The DMR

By far one of the coolest things about Indoor States is the fact that it features the DMR. You almost never see it outdoors besides Penn Relays (and honestly that's kind of early to have your squad peak for) and outdoor nationals (and honestly that's kind of late to have your squad peak for). Indoor's the DMR is raced all the time, the splits for a 1200 start to actually make relative sense in your head, and heck it is a really fun race to watch if you are a distance fan.

And this year the field looks stacked, the 4x8 looks .... not.

But believe it or not the DMR hasn't always been around at the PTFCA State Championships. In fact it was fairly recently brought back to the promise land in 2007. Now this abbreviated history makes it very easy for a man like me who loves stats almost as much as a creamcheese and cheese sandwhich to lay down a nice little bit of analysis for all of you DMR enthusiasts out there.

In 2007 West Chester Henderson came in as a favorite to take the win, but Wissahickon and GFS as well as Jason Weller led Boyertown all had high hopes of playing upset for the state title. Chris Aldrich was dealing with some slight sickness after running the mile earlier in the meet so he dropped from the 16 to the 12 and lead off nicely for his squad. Shea and Jervis opened up a lead to give it to Chris Ferry, normally the 1200 leg, now moving up to the 16 after a tough 800 title bout not long beforehand. Ferry's lead dwindled as the chase pack of Nick Crits and Max Kaulbach (a couple juniors who went on to battle for a state title in the mile in '08) and hanging tough Joe Dorris was with the other two for about 1200. Kaulbach passed Ferry for the lead on the backstretch but Ferry stayed calm and put on a kick to beat GFS and hold off the charging Crits who managed to skate by Kaulbach at the end to give Wissahickon a hard earned 2nd. 10:21.56.

In 2008, potential state champions GFS decided to run a completely fresh relay so stars Ortiz, McKenzie and Kaulbach could run individual events, leaving the door open for pre race favorites Engineering and Science's. Elliot Rhodes ran a great lead off leg to start things off as hoped for E and S, while Penncrest's Patt Meyers hung tough with a great lead off leg as well. The battle in the middle legs out front consisted mostly of Penncrest and E and S with nice legs by Anthony Batch and Austin Perron. Meanwhile, as we got to the anchor, Junior Nick Bonaventure found himself under a lot of pressure running with Terrence Lee, who was tired from a well run 3k earlier in the meet. Ultimately, however, Dan Lowry emerged and burst open the race, hammering the pace even after catching and passing the leaders and cruising home in a solo 4:12 anchor split that led LaSalle to the meet record 10:15.89. Penncrest held on for 2nd and Lee held on for 3rd although a big kick from UD's Palmisano left UD within less than a second of both 3rd and 5th.

In 2009 the team that placed 4th each of the previous 2 seasons, Upper Dublin, came in as the favorite, although there was talk about Henderson's potential for a surprise as well as St. Joe's Prep, who was right next to Upper Dublin a year early. Ultimately, Upper Dublin had a little too much firepower as a solid lead off leg by Matt Lorenzo followed by two very solid middle legs by Melton and Reilly opened up a lead that even the tired Palmisano was not prepared to surrender and Upper Dublin held off a fine race by St. Joe's Prep and Cardinal O'Hara to take state gold.

The 2010 DMR was one of the best races I have ever seen. Henderson and Baldwin came in as favorites for the big duel with some speculation about Mallon's CB South squad and Penn Hills, who had battled Baldwin all season. Altoona was an interesting story because of super stars Gehret and Endress, but not many thought they could legitimately win the race. Solid lead off legs all around left all the teams still in the race, as Gehret ran a huge 400 leg to get Altoona into the mix out front, with Baldwin still having the edge. Dennis Logan held off charges from his persuers for most of his leg, as Luke Lefebure, newly crowned state champion, got Henderson back into the mix. The front pack ended up being 4 teams when the anchor legs began: Baldwin, Henderson, GFS and Altoona. As sophomore Bobby Bishop battled to hold off his chasers from the other big time schools, it looked like the fresh legs of McKenzie and Kellar would prevail as they both moved past Bishop nearing the end of the race. Kellar finally broke away and was heading down the home stretch when the home town crowd erupted for the streaking Wade Endress. Kellar raised his arms in percieved victory and Endress nearly nipped him at the line. Bishop fell to fourth after a hard fought anchor leg for Baldwin. 10:21.48 to 10:21.51.

Most recently, in 2011 the field was fairly wide open, with Wissahickon coming in as the favorites. Henderson, the defending champions and up start Great Valley were in the mix as well. A slew of teams that didn't actually hit the qualifying standard were let into the meet to the dismay of a certain blog poster, but all the same. A wide open, tight knit field, led to an interesting race. The 1200 legs were tight together as Lefebure and Cho highlighted the list of names, but Waddington and Waterman surprised those names with very nice 1200 legs as well. As the race continued on past the 400 legs, 800 leg Ben Ravetz helped Wissahickon break the race open with a solid 3rd leg that left his team with Henderson and GFS as well as CB South. Wissahickon's anchor Dillon Farrell shot out of the gates and held a lead, going by Henderson's Bryan Andrews. The fierce anchor legs of Brett Kelly and Chris Campbell were not enough to catch Farrell as Wissahickon held on and a tight race for the medals began behind them. Three teams finished between 10:30.08 and 10:30.72.

So what do we know? Well certain teams have historically been DMR powerhouses, others have opted for the 4x8. North Penn has never run a DMR at states, nor has Strath Haven or Holy Ghost Prep. Ironically, they are the top 3 teams on my big board.

LaSalle, besides their title run in 2008, has stayed away from the DMR as well.

Meanwhile Henderson has run and run well in every year but one of the DMR existence. Upper Dublin was an all state machine for a while, but has since trailed off, GFS has been all about the DMR and has done it with a lot of different names. The guys out west haven't done too much with the DMR and E and S is the only serious AA team that has been in the conversation for DMR superiority.