Happy New Year

Better late than never I suppose. Haven't made a post in a while for the usual reasons but rather than waste your time with excuses I'll just get down to business.

I'll start with the District that I know the best, District One Pennsylvania. There are some serious teams emerging as relay threats now that I didn't have on my radar before. We knew about Bensalem and LaSalle (District 12) who I will get to later, but most people were not giving love to the boys at Pennsbury. Pennsbury is developing into a nice squad after a breakout XC season. Had they run states as a team I bet they would have been top 10, District 1 was just stacked this year. Pennsbury ran that nice DMR in the early season and then dropped a very solid 8:05 4x8 relay with a group of guys headlined by I believe two mile-2 mile guys in Harriman and Webb. Those two legs are sick 12 and 16 legs for the DMR. Especially considering that Webb just lowered his open mile to a surprisingly quick 4:30 right behind Ross Wilson. As mentioned in the comments, they capped off their hot start with a sub 11 minute DMR without Harriman and Webb! Very good sign for them. If they keep their legs fresh they will challenge the top teams at states in the DMR. However, they do have to be careful. They started off hot in XC as well and couldn't quite close out the postseason. But I still like this team because their big dogs showed up at states when it counted most as Webb and Harriman were both in the top 14 spots at states.

Other relays emerging are teams like DTWest who ran a nice DMR on a banked track earlier this year as well. Steadman were both strong during XC plus they return some other nice pieces from the 4x8 mix last season. They have potential to stay hot. Great Valley certainly is a threat after their nice early season DMR mark but I still need to see a bit more of their legs as individuals. They have nice pieces but someone needs to step up and become the stud leg for them to take the next step to a top team in the state. And lastly you have to talk about the CRN squad. Zingarini is starting to round into really nice shape for this early in the year. He usually comes on late and does his best work at season's end so to see him mix it up with the LaSalle guys already and finish ahead of Rivera is a nice confidence booster. Plus Wilson has proven he can run a nice mile leg and they ran a sub 11 DMR with two other emerging talents in the 8 and 12 legs. They almost surely won't have a fresh relay squad at states which will hold them back a bit, but they should run a really fast time when they put it all together. Emery is off to a bit of a slow start, but he really didn't come on until outdoors last season when he ran his big 9:11 mark to cap off the year. If he can gain some confidence he is another nice piece for the relay. North Penn may be able to piece together a relay as too can Strath Haven, but the strength of those teams rests on the individuals.

Now on to the big dogs. Although Pennsbury easily boasts the top 4x8 mark this year, Bensalem is quickly emerging as the relay favorite led by big dog Brad Rivera. The Bensalem squad has been running A LOT of races so far this season. It kind of worries me to see them all over the place racing, but I think they are trying to build up their strength to run some crazy doubles at the state championship meet. My early bet is that Bensalem may be thinking about the chance of a team title either indoors or outdoors this year. They have a lot of pieces in that 4-8 range and Francis opened with a pretty solid mile to boot. Rivera is looking really strong, backed by that 1:55 which you have to remember is a really solid time for this early. We were spoiled last year by Willig and Magaha. Rivera could be 1:52 in a fresh 8 at seasons end and that usually leads to a state title.

LaSalle broke out this past weekend. Their 10:33 thrashing of the field was impressive. Not to mention they won the 4x8 going away in 8:30 at the same meet with 4 different guys. Billotta has the early lead on running the 800m leg of the relay as he has come out the gate very strong. With his development this team has 4 strong legs for a 4x8 as well, which may be the direction they choose to go. Stone and Coyle are both in great shape. Coyle, especially looks strong. He would have a shot at winning the mile and 3k this year if he trained specifically for it. Meanwhile Stone has shown great strength, he may opt for the mile this year over the 800m at states. He could probably run 1:52-1:53 by seasons end but that still may be good for only 3rd or 4th or so in that stacked field. In the mile as of now he can sit in and run 4:18 and compete for silver behind his teammate. Plus this would maximize his rest time for the relays. Its still early, but both guys are in great shape.

Of course the guy that jumps to mind for breaking up that 1-2 LaSalle mile bunch is Jack Huemmler, but he has had some little injury bugs here and there which worries me. If he can stay healthy, he is a monster, but he needs to show some consistent races before I rank him ahead of Stone in my mind. Stone is red hot right now after his XC season closed out so well.

The other interesting development will be Henderson who ran two solid 4x8s on a very slow track and had the individual mile champ to boot. This team can obviously put together a good relay but, like LaSalle, they need to get some races under their belt. Still early to say much about what Henderson has. As usual they are playing the cards close to the vest. Should be fun to watch.

Don't count out defending 4x8 champs Pennridge. Joey Logue ran an uncontested 1:57 already this year that absolutely dominated the field. It's better than Rivera's time in my opinion because it was on a flat track in such little competition (of course I think Rivera's 8 may have been on the double from the mile which makes it more impressive than Logue's probably). Logue is showing signs that he can click off a 1:51 at seasons end in the right race once again. He is dangerous and Pennridge has run some nice 4x4s and had some solid individual performances of late: Masgai just ran a 2:03 at Lehigh and Nick Stenderowicz ran 52.03 in the quarter. Not jaw dropping times but with a great anchor and proper peaking this team will compete.

CB East is another team to watch out for. They have had some very underrated DMRs over the year and some solid 4x8s as well. They always seem to fly under the radar but put up very solid times. They have Jake Brophy, the super frosh, but his brother just recently dropped a solid 2:01.83 open 8 behind Harriman. Plus Alec Brand pulled out a great 4:32 SQS mile that was very impressive. That looks like the makings of a great DMR squad.

WC East is also looking strong. They had an XC season that was very impressive where they overcame a lot of doubt from people (like me) and finished the season strong. Diestelow has been very solid this season so far and Cummings had a nice 3k battling with Kevin James who was impressive in his own right as James ran 9:05 to Cummings' 9:06.

Christian Sanders ran 51 high in the open quarter. This is a 16:00 5k runner who continues to show all sorts of range. Don't forget his name.

I want to see Conner Quinn hop in a 3k, he can challenge 9 minutes in the right race. That 2:06 1st place and 4:33 actually impressed me a decent amount. He has never been a speed guy and he has little speed training in his legs so far which means those marks are pretty impressive for him this early. Watch out.

Chris Berry is a monster in the 3k this year, his Burdette win was impressive. Running that time this early is very nice. He still needs to work a bit on the shorter stuff. In a championship race, its going to go out in the low 4:30s. He didn't break 4:35 this past weekend. But Berry's 3k mark is great.

Will McDermott is also starting off strong with a very impressive mark. His 8:52 flat track would have been good for about 5th last year at indoor states when you convert the mark. He had Berry to work off but you still have to run the race even in perfect conditions and he did just that. Those marks for him and Berry are both very quick for this early. I hope they can keep progessing.

On a side note did anyone notice the D2 TFCAofGP DMR? Those results look sick! Tight race all around with some solid teams in there as well.

Also how about the nice 1:57 mark by Cheltenham's John Lewis? This guy is a true 4-8 kinda guy. If he develops enough strength he could be scary in the 800m down the line.

Hopefully I didn't forget much. Solid mark by Abert in there as well, I'd like to see him move up and try a 3k though.

Lastly, keep the comments coming they have been awesome! I read all of them! And we are going to try and have our first show posted up on the blog after next weekends action so if you have viewer questions for us than post them up Saturday after the races are done and we will do our best to talk about what you want to hear about.

Sweet.