Talking Some Track

So I've been writing a paper for the past like forever and although I still have a bunch to do, I probably have more to catch up on here on the blog so let's see if I can get in a little recap stuff now and then maybe some Penn Relays talk a little later on.

Warning: I'm a big fan of the words sick and solid. Be prepared for me to use them.

Let's start things off at Central Dauphin in District 3. Cumberland Valley continues to be the class of the state right now in the 4x8 as they are undefeated on the season in the relay and have dominated with their consistency. They ran a few seconds faster at this time than they did a year ago (7:58.06 last year) running 7:56.27 for a meet record. Right behind was State College with a 7:58. Kunzweiler split a 1:55 is what I've heard, I don't know how close he and Cather were when they got the stick, but I have seen some pictures of them close to one another. The strength of CV is their back two legs, State College looks much more balanced on paper anyway. It's a good sign for State College if they can hang tough with CV, it will be interesting to throw teams like Bensalem into the equation. Red Lion had a solid day as did CD and LD, LD using their big 2 mile guns at 8:11. CD was 8:10 and Red Lion was 8:08.

Kunzweiler and Coburn continued to roll running 1:54 and 4:22 respectively to win by 5 and 9 seconds respectively. Kunzweiler's 800 time is pretty amazing to me, I didn't think he was quite that sharp, especially basically soloing that mark on the double (I assume it was on the double anyway). He keeps his name in the mix for a state title outdoors in the individual 800m, although that field is very impressive right now. Jeff Groh and Cole Nissley stole the show in the 3200m, running 9:28 and 9:35. Groh is looking very sharp right now, he had some bad luck in XC, otherwise he would be a well known name by now. I'd love to see him mix it up in a 2 mile with some of the best guys in the state and see how well he can hang in there. Solid race for Conrad-Kline of Palmyra as well in 9:42.

Now let's move out West. At the Butler Invite, we saw a match up featuring a pair of XC studs, Brent Kennedy and Ethan Martin, but this time it was Martin who came away victorious running 9:28 to Kennedy's 9:29. It was a great win for Martin who also won the 16 in 4:22 over Dan Jaskowak. Martin had a killer double to win the 32 on his second race of the day. Really impressed that he could beat a fresh Kennedy with tired legs. Kennedy is in great shape as well, it will be interesting to see what his team decides to try and run at states with a solid 4x8 potentially. Austin Pondel back in the results again with a 9:41 just behind Colin Martin who we will see at Penn, who ran 9:38. Caleb Wakeley is also back among the leaders with a 9:44, nice to see him back in the mix. Jaskowak doubled off his 4:24 with a solid win in 1:57 for 800m. Kevin Reno may be a sleeper pick down the line, he dropped a 1:58 chasing.

Out to District One we go. Wiseman ran a sick 48.94 in the open 4 to win against some really quality individuals. But surprisingly he wasn't the most impressive 800m guy of the weekend. Joe Logue won the individual 8 in 1:53.06 and followed up his 1500m mark well. Logue will be very interesting at the Penn Relays. I like that he has expanded his range from a 4-8 guy to now a miler and XC stud. That kind of range should make him dangerous by season's end. Behind Logue was the LaSalle duo, Stone at 1:54 and Coyle at 1:55. Very similar marks to what they ran last year, but likely a slower pace this time around. Interesting to see the same 3 studs from the distance festival a year ago back at it.

The real breakout perfomers came from behind this group. Stud runs from Christian Hunter (1:56.21) and Charlie Hoyt (1:57.96) neither of whom I had been counting among the top 800m guys in the state. Splitting those two were the boys from O'Hara Jim Belfatto (1:56.67) and Jimmy Boyle (1:57.17). O'Hara is looking scary good. They have the DMR at Penn to look forward to with a slew of stud guys on that relay, but their 4x8 for outdoors is beginning to shape up really well. Belfatto, Boyle, and Smart are all in the 1:57s or faster thus far open. The talk by this blog (mostly from me) has been about CV and Bensalem but O'Hara is looking really strong right now. If they piece together a 4th leg they will be set.

Speaking of 4x8s how about the ones at this meet? 8:03 for DT East and then Upper Darby at 8:06 with the other UD right behind in 8:07. These are all very solid teams, I'm a big Caldwell fan. North Penn was in the mix as well with their 8:07 and Abington ran an 8:07 as well. It will be interesting to see how these teams progress and who will be the studs by states.

In the 1600m we saw a nice win for Francis Ferruzzi in 4:25. He has developed some solid speed, he split a 1:58 to anchor the UD 4x8 as well. Watson Hanson from Radnor is representing the Radnor boys well with a 4:25 of his own. Radnor has some really underrated guys on their squad. Brendan Billotta continues to be really solid. He has got to be one of the best runners to be left off a DMR squad in a while. Just shows how strong LaSalle is this year. They could probably qualify a 4x8 for states without Stone and Coyle and still mix it up well. Maybe a leg or two away from medal contention without their two best guys. Wow. The PCL has got some good teams. Bonner is in that talk as well with a 10:37, would like to see McDermott's name in some results though, a tiny  bit worried about his health just because I haven't seen his name for a while.

Now I'm going to throw out some other solid performances and names worth noting.

Harrison Schettler ran 9:33 for a solid mark in a pretty dominating win. Schettler ran 4:18 a year ago and has a real solid crew behind him that may be able to put together a very dangerous 4x8 down the line. Not 7:45 dangerous but they had two guys around 2 flat in the open 4:35 miler and Schettler. Could probably run sub 8 by year's end without much problem. Brehm won both races easily including a 1:56. Hard to remember the guy is only a sophomore. He could come on very strong down the stretch like a year ago and has some solid D3 competitors to race with. Hershey an easy 8:10 win. That 4x8 may be interesting down the line. They got into Penn from that race.

Ever heard of Aaron Gebhardt? Will write down his name right now. The kid is going to be good. He is just a sophomore, but he soloed a 9:34 mark already this year. He was also in the top 30 at XC states this past year. He is a gamer and a youngster who definitely is going to make some noise this year, especially considering that D3 gets a lot of states spots in the 32 and the race should be fairly wide open.

NA is rounding into form. McGoey and Zemet take a 1-2 finish in 9:33 and 9:34. McGoey is really looking good. I think he can drop a lot of time in the right race. I like this sophomore's potential as well. Zemet is solid for sure, we know he can run with the best of them after his XC states performance.

Luke Jones very quietly getting his name back out there with a double gold of 4:27 and 9:46. Will be interesting to watch him begin to round into form and see how he matches up in a deep AA field.

Tony Russell leads a time trial of sorts for Henderson with his 1:58 win. The real story may be Moy who ran a 1:58 behind Russell and is rounding into great form to run the key 800m leg on the Henderson DMR at Penn considering that Chaborek seems to be a scratch at this point.

A lot of interesting stories at Penn as well as perhaps the greatest DMR battle in state history! I'm really excited to see what goes down.