Gearing Up for the Postseason

Ladies and gents, its hard to believe that we are just a few short weeks away from the PTFCA indoor state championship. As expected, the past few weeks have shown us a drastic increase in the number of sub-2's, sub 4:30's, and sub 9:10's. If this recap post seems rather short, its probably because

A.) The number of meets across the state starts to decrease a little as we get closer to the postseason

B.) I'm in the process of putting most of my time towards a full state cutoff list, hopefully with projected scratches if I assemble it the right way, so keep your eyes peeled for that in the coming weeks.

Let's take a look at some of our big times thrown down from both sides of the state this past weekend!

Ohio High School Indoor Preview Meet:

Without a doubt, the best performances from this weekend came from Pittsburghers that headed out to Ohio to race on the oversized SPIRE facility's track.

The event of the weekend was the 800 in this very meet. Although Blake Lucius (OH) took the win in a blazing 1:54, PA took 2nd-6th in this race, with all five athletes breaking 2:00 and hitting the SQS. Leading the way was none other than Seneca Valley senior Seth Ketler coming in for a PA #3 1:56.24. The DMR picture is still very unknown for both Seneca Valley, and the entire state. For someone as talented as Seth Ketler, it'd be surprisingly difficult to gauge where he'd finish if he opted to run the 800 at states. Having spent so much time on relay duty, he has very limited experience in open events at track state championships. He comfortably made it through to the 800m finals last spring, before getting caught up in the unfortunate fall that took out a few key guys in the race. With time running out for Seneca Valley to throw a DMR together, I'm going to operate under the assumption that we can include Ketler in this 800 field (even with a DMR, he could still very well pull an 800/DMR double), and throw him in as a contender. With a lot of these guys having loads of experience in championship 800's (Endres, Eissler, Hoey, Shue, etc.), I don't think Ketler quite has the wheels to win this thing, but he's a sure threat for a top 5 finish.

The next big name dipping under 2 was Jonah Powell coming up with a solid race in 1:58. Powell doesn't really run the 8 all that often, and is almost guaranteed to be running the mile at PSU in a few weeks. Nonetheless, its always pretty cool to see an XC state champ showoff some seriously kickass range. The mile field is quickly growing into a group of guys who have amassed tons of track medals, but have yet to snag the elusive gold (Wirth, Shue, Powell, Twomey, Anderson), making this my personal favorite of the fields being assembled.

CJ Thimons couldn't quite beat his seasonal PR (1:59.04), but another sub 2 performance from the junior shows he's developing consistency, which is always a huge trait to have when heading into the postseason.

The last two guys under the 2:00 barrier were Chartiers Valley's Elias Zajicek and Upper Saint Clair's Chris Hess. For both guys, this was far from their first time breaking 2, but it was the first time doing it indoors for both athletes. Despite being separated by only 0.3 seconds, I would say that Zajicek is safely into the field, while Hess may have to do some hoping as we still have meets such as the TSTCA and TFCAofGP championship meets left. (Wow a state cutoffs list would be so convenient to have at this point! Its coming, I promise.)

In the mile at SPIRE, Greensburg Salem put up debatably the best team performance of 2019 so far. The well established trio went out and dropped times of 4:22-4:24-4:26, with Cameron Binda leading the way. I really didn't appreciate how insane this was until I had some time to reflect on it. Last year, only TWO teams had 3 guys under 4:27, and that was OUTDOOR. Those two programs were LaSalle (XC state champs) and Owen J Roberts (had 2x state champ Liam Conway and a 4x8 qualify for Penn Relays). For Greensburg Salem to pull this off indoor, as a AA school, should put into perspective how impressive this is. Obviously on paper, if this team were to run a DMR, its hard to argue that they aren't favorites with these 3 pieces. Of course, it takes a lot to have everything click in a relay, and we aren't even guaranteed to see these guys try it in the next week or two. Both Binda twins and Mark Brown are all legitimate medal threats in the mile if they were to go all in on the event. Chris Hess's teammate, Alex Shaw, also threw down a very solid mile, coming away with an SQS mark of 4:28.

