title (they have one of the best anchors on paper in Fletcher plus a nice crew around him). Cedar Crest has historically been a 4x8 powerhouse (they won states in 2010) and this crew is rapidly developing into the favorites for D3 4x8 champs.

The 1600m was won by Sean Weidner of Lower Dauphin who continues to run solid marks thus far this season. He ran 4:28 to win by 5 seconds over Quin Wakso of Cumberland Valley who ran 4:33. That's a great race for Wasko (I'd say his best since XC) and indicates to me he is one to watch looking ahead. He was fantastic during XC and is in a great system for success. Sophomore Cole Sunderland also ran a strong 4:33 for Manheim Central.

Brett George won the 800m on his third race of the day in a solid 1:59.77. I'm assuming Altoona is going to be headed to PR in the 4x8 and George and Foust will be strong legs to lead the charge. George is having a terrific season thus far with some quality wins at this distance already. Brook Wilson (1:55 this past indoors) was second, but he did it out of the slow heat (note: this is not the first time this has happened, Wilson seems to always be dominating slow heats, how does a 1:55 guy end up in the slow heat anyway?). Thomas Nicewicz doubled back from the mile to finish third in 2:00 and David Fletcher doubled back from the 4x8 to finish fourth in 2:01. Fletcher's teammate, Nate Bartos, finished off the day with a solid showing, winning the 3200m in 9:50. Keep an eye on this Bartos situation as he is a contender for a 3200m medal, but if the Mount Caramel 4x8 continues to develop into a title contender, he will have to make some tough choices regarding the potential double.

Bensalem Invitational
I don't know the order of events, but I feel that could add another dimension to the story from this meet. What I do know was that we saw a showdown between Pennsbury and CB West in the DMR with the Oragngemen escaping with the victory in 10:37 over West's 10:39. I have to imagine this was both team's "A" teams. I wonder if PB was taking a shot at a fast DMR to try and get into Penn or if they were just diversifying their experience in preparation for the 4x8 (most likely the later). I'd imagine it's a similar case for the Yellow Jackets of CB West. Keep in mind that a PB "A" squad would feature Alek Sauer on the lead off (1:52/4:20) and Sam Webb on the anchor (4:12c for 1600m) and, on paper at least, West has nobody that fast. But West finished within 2 seconds of that PB sqaud and I'd imagine they got a strong boost from Rock Fortna who has been phenomenal as of late. But it also means their 12/8/4 legs were running well. Bottom line: CB West is going to be a scary team looking forward. They are well balanced with no weak links, rapidly improving, well coached and heading into Penn Relays as a sleeper pick for the CoA.

As for Pennsbury, they will be PA's best team headed into Penn, but they will certainly have a target on their back as a multitude of squads try and give them their best shot. But PB ran 7:51 without freshness for their two best legs last time we saw them. It should be fun to see them take on the fields. Sauer ran 1:56 to dominate the open 800m over Bensalem's Shah.

Neshaminy won the 4x8 by 6 seconds over Bensalem running 8:11 to Bensalem's 8:17. It's another strong mark for Neshaminy, but unfortunately they weren't able to drop their seed time down closer to 8 flat for Penn, which I'd imagine was the goal. Neshaminy is a strong squad but unfortunately they have had some bad luck with their meets this year competition wise. If you throw them in that race at Coatesville this weekend I would have been surprised to see them run slower than the 8:08ish mark and I would guess sub 8:05 would be in play.

Casey Comber dropped a killer 3200m of 9:26 to dominate the field and prove he is ready for Penn Relays. Depending on what happens with Marston and James you could argue Comber is the favorite for top PA runner in the event.

Viking
Speaking of that 3k, Paul Power ran a dominating 3200m about a week too late. He ran 9:20.55 for 3200m (which converts to a faster mark than Gebhart's 3k seed for PR) to win by an impressive 25+ seconds. Power skipped out on the 3200m for much of last track season, but now that he has renewed focus in the event he has become dangerous. Assuming he goes back to Henderson in May, he's another name to add to a potentially loaded field of runners. Power also broke the Meet Record previously held by Glenn Burkhardt of Unionville by 8 seconds. Burkhardt won a state title in the 3200m and ran about 9:07 in the event. 8 seconds faster than that mark would 8:59. Not trying to imply anything, just pointing out some numbers.

In other news, Dylan Eddinger moved up to the 1600m and ran 4:28 to beat mile stud Eric Diestelow (who ran 4:30). This is a strong win for Eddinger who has looked like a serious contender for qutie some time at 800m. I don't know which event came first, but WC East beat Boyertown by .36 in the 4x8 at this meet as well. My dream situation for how these races played out: the 1600m was first and Eddinger sat on Diestelow and then laid down his kicking using his 800m wheels and got the W. Seeking revenge in the 4x8, Diestelow outkicked Eddinger to the line to get the win for his squad. Did that happen? Almost definitely not, but that is how I will pretend it went down.

