PSA

Alright folks here's the deal, I'm planning out the finishing stages of the big races coming for the track meet. If you have any splits that you think I am not aware of for this meet I suggest you send them to me in some form asap so that I can set up the race and have as accurate results as possible. Once the results go live there will be no changing the results so keep that in mind. Thank you for your help on this matter.

Also the voting to see who goes to the final four is extremely tight in the early stages here. Everyone needs to keep sending in the votes if their favorite runners are going to move on to the big dance of the final four. After the final four I have decided to make the championship a battle between each of the 4 regional winners, so the 4 runners who win this round will all be in a championship against one another to decide the winner. You will be able to vote for only one of the four.

Now good friends I know that I have been living in the realm outside of reality as of late between brackets and dream races, but today I am going to redabble back in to the realm of the real. I took a look today at teh Track Classic Performance list and was excited to see what is on tap here in the early season.

The boys DMR kicks off the meet and (having run in this race 2 out of my 3 at the meet), I can say that it is usually fairly cold and windy at this point of the day. That being said there is potential here for fast times if people stack up their relays. HGPrep, GFS (just ran under 10:30), Great Valley, Hatboro Horsham, O'Hara, and Spring Ford all could be dangerous with the right squads on the track. However, I see this race will probably develop as just one or two of these schools going hot, and maybe a winning time in the low 10:30s or so.

Worth noting, in the 300mH Futch, Hairston, and Stiles are all entered. These guys are probably looking to run fast times and try to get into Penn for the 400mH so this could be a fun race to watch. Obviously Futch is already in sick shape so if conditions are nice, he may be able to dip into the mid to low 37s which is absurd for March.

In the 4x8 again we have to play guess and check with all those previously mentioned schools entered again and also now in the equation Wissahickon who has potential to maybe surprise if their A team is on the track. One or two of these teams may be looking to tune up their 4x8 guys to run a fast enough time to get into Penn like we did a couple years back so that's something to keep an eye on for teams like Wissahickon who didn't run any crazy fast distance relays indoors but have some solid pieces.

Admittedly, Brooks in the 16 doesn't really support that theory, but you never know.

Speaking of the 16, the field features a few interesting names such as Drew Magaha, who I believe still needs a very quick mile time if he is going to get into Penn. Also on that list of interesting names is the aforementioned Sam Brooks, Billy Wolffe, who just recently anchored his DMR to an indoor state championship, Jim Belfatto from O'Hara, Avery Scripture and Jesse Magolon. Magaha should win if he's healthy, but I wouldn't expect much under 4:20 unless somebody else is ready to gun it out in 2:10. Interested to see if Wolffe has got any mile chops or if he is more of a straight 800 guy like I pegged him at last year.

The 400 features rising star Corey Hackett of Hatboro, Shacor Hamilton of O'Hara, Niager Mathis, Christian Hunter, Demetrius McCary, Jordan May, Bryan Reice, Dave Stellatto and Daryl Worley who all have sub 50 potential for this upcoming race. With this kind of fire power I think low 49s will be what it takes to win and to place top 6 or so you probably will have to be right at 50 point.

The boys 800 features a bit of a surprise for me in the posistion of Sami Aziz jumping to a serious off distance of 800m. Interested to see what he can do in this slot. He's joined by teammate Lyle Wistar, a sub 4:25 indoor 1600m runner. Both guys may be on the double from the DMR or 4x8. Maurice Broadwater, the indoor state medalist, boasts a 1:56.91 fresh new PR from states and should be looking to continue his momentum swing in this race. Joe O'Such is the big sleeper pick here, relatively quiet close to his indoor season, but showed glimpses of big potential in teh winter, so hopefully he can start out this spring with a bang in this 800m field. Lucas Elek another name to keep in mind from the Haverford School.

And finally, after Seykora and Gerlach duel in the girl's race, the guys 3200m should be another great race. O'Hara's entire top 5 from their XC squad is entered to run, a group that includes 3 state finalists in the 3000m indoors, two of which were under 9 flat, and four top 50 finishers at the state meet. Pastore I think is the guy who could surprise with a fast time, Savage and Bilotta are the names everyone knows, but Pastore may be able to mix it up with them. Potential here for four guys under 9:45 in March, which would be quite impressive. But beyond the PCL, the reigning XC state champion Conner Quinn will make his outdoor debut after a quiet indoor season. I don't see anything jaw dropping coming from him, but if he ran in the 9:40s with his life time best only 9:38 it would be a solid day. Meanwhile, his teammate Sam Hibbs will be looking to prove that he is ready to step back out of Quinn's shadow. Hibbs was second at indoor states in the 3k and ran a solid 2 mile at nationals. His finish to his season indoors was one of the strongest of any runner in PA especially compared to his XC finish, which means big things should be on the horizon. I see Hibbs taking down this race, probably right around 9:30 if conditions are decent.

But wait there's more! Ned Willig and Matt Willig, the power duo that helped Great Valley take down an indoor DMR title and a 2nd place finish at Lehigh in XC is ready to make their outdoor debut in the 3200m. Matt Willig, who ran the 800 a lot of indoors, is finally going back to what I think will be his best event, the 3200m. But I have been wrong about what Willig's best event will be before. Which brings me to Ned. Now a year ago, if you told me Ned had run 4:11 in the 1600, I would assume he was under 9 minutes for 3200m, or going to be there soon. But now Ned has become a speed guy with something like 4 trips into the 1:51 range in less than a year. After Henderson last year, I'm just not sure if Ned's head is in the 3200, he may have moved on to the mile and 800 where he has clearly excelled. For that reason I give Hibbs the nod in this race. Matt has a potential for a solid run, anywhere under 9:50 at this point in the season would be great. It's still super early.

Oh and I guess Francis Ferruzzi is in the race too. 8:51 indoor 3k finish was very impressive and he has run solid at this race each of the past two years. Not sure if he is doubling off the DMR again like he has in year's past. All the same, Ferruzzi should be a factor in this race, but I would be surprised to see him anywhere below 9:45. He has had two races (indoor 3k and outdoor Trojan 32) that are serious outliers from the majority of his other races so if the race plays out to his advantage he may be able to swing a 9:30s high, but I don't see this being that kind of race.

As for the day's final event, perhaps a push at the 3:20 barrier is in the making as Pennwood and Wissahickon should toe the line in a rematch of the epic indoor states championship race. Swenson also is throwing their hat back in the ring, not to be left out of the conversation with Hardy (not entered in any individual events that I saw so may not be racing yet) and Mathis as the power legs.