Weekend Recap Part 1: Henderson Recapping

by etrain11

Henderson
The Henderson meet tends to bring some fast times and impressive performances and this year's edition was arguably the best top to bottom we have seen in recent years. Things started with a 1600m, the event most would probably argue featured the least number of "wow" performance, but still featured 17 runners under 4:29. The top two PA spots belonged to a freshman (Josh Hoey in 4:21) and a sophomore (Ryan Barton 4:22) both coming from the up and coming powerhouse Downingtown West. Both guys have run faster so far this year, but that was in a faster meet where they finished farther down the pack (although Josh also ran faster at W&M in a winning effort, but also likely a faster overall race). Patrick Grant added a strong 4:23.14 for 4th.

District 3 added a couple heat winners to the list of top competitors when Nick Mahon won heat 3 in 4:24 (about 3 seconds faster than 2nd in his heat) and Dominic Digiacomo of Twin Valley ran 4:30 to win Heat 2 (a victory of about 6 seconds). Mahon and his Wilson team are something of a sleeper squad looking ahead. Digiacomo has been rapidly gaining steam as of late, improving his 800m time and adding a convincing 1600 win. He could add a nice boost to the TV 4x800m (which won gold at this meet).

Nice runs were also had by Michael DelVecchio of Unionville (runs 4:25.02 to add to his teammate Ken'ts 4:26ish run recently), freshman Spencer Smucker and Liam Conway (4:28s for both) and the CRN duo of Heintz and Griswold (both men added 4:27s to their resume Friday night).

As suspected, the 800m was bananas. A massive 28 runners broke the 2 minute mark (with Nick Villone running 1:59.99 to round out the crew). The winning time, a 1:51.47 by Billy McDevitt, is one of the best times ever run at this meet (as far as I know it's Tom Mallon and then McDevitt and that's it). McDevitt is now ahead of where stud 800m runner Jeff Wiseman was at this time last year despite the fact that many, including myself, thought he was a mile specialist. McDevitt is also now ahead of Ritz's time from indoor states, making things intriguing for a possible independent league match up.

Sauer ran an impressive 1:52.77, a mark which usually wins this event (Sauer or Boswell likely would have been my pick for the win in a time around 1:52.8-1:52.9). This marks an open Pr for Sauer who has always been impressive on the relay and it seems like he was able to hang on even after pushing the pace from the front (probably not his ideal racing method and probably not what he would have to do at states against someone like Lewis). Jaxson Hoey adds a lifetime PR in the open at 1:53.84 to show he is clearly closing in on 100% health again and that's a scary thought looking ahead to the loaded mile picture. Although a lot of the top names are spread out among different classes and leagues, at Meet of Champs we could theoretically see a mile featuring Hoey, Ritz, McDevitt, Brehm, James and more. Evan Emmanuel added an impressive 1:54.14 PR and Ethan Gatchell, in his first truly competitive field, dropped yet another 1:55.

There were lots of interesting relay implications from this 800m. Stefan Sutton ran 1:55.91 for LaSalle and Patrick Grant doubled back for a 1:57.50. That's a killer 1-2 punch for their relay. But we already knew LaSalle had a good squad (although admittedly, both of those times are an impressive improvement), I didn't see the emergence of Perkiomen Valley coming quite this quickly. They got a 4:29 1600m performance from Jeff Montgomery and added a 1:57.10 open 8 from Matt Town. Plus, Wilmot Osei-Bonsu added a 1:59.80 to give them another sub 2 leg.

Then of course we have the main event, the famous Henderson 3200m run. Brophy was my pick to win but I never imagined sub 9 was in play. I honestly didn't think Brophy would get after it quite enough and when he did start his kick, it would end up putting him in the 9:03-9:04 picture. However, clearly Brophy had another gear and the field around him was ready to challenge him for a fast time. Brophy runs 8:57.68 putting him in a group of PA sub 9s that is quite small and solidifying him in an undeniable favorite spot for states (what does that mean for the CBE 4x8?). Brophy had a record setting fall and is back in that type of zone so far this outdoors, setting him for a potentially magical state meet at Shippensburg. With that kick, he's going to be very difficult to beat over 2 miles.

I was very impressed with Marston and Dahl. They had a bit of a disappointing Penn Relays, getting the baton a bit behind the pack, so they seemed to have some extra motivation this weekend. For Dahl this a PR of roughly 10 seconds, for Marston it's more in the 16 second range. Those are massive PRs. That's very impressive stuff, putting Marston right in the state title conversation while also catapulting Dahl into some legendary territory. Dahl's still just a sophomore and he's running 9:02 already. That might be a state class record and, with time still left in the season, Dahl could become a sub 9 minute 2 miler as just a sophomore.

Behind those three, PA also had Comber (roughly 13 second PR of 9:04), Sam Webb (9:06 in his first long distance race since XC), Dominic Hockenbury (roughly 11 second PR of 9:06) and Paul Power (roughly a 15 second PR of 9:06) breaking the 9:10 barrier for the first time and putting on an impressive. Those marks were all very impressive, certainly a confidence booster for Hockenbury who is hoping to win the AA title this spring. Molino ran 9:17, putting him ahead of his pace from last year at this meet and Tidball rounded out the sub 9:20 group with an impressive PR of 9:19.

After that group, Eric Diestelow ran a very impressive 9:21 in the 32, what I believe is a pretty sizeable PR. Weidner, Maguire, Simon Smith and Alex Knapp all added sub 9:30 marks in the event. All in all, there were 9 District One runners at 9:30 or faster in the meet with another 2 at 9:33 or faster. Also, as noted by one of our commenters, apparently Rusty Kujdych from Neshaminy, who won his heat by roughly 6 seconds in 9:42, is a freshman. That's a great performance from him.