PTFCA States was almost two weeks ago, but Indoor isn't quite over yet. The day started off with the 4x8, which was surprisingly more exciting than I first anticipated. State College was the clear favorite, but Abington and GFS were off to a strong start. Central Bucks West and GFS front loaded their relays, putting State College's Owen Wing towards the back of the field. It was also interesting to see the number of 1:56 second legs in the relay. State College first got the lead with Degleris's massive kick, much like his leg at the Millrose Games. State College did not take down the state record, but ran a fantastic 7:48, making them the only team in the country to break 7:50. Some notable differences from my predictions included Penn Wood with an incredible leg by Manyeah, and Council Rock North ran an 8:02.5 which was definitely not expected. CB West and Abington were able to pick off GFS later in the race.
The mile was a race highly anticipated, and lived up to expectations. As predicted, Jaxson Hoey did not run any faster than he needed to. He seemed to pace his younger brother to a time that would get him near the front. Josh delivered and the Hoey brothers claimed the top two spots. This was only the beginning of an unprecedented meet from these brothers. Cooper Leslie made a strong move and was in solid third place for a large part of the race. Huge props to him! Desko made a move near the end of the race, but ran out of real-estate to take down the Hoey brothers. On a side note, Jeff Kirshenbaum false started, which I would assume was on purpose: to save up for the 3000m.
The 800 did not go as I predicted. Dom Peretta was on another level. Matt Wisner waited until the last possible second to make a move from fifth up into second. Kolor still ran a solid time, and it will be exciting to see some more Kolor Peretta battles in the Spring. Jaxson Hoey still ran a fast time of 1:53, but just didn't have enough leg speed to get around these guys at the finish line.
The 3k played out very similarly to the way I predicted. Dom Hockenbury led for most of the race, although Rusty Kujdych led for the first few laps. I wasn't very confident that Kujdych was going to be in upper medal contention, and it seems that he just miscalculated his race strategy. Brophy was in third with a lap to go, just behind Nate Henderson. His finishing kick was fast enough to catch Hock on the final stretch. Poor Hockenbury had a very similar race last year with Matt McGoey. I will follow up with another post on the final relays and the team competition in the near future. Downingtown West may have the state record for the highest number of points scored at the state meet.
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