Indoor States Preview: Boys' Distance

Boys' 3000


Jake Brophy will look for his first track gold in the 3000 at states on Sunday (Photo by Patty Morgan)

What a matchup on tap here! Central Bucks East's Jake Brophy and Lake Lehman's Dominic Hockenbury. The AAA XC state champ and the AA XC state champ. Brophy will likely be coming off the 4x800 earlier in the day, but Brophy's toughness has shown through during his entire career.

Hockenbury will be looking to shake off some of the demons from last year, where he was overtaken late in the states 3000 by North Allegheny's Matt Mcgoey for the state title. Hockenbury also finished 11th at Foot Locker Northeast, just missing a nationals bid. Is that motivation enough? He has the advantage of being fresh and we'll see how he utilizes it.

Dominic Hockenbury just missed first in the 3K a year ago. Will he get redemption Sunday? (Photo by Joe Swift)

After the top two, there's a great field assembled. Methacton's Jeff Kirshenbaum, Springfield (Delco)'s Liam Galligan make up the others in the field, who will be coming off another event. Both are entered in the mile, but are certainly factors.

JP McCaskey's Nathan Henderson has had a relatively low-key indoor season, but he drop an 8:48 3000 to win at the Carnival. He's fit and he'll be there to mix it up in that top group. Henderson has an identical seed time to Neshaminy's Rusty Kujdych, who outlasted Kirshenbaum in the 3K at a TFCAofGP meet earlier this season. Kujdych likes to go out hard, so don't be surprised to see him pushing pace up front.

Peters Township's Nick Wolk got into the state meet after a big win in 8:47 at TSTCA Champs. He'll look to ride that momentum into Sunday as the fourth seed. Winchester Thurston's Will Loevner and North Allegheny's Marc Migliozzi make up a strong contingent of Western PA harriers that have their sights set on the upset.

List of entries:

Event 16  Boys 3000 Meter Run (14)
===============================================================================
  State Meet:  8:22.65  2/25/2006   Craig Miller, Manheim Twp.                 
     Name                        Year School                 Seed           
===============================================================================
  1  Brophy, Jake                  12 CB East             8:36.71 
  2  Hockenbury, Dominic           12 Lake Lehman         8:37.60 
  3  Kirshenbaum, Jeff             12 Methacton           8:41.26 
  4  Wolk, Nick                    12 Peters Towns        8:47.30 
  5  Kujdych, Rusty                10 Neshaminy           8:47.80 
  6  Henderson, Nathan             11 J.P. McCaskey       8:47.80 
  7  Galligan, Liam                11 Springfield (D)     8:50.33 
  8  Migliozzi, Marc               12 North Allegheny     8:50.77 
  9  Loevner, Will                 12 Winchester Thurs    8:52.54 
 10  Moser, Robert                 12 WC East             8:55.40 
 11  Conway, Liam                  10 O J Roberts         8:55.86 
 12  Conboy, Casey                 11 Baldwin             8:55.90 
 13  Sappey, Henry                 12 D-Town West         8:56.13 
 14  Slavin, Seth                  11 Pleasant Valley     8:56.13