State Rankings Explode!

It seems that every year, after a slow first month of talented guys finding their groove on the track, there seems to be a weekend where the results explode, and there is a massive shake up of the rankings up at the front. It isn't always the same weekend, but it does typically happen in January. This past weekend, every single distance event saw a new PA #1 except for the DMR. While it will take me a bit to recap all the craziness, I wanted to give you guys a brief outline of the main talking points in order to hopefully to spark some discussion in the meantime.

-Hoey bounces back from an iffy mile debut to go PA #1 in the 800 at Marine Corps last week in 1:56, but Eissler takes the PA #1 spot right back this weekend at Kevin Dare, blasting a seemingly solo 1:55.
-As I predicted, Zelinsky gets his big breakthrough race, ripping a 1:58 at Marine Corps himself

-Is Ethan Zeh still favoring the 800? Despite being a state medalist in the 800, his 4:23 is far beyond any other times we've seen this year in all of Pennsylvania.
-Radnor now has 2 sub 4:30 milers and a 2:03 ish leg in Doug Rosin. Let's see it Radnor...


-As Forrest already mentioned in the comments of the last post, Brayden Harris needs to be getting more attention than he is now. An 8:51/4:29 double as just a sophomore is truly special. With no guarantee of what Kinne's season plans are, is Harris the clear favorite? Could Harris still win this against Kinne and Anderson?
-I'll continue to say it, but don't let Harris completely cover up Chayce Macknair, as he ran a 4:28/9:09 double himself. He is absolutely a medal threat in the mile

-LaSalle casually puts 4 under 4:40 on a flat Haverford track. We've seen them have this army of depth before, but do they have enough firepower up front to do anything with it?

-Why the heck was the TFCAofGP Division 1 800 so fast?? Endres looks to be in good form with a 1:58 win. The big story was both Ricky Raup and Eric Albright likely punching their ticket to states with flat track 1:59's. With all due respect to both athletes, although they are both solid runners, I did not see these guys as state qualifiers. Albright is only a sophomore! The only sophomores to break 2 indoor last year? Jonah Hoey and Tyler Shue. Wow.

-Outside of Harris/Macknair, big races come from both Ian Miller and Ben Kuhn as they also dip under 9 in the Kevin Dare 3k

-The Pittsburghers kick off their year with some solid debuts, including CJ Thimons going 1:59, an absolute cluster of guys around 4:29-4:32 (C. Binda, Brown, Leachman, Volk-Klos, Aulbach), and Leachman following this up with a great 9:41 3200 (converts to right around 9:01/9:02)

-CB West, LaSalle, and Haverford all dip under 8:20 at TFCAofGP #4
-But the PA #1 comes from Bensalem at the Ocean Breeze Freedom Games  in 8:14! They have a rich history of middle distance studs and they have a great leg in Dabi Chanez, but this was a big time performance.

-When will we see a new PA #1 in the DMR?


All of this and much, much more as we wait on the full recap of meets coming soon...

-The RunningHub