Weekend Action

First thing is first here folks. Drew Magaha. Amazing. An animal. My roommate has mono right now and to think than in a month he could times that he never before dreamed of is beyond me. Magaha looks unbeatable right now seeing as it is only April and he already has broken a legendary state record in the 800m from Tom Mallon and my former coach Paul Vandegrift. Obviously Willig came back this weekend as well and that's a good sign. He could have easily split like a 1:51. But no one will care. Its all about Magaha right now, and quite frankly it should be. To cruise to this kind of time with this limited of training tells met that the sky is the limit for Drew. He may pass on the mile at states to win the 8 if he doesn't feel like he is in good enough shape to do the double. He still hasn't thrown down anything since his 4:07 that makes me at all impressed about his mile credentials. But if the 800 time is any indication, I can't imagine Ned having any sort of shot of being him at states. Ned's awesome. You ask me at the end of indoors, I would have said Drew has a long way to go to just get close to Ned. But he has already covered that distance and more, while Ned has not advanced his cause. Wow is all I have to say. This blew my mind. Major props to Drew.

Needless to say I have to update my list now.

But that's enough about that, on to the rest of the performances that people should also pay a lot of attention to. Plenty of other great performances this past weekend, and I'm not talking about Josh Elkan's 54 4x4 split because none of you know who that is but that was pretty darn impressive in it's own right.

At the Abington invite, it was a nice bounce back race for Brad Rivera who also helped Bensalem rocket a 3:21 4x4 and an 8:05 4x8. Very nice looking triple for the guy. A let down for Haneef Hardy who managed only a 1:56, but still has time to turn things around.

Its getting to be Penn Relays time and although Bensalem made a nice push to be kept in the back of everyone's mind at Penn, you should also remember the boys from Downingtown West. Alex Jenkins explodes for a 1:54.84 (second to a nice time for Steve Yannocane who ran just lower in the 1:54s and is obviously doing very well for himself, but won't get any more of a mention here because I'm talking about DT West, but I definitely think he should run the mile soon because he'd be fast), and Leidal drops a 1:56 in pursuit. Meanwhile Chris Graham also finds a big PR and runs 1:57. Down the results a ways you can see Quinn Devlin inching closer to ready to go mode with that 4:27 and Ryan Markle, their not yet mentioned 4th leg from indoors, ran about 3 seconds under his seed time in the 16, so he is also making solid improvements.

Never heard of Garton from Perk Valley but a very nice run for him at 1:57.0, that's under the SQS. Nice run for the GFS boys who are running very solid right now in the 16. Also good to see Tony Russell back. He and Chaborek should go nicely with those two 2:01ish guys in the open 8 and maybe scare 8 minutes in the 4x8 at Penn.

Great Valley 7:53. Fast for sure. Splits? And order at Penn? Then we can talk specifics. Haven nice SMR. 4x8 should be interesting at Penn.

Hey, have you heard of this kid Dan Jaskowak? Another big win at 800m! 1:56.99 to beat out Ryan Smathers. Both runners also dueled in the 1600m earlier pushing Jaskowak to a 4:17. Both look very strong, but Jaskowak continues to run superior than everyone else he has competed against and is looking like a real state contender at any of the distance races he chooses to focus on.

Nice day for CV in the open 8 with Kunzweiler and Soliman delivering nice times. Holder obviously still a force. Coburn a pretty solid 1600. All those races must have come on the double from the 4x8 as well which makes them more impressive.Strynkowski back to killing it with that runner up finish, looking poised to break out in the near future. Replogle and Moutain continue to run studly, but this is nothing we haven't seen from them the last few weeks. Bigger race for Strynkowski in my mind. Great 4x8s for both squads out front. Chambersburg will be in the mid 7:40s at states and so too should Cumberland Valley. I want to watch Holder and Kunzweiler drop a sick split side by side sometime soon. Maybe districts. Both could definitely hit 1:53s. Nice win for Todaro over Mountain (who had a nice double after being beaten in that 32).

Big kicker win for Baily over Moran and Culley (nice race, XC potential starting to come out perhaps). Moran still kind of streaky with his wins and losses (admittedly did double with the 4x8 which influences things), but hopefully will round into form at the right time. Baily I don't think can run outrageously fast in the 16. He wins when it is slow and he can kick, but its tough to imagine him laying down a 4:15 anytime soon. May be wrong, but I think his future will be in the 800 where he can definitely run 1:53 in the open race at WPIALs.

Curt Jewett did the AA crew proud with a very solid 4:24-9:33 double gold. Aaron Valoroso and Luke Jones also ran great sub 9:40 performances. Combined with Tallada's 9:42 it was a very nice weekend for the AA boys in the 32. Josef Di also got the double win in the distance delight 16-32. Sorry Luke Munyan I think I just butchered your saying, but I tried.

Whose Jon Harper? Yeah I don't know either, but a nice 4:21 1600m for the win. And oh yeah, Tunkhannock is a big sleeper pick in the 4x8. Returning a 1:55ish guy and having 2 guys under 2 in the open and Ben Robinson at 4:21 already this year. They could surprise as things go on.

That's all I got for now. Live it up.