March Madness: Meet Recaps

Just to remind you about some of the races we have to vote on out here today I typed up some summaries. I'll continue to update this throughout the day as I have time.

1 XC States AAA 2012 (Sean)
In the first state meet to ever have three classes, AAAs talent pool was still incredibly deep. Out front Tony Russell used a well timed move to easily out run the field over the final mile, pulling away from the group to finish in a new course record time of 15:45. Behind him was where things got interesting as one of the most competitive team title races in state history unfolded. O'Hara and Henderson each had three medalists and had their entire scoring 5 inside the top 50 at the state meet. But in the end, for the second straight year, O'Hara missed out on the state championship in a tie breaker, as Henderson's 6th man was also in the top 50 at the mean. Both teams scored an incredibly low 69 points. The individual race out front was deep behind Russell with 5 total guys at 16 flat or better and 27 guys at 16:30 or better. 22nd the previous year was 16:31.

8 Indoor States 4x8 2013 (Sean)
See Below

4 NBIN 4xMile 2013 (Sean)
PA started out the 4xMile race on the right foot, as CRN dominated the first field behind power closing legs Mac Emery and James Zingarini (solo sub 4:20 effort). Unfortunately  in this deep field CRN ended up finishing 9th. It was still an extremely impressive mark. In the fast heat the boys from O'Hara showed no fear mixing it up with defending NE Regional champions CBA. Kevin James, Ernie Pitone and Dan Savage gave the first 3 legs for CBA all they could handle, all running great mile times. Lurking behind was WC Henderson with solid legs out of Barchet and Collins they climbed back into it when Tony Russell got the baton. For O'Hara it was Jim Belfatto and for CBA it was Tommy Rooney. Russell put on a huge charge to make up the massive gap to the leaders and ultimately came up just short of beating out CBA in the final kick, running a 4:11 anchor split for the full mile. Belfatto of O'Hara dropped a massive PR as well, keeping O'Hara hanging tough and finishing third. The marks for Henderson and O'Hara are both in the top 10 ever for the indoor 4xMile.

5 Outdoor States AAA 1600m 2012 (Sean)
The hype going into the race centered around Upper Moreland's defending champ and state meet record holder Drew Magaha, but things drastically changed early in the race. For the second time in Magaha's state careeer, he struggled, sickly around the track for an above 5 minute mile. He had mono the season before and it caught up to him in the intense heat. Between the Magaha sickness and the Willig injury, the doors were wide open for a new state champion and Jack Huemmler charged to the front early to try and take down the title. He did most of the work as a tough field of runners battled behind him. Alex Moran broke away from the pack to push the pace and he pulled Tom Coyle of LaSalle along with him. In the end, it was Coyle's massive kick that would break the other two and give him his first state title in a blazing 4:11.97. Huemmler was second in 4:12 and Moran 3rd in 4:14. The last 5 medal spots were decided by about a second.

6 Briarwood XC Invitational 2012 (Sean)
In the early XC season, we don't often get to see two future national finalists battling head to head. Nor do we usually get a preview of the state and regional team championship races. But we did at the Briarwood Invite. Tony Russell and Brendan Shearn battled it out over the grueling Briarwood course to some of the fastest times ever run on its trials, both were clocked at 15:41 and only Brendan's epic sprint to the finish could beat out Russell right at the very end. The finish itself was too close to call, but Russell valiantly called out the result and gave the win to Shearn. O'Hara took 4-5-6 behind Russell's big time performance outfront and took the team title on that day over Henderson. The field featured a ton of future state medalists (9) and two guys who just missed the cut (26th and 27th) with a slew of national qualifiers and a future All American (Reiny Barchet).

