Photo by: Jackson Polin
With the PIAA State meet coming to a close last weekend, that means there are only a few total meets left to the 2026 outdoor track and field season. John Hay Distance Festival is a staple meet where some of the best athletes in the state close out their season or use it to get ready for nationals in a few weeks. The meet always brings fast times and huge PRs for some of the best in the state.
The main events that headline the meet have to be both the 800m and the 1 mile, with it being an open meet, athletes in middle, high school, college, and post-collegiate all compete together, and it always brings blazing times.
800m Preview:
3 athletes come into the meet with seed times under the elusive 1:50 barrier, and with a pacer in the race, how many total athletes will dip under that mark? The scheduled pace through 500m is 1:07 or 53 seconds through 400m, definitely a quick pace, but for ideal racing conditions like tonight, we could see 5-6 athletes break 1:50. The top high school seed is Joseph Murphy with a 1:49.00 seed and holding a PR of 1:50.36. Could we see the Notre Dame commit finally go under 1:50? Some of the other top high school seeds are Bobby Franklin Matthew Tate Ricky Mason, Evan Badami, and David Moran, all seeded at 1:51.00 or faster and all in the hot heat of the race.
1 Mile Preview:
The 1 mile comes in as probably the best total event of the night, with 26 athletes seeded 4:10 or faster and 2 total athletes seeded at 4:00.00. Some of the top High school seeded are Tyler Tomlinson with a 4:04 seed, Nick and Alex Mazzeo with their 4:05.99 seeds, Justin Landis, and many more top highschoolers from PA and NJ who are ready to run fast this evening. We even have one of our milesplit employees, Dylan Leone, entered and slated to run both the 1-mile and 5k racing disciplines with seed times of 4:23.30 in the mile and 16:50 in the 5k.
I personally could not be more excited to see all the great results and PRs this meet brings tonight. How many athletes will we see go under the 1:50 barrier over 800m? Will we see anyone break 4 minutes in the full mile tonight? What will it take to win both the mile and 800m?
