800m Recap

Brad Rivera went wire to wire to win this race. In a field with some of the best kicks in the business Rivera toasted everyone on the last lap after leading through 600m. And Rivera's mark is no slouch of a time either. He became just the fourth person ever to run under 1:53 at the indoor state championships and his time, I believe, is PA #5 All Time behind former state record holders Paul Vandegrift, Tom Mallon, Wade Endress and current record holder Ned Willig. His time of 1:52.43 is also a roughly 1.5 second PR from his old PR, an open mark as a sophomore at districts. Clearly, Rivera proved his front running style can work. If he stays healthy, he can go the route of Vandegrift and Mallon and break 1:50, if not he will likely end up more like Endress and Willig who never quite eclipsed their indoor dominance.

Behind Rivera, Christian Sanders launched an unprecedented run to a second place finish. His time of 1:53.5 was a massive 5 second PR. He went from being a relative nobody who couldn't break 2 minutes to a 16 flat 5k runner with the potential to run under 50 seconds in the quarter. Clearly untapped talent out of Upper Merion. This drop is unlike anything I have ever personally seen. Hardy last year had a sizable PR to run his 1:53, but he had 1:55 credentials before that. When Mallon ran 1:51 indoors, his season best to that point was 1:57, however his overall PR was 1:52. There is no one that I can find in my research that made the jump from 2 flat to 1:53 in roughly 2 weeks when he has never broke 2 before in his life. At least indoors. Hong Cho during his Junior year was one of the closest. He ran 2:00 or so indoors and went outdoors and by seasons end was down to 1:53. Of course this was over a much longer period than 2 weeks. Same goes for Sam Ellison who dropped from 2 flat to 1:52 over the course of indoors and outdoors his senior year. To drop so much time in so little time is an amazing achievement. What a sleeper pick he turned out to be.

Now Sanders run was also impressive because he managed to outkick two of the best kickers in the field in Jeff Wiseman and Joe Logue (both of whom will be back next year to defend their title). Logue seemed to just run out of time to catch Rivera, Rivera was way too strong on the last lap for Logue to kick him down and I imagine after watching that unfold he was a little too morally defeated to really kick it home the last 50m where he was caught by Wiseman and Sanders. It is a great run for Wiseman here, that is a roughly 1 second overall PR for him and he drops 5 seconds or so from his mark a week ago. Logue has a 1:51 PR but his 1:53 mark is still a roughly 3 second indoor PR. He will come back outdoors hungry and may make a push for a PA #1 time at Nats. I'd love to see him and Rivera mix it up with the Nations best and try and push towards a 1:51 mark.

For Kunzweiler his 1:55 low mark is actually very promising. It's significantly faster than he was racing at this meet a year ago and sets him up nicely for outdoors. We know that he has 1:51 ability. We know that Logue has 1:51 ability. And after watching this state field I think we can add at least 3 more guys to the group with 1:51 ability. Throw in Coyle and Stone and maybe even Huemmler and the state is the deepest over 800m it has ever been.

Shawn Wolfe ran a really solid race in 1:55 as well. He was a sleeper pick of mine, but I thought he would likely get swallowed up in such a fast final. He held his own and it paid off. He will be one of the favorites for AA state champion going outdoors. This was his first really competitive 800m with guys of this caliber. With a few more races against this kind of competition we could see even more of a breakout from him.

Will Cather and Lucas Elek each won their slow heats and unfortunately had a little bit too little push to really  fight for a top medal spot. I really like Elek, I think he is a tough, gutsy runner and I hope the best for him outdoors. He isn't in the PIAA so I don't know how many fast times we will see out of him. Hopefully he comes out to a couple Henderson meets or something and can run in a fast race. As for Cather he is the class of D6 now after that race (also coming off sickness, we saw how much that can affect a runner) dropping a 1:56 PR. His best event in my mind is still the mile, but things can come together for the state college 4x8 which should likely adjust his state schedule.

Now all that being said, let's look ahead to outdoors.

On the AA side we have guys like Shawn Wolfe and Dan Alexander at the top of the field. Both guys have solid PRs and good state experience. Smathers on the double from the 1600m has the potential to mix it up as well.

The AAA race should be stacked. Obviously you have guys like Logue, who will likely be fresh for the open 800m outdoors joined by Wiseman and Sanders who both bested him this year at states. All three of those guys I expect to have fresh legs and be ready to keep the pace quick. Then Rivera and Kunzweiler will have their hands full, both being in the double from what should be an exciting 4x8 race at the beginning of the day. Kunzweiler doubled very well last year so that is positive. I'm a little bit more nervous about Rivera, especially if he is going to lead this pace from the gun.

And looking to outdoors we can't count out Andrew Stone who has run a slew of excellent 800m over the years and just had a bit of an off day at states. Perhaps getting bumped around as much as he did at Lehigh the week before was draining to him. He and Coyle both seemed at least a tiny bit off, but outdoors I anticipate both being in killer shape if they stay healthy. Stone has a strong kick and could mix it up well with this field. Sub 1:50 at states outdoor for the winner of the race is a definite possibility.

And there are a bunch of guys who we can't overlook that may be ready to mix it up with this group. First is someone like Cather, although I think after the 4x8 he may not be ready to go down around the 1:53 mark that it will take to be competitive in this race. There is also AJ Chaborek who carried Henderson to a 2nd place finish on the 4x8 and boasts 1:53 relay splits in the past. He would be very dangerous on fresh legs against this field, although Henderson may consider throwing a 4x8 together for outdoors.

A few other relay legs could take that next step with fresh legs as well. Liam O'Connell from Pennsbury, Rob Simmons from CRN, Colin Meyers from Penncrest, Jim Belfatto from O'Hara and Kyle Francis from Bensalem all have breakout ability (Francis split a 1:54 at states by my watch). Likely, all these guys will opt for the 4x8 and that may limit them from being really competitive with the top of this field. Jack Magee may be a sleeper here too, although I think he is better off in the 16.

Lastly, we can not leave out someone like Steve Yannacone, the reigning D1 champion over 800m. If he gets healthy by outdoors he will be ready to roll and kick with the leaders of this field. Also someone like Ken Leidal (who I apologize for leaving out of the 1600m talk) could surprise in this field. Obviously, more of a miler but he boasts a 1:56 PR from a year ago. Dave Garton and Avery Scripture both ran excellent marks a year ago outdoors and may surprise looking ahead. I like Billy Caldwell's potential as well, he looked very strong on the double at MoCs. Dylan Wihoite is also a guy who can compete. Will Bailey last year was just one in a long line of talented Penn Hills 800m runners. Bailey certainly proved to be one of the best with a state title, but what is to stop Wihoite from busting out a 1:53 by outdoors.

There is a ton of depth in this field, especially looking ahead to outdoors and I am very excited to see what kind of times it takes to get into the finals and on to the medal stand at states.