Wild, Wild West

by Will Smith
Just kidding, by Jarrett Felix

I've been eagerly awaiting the return of the official western indoor season in the TSTCA meets so I figured I'd give their recap it's own special section. Keep in mind the meets are contested at Edinboro which is something like a 234 meter track (I swear it's really something that random). Because the track is over 200 meters, the PTFCA is going to count the times as if they were bank tracks. Would you trade a tiny bit tighter turns for the ability to actually have logical lap counts and split points? I would 10 times out of 10, but, as far as I've been told, that's not the consensus the PTFCA has come to in year's past when compiling entries. So just keep that in the back of your mind when taking a peak at results and listening to stories of guys doing extra laps/stopping a lap early. It's bound to happen.

Anyway, pardon my ranting, let's get to the action. I'm not exactly sure on the meet order, although I have a rough idea, but I figured I would just go in order of shortest event to longest event because I got too lazy to look up actual meet order. I apologize in advance on that one.

800m
In the 800m, Penn Trafford's Nick Wagner raced to a commanding victory in 1:58.08 for an impressive win. Sure the time seems a bit slower than all the 1:55-56 type marks we have seen flying down the east coast, but considering Elias Graca ran 1:58.03 at this meet last year and then dropped to 1:50 by indoor states, I'd say this is a pretty darn good place to be for Wagner. The 800m may be the deepest event in the state right now considering all the mile talents have great 800 ability as well. Throw in the guys who may skip the mile because of 4x8 duties and then a couple 800 specialists like Wisner and Hepp and you have yourself a barn burner to get on the medal stand.

In second, Penn Hill's Isaiah Bailey also cracked two minutes with a 1:59.39 mark. That's a great time as well for Bailey who I believe is a junior this season and is the third prominent Bailey to come from the Penn Hills school district. The previous two guys were Brandon and Wil, one of which ran low 48s in the open 400 and the other ran 1:51 to win the outdoor state title. Assuming we are looking at the same gene pool, Isaiah could be in for a big year.

Ryan Thrush and Donovan Myers, both at small schools in small districts, clocked 2 flat in the 800m to add their names into an increasing crowded 800m field. I haven't started adding together all the new times to the state rankings, but it's not crazy to think we are already going to be looking at something like 2 flat for the state cut off. By the time we hit the end of the month, we could be looking at sub 2.

Mile
Nick Wolk started his season with a triple gold performance in his indoor opener and followed things up with a 4:28.15 for a victory in the event (also added a 2:06 for 800). Wolk was somewhere around 4:22 last outdoors if memory serves, but he is fresh off a tremendous XC season where he finished tops in the WPIAL in every race he competed in. I think Wolk may have the best shot at placing well at states in the 3k (the 3k is fairly wide open, especially compared to the mile), but there's little reason to doubt he could be competitive in the mile as well. Again, for the sake of reference, Jeff VanKooten ran 4:33 at this meet last year and finished his outdoor season down around 4:10 for 1600m. Meanwhile, Wolk ran 4:38 at this meet last year and, therefore, is 10+ seconds ahead of where he was this time last year. Not a bad place to be.

Sophomore Tristan Forsythe ran a very strong 4:29.14 mile time for second overall behind Wolk. It was part of a very solid day for Winchester Thurston who also won the DMR and had the winner in the 3k (sorry for the spoiler). I believe Forsythe was somewhere around 4:27 last year as a freshman (for 1600m) so you have to like the start he has had combined with XC breakthrough this fall.

Gabe Szalay and Nick Miller of Wadsworth Ohio joined the top two PA runners under 4:30. No word on whether Jess Day was there to support Nick during the event. Just ignore that if you don't watch New Girl.

Brett George added a 4:35 mile for 5th overall just ahead of sophomore Logan Caruso and Casey Conboy who each ran 4:37. Jarrett Boyd of Freedom won both the slower section of the mile and slower section of the 800 in 4:39 and 2:04. Always happy to see guys named Jarrett cleaning up and that was a really nice double victory from Boyd.

