Novice Meet

Well it's February 6th and naturally that brings to mind one very important meet: The Novice Meet. I had the privelege of running in this meet 2 years in a row (my sophomore year I ended up running in the novice meet and going on to be an alternate for the states DMR team about 3 weeks later), and honestly it is a fun time. It's where stars are born and other runners who have worked all season are rewarded with a shot at medals of their very own. I ran a 4x800m, and then a 4x400m there over the two years I was there and finished somewhere in the 20s and then 1st.

So these underappreciated kids from years past are getting a little revamp courtsey of etrain's blog. Let's take a look back at some past year's novice meets.

In 2011, there was Novice Meet Division 1 record set in the 400m when Issiah Morris ran 55.82 for Cheltenham. Later on in the same meet the 800 was won in a record time of 2:05.54 by PJ Succi of William Tennent. The time would have just missed Meet of Champs qualifying time. A 9:57 3k won the meet, also in record time, from LaSalle's Brendan Billotta.

In D2 O'Hara's Jim Belfutto won the mile in 4:56.71 and Lyle Wistar of GFS won the 3k in 9:46.77. Second in the race was Ernie Pitone, who just barely broke 10 minutes. Since, Pitone has run under 9:10 for 3k this season, and finished in the top 35 at XC states.

In 2010, Jake Nemeroff captured gold in the 800m run in 2:12.98 for Division 1. He has just recently helped his CB East 4x800m squad qualify for states. Conner Quinn won the Division 1 Novice mile in 4:56.75. He has done alright for himself since then.

In 2009, Sam Garfield won a hotly contested mile in 4:53.01. He went on to run 1:56 on CR South's 4x800m and qualify for states in XC during his Junior season the next year. Alex Chichitti was second in the 3k. He also was a two time state qualifier in cross country and a near sub 16 5k runner. He ran 10:02. Farther down the list in the 3k was Mike Doyle who ran 10:11. He also clocked a 1:56 for CR South during his senior season outdoors. In Divison 2, Chidi Okezie was second in the 400m. He went on to run in the 48s for New Media his senior season in 2011. At this meet he ran a 57.26. In the same race Nate Emmanuel ran a 61.06. He just recently ran a 1:57 open 800m and ran on Penncrest's PA #1 7:55 4x800m squad.

All the way back in 2008, Tevin Smith and Chris Muggler dueled in the open 400m 55.8 to 56.7. Both ended up being 1:55 800m runners for Abington and LaSalle's top ranked relay squads. Spencer Andreson won the 200m for St. Joe's and Mike Scott won the 800m for LaSalle. Both men ended up running 50. or faster in the open 400 their senior seasons. Sam Bernitt was second in the mile in 5:00.9. He went on to run 15:33 for 5k the next year as a Junior and finished his senior season with PRs in the 9 and 4 teens. Tom Trainer was second in the 3k with a time of 10:10. His senior year he was 2nd at a much more important meet in the 3k with a sub 8:40 clocking. UD won the 4x4 in 3:49.7 (one of the fastest times in the past 5 years) behind a 56 second leg by Jarrett Felix! (Yes I am aware no one cares) Dave Waterman was second in the D2 Mile in 4:59, he went on to run under 4:20 his Junior year for GFS. Marco Malone won the race in a very fast 4:49 clocking for Upper Merion. Zach Greth was second in the 3k in 10:05. He went on to run in the 8:40s for 3k and even ran to a MoC gold in the 3k his Junior year.

And finally in 2007, Tom O'Kane ran 2:10 for 800m to finish 4th in the race. He went on to run very fast mile and 800 times around 4:20 and 1:54. He also finished 25th at XC States his Senior year. Chris O'Sullivan and Shawn Quinn dueled in the open Mile running 4:55 and 4:59. Both had great XC careers, O'Sullivan amassed 2 state medals. He also ran 4:15 for 1600m. Third in the race was Armando Salome who went on to split around 1:53 on CR North's 4x800m in 2010. He ran 5:04. The 3k was won in 9:45.9 by Ben Furcht who went on to run the equivalent of a sub 9 3200m for 3k and barley missed state championships in XC, Indoor and Outdoor track his senior year. He also qualfied for Footlocker Nationals. James Stevenson, then running for Methacton, finished 3rd in the race. Later on for LaSalle, he was an important part of their District Championships and state title pushes. Glenn Mills won the 4x8 in a blazing 8:48. In Division 2 future sub 9:30 and sub 9:20 two milers Dan Day and Scott Armstrong took 1-2 in the 3k running 10:05 and 10:14. Dan Tyler won the mile in 4:18. He went on to run a 4:18 1600 his senior season. Vince Perozze was 3rd in the 800m in 2:15. He went on to clock a 4:14 1600m and a mile that converted to roughly 4:12 for 1600m. His junior year he was second at states.

Sometimes it's interesting to look back and see how things were back then. You may enjoy it.

-train

PS Most of the times I pulled out as people's PRs are from memory so don't destroy me on that.