Taking a Moment

In the coming weeks I am going to be talking a lot about the guys who really stepped it up in the past few weeks to make states and are now medal contenders and stuff like that. All the buzz is going to be around those state qualifying teams and things like that and it is going to be exciting for the blog to discuss all these things fairly in depth. 

However, for right now I just want to mention some of the key performances this year that, unfortunately, were not quite good enough to get a team to states.

I want to start with West Chester East's squad. I'm hoping that this isn't the end of the line for them and they can squeak into the DMR picture, but it was a long indoor season of fighting tough and near misses. Diestelow had a hard double at MOCs and Henderson and put it all on the line to try and get his team to states, even if it meant sacrifices individual goals. Cummings ran a slew of great 3ks this year and although he came up short he still proved himself as a track stud to go along with his XC credentials. Then you can't overlook Trey Crump who lowered his indoor mile PR all the way down to 4:33.43 this past weekend. Solid mark for him and a great PR run even if it was a heartbreakingly close miss for states.

Still talking about that mile, great runs by Adam Bodine and Jacob Pearlman. Bodine was just .02 off states and Pearlman was just .04 off the mark. Agonizingly close for those two and my heart breaks for them. However, both times are massive season bests for these two individuals. Pearlman really surprised me coming out to MOCs and setting this kind of mark. He is only a sophomore and that makes him scary for outdoors and XC moving forward. Remember the name.

Great running this year by Matt Greco. Coming off a collapsed lung he really went for it at MOCs. Tough to miss out on states, but a great run for a guy who is just getting healthy. 

In the middle of the state great running by Jordan Crawford and Cole Nissley this year. Unfortunately, it didn't all perfectly click to get these guys the state mark but they both had solid seasons and improved a lot. They should be looking forward to outdoors. 

Out west, it was a great season for the North Allegheny boys. Its surprising to know that none of them qualified for states given the talent they have, but it wasn't for a lack of trying. Restricted TSTCA meets made things tough on them. Cordon Luoco had a few very close calls in the mile, including a .2 second miss this past weekend. Zemet and McGoey ran a slew of solid 3ks, but couldn't quite hit the qualifier.

Great work by everyone this indoor season. A lot of PRs and a lot of fast times. Looking forward to getting a performance list and predicting states.