3,000m
Will Loevner picked up where he left off a year ago indoors at 3,000m, dropping a 9 flat time to win at TSTCA by 12 seconds over Marc Migliozzi, one of the breakthrough stars in the WPIAL this XC season. Loevner ran around 8:50 something like three times last indoor season and seems poised for a similar season if things click right this year. Loevner has some killer training partners on the WT roster, including Forsythe who was 2nd in the mile, and he will be highly motivated after last indoors where I think he just missed a medal in 9th place.

As mentioned Migliozzi took 2nd in the 3k at 9:12. From a quick glance, he seemed to be one of the few members of North Allegheny's XC squad to participate. According to milesplit, Migz had PRs around 10:09 for 3200m and 4:46 for 1600m, so a silver and a 9:12 is a killer start. I'm hoping to see Stupak, Blechman, etc. back in results soon as well. Hopefully they are healthy and can all help push each other to success the same way they did on the trails. Marc is definitely trending upwards and it's possible he could end up in the Hunter Wharrey range for times this track season (8:50ish indoors and sub 9:20 outdoors).

Ben Bickerton, a stud during XC in AA, ran a 9:19 for 3rd overall. PA also got strong marks from Grant McCarthy and Noah Curtin, each running 9:31. McCarthy was part of the surprise Seneca Valley team that got 2nd at WPIALs and Noah Curtin finished 2nd in XC at A states this past fall, running a pretty clutch race. I think Curtin has the potential to drop a lot of time by season's end and especially for outdoors. Meanwhile, I'd bet the training group at Seneca Valley will produce a few other notable performances behind Mike Kolor.

Relays
Greensburg Salem took gold in the 4x8 with a time of 8:33 just defeating Seneca Valley (8:34) and Mount Lebanon (8:40). I really like this Greensburg Salem team. They qualified for states in XC and had three guys around the top 50 finishers. They've produced a variety of strong performances in the individual events, including some sub 4:40 times from guys like Frankie King and they have really showed promise by winning a couple early season relay races. They were a AA team in XC so they may have gone a bit under the radar, but don't sleep on Greensburg Salem. This is a team on the rise.

Meanwhile, Seneca Valley is lurking. We still haven't seen Kolor on a stacked SV relay yet (he added another 4:18 and a 1:55 to his resume this weekend) and they have the pieces to make noise in either the 4x8 or (more dangerously) in the DMR.

Lebo tried their luck in the 4x8, running 8:40 and, although I'm sure they could post a great relay, I'm more intrigued by their individual potential in the mile/3k type events. Gunzenhauser has already proven himself quite well on the track, but guys like Kalapos and Harris who were top 50 types in XC should also be fun to watch test themselves in some loaded WPIAL distance races.

As alluded to earlier, Winchester Thurston earned gold in the DMR, beating out Penn Hills. WT apparently pulled this out without Will Loevner on the squad (3k-DMR probably would have been way too tight). This is a small school (A in XC), but as I mentioned in my spring track article I wrote on these guys last year, this team packs a AAA type punch with their talent. 11:22 (their winning time, I'm just realizing I didn't clarify that prior to this) is still pretty far away from cracking the top 10 at states, but if there's a weekend where the top WPIAL schools decide to really chase this event, there are teams that could go well under 11 minutes.

Of course the problem is the WPIAL meets (or I guess I should say TSTCA) are limited in number, especially compared to the TFCAofGP meets and guys have to try and get individual qualifiers out of the way in addition to the relay focus. That's a tricky balance in a short time (and one meet is already cancelled let's remember).

Plus, how the heck do you do hand offs for a DMR on a 234 meter track? I need to go to one of things and witness it first hand. Or maybe I'll get Evan to weigh in for me. That may save me some gas mileage ...

Anyway, I'm glad the west is beginning to re-enter the picture. It didn't feel right without these schools racing!