PIAA States Preview

It’s hard to believe that the season is coming to a close. With NCAAs and the olympics coming up in the near future, there is still a lot of interesting things happening in the track world. However, high school nearing the end of a historic season. Pennsylvania has become one of the most competitive states in country, up in the ranks with Virginia, California and Texas. On the distance side of this state meet the races could not be closer. It was difficult to tell who was going to run which individual events and now that entries are our predictions can be made. What is interesting is how the top individuals seeded themselves between the open 800 and 1600.

Just a couple weeks ago I would have told you that the AAA 800 would be a three or four man race. This is no longer the case. Two guys from District 12 ran 1:53 at their District Championships last week, and the field is loaded. Wisner, Desko, McGinnis, Hoey and Feffer are all in the same race. Need I say more? Wisner is obviously going to try to hang back and kick the leaders at the end, and Hoey is going to try to take it out quick. I really have no idea who’s going to run away with this one, and the rest of the top 8 are going to be very close. If I had to guess I’m going to rely on Wisner’s foot speed on this one.

The 1600m might be even more stacked. Josh Hoey and Mike Kolor are definitely sub 4:!0 hopefuls, and I think this will be an interesting dual. Josh Hoey is definitely the favorite, but Kolor has showed solid performances time and time again. But don’t forget Alex Milligan. He really hasn’t attacked the 16 that much this season and I think he’s ready for a big PR. He was very fast off of the triple last year and I think this year won’t be an exception. Jacob Stupak, Liam Galligan, and Liam Conway are all dark horses ready to strike. I’m expecting this to be a very tactical race, much like the 800m.

The 3200m should be just about as fast as it has been the past 2 years. The state record may be safe, as Jake Brophy seems like he is attempting the 4x8 3200 double. However, Nathan Henderson and Nick Wolk will challenge him from the start and should be able to push him to a low 9 if not sub 9. However, I think it’s clear that Brophy is the favorite.

The 4x800 will be similar to the 3200m. State College is a clear favorite and they have produced time and time again. Whether they will be close to the national record (which is also the state record) or not is hard to tell, because they will probably need some close competition to get them to that time. I believe they are running at New Balance Nationals this year which might be a better time to go for that record.

Penn Relays High School Recap

Penn Relays is always an exciting meet. It’s the oldest track meet that is still currently contested. There is a mixture of collegiate, professional, high school, middle school, and masters levels of experience in the field. Over 15,000 athletes compete over the weekend from all over the world. U.S. teams have to contend with elite Jamaican teams that are selected based on prior performances to make the fastest teams possible. This weekend had many exciting races across the board, especially from the high school level. Slagowski became the seventh high school boy to break 4 minutes in the mile in history. Drew Hunter made the DMR extremely exciting as Loudoun Valley was near the back of the field when he got the baton. He won by less than a hundredth of a second. From the PA side of things, a Hoey won the mile as expected. However, it wasn’t Jaxson Hoey. Josh Hoey put on solid kick with 200m to go and won in 4:11. I’m interested to see if Jaxson was having a bad day or if he has some form of injury.

The State College 4x800 had a strong showing in prelims, allowing Milligan to comfortably secure the win with a 1:54 split. In the Championship of America Feffer had an incredible first lap and hung on for a 1:54 making up the ground that was left on the table by Wing in the first leg. These guys are really consistent on posting fast times, and I’m sure they are far from peaked. 7:44 is a strong showing this early in the season, and fourth in the Championship of America final is nothing to scoff at.

State College had some incredible individual performances. Veronika Karpenko won the triple jump posting an incredible 39’-5.25’’, narrowly edging out Jody-Ann Petrie of Jamaica. Not a surprise to some, Griffin Thompson posted a 15’7’’. The 3rd place indoor state vaulter has been silently improving at dual meets this season. He has made multiple close attempts at 15’10’’ and 16’, so look forward to seeing some higher marks this season.