Weekend Recap Part 2: Sean on Stan Morgan

By Sean Collins

With the East focused at Henderson and the West running fast at Baldwin, Saturday allowed some of Central PA’s best to showcase themselves at Carlisle’s Stan Morgan Invitational. While I could not attend, there was some great live tweeting done by Andy Sandrik and I’ve heard from a few others about how the day went. Sadly the meet was plagued by a timing malfunction early that required the use of hand-timing for the last half of the meet, but luckily this did not impact the quality of the performances.

 

Boys:

 

In the sprints, there’s only 1 real name to look out for: Peter Hughey. Hughey is a state medalist in the 400m and the District 3 champion and boy did he put his mark on the sprints at Stan Morgan. In the 100, Hughey edged out Chris Craig of CV with both at 10.9h clockings. In the 200, Hughey placed 4th with a 22.6h behind Craig, Deonte Owens of Reading, and Isa Paschallof Carlisle, but was the only one running on tired legs from the 400m. Craig won the event under the lights in 22.1h. Hugheyreally shined in the 400m, his main event. Hughey took the race by storm, with a 48.8h winning by over a second. A trio of Reading boys went 2-4 though, all racing under 51 seconds.

 

The 800m was easily the race of the day though. Matt Wisner and Zach Brehm both decided it was their turn to show the state what they had to offer. Wisner took the lead for most of the race, with Brehm drawing shoulder to shoulder with only about 40m left. The two then fought to the line with Brehm edging Wisner at the line to finish in the same time. 1:53.4h. This race brought them under the record of 1:54.91 set by Ryun Holder, who went on to split 1:51 that year against Alec Kunzweiler at the state 4x8.

 

The 800 did have some other great performances from outside of Carlisle. Cedar Crest’s Jesse Cruise puts himself in the state medal picture with a 1:55 alongside David Fletcher of Mount Carmel (AA?). If Fletcher is AA, then he takes an immediate jump to silver medal contender behind Peretta who is nearly unstoppable. Weidner (LD) also doubles back from Henderson to run in the 1:55s, but I do not expect to see him in this event for the rest of the year.

 

Brehm proved victorious in the 1600 as well, running 4:21 with no one to really push the pace against. Ben Wilson of CD followed Brehm in a 4:24, but I can’t imagine him trying to take control of the race unless Brehm had decided not to. Wilson does pose himself as District contender though for a SQS mark or an automatic bid. Joe Deangelo (Carlisle) also had his breakout race of the season in a 4:27. Definitely an outsider for a medal at districts. Also a shout out to Nicewicz of Mechanicsburg with a 4:28, 200 double (probably with a 4x8 too).

 

The 3200 somewhat underwhelmed with Kyler Shea from LD winning in 9:38. I believe this is his first invitational win, so a big congrats to him. However, there were no real standout performances beyond him, with 4 people breaking 10 minutes.

 

 

The hurdles provided sophomore breakout star, MychaelThomas of Carlisle to win his first invitational in 15.3h in the 110s. Michael Heeschen of Gettysburg also broke the 16 sec barrier. Thomas came back in the 300h to try to become a double champion, but came in third. Heeschen grabbed second. No one could come close to matching Brad Powell of Mechanicsburg though who ran 40.3h. Major props to this guy for what I believe is a PR, but I’m still slightly bitter because he beat me by .03 at districts to keep me off the podium last season… Regardless, this is a great run for him.

 

In the relays, Carlisle took 2 of 3 winning the 4x1 and 4x8. Carlisle ran 42.6h to defeat Reading who also ran sub 43. In the 4x4, Reading returned their 400s runners (what a surprise) to run 3:24! I don’t think anyone has been looking at this team before now, but this time now is something that could lead to qualifying to the state final if they continue to progress, especially since they will likely not have tired legs at states. Carlisle runs 3:26 behind them, with Mechanicsburg in 3:27, both times that will go to Districts. 4x8 win goes to Carlisle in a 8:07, but the major stories are Trinity and Mount Carmel at 8:08 and 8:09. Carve a second or two off for both of them and these begin to look like state medalists reallllllll quickly. Congrats to both of them.

 

 

Field:

 

In the jumps, we have arguably the best jump duo in state history. Isa Paschall and Deshawn Millington combined to 46 points in the 3 jumps. Millington, the defending state TJ champ jumped 48-11, 21-10, and 6-4, while Paschall jumped 22-4 and 47-2. Behind them were Gettysburg duo, Ravaughn Dillard and Kobe Wansel who jumped 46-9 and 45-4 respectivelly. In the PV, the winning height was 13-6 by Nathan Sharrah of Gettysburg.

 

The throws provided two wins for Chambersburg with Kelton Chastulik in the shot (48-11) and Nate Long in the javelin (173). In the discus, North Pocono athlete Matt Slagus took the field by storm throwing 151ft.