The wait is over. It is officially PTFCA Championship Week. With an action-packed meet on deck - we want to ensure you're as prepared as we are.
Throughout the week, we will release event-by-event previews of the action and what you can expect on Sunday. Today we have previews of the4x200m, 4x400m, 4x800m and DMR. Make sure to click through to each event to read event-by-event previews of the action.
4x200m | 4x400m | 4x800m | Distance Medley Relay
4x200m Relay Preview
by Zandrew Bowe
The Girls:
On the Girls' side, expect a tightly contested affair. Less than 1 second separates the top seed and the sixth seed. West Chester Rustin will come in at 1:43.71 with a win last weekend at the Garden State Invitational.
They also got the better of Cheltenham last weekend, who took second place in 1:43.86 and will come to the state meet as the second seed. They'll be gunning for revenge this weekend. West Chester Rustin also got the better of Cheltenham last year at this meet; in 2022, they edged them out for fifth by six-hundredths of a second.
Following those two, Upper Moreland ran 1:44.02 at the Ocean Breeze Invitational. Great Valley (1:44.06), Chester (1:44.32), and J.P. McCaskey will round out the top 5 seeds.
The Boys:
The boys' race will also be competitive, but Roman Catholic is the favorite at the state meet. They ran 1:28.49 in a first-place finish at the Ocean Breeze Invitational and have held PA's top spot ever since. They came in twelfth at the state meet last year, and they'll be racing with a chip on their shoulders this year.
Roman Catholic will also take a crack at making history by breaking a 21-year-old meet record. Set in 2002 by Glen Mills, their time of 1:28.49 is in jeopardy.
The boys of Coatesville will be the next closest. They took second at the Ocean Breeze Invite in 1:28.95. At the state meet last year, Coatesville took third place and will look to follow up on that performance. Following them are Canon-McMillan (1:29.64) and Norristown (1:30.51).
Eight more teams have run in the 1:31 range and will need considerable efforts to move up the leaderboard this weekend. You can't count out the likes of Central Bucks West and their state-leading 200m runner in Conor McFadden.