Shippensburg U. – Predicted thunderstorms never happened and pre-meet predictions seemed to follow suit. After finishing 6th for 800M at Districts (1:54.48 outdoor PR) and ranked 14th going in, Grayson Ruffner had an uphill battle ahead. A crowded field of 15 left no room for error. He managed to stay up in the lead pack and found himself in fourth heading into the backstretch of lap 2 maintaining that position through the finish. His time of 1:52.00 is a PR by 1.6 seconds and ranks #3 Wiss All-Time. He also finished ahead of all five guys who beat him at Districts a week ago.   

Gray’s 1600M on Friday morning kind of went as predicted. Hitting 4:17.25, close to his PR, only got him 20th! With the winner setting an all-time PA best and a National Federation Record of 3:57.08, it took 4:10 to medal. One of the strongest mile fields ever at the state meet. (Our own Nick Crits’ winning time of 4:11.69 back in 2008 wouldn’t have gotten him on the medal stand!)

Another pre-meet prediction got flipped as Dom Sheppard had been ranked in the top 5 for 300 hurdles in PA all season. He managed to just sneak into the finals as no one seemed to run well in the pre-lims. Running from lane 1, he had problems over every hurdle and crossed the line in 8th in 39.52 (His best of 37.95 would have earned him silver.) But a medal is a medal and he’ll be back.                                             

The Friday afternoon 4×4 pre-lims were brutal. Running in heat 4 of 4, we watched team after team drop HUGE season bests in the heats before us. (Some dropping times by 2 and 3 seconds.) Our 3:20.81, although not a bad time (3:20.97, 3:20.55 last two weeks), keeping status-quo wouldn’t cut it here. 12th place and out of it.  (Jonah Sydney 50.75, Dom 50.87, Johnson 49.90, Ruffner 49.11)         

There's only been three years in Wissahickon's history that the boy's track team has NOT had a representative at the 'Big Dance'. Two years ago was one of those years. Last year we had one. This year we are back to what we consider 'normal'. Individuals in three events and a relay.

In District 1 AAA, top 5 finishers auto-qualify, as many as 8 go if they hit a standard.

Dominic Harvey-Sheppard was ranked #1 at 300 hurdles going into the meet. He maintained status quo, taking the event in 38.30. 

On Friday, Grayson Ruffner placed 5th in the 1600 in 4:16.02 (#3 Wiss all-time) and came back on Saturday to place 6th in the 800 in 1:54.48, well under the qualifying standard of 1:57.32.

The 4x4 with Jonah Sydney, Dom Sheppard, Xavier Johnson (49.65PR) and Ruffner (49.12) took 2nd in a slower heat but were able to hang on for 5th over-all running a season best 3:20.55.

Ralph Antonucci's 3200 race on Saturday morning didn't seem that impressive as he finished in 24th place but his time of 9:34.91 was a 6 second PR from last week which put him on the Wiss All-Time list at #8 !

The 4x1 (Ford, West, Davis, Sheppard) finished in arguably, the worst spot. 9th place (one out of qualifying for finals) while still running under the state standard. Their time of 42.55 is a season-best and # 6 on the Wiss-All-Time list.

States are Friday and Saturday at Shippensburg U.

TEAM RESULTS HERE

FULL MEET HERE

Wouldas, shouldas and couldas. I series of 'unfortunate incidents' resulted in a one point loss at the SOL Liberty Division Champs. Final scores were Hatboro-Horsham 137, Wissahickon 136, Plymouth Whitemarsh 134.

The usual suspects won their specialties. Grayson Ruffner dominated his races winning the 800 and 1600 runs with ease and Dominic Sheppard taking the 300 hurdles.

Pleasant surprises came in the form of Aiden Wescott pulling off a victory in the triple jump and Jonah Sydney hitting a personal best 50.80 at 400m qualifying for Districts.

The 4x8 (Jishnu Dass, Alex Gobin, Jack Pickel, Ralph Antonuccui) all set personal best splits but JUST missed the District Standard of 8:12.04 running 8:12.32.

The 4x4 ran Abington to the line finishing second while knocking two seconds off their previous best. Their 3:20.97 saw soph Xavier Johnson split 49.97 and Ruffner anchoring in 49.09. (Fun Fact - Johnson and Ruffner become the 49th and 50th athletes in Wiss history to dip under 50.0 seconds for a 400 split.)

Top 3 medalists included First Place: Dominic Harvey Sheppard (300 hurdles), Grayson Ruffner (800 and 1600), Jason Verrier (Pole Vault) and Aiden Wescott (Triple Jump). Second Place: Dom Sheppard 200M and the 4x4 (Sydney, Jayden Davis, Johnson, Ruffner). Third Place - Evan Tolmie 110 hurdles.

