Indoor Thoughts

The season is young, not much has gone down, but I have some things I noticed over the past weekend which excited me in a bunch of different ways. So here's what I got.
A lot of guys are still getting back from regionals, Wilson was actually at Nationals busy being an All-American and all that jazz, so we didn't get to see all of the talent we thought we might.

That being said, Brett Kelly came out the gates firing. He just ran regionals a couple weeks ago and he already wins easily in the mile over Trimble, leading from the gun. Trimble and MacCauley (both also just had regionals) ran great races on Saturday as well.

Kelly is one of my early picks to make serious noise at states. I'm talking around top 3 in the 3k indoors. I think the mile field is too deep right now on paper for him to finish as high there as he would in the 3k. Here's the thing you have to remember: Kelly has been very good indoors the last two seasons, he had easily his best xc season this past fall, and he has no DMR to tie him down and take away his chances at individual glory. Boyertown was a few seconds away from pulling a pretty big upset and winning the DMR at states last year, and that had a lot to do with Brett Kelly on the anchor. Watch out for this kid this year.

As for the North Penn boys, they are the state champs in XC so obviously there is a lot of talent there. I heard they are going to be sticking to the relays indoors which will be interesting because Trimble has to be an early pick to mix it up for the top 3-5 spots in the 8 at states, maybe even higher if guys like Willig and Magaha drop it (and I do think Willig isn't even really considering the 8 at states, but I'll get to that later). I assume they will be looking DMR over 4x8 which would be the first time I can remember North Penn being a legimate state title contender in the DMR, usually they are all about the 4x8 (and rightfully so, they have quite the history).

A couple other things from the D1 meet I'll throw out there:
Fucht is good, should be fun to watch this year even for us distance guys. Pennwood has some potential to hav some nice relays as well.

Brad Rivera, slow time but he got the win, so I'll take it. Hoping to see more from Ryan Dickson in the coming weeks. I think he has potential to follow in Gregor and Waddington's footsteps from a year ago.

Connor Harriman will bounce back, he went out a little too hard, but this was supposed to be the big name in the 3k at this meet, Ferruzzi and MacCauley both had regionals they were training for and Glatts isn't a recogonizable name for most people (unless you're last name is train). Still a pretty quick opener for all those guys. 5 under 9:20 at the first meet is sick.

CR North and CB West. At it again.

Now on to the D2 meet. This was the meet with the big names. A couple of track guys at heart who are happy to have shed their XC coats and hop on to the oval and run fast. Magaha ran a nice solid mile. Its quick for this early, without a doubt, but he's a 4:07 miler (closing in 58 I should add) so it's really not a surprise to see that race out of him.

On the other hand Ned Willig dropped a frickin bomb on the indoor track world. Look, I believe in this kid, I know he's good. 4:11 last year, 1:51 speed, 15:30s in the 5k, 9:20s in the 2 mile blah blah blah. But nobody runs 1:55 this eary. Nobody. Not even the Abington kids going to the armory and dropping fast times, not Tom Mallon, the state record holder, nobody.

1:55, flat track, no competition, no spikes, in December. Wow.

So I look at this time and in most cases my first instinct is simple: Peaking too early, gonna burn out around Febuary 25th. And if you get lucky, you will make it to the end of March.

But with Ned, I don't know if I can use that explanation. This guy is a hard worker and a smart kid, probably bound for an Ivy League school next fall, and he hasn't had problems with peaking to early in the past.

If he holds up with the kind of times he's running right now in December the mile at states could be truly epic. Magaha will have his hands full with a Willig who is in this kind of shape.

At states, I'd imagine Willig is going to stick with that DMR. The team is pretty passionate about trying to win states after their disappointing finish last year (they were my pick to win, I think) where Ned sacrificed all his individual events for the relay. I don't know if anyone can honestly expect him to sacrifice his individual event this time around, but he probably won't need to.

I can't see another DMR anchor runner under 4:20 in the race, and at this rate Willig is going to be running a Dan Lowry like 4:12 split, even on the double.

Only time will tell.

Quick shout out to Horgan and Brooks for some nice 2nd place finishes behind two of the best in the state.

Both those times are very solid for the first meet of the season.

Oh and of course big shout out to loyal blog reader and penntrack poster Demetrius McCary on the big win. Good job bud.