Susquehanna
Aaron Gebhart of New Oxford took the gold in the 3200m, winning over Quincy Amabile (9:43) and Ben Evans (9:50). That's a nice win for Gebhart plus his prescene really helped pull Amabile and Evans (both I think are AA?) to excellent times to make them early medal contenders in the deuce.

In the 1600m, Gebhart was bested by the Brody Beiler (who also won the 800m in 2:01) 4:35.40 to 4:35.44 in what was likley a thrilling down to the wire finish. Beiler won his two races by a combined 0.25 seconds, showing some excellent grit. Beiler also added a leg on the 8:19 4x8 by Selinsgrove.

TSTCA
I'm going to say this now and it may be way off base, but if it comes true, you heard it hear first. I've got Penn Hills winning the D7 championship this year and running 7:50 or faster at states. I've got a good feeling about this squad. They had Duwon Terrell under 2 minutes indoors and have since added Marshall Murray to the sub 2 list after he ran 1:59.26 this weekend. They also have Isiah Bailey who has started this season well. Also, and this could be completely wrong, but Bailey and Murray may be the brothers of two of Penn Hill's best ever. The Bailey's to come through PH recently ran 48.1 and 1:51, not bad company. Plus, most importantly, Penn Hills has proven they are an excellent mid-distance program and can consistently put together relays at the right time. I'm not sure how they round out this crew, but I have faith in the program. I'm buying Penn Hills stock.

Also at this meet: North Allegheny looked positively NA like. Scott Seel went down to 800m and ran 1:59.4, McGoey dominated the 3200m in 9:21.13 with his teammate Wharrey next to cross the line in 9:32 (I wonder if these guys have the record for most 1-2 finishes in PA history), and Jacob Stupak was 2nd in the 1600m in 4:31. They also added a 5th place in the open 800m (Zach Ehling) and a 3rd place finish in the 4x8 without Wharrey, McGoey or Seel.

Jeff VanKooten added a strong 1600m win in 4:26 as he tries to gain momentum looking ahead to outdoors. He's the #2 returner behind Brehm right now so a strong month of racing from VanKooten could move him into state title favorite position. He once again should have a strong in district rival (last year it was Sloan) in Mike Kolor from SV who was MIA this weekend. Also kind of curious to see if Graca gives the 1600 a legit look during this outdoors. Obviously he's a beast at the 800m, but it could be worthwhile to try the event and see if it may end up a better gold medal opportunity than the loaded open 8. My old teammate Palmisano did that in '09 after he got beat up by the beast that was Tom Mallon at 800m and Palm took the 1600m title down instead.

Warrior Invitational
With all due respect to this Warrior Invitational, the casual PA high school track and field fan (if those exist) would probably not even know that Warrior Invitationals existed outside of the walls of West Chester. But this Warrior Invitational was a fantastic meet that included some killer sprint performances and some of the best distance action around.

The action centered around reigning AA state champ at 1600m and 800m Domenic Peretta who was doing his first racing since his top 10 finish at XC states. The kid was worth the wait as he ran 4:19.70 to win the 16 (probably right around his PR at this event) and 1:56 to win the 800m. He's already among the state leaders in both events and this is just his first track meet of 2015. This may be speaking too soon, but Peretta looks like PA's next star. I will be doing everything I can to get this kid to Henderson in June for Meet of Champs. I'm afraid to see what happens if you put him among the state's best. And yes I have had seemingly irrational confidence in the guy for the last year plus, but I stand by it.

Meanwhile, there were some other fantastic performances behind Peretta. Taking second in the 16 and the 8 was Andrew Koryak of Vincentian who ran 4:25.16 and 1:59.76 to earn his silvers. Those times are excellent for a AA contender in either event and it will be interesting to see if Koryak considers the double at states. The other exciting return was of super soph Griffin Mackey who opened with a 4:29.89 and 9:46.68 (winning by almost 200m). Mackey was excellent during cross (highlighted by his 3rd place finish in A states) and now shows some nice strength on the track. With a little more seasoning, his status among the top AA 3200m runners this spring could be confirmed. I'm not sure he is quite on Hock's level, but he is just a sophomore in his first race of the outdoor season ....

Also impressing in their outdoor debuts were Josh Jones of Slippery Rock (4:31) and Colten Trimble of South Side (4:32/2:03)