The Rest of the Weekend

by Jarrett Felix

Susquehanna Invitational
State College must have decided their victory on their home track at the Kevin Dare Invite wasn't a big enough statement. Winning by almost 33 seconds (over their "B" team), State College dropped an 8:07.65 in the 4x8 on a flat track (converts to 8:05.25 banked according to the PTFCA). I am very impressed with this mark, especially considering it appears to be almost completely alone. The 4x8 is going to be a ton of fun this year with SC, Abington and CB West already hitting a killer level and teams like Bishop Shanahan, CB East, GFS and Pennridge being very capable challengers. Personally I think either Abington or State College is the favorite right now, but I'd still slot Abington just ahead in the power rankings. Keep in mind Abington's A team still hasn't raced since December, yet they still have the state lead.

In the mile, Matt Wisner continued to not lose on indoor tracks. I know I say it every time, but at this point I'm a little concerned I'll jinx him into losing if I stop talking about it. This guy is just such a winner and a day after 1:55 who comes back to crush a 4:27 and win by almost 10 seconds over a strong field (David Fletcher of Mount Caramel was second in 4:36). Michael Delvechio of Unionville ran 4:38 for 3rd in the race. This was a great race for the Unionville stand out who was in the 4:20s and 9:40s last outdoors if memory serves. He's a great piece to put along side Kent Hall in some type of DMR situation. Colin Ebling and Jack Wisner rounded out the top 5, both at 4:42.

Worth noting Sam Signor won the slower section in 4:49, with a winning margin of 10 seconds. That's an excellent performance by Sam.

Fletcher bounced back from the mile to win in convincing fashion at 800m, clocking a 2 flat to pair with his 1:57 he ran at Kevin Dare. Excellent running by Fletcher so far this year and his commitment to the indoor season during his senior year could really pay off at states as he will be ready for the challenge on the big stage. He's historically been a clutch performer when the lights are brightest.

Isaac Kole of Carlisle took second in 2:03.24. Considering this team now has three guys at 2:03 or faster and a monster leg in Wisner, I'm really keeping my fingers crossed they find a way to make a relay happen. I'm not sure who their 4th leg might be, but I'm sure a DMR would be in play. Maybe at one of the State College Invites they would consider putting one together? I'm not sure what's left on their schedule.

Collin Ebling pulled off a pretty sick double with a 2:04.18 for 3rd and Joey Bhangdia of Lewisburg (traditionally a mid-distance AA power) also added a 2:04.52. Meanwhile, Sam Signor won the slower section of the 800m in 2:09, this time with just a 2 second margin of victory. If you are experiencing deja vu, that's ok. Scroll up to confirm.

Brody Beiler has been one of the coolest stories of this indoor season. The District 4 runners don't usually get a lot of love (my apologies district 4), but Beiler is making people sit up and take notice whether they like it or not. After his big 4:25 mile, he added a 9:03 jaw dropper at Susquehanna to win by almost 10 seconds over a very strong runner, the District 4 XC champion, Isaac Davis. He also bested Dan Filler of Gettysburg (9:24) and Zach Seiger of Red Land (9:34), two of the best XC guys you can find in the Mid Penn archives. Nick Norton of Hempfield rounded out the top 5 with a 9:35.

TFCAofGP #7
There are have already been 6 of these (one was postponed) and the TSTCA has only had 1. Let that sink in for a hot sec. Gotta say I really appreciated the opportunity to race every weekend against top notch competition and chase medals. But hopefully nobody is feeling burned out or over raced from all the action. It's still just January after all.

But anyway, I'm not sure what that has to do with recapping things. I have to stop being so poetic here ...Especially considering 61% of our readers our high schoolers and 5% are coaches (well, actually less because our writer Paul Hayes is one of those coaches). I need to get updated on the hip high school slang rather than ranting. Right, high schoolers? Oh wait, I'm still not recapping anything?

Sorry kids, it's been a long day and these recaps can get a little tedious anyway.

Division I
Stop me if this sounds familiar. Abington is having themselves a pretty sick indoor campaign. At Glenn Mills they took down golds in the 200m, 400m, 4x200, 4x800 and mile (with a silver in the open 8). Pardon my language, but holy moly. Their only silver medalist, sophomore Cameron Mitchell, ran a very fast 1:59.50 on the Glenn Mills rubber, which is actually under the old meet record (that belonged to Jason Weller, PA's last Millrose champion on the guys side).

That 800 was pretty impressive across the board as Hudson Delisle (also a sophomore) clocked a very nice 1:59.31 for gold (officially taking the record from Weller). Quakertown has two sub 2 legs now and one of those sub twos came on a fairly slow track. Ben Heintz from CR North ran a 2:01.09 for 3rd overall and CR South's Evan Kutney added a 2:05.08 to round out the top 4.

