Wednesday, April 22, 2009

McPherson's Adam Porter turning in strong performances

McPherson junior Adam Porter has turned a corner as a runner. Porter won the KU Relays 1600 Meter Run with a 4:18.54. That was four seconds faster than second place finisher Jeff Warren of Mountain Vista (CO).

Porter then put on a show at his home meet on Tuesday. He ran on McPherson's winning 4 X 800 relay team. Then won the 1600 with a 4:34, Porter did just enough to win the race over Campus' Tre Doherty.

Then came the 800. Porter, with two races under his belt, busted out a 1:54.58 with nobody to truly race as he won the race by six seconds. Doherty finished second with a 2:00.27.

Porter then came back for the 3200 and held off 6A Cross Country champion Brayden Barrientez of Campus to win the race in a 10:04.44.

On the season, Porter has the fastest 800 (1:54.58) and 1600 (4:18.54) in the state this season. He also has a top ten 3200 time (9:55.14).

So the question is, Can Porter win the distance triple (800, 1600 and 3200) at State in 5A?

It has been done five times since 2000, but only two of those were from a class bigger than 3A. Scott Loftin of Blue Valley North won the 6A distance triple twice, once in 2000 and again the next year in 2001.

Porter will be battling a pair of St. Thomas Aquinas runners in the 3200 with PJ Greer and Kyle Hanson both likely to be in the race. They hold the two best 3200 times in the state so far this season.

The 1600 will again be between Porter and the Aquias runners as they sit with the top three mile times so far this season. Hays' Josh Munsch and Kapaun's Kyle Glasgow could also contend.

In the 800 Topeka West has a pair of guys that will have a say in this race. Derrick Perry has run a 1:56.73 and teammate Robert Segura has run a 1:58.04. Perry was the runner-up to Emporia's Jacob Davies in the 800 last year.

The 800 is 3.5 hours after the 1600.

Three 5A State Meet records could fall in these contests. The 800 record is 1:53.5 set in 1985 by Kevin Waters of Bishop Miege. The 1600 record is 4:16.6 set in 1986 by Jason Goertzen of Salina-South. The 3200 record is 9:14.78 set by Dwight Davis of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Porter has already flirted with those 800 and 1600 times this season.

It will be interesting to see if Porter can pull off the first 5A distance triple in this millenium.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There are too many good distance runners in Class 5A, and when Munsch is fully recovered from injury, look out.

Anonymous said...

the only race that adam has pushed him self as hard as he could go is the 800 and he didnt even have any comp, adam ran an unoffical 4:14 at salina south realays in the 4 by mile and once again he didnt have any body to compete with, and this is his first year running the 3200 and he only ran to win never for time. so im gona say that the 2 mile will be the biggest test for him at state. Don't underestimate him
STOP PORTER