Recapping/Discussing the PTFCA States Action PART 1

Well ladies and gents, its hard to believe that after so much buildup, and so much hype, just like that, our indoor season in PA has come to a close (since NBIN is in New York). While truthfully, I didn't have a ton of time to watch the events live on Sunday, I did take the opportunity to sit down and watch all the races after the fact.

My initial reactions from a quick scan over the results were, "man, this year's meet was just flat out slow". Which, if you look at the results and results only, is a fair judgement to make. However, it didn't take much time and digging to discover many of the unfortunate circumstances that came to fruition over the weekend. In an unprecedented manner, we saw nasty spills from Josh Lewin and Tyler Shue in the mile (two different heats for that matter), and then one that took down Eissler in the early stages of the 800.

These undoubtedly had some major impacts at the top of both events that ultimately slowed things down. Not only did it take some major players out of the field, but anytime there is a big enough of a collision to take someone out of the race, it will naturally slow almost everyone else down in the field as well.

If there is any consolation for this chaos though, every runner that suffered a DNF ended up picking up medals in other events. Shue ended up getting his glory by winning the 800, while Eissler ended up with double golds in the 4x4 and 4x8, and Lewin's West Chester East squad grabbed a medal in the DMR.

800m:
This was a really fun race to go back and watch, as the top four broke away in the 3rd lap of this race, and it really just looked like a mad dash from that point forward. A push by Endres to the front pulled the top group away, while Hoey tried to go for glory with 200 to go. Ketler responded, but ultimately, Shue had the last gear and swung past all of them in the final curve, clinching his first state title.

I think part of the reason the winning time was so slow was due to the relaxed early pace, coming through in 56 high. I also think crowding the heats with more guys caused some more jostling for position (obviously) which overall impeded some comfortable, free racing to run quick times. I will say though, the lack of depth really surprised me. It took 1:57.85 to medal, which historically, is as slow as they come-
8th place finishers:
2018 1:55.37
2017 1:56.10
2016 1:56.99
2015 1:55.15

Again, obviously, having Eissler out played a role, but this race ended up being a bit underwhelming in my opinion. Its crazy to note that, Jonah Hoey ran slower than he did last year, and got 4th. He didn't even medal last year.

Hopefully, if the PTFCA cares even the slightest bit about giving these athletes a chance to run fast, then they'll take notice to the consequences of making larger heats. In the meantime, the athletes will have to adapt to still being able to run fast in crowded races.

Truthfully, I think Powell could've won this race. Although he locked up right at the very end, the kid completely solo'd his 1:56, and even casually pointed to someone in the crowd on the last lap. He looked comfortable enough for me to say that had he come in with a faster seed time, we'd be talking about how Conway and Powell both took home double golds in their senior year.

Closing note on this race, its crazy to think that Jack Balick was one place off of medaling. I had hyped this kid all year as a sleeper, so I thought it was cool to see him end up being the runner up to Powell in the first heat.

Mile:
While I didn't have the opportunity to post a preview for the mile (my dearest apologies), I did have the race coming down to Anderson and Powell, though I can admit, I would've picked Anderson. Like the 800, the top 4 separated themselves in this race, and it was pretty much a moshpit of guys within 1-2 seconds of one another for the last few medal spots. It should come as no surprise that a crop of experienced veterans in Anderson, Powell, and Wirth pulled away from the pack. The race I was pleasantly surprised by was Cameron Binda, the only other runner in the field to dip under 4:20. Binda has historically been a consistently been a state qualifier and a sub 4:25 guy, but this was the first time in my opinion that we really saw him step up and hang around the front of a field this good.

There was then a big four second gap back to the second half of medalists, which was Owori, Macknair, Twomey, and Shields. While none of these guys were surprises to land on the podium, this field was deep enough where none of them were guarantees. Klingenberg just missed out on his first track medal in PA, but held his own well given the fact that he raced so sparsely over the course of the indoor season.

The District 1 guys struggled a bit in this race. There was the fall from Lewin, and the remaining three D1 athletes all finished in the bottom three spots of the race. As for McComb, he really struggled in the XC postseason, yet still decided to kick off his season in early December, and I think that may have hurt him. As for Piercy, I don't think he had as overall as strong of a winter from when he made it last year, and I just think his fitness wasn't quite there. And finally, for Walker, as I predicted, we never really saw him again after his debut, which was when he qualified back in early December. My guess is this was treated as more of a tune-up for outdoor than a legitimate chance to run fast against PA's best.

Stay tuned for Part 2 coming at some point tomorrow!

-The RunningHub