Weekend Recap: Saturday and Friday Extra

Abington Invitational
The biggest event of the day was the loaded 800m, led by reigning state champ John Lewis who proved he was not about to slow down after his blazing fast indoor campaign. He adds yet another sub 1:52 800m to his resume with a dominate 1:51.60 run. At this point, although this is not an official stat, I'd wager that Lewis has produced the most sub 1:52 800m of any PA runner in recent years (if you count splits). Only Mallon stands a chance at being in his league and Mallon, as I've said a variety of times, is the best 800m runner I've ever seen. The only question now, with success at the 400m, 4x400m, and 300m hurldes, is what will Lewis do at states?

This meet was the same meet where Magaha set the state record (1:48.82) and I don't think it's coincidence that Lewis chose to sketch his name down next to Magaha on the gold medalist list. It's possible that Lewis breaks that state record this year, but with his projected busy schedule at states this May, I'd wager that his best chance would be at a meet like PA MoC, especially if you can get a few other top names to jump in (mainly Graca). Trojan Track Classic is also a night meet under the lights where a sub 1:50 is in play (Lewis's PR is 1:50.01), but I'm not sure the competition will be there.

The 800m featured more than just Lewis. Kevin James ran a 1:54.07 to grab second overall in the event. That was a killer run for James who is coming off an indoor season where he ran an indoor PR for the 3k/2 mile and ran a lifetime best 4:10 split on anchor leg of the team's DMR. This is an excellent speed run for KJ and he should enter his first ever Penn Relays 3k with confidence. The team put aside the DMR (an event where they likely would have been PA's top squad) to let James chase a victory in the 3000m and I think that's fair for a guy who has given his all to the team objectives this squad has had and was a huge part of why they were able to grab state gold.

Behind James was Julian Degroot-Lutzner of Masterman who dropped his PR down to 1:55. Lutzner is a AA runner, an important fact to keep in mind and he has shown range from 800m all the way up to 3200m. Masterman also has shown signs of being a potential 4x8 threat this year (they have been contenders as of late and Previdi ran an excellent 32 at Abington). With a time like 1:55 he could be a serious contender in that event. But he also has shown at a variety of occasions he could be effective in the 16 (I think it's his best event). So what's he going to decide to do? Hard to say, but I think sub 4:20 is in his future on fresh legs.

Plenty of other noteworthy runs in the 800m, including 1:58 for Ahmere Ponzo and Rob Morro. Ponzo was joined by teammates Dennis Manyeah (2:00) and Jani Smith (2:03 but won his section). That meant Penn Wood had 4x8 potential (and they proved it on Saturday, but we will get to that). Perhaps even more intriguing was the running from Abington. On their home track, Abington got a 49.64 from Isiah Smith (Junior), a 50.50 from Jordan Neely (Senior) and a 51.61 from Keion Broadus (Junior). Broadus and Neely ran great in the 800m at Kiwanis as well right around 1:59-2:00. Now throw in Jake Good's 2:00.00 (Junior) and Cameron Mitchell's huge breakthrough 1:58.79 (freshman, yes another sub 2 frosh) and Abington is straight loaded headed into Penn Relays. They have so much talent, they have some tough decisions to make for their 4x8 (which I'd imagine is going to be excellent). They also had a soph and a frosh run 2:05 plus a frosh run 52. They capped off the day with a 3:22 4x4 win. Abington is back ladies and gentlemen and people should be scared.

In the 1600m, a couple brothers had huge days. Ryan James, brother of Kevin James, ran a fantastic 4:29 to dominate the event. Ryan has looking phenomenal this outdoors after a killer XC season. I think he is going to have a huge breakthrough in the 3200m before all is said and done. Don't forget that he was a top 15 kind of runner during XC (higher than KJ as a soph) and those kind of guys end up as 9:20ish or faster types more often than not. Another brother was Sean Brown of Roman Catholic. His brother was a top 50 XC man and 1600m state finalist and now Sean, also just a soph, seems to be making moves of his own, running 4:35 for second.

The 3200m was won in impressive fashion by CR South's Joe Maguire who ran 9:38 for a nearly 10 second victory over Joe Previdi of Masterman. Upper Dublin ran 8:11 to get a big win in the 4x8 (is Andy Stewart back?) and they added a 3:24 in the 4x4. They are my alma mater so I will unabashedly root for them to succeed. They have historically been solid in the mid-distance so I'll keep an eye on if they flip a switch from decent to good in the coming weeks (their 4x4 seems a bit better than the 4x8 as things currently stand).