Abington's Jake Good, as alluded to earlier, clocked a 4:35 to win the mile going away (5 seconds). Brett Wolfinger added a second place in 4:40 for Q-town and Ari Bortman of Pennsbury took 3rd in 4:41. Bryton Henry of Boyertown and Bryan Keller of CRN took 4th and 5th at 4:42 and 4:43.

Division II
Noah Falasco took a healthy victory in the 800m, clocking a 2:01.61 to win convincingly over The Haverford School's Andy Leith (2:05.01). That's a really killer run from Falasco who also has a 4:32ish mile circulating from earlier this year (maybe December). Upper Merion has had their fair share of contenders the past few years, especially at 800m (Christian Sanders, Austin Cooper) so Falasco is worth keeping an eye on in the sleeper category.

Rob Morro uncorked a mammoth 4:32 in the open mile to win by roughly 9 seconds over Neumann Goretti's Kamil Jihad (no slouch of a runner, especially at 800m). Morro has also already clocked a sub 9 minute 3,000m this year and this time is a little over 2 seconds off the meet record Max Norris set about a month before he broke 8:30 at states for gold. And no that's not a type-o. Westly Wedell of Academy of New Church had a sick race for 3rd in 4:44 just ahead of Harriton's Jonah Gillespie-Sickman who also ran 4:44.

The 3k was the most impressive race of the day in my humble opinion. Jakob Jorgensen of Episcopal and Jack Carmody of West Chester Rustin battled it out with a pair of 9:07s for the 1-2 spots in this race. There haven't been a lot of sub 9:10 3ks on this track and honestly there haven't been all that many so far this indoor season (although I feel like that number may have shot up in a hurry this weekend) so these times are pretty sick. Jorgensen broke Mike Bilotta's meet record from 2012 in the process of the victory. Both these guys have had really nice seasons this winter and Jorgensen has quite frankly been on fire since cross (but he's the independent league so me and others don't pay close enough attention to his talents). Nice runs by both guys.

The Ches-Mont (is it Ches-mont, Ches-Mont, Chesmont or maybe something else? honestly not a clue) took care of business in the relays. Henderson won the 4x8 going away with an 8:33.09 and was followed by two more conference foes (Great Valley and Bishop Shanahan). Then Shanahan clocked a very nice 11 flat DMR to beat out West Chester East who ran 11:06. Those are some nice DMR times and would definitely be faster on a faster track (duh, etrain). Can they get into the state qualifying conversation? Hard to say at this point, but they are headed in the right direction if they want to pursue it. Meanwhile O'Hara added an 11:10 without Morro (or at least a doubling Morro as I think you could double at this meet?) and Wissahickon dropped an 11:11 for 4th.

Ocean Breeze
I saved the best for last this week as Ocean Breeze really lived up to the pre-race hype (or at least my own personal pre-race hype) with a variety of the best performances in the state. Plus, it was a really deep showing by PA with impressive times in a variety of heats and sections. It was great to see. Unless you were someone on the bubble of state qualifying. Because those times just got a lot faster.

2 Mile
After not getting in to the invitational section of the 2 mile, Jeff Kirshenbaum took things into his own hands. The Methacton Senior started the day off strong for PA with a blazing 9:19.26 for a full 2 miles and the runaway gold (he won by 7 seconds). For Kirsh, this is a huge PR indoors or out and converts to 8:37.99 for 3k and 9:16.02 for 3200 (although the PTFCA will only count it at 8:41.26 in their standings). This time was almost exactly the same mark that Josh Izewski ran at nationals in 2008, a couple weeks after he won the state title in the 3k. Kirshenbaum reminds me quite a bit of Izewski's 2008 season. Izewski was a bit overshadowed in talent behind a trio of Footlocker Finalist types, but he consistently performed in the 3k all season long and then backed that up at states. Kirshenbaum has now clocked 3 of the fastest 4 marks in PA including what I believe to be the fastest with this latest performance.

Behind Jeff, PA had plenty of other top marks. Seth Slavin clocked a 9:34 full two mile for 4th, improving on his state seed by exactly three seconds. Will Griffen, Matt D'Aquila and Eddie Goebel all also clocked sub 9:50 marks for the full two miles putting them in the mix with the state leaders. Considering the 2 mile to 3k conversion is a bit harsh, I'm hoping these guys find a fast 3k and use these marks as confidence that they can continue to go lower. No reason to thing a couple of these guys won't be knocking on the door for sub 9 before season's end. And as I've said, with all the talent in the 800 and mile so far, the 3k seems wide open.

