Megaha

It's hard to believe that there was a time long, long ago where I considered Drew Magaha and I rivals. The term rivals implies equals and mutual respect and feeling of competitiveness. Those implications do not apply in my use of the word. I felt we were rivals because I thought I could beat him in a race. I, however, had no idea how wrong this notion would turn out to be.

Let me elaborate. In early May of my Junior year, we had our yearly dual meet with Upper Moreland. Our coach sat basically all our good runners out of the 800 (this was back when our team ran 7:40 and won the DMR at Penn Relays) so this was finally my moment to shine. I could actually win a race. I lined up next to a Freshman from Upper Moreland. Looking at him then if you told me he would grow up to run 4:07 in just two years I would have had a good laugh about it. But Magaha owned me in the race. He took control from the gun and every time I thought I got close to passing him he threw in a surge and increased his lead.

Needless to say, this was slightly heartbreaking for seemingly a nobody to trash the moment that was supposed to be the highlight of my high school career. I never imagined that this moment would actually turn into one of my best moments because I was within 3 seconds of Drew Magaha.

In the beginning Drew was still a very raw talent. In his races he always seemed to throw in extremely random explosive surges. He would surge out to the front then die back and then throw in a sick kick. But this strategy was not one used by state champions.

During Drew's sophomore year I watched him mature into a fantastic racer. I watched him shed his random surging and turn into a brilliant sitter and kicker. He shocked a lot of people when he blazed by Vince Perozze to win the District One Championships as a sophomore with great tactical strategy.

This spring it was only a matter of time before Magaha started destroying records. His 4:07.32 at States was a product of a season of impressive dominating performances. It seemed that even off very quick paces Magaha had a 58 left in his legs. His indoor races were disappointing but he proved all doubters very wrong who said he couldn't kick off a fast pace. It was one of the best Junior seasons in state history.

Even now I can't help but wonder how fast he could go in the right situation. Even off a 2:05-06 first 800 he dropped a :58 close. He had run 4 quality races the weekend before at Districts and had run two quick prelims the day before his 4:07 performance. The weather was hot and there were a surprisingly low amount of PRs overall at the state championships. Yet Magaha still ran 4:07.32: the fourth fastest 1600 in state history. He sits only behind Criag Miller, Ken Lowery, and Paul Vandegrift. Pretty nice company.

But unlike these runners, Magaha still has one year left. What records can fall in the Spring of 2012? Is sub 1:50 possible? Is sub 4 even possible? It may be too early to tell at this point, but the potential is there for Magaha to become the greatest Distance runner in PA state history.

That's why they call him Megaha.