Weekend Recap Part 4: And I Still Probably Missed Something

By etrain11

Assuming Evan has time, he will be putting out the Baldwin recap so I won't discuss that here and steal his thunder (big shout to Ev and Sean who did great recap work this week. Sean put out a Stan Morgan recap earlier and his girls recap went up today in the shetrain section). These should round out the recaps for the weekend, but let me know if there were some other results you noticed that were worth noting. I'll be doing another mailbag at the end of the week so get your questions in now! The usual methods will do. But anyway back to the recaps ...

Shaner

At the Shaner meet, Dylan Eddinger reminded us that he shouldn't be overlooked in the loaded 800m field. Eddinger, who ran 1:55.00 indoors, ran a 4:17-1:54 double gold (plus likely ran a leg on the teams 8:14 gold medal 4x8) beating a pair of emerging AA contenders in Kyle Shinn (4:19) and Clay Stabolepszy (1:55). Eddinger is off to a blazing start that has gone somewhat unnoticed in the midst of some of the high profile meets of the last month. He reportedly split 1:53 twice on a pair of Boyertown relays at CBW prior to Penn Relays. I think he has a lot of room to drop over the final month, maybe even hitting 1:52ish type marks or faster in the open.

Meanwhile Wyomissing is rapidly ascending as a AA force. Jack DiCintio, the AA XC states runner up, was off the radar during indoors but is rounding back into shape impressively, running a 4:24-9:29 double (not sure on the order). Shinn, an indoor medalist in the mile, continues to improve in that event, running 4:19. Meanwhile, Wyomissing also had a 50. open 400m leg and their frosh Joe Cullen ran 1:58 in the 800m (really good year for freshman 800m runners huh?). This squad was a 4x8 contender last year so they should be in the mix again this year if they choose to pursue it (although losing Andrew Miller will hurt). As for the other AA standout of the meet Clay Stab, he ran some big legs for Schuykill Valley's 4x8 last year and now appears to be breaking out as an individual. I didn't see a time like that coming from him this weekend, but between himself and Fletcher making a strong drop, a crop of strong 800m contenders is emerging to hopefully challenge a possibly tired Peretta.

As noted by a commenter earlier, nice run by Wilson's Nick Mahon who ran 1:57.10 in the 800m to go with his win at Henderson in the 16.

West Coaches

Altoona blasted a strong sub 8 performance to win the 4x8 7:58 to SC's 8:08. But in the individuals, SC was champ winning the 800m in 1:58 (Nick Feffer) and the 16 in 4:24 (Alex Milligan) while Foust and George took the 2-3 spots in both events (busy days it seems like). The 32 was a strong race as well with Ben Schott getting the win over Matt Beyerle 9:31 to 9:34. State College is showcasing some strong depth and flexibility which should be helpful in their push for the district title.

In AA, Elk County got a strong win in the 4x8 running 8:21. Bryce Descavish continued his strong spring with a 4:31 to beat out Brian Hackman and Hackman doubled back for another silver in the 800m behind Garrett Sutton (both men running 1:59).

Trojan

John Lewis is rapidly ascending the standings of the all time PA HS 800m list. He's a sub 1:50 at states away from climbing into the 2 spot of my era and after taking down a record held by Cheltenham legend Tim Gerhardt at the Trojan Track Classic, it's hard to argue that he is going to be beat at Ship (if he chooses to run, which is far from clear). Lewis ran his second 1:51 of the season and continues a phenomenal stretch of racing that also included a 47.00 split at PR (my hand time actually had him under 47, but obviously that is not official). That split was Lewis's 3rd race of the day and I believe his 3 straight PR of the day. 

Behind Lewis at Trojan was a solid run from Kyuande Johnson who dropped his open PR to 1:57.3 and ran a tough race on his home track. I think Johnson still has more left to drop (I could see 1:55-1:56 at districts/states) and it will be interesting to see if Wiss continues to pursue the 4x8 post Penn or lets Johnson go solo and focus on a very talented 4x4 squad (4 guys who have split sub 50 already this year). 

Speaking of 4x8s, Trojan provided us with a few interesting team performances in the relay. Cheltenham got the W in 8:05 with North Penn running 8:10 for 2nd and Upper Dublin running 8:12. None of those times are jaw dropping, but with leagues coming up I'd love to see a Cheltenham vs Wissahickon run in the 4x8 (I still think Chelt could have a 7:55ish 4x8 this spring at least if they wanted it). Upper Dublin and North Penn probably are borderline district finalist squads, but I also think they are both fairly young teams so I'll be keeping an eye on their development going forward.