This Friday and Saturday, these district qualifiers will compete in Coatesville for a possible trip to States:

100m - Jaylen Foster

200m - Dom Sheppard

400m - Jonah Sydney

800m - Grayson Ruffner

1600m - Grayson Ruffner

3200m - Ralph Antonucci

300H - Dom Sheppard

Long Jump - Jonah Sydney

4x1 - Zion Ford, Quentin West, Jayden Davis, Dom Sheppard (Amari Nash)

4x4 - Jonah Sydney, Jayden Davis, Xavier Johnson, Grayson Ruffner (Amari Nash, Dom Sheppard)

FULL RESULTS HERE

Perfect weather brought out the largest spectator crowd that I can remember and they were rewarded with some great performances. Wissahickon had 3 wins as Dom Sheppard and Grayson Ruffner won their respective specialties. Dom 300 hurdles in 38.40, Grayson 1600 in 4:17.68 (close win North Penn's Justin Landis, Scott's son 4:18.13).

Jonah Sydney was over the 21 ft mark (21-0.25) winning the long jump and hitting the District 1 standard with Aiden Wescott over 20 ft for third place (20-3.5).

The all-soph 4x1 (Ford, West, Davis, Sheppard) went from a season best of 43.05 down to 42.60 for third place.

Lots of personal bests. 

Part two report later.

The boys track team has been on a losing streak (at least for them) for the past 5 years. 'Losing' means not going undefeated and not winning leagues. With a dual meet record since 1995 of 144-26, one loss is bad. Two losses is unheard of. That got turned around on Tuesday.

In a tightly contested tri-meet with rivals Upper Dublin and undefeated Plymouth Whitemarsh, the season was on the line. We came away with two wins besting Upper Dublin 80-68 and PW 80-69. 

Heading into championship week, all 6 teams in the Liberty Division have a legit shot at the title as each dual meet has come down to the wire. 

The boys track team finally got Hatboro off it's back after losing to them for 5 consecutive years.

Soph Dom Sheppard continues to dominate the 300 hurdles. This time, I huge shocker of a drop from 38.92 to 38.00 ranking him #2 in the state and #2 on the Wiss all-time list behind Max Hairston's school record of 37.88 from 2012. He continued his day with a win at 200M (22.22) and adding a 50.8 4x4 leg. His busy day also included anchoring the 4x1 to close loss, unable to catch HH just missing by 2 one hundreths of a second 43.03 - 43.05.

Last Saturday at the Rap Curry Invitational hoasted by Pennwood, Dom broke the sophmore school record at 200M with a 21.82 (22.14 Darien Williams 2014) for third place. 

Grayson Ruffner eased to wins at 1600 (4:39.92), 800 (2:00.89) and chipped in at the 4x4 anchor with 50.9.

This weekend -PENN RELAYS!

Dom Sheppard continued 300 hurdle streak. On Tuesday he defeated PIAA state medalist Otani Ekpe with another lowering of the soph school record. His third lowering in three races. He ranks District 1 AAA  #1 and PIAA  AAA  #3. He also helped the 4x4 and 4x1 to wins. The 4x1 lowered it's previous best to 43.07 (PIAA #13, District 1 #7). There were personal bests up and down the line up. FULL MEET RESULTS HERE

With two weeks left in the regular season, dual meets  with Hatboro-Horsham (we're 0-5 over last five seasons), pre-season favorites PW and perennial rival Upper Dublin will determine this year's league champs. 

Ft Washington - In spite of high winds, Dominic Harvey-Sheppard improved on his Wiss soph record for 300 meter hurdles. His 38.93 win marks his second lowering in two attempts. Max Hairston's 39.53 went down vs. Abington where Dom posted 39.04. Last year he lowered the freshman record 5 times culminating with 39.82 at Districts. Friday's time ranks him #4 state-wide, all divisions (#3 AAA) and # 1 in AAA District 1.

Other wins included Grayson Ruffner's tactical come-from-behind 800 (1:59.53) and the 4x1 relay (Nash, West, Davis, Sheppard) 43.35.

Other Medalists (top three) - Gabe Lassiter high jump 2nd, Jason Verrier pole vault 3rd, 4x4 relay (Sydney, Ford, Ruffner, Davis) 3rd.

Improved performances matched the improved weather as the team seemed to come alive yesterday. Dom Sheppard set a new sophomore school record while qualifying for Districts in the 300 hurdles with a time of 39.04 which is also # 5 Wiss All-Time. 
Grayson Ruffner had a pair of wins (1600, 800) over their top distance guy, Pete Murray, who had bested Gray a couple times last season. His 4:27.60 1600 gets him into Districts.

District qualifiers included Jaylen Foster with his 100M win (11.10), the 4x1 (43.28 Amari Nash, Q West, Jayden Davis and Dom Sheppard)  and the 4x4 3:22.80 (Jonah Sydney,Sheppard, Ruffner and Nash) 4x4 time currently ranks #4 state-wide.

Notables: Nash had 4 PR's (Long Jump 20-1, Triple Jump 37-11.5, 400 split 50.5 and member of 4x1),              Sheppard 3 PR's (300 hurdles, 50.2 split, member of 4x1)