By etrain11
Kevin James took care of business for O'Hara as he won 3 golds in the 32-16-8, the 8 coming in a strong 1:55.0 against some tough competition (Frosh Kamil Jihad continues to roll with a 1:55 PR and Andre Kelly has a huge breakthrough for Radnor running a 1:55.8). I believe James had a similar triple last year at this meet. He may have run a bit faster in some events, but I believe this is the first time he swept all 3 events. He has great range going right now, but with the 2 mile events of last night and no Ritz in the picture outdoors, I'm very curious if James will take a look at the 16 at states, something I mentioned previously. In theory, he may try both (I don't think the mile prelims would have a dramatic effect on his 32 performance the next day).
Looking ahead a bit to districts, I will be interested to see how O'Hara opts to spread their pieces. They may choose to chase a 4x8 states spot with James, Morro, Justin Jones (ran 2:00 at delcos in a nice run, winning his heat) and one other piece (Nolen, Ryan James, etc) and then split off for individuals in Ship after getting the team through. Morro and Ryan James are interesting state candidates. Morro would have a good shot at either the 32 or 16, but neither spots would be locks because the PCL seems pretty loaded. Same goes for Ryan although, more so than Rob, he would seem to be fit for the 32. Morro and RJ took 2-3 behind KJ in the deuce and 2-5 in the uno. Also putting up strong numbers looking ahead to PCLs was Sean Sullivan, who ran 4:24 and 1:59.
Connor Holm ran a solid 16 around 4:24 and Ahmir Gordon and James Abrahms both dipped into the 1:58s in the loaded 800m.
Neshaminy Invite
Rock Fortna threw down a strong win in the 16, running 4:17 and taking gold by roughly 5 seconds over Bensalem's Tyji Mays. I saw something like this coming from Carrick, who has been rolling all season, but I didn't think Mays was ready to drop a time that fast. That catapults him into the state discussion in the already crowded D1 1600m.
The 800m also proved to be impressive as a crew of the "lesser known" names on two of the best relays in the state took center stage. Fortna and CB East's Jake Brophy have been grabbing most of the headlines this season, but their teammates are some quality 800m men. Oliver Boucher and Ata Shahideh took 1-2 in the east vs west battle at Neshaminy, both men running 1:56. They were then closely followed by West's Andrew Baker, Jake Clar and Carter Zerweck who ran open PRs of 1:57-1:57-1:58. Hard not to be impressed by both teams depth looking ahead to states. A completely fresh and focused CBW may be able to challenge a Pennsbury team that could have its fair share of individual aspirations complicating the picture. East is a study team but Brophy basically has to run the 32 at states now (right?) so he would have to "pull a Sam Webb" and try the difficult 32-4x8 double (side note, is Sam Webb going to pull a Sam Webb this year? Or is he going for the 16?).
Bensalem got another encouraging run in the 8 as well from Rahi Shah who ran 1:58. Also running 1:58 was Brian Plunkett of Neshaminy (still curious what happens with their 4x8 looking ahead, don't remember seeing Conway race at Penn which complicates things I'd imagine). Strong win by CR North in the 4x8. Interesting to see if they can cut time from 8:07. Especially when you consider many of their top runners ran Friday at Henderson.
Northeast Invitational
Strong 4x8 for Seneca who runs 8:14 for gold. North East was also impressive with an 8:18 behind Olson who also won the 16 and ran 1:59 the day after racing at Baldwin.
Cedar Cliff Relays
Don't look now but JP McCaskey continues to roll. They won the DMR in 10:33 and added an 8:11 victory in the 4x8. It wasn't long ago that this school won the district title in the 4x8 behind Eric Witmer and now this team is rounding into shape for another title push in a fairly wide open district title race (although it's not quite as wide open now that Carlisle showed the world they have 2 1:53 guys).
Oil County
Ryan Thrush from Brookville ran a 1:57 for the victory over Caleb Kiefer of North Clarion (1:59). Not sure of the size of D9 (?) schools like Brookville, but Thrush is a name to keep an eye on. He also won the 16 in 4:31. Liam Raehsler won the 32 with a strong 9:42.
Blue Streaks
Manheim Township got the DMR victory on their home track, likely riding a strong run from Brian Delany who has been quietly dominating steeplechases this spring. Ephrata, one of my favorite sleeper teams for this year and next, won the 4x16 and the 4x8 with, apparently, 8 different runners (but Becker was probably on both and Bocker is a type o). That's some impressive depth.
Pine Richland
Canon Mac got 3 quality distance wins thanks to Strosko in the 8 (1:58) and Linderman winning the longer stuff in 9:40 and 4:28, beating a couple quality fields. The 32 was especially interesting for AA fans as the State champs WT put Landin Delaney (9:52) and Ben Littman (9:45) in the top 5 while super soph Zach Skolonevich ran a 9:51 in what I believe is a major invite debut.
Still to come ... Shaner, West Coaches, Baldwin and more!
Kev got the triple last year as well, only third time it has happened overall, Huemmler did it in 2012.
ReplyDeleteVery similar total time this year to last year, mile slower and two mile faster, 800 about the same; he may have had it easier this year in that his best competition came from his teammates in the longer races. That and the county schools kind of suck this year
Both Brookville and North Clarion are AA. Thrush has not run against any real competition yet so he should impress at states.
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