Delco Christian’s Harvey grabs gold in 3,200
CALN — In case you hadn’t thought about it, track is a thinking man’s game. At least Alex Harvey thinks that way.
By the time he was called upon to start his Saturday morning with a fast two-mile jog, Harvey had run through mental exercises bent on what would be best for his Delaware County Christian School team.
Which, if you think about it, was good for him, too.
“This guy for Springfield (Montco), Sean Stovall, I knew he could run this and break 10 (minutes),’ Harvey said after completing the Class AA 3,200 meter run at the District One track and field championships. “So I was originally planning on scratching in the two-mile and just run in the mile. But then I looked at the scratching sheet and saw that he was scratching as well. So I decided not to scratch and run the two-mile.’
It was a plan worth pursuing, since Harvey wound up breaking away from a pack and pulled out to a gold-medal victory in the 3,200 at Coatesville High. Harvey didn’t break that aforementioned 10-minute mark, nor did he have to. His time was 10:10.40, his best in the event by about 15 seconds. And since it came with a first-place medal that meant it’s good enough to qualify for the PIAA Championship meet next weekend at Shippensburg.
“I’m just glad I was able to see that Sean was scratching, and sort of respond by re-entering myself,’ Harvey said. “I knew if Sean was entered in the two-mile, I’d have a better shot of beating him. But if I saw he scratched in the two-mile, he’d have more energy left in the mile, right? So from that, I basically knew I wouldn’t win the mile, because he’d have more energy to beat me.’
Oh.
“Sorry,’ Harvey added, “I don’t know if that makes sense or not.’
On this day it would, since Stovall subsequently wound up winning the 1,600-meter run in 4:39.79, some 10 seconds better than his nearest competitor in a field that didn’t include one Alexander Harvey.
“It’s a mental game, it definitely is.’ Harvey said. “At these events with Double-A, there are so many small schools that don’t have a lot of depth. So you have to know how to play your chips right.’
Harvey and the Delco Christian boys cashed in on a lot more on this district championship day than one two-mile gold.
Also leading the way at Double-A for the Knights was Morgan Ellis-Foster, who began his day by running a strong second leg of what ultimately was a disappointing Delco Christian second-place finish in the 4 x 800 relay. But then Ellis-Foster romped to victory in the 110 meter hurdles (15.06).
“I would say this is my third-best event,’ Ellis-Foster said of the 110s. “My 300 hurdles is my best event, and I love my 4 x 4 team.’
True to form, Ellis-Foster, who said he never wrote the second half of his last name down early on, so all the track meets have him entered as “Ellis,’ cruised to the gold in the 300 hurdles at 39.51 to carve a dual invitation to states.
“I knew I had the (morning) break to recover,’ Ellis-Foster said. “I’ve done the 4 x 8 and 110s before back to back.’
Ellis-Foster finished up with a strong anchor kick in the 4 x 400, but this time Delco Christian couldn’t overcome Springfield (Montco) in that race as the teams finished second and first, respectively. That capped a day in which Springfield topped second-place Delco Christian 117-96 in the team standings.
Still a good day, of course. If you think about it.
“I saw that a win in the two-mile would give us more points overall on the leaderboard, than a second-place in the 4 x 8, which only lost us two points,’ Harvey said. “So at the end of the day, I don’t regret switching that up at the last second.’
Also doing well, but not qualifying for Delco Christian at Class AA was Ben Chung, who placed third in the 100 dash and fourth in the 200, while Michael Logie placed second in the open 800. Chung and Logie were part of the 4 x 400 team that placed second, while Chung also ran leadoff on the 4 x 100 relay that placed third.