Mount Caramel Invitational
I like what I saw from Mt Caramel on their home track. They dropped an 8:20 of their own in the 4x8 (and their stud Fletcher wasn't listed on the relay although I'd be surprised if he wasn't involved) and they also won the 4x4. Plus Fletcher ran his first sub 2 of the season against Dylan Gearinger (a strong runner who I mentioned a bit in last week's recap, he won the 16 and 32). Mt. Caramel also got a strong 2:05 out of Fisher with excellent 16-32 doubles from Moser and Bartos. This is an intriguing squad in the AA contender picture.

CB West Relays
It's really tough to analyze results at relay meets, especially when names aren't on the results page. But hey, that's why they pay me the big bucks. I'll give it my best shot, but I will need some help from the readers to complete the picture on some of my speculation.

Pennsbury edges out CB West in the 4x16 17:57 to 17:58. Those are solid marks for both squads although not particularly jaw dropping as it's about a 4:30 average and both teams have guys who have run low 4:20s or faster (Pennsbury has two). That being said, it's a nice display of long distance depth for both squads. CB East also had a solid showing in 18:02.

In the SMR, we saw a strong win from LaSalle who threw down a 3:31 to beat out CB East's 3:32. Those are excellent times (22.5-22.5-50.0-1:56 gets you to 3:31 as a frame of reference) and it's especially positive for LaSalle who hasn't had quite the momentum CB East has had in recent weeks.

Pennsbury won the 4x8 in their first outdoor 4x8 showing. They ran 7:57 to win comfortably by about 10 seconds over Penn Wood's 8:08 and CB West's 8:08. Solid runs by both. Pennridge won the DMR in 10:40 to get a large victory over LaSalle's 10:58. Pennridge is on a flat out roll as of late, especially their likely anchor Tucker Desko. Keep an eye on the Rams at Penn Relays. They have been doing some top notch running as of late and they are a program you don't want to mess with.

Great Valley Relays
For my first paragraph I could have copy and pasted the first paragraph of the above but I figured this post is long enough without it.

Radnor killed it in the 4x8 this weekend. They ran a strong 8:03 and won by 5 seconds over Pottsgrove (who also ran a sick race). Also in the mix was West Chester East who ran 8:12 the day after a busy series of races at Henderson. Penncrest got the W in the SMR with a 3:34. They have been on the quiet side of things this outdoors thus far, but I expect them to emerge at Penn. Strong DMR run from Methacton who got the win in 10:48.99. Methacton has been great this spring and I'm interested to see if they translate this DM success to the 4x8 (AKA the only relay that matters in the PIAA). Lower Merion and Penncrest added 10:57s behind.

Shippensburg Invitational: AA
The meet began with what I'm sure was a fantastic battle at 3200m between sophomore Griffin Mackey and Junior Will Kachman. Kachman, the runner up at states last year in the event ran an impressive 9:29 (which I believe is a PR) and showed some excellent fitness. However, it was Mackey who left Ship with the gold, running 9:28 and taking down an impressive early season victory. It's hard to say exactly how fast Mackey will run at this event, but he's already down under 9:30, a fairly elite mark for AA runners. I'm not sure he's quite on Hockenbury's level as things currently stand, but Dom has been racing since indoors and Mackey is really still feeling things out and adjusting to being a top track athlete. The AA 3200m is going to be loaded this year and really fun to watch play out and these two will be big reasons why.

Really strong race from Simon Smith who ran 9:38 the morning after he raced to a 4:26ish 1600m at Lock Haven against Molino. That's quite the stretch of back to back performances. Maybe on fresh legs he could have been right there in the sub 9:30 conversation.

Shortly after the 3200m, we saw an excellent 4x800m race that included a victory for Trinity in a very impressive 8:13 mark. This is a program that has excelled for years and is due for a title in this event (I'm not sure if they have won in the last decade or so despite always being in the mix). Maybe this is the year. Lewisburg put up a solid performance in second with an 8:27 and were joined by Camp Hill and Bedford under the 8:31 mark. Considering guys like Bach and Alico from Lewisburg, Kachman from Bedford and Beheny from Camp Hill were all in the 3200m, that makes those 4x8 marks a bit more impressive.

In the 1600m, Dominic Hockenbury from Lake Lehman took center stage, grabbing the victory in a winning time of 4:20.21. He beat Cooper Leslie of Camp Hill who ran an awesome 4:23.76 (and might have been doubling off the 4x8 as well). Hockenbury ran very strong and got a nice PR, but this is a glorified tune up race for PR. Leslie's performance was the big surprise for me. He is developing into a bonafide state contender in the 16 and giving Camp Hill a killer projected top 2 for 2015 Cross Country.

Leslie doubled back in the open 800m and fought valiantly for 2nd in 1:58, but district rival Matt Gross of Trinity took the gold in 1:57. Brian Hackman rounded out the top 3 in 1:59 in his second race of the day and third race of the weekend as he raced at Henderson on Friday night. That makes for a busy 24 hour stretch so to cap things with a sub 2 is impressive.

