Boys' State Distance Preview: 3 Straight for Perretta/Hockenbury?; Hoeys look for 8/16 wins

AAA Boys' 800 meters

The District 1 AAA 800m field | Photo by Don Rich

The AAA 800 is the "take your pick" of the bunch. There are plenty of worthy competitors in this field---some coming off doubles, others not---and it should make for a fun and very tight race.

The top seed is Bonner-Prendie's David Whitfield, who dropped a crazy open PR to win the District 12 title in 1:53.38. Whitfield will likely need to go even faster to take the state championship, but Whitfield looks like he could be up for the task.

St. Joe's Prep's Stephen McClellan was second to Whitfield at D12 with a big PR for himself and he'll look to stay up front on Saturday.

Downingtown West's Jaxson Hoey took the District 1 title and though he's battled illness this season, the defending 1600 state champion, will certainly be ready to tough out his final high school meet before he heads to Penn State.

Phoenixville's Sean McGinnis and Pennridge's Tucker Desko will be a few other District 1 names to watch. Desko is coming off the 4x800 earlier in the day, but there should be some good recovery time for him to make some noise. McGinnis was second to Hoey at D1 and picked up a huge win earlier in the season, running 1:54.03 at Henderson.

Fox Chapel's Michael Bove has run 1:53.94 this season and could certainly be a threat for the win. Carlisle's Matt Wisner, also running the 4x800 in the morning, is one that can't be counted out. Wisner was fifth a year ago in the state with a 1:53.18 and he'd love to lower that in his final high school season.

Isaiah Bailey of Penn Hills has had a nice season that culminated with a District 7 title. Expect him to be a factor. The same goes for Wilson's Joseph Espinal, who ran a really nice race to take the District 11 win.