3 800m Henderson Distance Festival 2012 (Sean)
When 10th place in an 800m after states is over is 1:56.16, you know the race is good. Up front the race was very quick with teammates Tom Coyle and Andrew Stone out front hammering away. The two were big names on the track scene with Coyle just coming off his first state gold. But both guys didn't see the speedy sophomore from Pennridge coming up behind them. Joe Logue outkicked the field in route to a massive 1:51 PR. Coyle was also under 1:52 and Stone and indoor state champ Haneef Hardy were in the 1:52 range. Ben Ritz dropped a 1:54 in the race as well. The top 3 PA runners and 4 of the top 5 PA runners are back this year.

7 WPIAL XC Championships 2011 (Sean)
How many district titles do you know that have been won in about 17 minutes? How about how many WPIAL titles? Logan Steiner, who would go on to finish 5th at states the following week, treked through the mud, rain, wind and cold on his way to his first WPIAL XC individual title for North Allegheny. Because of the horrible conditions, he ran a 17:04 mark. He beat out Andrew Kuchta and Mike Runco for the win who were each within a few seconds of Steiner and his kick. In the team title race, Steiner's NA team beat Mt. Lebanon for the first time all season. And they beat them big, dropping a stunning turn around from the week before to take another XC titlte in the WPIAL. Kiski Area beat out Fox Chapel by just 10 points for the final state spot.

2 Jack Armstrong 800m 2012 (Sean)
Mono sucks. But apparently nobody told Drew Magaha. In the most impressive one month turnaround in state history, Magaha went from struggling to get through the indoor season to running an amazingly fast roughly 3 second PR of 1:48.82 to take down the state record in a race he won by roughly 6 seconds on April 20th, over a month before he had to be in peak shape for states and just a month after he was finally getting back to consistent training. Behind him were the past indoor state champions in the 800m: Brad Rivera (1:54.09) and Haneef Hardy (1:56) who Magaha destroyed en route to the record.

1 4x800m Outdoor States 2012 (Forrest)
The 4x8 is always the glamour event of the PA state championships outdoors, and at the 2012 meet we got see an epic rivalry culminated in the most dramatic way. Cumberland Valley and Chambersburg were both Mid Penn rivals throughout the year trading off wins at various big meets. When it came time to see who would take the state championship, both squads were on top of their games. The race culminated in an epic anchor leg between CV and Chambersburg as well as D1 champs Bensalem and indoor state champs Pennridge. The anchor legs of Ryun Holder, Alec Kunzweiler, Joe Logue and Brad Rivera all ran blazing splits while Kunzweiler and Holder were both clocked at 1:51. Kunzweiler out-leaned Holder in a dramatic finish to take down Gold for CV.

8 District One XC Championships 2012 (Forrest)
See Below

4 800m Indoor States 2012 (Forrest)
The field was wide open at the 2012 Indoor state championsips when everyone toed the line to run the 800m. No one came into the race with anything blazing fast, but everyone left with something. Haneef Hardy finished the race out front in 1:53 leading against a slew of up and comers including Ryun Holder, Ryan Horgan and Andrew Stone. The race was tight throughout but Hardy ultimately pulled off the upset with his superior speed reigning supreme. The race featured 4 under 1:55 and Will Baily was 1:55 right behind.

5 A XC States 2012 (Forrest)
Rico Galassi burst out to the early lead in the first ever A XC state championship. He left the field chasing him over the course and never looked back. Towards the end of the race it seemed like he was slowing down and that Luke Jones would take down the title. But Galassi managed to hold him off over the final straightaway in an epic 1 second finish for the state title. Galassi was under 16 minutes on the challenging states course.

6 AA XC States 2011 (Forrest)
In a field filled with a slew of quality Juniors, there was a slew of jockeying for position through the first 2 miles with a multitude of runners jumping to the front. The large pack spread out over the final mile as Brendan Shearn launched into his finishing stretch to take down the title over the late surge of Luke Jones. Only 6 of the top 30 finishers were Seniors.

3 Yale Invite 800m 2012 (Forrest)
After an impressive DMR anchor leg for Great Valley, Ned Willig came back the next day with one goal in mind: the 800m state record. Willig went to the front and dominated the field winning by over 4 seconds in a blazing fast 1:51.25.