Shippensburg Invite AAA
Colin Abert started off the day with a bang as he got a won the 3200m in a lifetime best of 9:17.75 to win by exactly 8 seconds over indoor state medalist Sean Weidner. Abert ran 9:20 at this meet last year (his former PR) and now comes back to do it all over again, but faster. Abert has been phenomenal during XC the past three years, including 3 top 12 finishes at the state meet, but he has yet to fully commit to the deuce during outdoors, opting for the 16 instead (where he was successful last outdoors grabbing a state medal). Abert is probably coming off his best indoor season he has had at Easton and now couples it with his best start to outdoor season. This could be scary news considering he's a sub 15 minute 5k guy who has the speed to be sub 4:17 in the 16 (and recently ran sub 2 in a dual meet for Easton).

It was a strong second place showing for Weidner who continues to have success at 3200m. This could pay big dividends if he moves down in distance to the 16 or he may choose to stay at this event and see where that takes him. Aaron Gebhart took 3rd and Zach Seiger had a fantastic race for 4th in 9:36. Seiger was a maniac during cross and has he gets more outdoor races under his belt I see him dropping a lot of time in the 32. Also breaking 9:40 were Matt Beyerle (9:37) and Theo Kioussis (9:38) in fantastic races for both guys. All in all, 20 guys cracked 10 minutes in the race.

State College took gold in the 4x8 despite the fact that they ran without Alex Milligan, likely their fastest leg. Their time of 8:04 put them about 5 seconds ahead of Chambersburg, who had a fantastic run for silver in 8:09. Carlisle was 3rd in the race despite the fact that they kept Brehm and Wisner on the sidelines.

The 1600m featured the biggest plot twist of the day: Matt Kravitz took the victory in 4:18.84. Kravitz, who wasn't even on the entry lists, stormed around the track and beat out a stacked field to take the gold. He was excellent during cross, especially on the faster courses, and the North Pocono Junior is coming off a year in the low 4:20s. He is a great talent and, similar to his Paul Short race this past fall, has moments where he puts it together and really wows me. Quality win.

Brehm and Wisner finished stride for stride for 2nd with Brehm edging out his teammate by less than 2 tenths of a second. Both men ran 4:21s for the day. For Brehm this is about 2 seconds faster than he ran to earn silver last year. For Wisner, I believe this is a fairly sizeable PR at this distance. Overal, I'd say those are encouraging performances even though I'm sure both men wanted the gold. Brad Foust of Altoona took 4th in a 4:24 time and beat out district rival Alex Miligan who ran a strong 4:25. The rivalry between those two has been phenomenal thus far this year and should only get better as we head into the stretch run of spring track. Jeff VanKooten rounded out the top 6 by running 4;26 the day after his 4:17 run at Butler. That's a very tricky turn around (probably in the realm of 3.5 hours of travel), so it's impressive that he was able to stay competitive in the race.

The 800m was likely the race of the day and a very exciting moment for Ethan Gatchell who took the gold in 1:55.45. Gatchell won this race by a convincing 2+ seconds over Altoona's Brett George (who ran 1:57.90 and had a fantastic day in his own right). I was a little worried about how Ethan may handle his first race at center stage, but he handled it beautifully, dominating a strong field. Ethan has now run two 1:55s relatively uncontested which puts him in the contender conversation in a loaded 800m field. It should be interesting to see what he does in a race against some fresher legs.

Thomas Nicewicz from Mechanicsburg continues his nice running with a 1:58.99 for third and he was then followed by a herd of doublers including Matt Winser (1:59.0). Alex Milligan (1:59.1), Calvin Shneck (1:59.6) and Kravitz (1:59.6). Slipping in the middle of that group was Thaddeus Cwiklinski of York County who ran 1:59.5 and had a name I was quite nervous to try and spell.

How about this for a result for State College: their 4 800m runners in the open 8 all ran 2:01 or faster and all of them were on the double from an earlier event (either the 4x8 or the 16). The times add up to around 8:02 from open runs on tired legs which is awesome. Should be intriguing to watch this team go after it at Penn.

In D11 news, Emmaus gets a 2:00 from Paradise on the double and a 2:01 from Jiandl. They should have an interesting battle with Whitehall (an excellent 4x8 a year ago) and Easton (lurking as a sleeper at the district meet). The D11 4x8 should be a lot of fun.

Penn Relays Previews, Mailbags and what not all coming! Also keep an eye out for me at Penn or follow me on twitter @jfetrain11 to get all the latest news. The MoC rankings should be updated as well in the near future. Enjoy the NBA playoffs everyone and go Steph.

-train