Back from the warmup day of the PIAA state meet. Lots of prelims, some good field event action (some still ongoing, but 9th grader from Chambersburg JJ Kelly TJed 48'1"...promising...), and the 1600m finals.
Boys AAA race was not unexpected...Gary Martin just powered away from a gutsy CJ Singleton, who to his credit tried to make a race of it for a few laps. Ultimately, Martin just glided away to a new state record of 4:01.56 for the weird distance, beating his own time from last spring 4:02.15, Drew Magaha's 2011 AAA 4:07:32, Paul Vandegrift's 1983 AA 4:03.22, but not of course any unofficial split from Martin's recent 3:57 mile.
Martin was well clear of everyone by the end, and clearly didn't feel the need to bury the state record under 4 minutes since he eased considerably on the home stretch. Singleton came home in 4:07.47, just shy of Magaha's record himself.
I've said it before, but Martin really looks like he's on a different planet from other high school runners right now...not just by times but by the ease of his motion as he runs these times. I know he's working hard, but you'd be hard pressed to see the effort watching him from the grandstands, let me tell you.
On Saturday, Martin's skipping the 3200 this year (he already has the state record set at last year's champs), but anchoring his team's 4x800 (I'm intrigued to see how fast he might run to get his team into contention) and then coming back for the 800 later in the day. Though I don't think Martin is ultimately an 800 guy (only qualified at 1:53 and has only run 1:49, I think), you have to think that John Lewis's 2015 1:48.72 record could get a scare tomorrow.
Full day's coverage streaming on PCNTV.com.