7 Carlisle XC Invitational 2012 (Forrest)
Coming Soon

2 Indoor States 3k 2013 (Forrest)
The indoor states 3000m was the deepest in meet history with an amazing 8 guys under 8:43, all times converting to close to 9:20 for 3200m. Ross Wilson and Tony Russell (on tired legs) combined to force a gutsy pace through the start of the race, stringing out the nearly 20 man field. Ultimately the pack slowly began to shrink until Max Norris unleashed a sub 30 second sprint to the finish to win the race in the 3rd fastest time in PA history with an 8:28.93.

1 NXN Northeast Regional (RJJL)
For the first time in state history, PA took the top spot at the Nike Regional Championships as Tony Russell dominated his second straight championship. To put icing on the cake his teammate Reiny Barchet crossed the line second to give Henderson a 1-2 finish at the meet and a memorable picture to go with it. Ultimately, this finish led to a national qualifying bid for Henderson. Behind them the O'Hara pack was doing work as their top 5 guys worked together to nab second place in the region behind solid races from Kevin James, Dan Savage and Ernie Pitone outfront with a breakout performance from Jim Belfatto to seal the deal.

8 Penn Relays DMR 2011 (RJJL)
See Below

4 800m Indoor States 2013 (RJJL)
We had seen some fast 800m races in the past at the indoor state meet, but never had we seen an 800m race quite as deep as this one. Out front Brad Rivera took the race from the gun and let everyone battle it out behind him. As the race moved on, the kickers behind Rivera winded up to go after him, but ultimately Brad held strong and powered through to the finish line in a top 5 PA time all time, running 1:52.43. He was followed by a spectacular 3 more guys under 1:54 and two more under 1:56. The marks of 2-4 are good enough to compete for the win most years indoors and were all massive indoor PRs including 2nd place finisher Christian Sanders who ran 1:53.5 to drop his PR by roughly 7 seconds in two weeks.

5 3200m Pre-Regionals @ Henderson 2012 (RJJL)
Was it a track race or a cross country race? Time trial or full out brawl? It's hard to say for sure exactly how to classify this race, but it certainly had some fast marks. Out front Tony Russell hammered away the pace and ran a massive PR of 9:16. He was bested only by GFS's Sami Aziz who ran 9:14. Behind this group out front were a slew of guys under the 9:30 mark including the biggest surprise of all, Jim Belfatto, who beat out all of his O'Hara teammates en route to a school record in the event. He had been their 5th man at XC states and had never run a serious two mile even close to that 9:22 mark he ran that day. He was, and maybe still is, at 800m runner.

6 District 10 XC Championships 2012 (RJJL)
It was a muddy, horrible day at the District 10 championships, but it was also a day for Austin Pondel and Dan Jaskowak to decide who would be the best runner in the District. Although they were in different classes (AA and AAA) the two toed the line against one another in a combined race. Both runners pulled away from the field and finished in a dead sprint to run 16:23 apiece. Ultimately it was Jaskowak who was awarded the narrow victory in a very epic environment at the district championships.

3 AAA XC States 2011 (RJJL)
In one of the most wide open individual races in recent memory, a slew of underclassmen and upperclassmen toed the line with championship aspirations. Drew Magaha came in as the pre-race favorite after his big district one win but it was another speed man, Tom Coyle who would charge to the front and try and keep things fast. Coyle led the pack, but there were plenty of runners still around at 2 miles. Ultimately, it was Conner Quinn, considered by many coming into the season the second best Quinn and second best Horsham runner, who bested the field over the final mile and held off Dan Jaskowak of Grove City en route to one of the most stunning upsets in state meet history. Couple that with one of the most stunning team title wins in state meet history. North Penn, after finishing 3rd at Districts the week before, came back to stun everyone by beating out the favorites, O'Hara, on a 6th man tie breaker. Jack Macauley, Dan Davis and Chris Trimble led the way for North Penn in the 132-132 score. The race was unbelievable close with as many as 5 teams that had a realistic shot to win the meet.