TFCAofGP Meet #8:

Division 1-
Unsurprisingly, it was mostly the LaSalle show in the early morning section at Lehigh this past weekend. The army picked up wins in the 800 and mile from Ghantous and Koors, was a lean away from winning the 3k with Twomey, and casually threw down an 8:20 4x8 under the SQS. I sound like a broken record player saying this, but the question is, while we know how deep this team is, do they have the firepower to win anything at states? That question still remains unanswered, but one thing is clear, and that is that LaSalle looks really good.

Speaking of Twomey getting 2nd, it was an awesome race between him and Tyler Clifford. Clifford has been rolling the past few weeks, and just can't quite seem to get closer to that 9 flat barrier. I'm really pulling for Clifford to pop off at either the Carnival or Meet of Champs, because this kid has had some impressive wins this year.

The relays were really what dominated the headlines in both divisions in this meet (we'll get to Div 2). Council Rock South threw down an 8:08 for the win and PA #2. They got the job done with some consistent splits of 2:04-2:04-2:01-1:58. The scary part is that they ran 8:08 with the fact that Ochs at the very least, has a few more seconds in him. I still don't think they're quite strong enough to take a title from Pennridge, but they certainly might be the new top challengers. If this relay can hold its own a little better on the front half, a setup of Ochs trying to go up against Eissler on the anchor would be one heck of a race. Also to note, CB West and Cheltenham both ran 8:20 without a single leg going sub 2:03 on either team. We obviously know about CB West, but in general, we've seen teams this balanced go on to run some really fast times (see Penncrest), so this is an encouraging sign for Cheltenham.

The DMR was even more exciting than the fast times in the 4x8. The Pennridge boys caught CB West on a lean, pulling out the win in 10:48.36 to 10:48.54. Eissler anchored the relay home in a 4:32 for the win. Truthfully, watching this race, Eissler looked pretty gassed trying to hold off the CB West anchor (if anyone knows which guy it was, feel free to let me know). I would've maybe expected a little more from Eissler, but obviously a win is a win, and the time raises no signs for concern. I think both of these teams are both much better off as 4x8 squads, though it was fun to watch the league rivals go head to head.

Division 2-
Jack Balick has had a pretty solid season. The Abington Heights senior has continued to drop fractions of seconds off his time, and is now currently slotted just outside the state field (before scratches) with a 2:00.99. Balick hasn't seen a banked track yet this year, and has shown a knack for being able to win races. I like to think that Balick is a kid that could get to the front of the slow heat at states and come away with a big 1:57-1:58 type PR. In 2nd was Radnor's Luke O'Malley with a 2:01. With all the attention on Frank Brown, Ethan Zeh, and even someone like Doug Rosin in the early season, O'Malley has kind of come out of nowhere. Now, the junior is less than a second off of sneaking his way into the open 800 field.

The exciting race of the day was the battle between Twin Valley and West Chester East in the 4x8, with both teams running the fourth and fifth fastest times in Pennsylvania off of conversions. The two relays exchanged leads several times across the four legs, with Josh Lewin ultimately outkicking Dylan Servis in an epic battle on the anchor leg. Lewin's reported split was 1:56.5, with Servis listed at 1:58.5. Both splits on Lehigh's track are incredibly impressive, and the funny thing is, these two will likely see each other again, but its hard to say in which event! Both programs are top 5 in the state in both the DMR and 4x8, and have sub 4:28/1:59 anchors. Lewin is slightly stronger across the board, but watching these two go at it every weekend has been fun to watch.

Not to be forgotten about though, was Holy Ghost Prep also hitting the SQS with an impressive 8:18 for 3rd. Like the latter top two, HGP had decent legs, but was ultimately carried by a solid 1:58 carry from Zelinsky. It'll be interesting to see if the coaches even bother having Zelinsky run the 4x8, as I think he is starting to develop a serious case as a state medalist in the open 800.

Wyomssing Team Challenge:

Nate Grucelski held off Joey Power in the 800 for the win, with both guys running 2:01's. While the times aren't flashy, they're very impressive for Kutztown's track (probably the second slowest in PA behind Glen Mills). For example, I think Power's 2:01.65 here is more impressive than his 2:00.54 at Ocean Breeze last weekend.

Ian Miller blew away the field by well over 10 seconds with his 4:30 victory. He's almost surely going to run the 3000 come states, but this is still a great confidence booster moving forward.


Stay tuned for the aforementioned projected state cutoffs! Lets keep the big marks coming people! It's February folks! PA Don't Play!

-The RunningHub