800m
With no Jaxson Hoey in the field, Matt Wisner missed his shot at taking down the PA #1 runner, but he still blasted a 1:55.69 for the victory and an easy season best. I'm running out of things to say at this point. The kid is a beast with strength and a dangerous kick. He will be tough to beat at states, especially with so many top guys likely doubling off the mile. The real story of the open 800m may have been Garnet Valley's Jack Armand who won one of the slower sections in 1:58.39 and ended up 4th overall and second for PA. That was a huge run by Armand and a race that makes him a sleeper contender in a dangerously deep 800m field that is brewing right now. Before all is said and done, it may take sub 2 (banked) just to make the field at states.

Jack Wisner of Carlisle followed in his brother's footsteps, winning the freshman 800m in a blazing fast 2:02.39. When you combine the Saturday and Sunday results, Carlisle now has three of the top 50 800m runners in the state. I believe only Abington can say the same. Not bad company.

Holy Ghost Prep's Brendan Eagen added a PA victory in the sophomore 800m, running 2:04.88.

Mile
This was an absolutely loaded mile field for PA that featured a grand total of 9 PA runners under 4:30 in the "Red" section of the mile. PA's top finisher was Liam Galligan of Springfield DELCO who continues his hot streak with a big PR in the mile. He suddenly finds himself third on the PA performance list and is now a serious contender in both the mile and the 3k. Meanwhile, Downingtown West's Josh Hoey added a 4:19.93 mile for 3rd overall and 2nd PA runner (Galligan was second overall). This gives DT West two runners in the current top four of the state. Colin Wills of Malvern Prep ran 4:20.09 just behind Hoey for his own substantial indoor PR. Then Cooper Leslie and Dominic Hockenbury added their own top 10 marks in the state to round on the group at 4:22 and 4:23. Hockenbury has had very nice success in the mile and still has yet to contest a 3k this season, the event he earned silver in last year.

Not to be overshadowed in all the madness, sophomores Liam Conway and Evan Addison both cracked the 4:30 mark in the mile, with Conway dropping a phenomenal 4:26.14. Meanwhile, PJ Murray continues to be consistently strong in the mile, running yet another top mark in the event. His 4:27.87 is his best mark of the year so far.

In the White section, PA was still kicking butt and taking names. John Conner of Spring Ford took the victory in the open mile at 4:32.52 while Emmaus's Greg Jaindl took 10th overall and 1st in his section in 4:37.66. PA had 7 guys sub 4:40 in the White section in total. Really impressive sophomore marks came from Zach Smith of Spring Ford and Brendan O'Toole of North Penn who both clocked 4:34.

Charlie Herrman from Lower Merion won the frosh mile in a time of 4:46.43, helping PA continue a dominant weekend in the distance events.

Relays
Despite the excellent talent on the front end of the 4x8, the back end of state qualifying is still at a reasonable 8:22ish mark based on my projections. LaSalle dipped under 8:20 for the first time Sunday, doubling a variety of guys back from hard efforts on Saturday. They ran an 8:17.68 which is currently 9th best in PA as of the typing of this post. That's a strong mark, but it appears the DMR may be a slightly better fit (not that they can't run both nowadays). Personally, I think a fresh LaSalle DMR may have a shot at the state title in that event so that's what I'm hoping they do, but they also could grab a couple relay medals if things break right so that may be the preferred choice.

Downingtown East ran a strong 8:27.87 to put themselves in the state qualifying mix, although they still have some more time to drop. This squad is a nicely balanced team with Hogan making great strides as a leader. Cheltenham also added a strong showing with an 8:30.55.

One of this year's XC breakout teams, Owen J Roberts, won the 4x1600m for PA. Meanwhile St. Joe's Prep uncorked a monster 3:21 4x400m for gold. That puts them among the state leaders Abington and Penn Wood.

I'll post my preliminary lists either tonight or tomorrow for the state championship entries, but here is what I'm currently projecting for cut offs (with still three weekends left for things to get faster ...)

4x800m - 8:22.30 (although I have three B teams slotted so that could push the time into the higher 8:20s as things currently stand)
Mile - 4:29.78 (with a couple extra scratches you can get this down into the 4:31s, but as things currently stand there are 27 guys under 4:30 and I'm not predicting many more than 7 scratches)
800m - 2:00.49 (most guys who don't have relays and have qualified in the mile and 800 will enter both, no reason not to in my opinion, so that drives the 800 time down in a hurry)
3,000m - 9:04.49 (still no Brophy, Hockenbury, Wolk, Henderson, etc. who all could end up going here, I also currently have Dahl tentatively listed as a scratch in favor of the DMR)
DMR - 10:52.58 (like the 4x8, I've got a couple B teams listed here, mainly Abington who seems like the most likely scratch. That could push it closer to the mid 10:50s. Although I expect a big run on the relays in the very near future)