Every second counts when you want to be first, and it was a three second difference that placed North Penn’s Boys Indoor Track and Field Team at the top during the PTFCA State Championship Meet at Penn State for the 4×800 relay. With a time of 7:49.48. Kyle Gordon, Eric Boyce, Justin Landis, and Musa Herzi achieved the 8th fastest time in the nation this season. 

The event puts a close on a successful season for the team, which was spent building up to the state championship meet that took place on March 2, 2025. Placed against the best teams in the state, it took an entire season of giving it their all to reach high achievement, with the goal of states in mind. 

“The whole season is built up for you to peak at states, to have your best performance and to be in the best shape at states. That’s our coach’s job to coach us through that. We just have to stay consistent and injury free. In other sports, if you get injured, you can bounce back somewhat quickly and get into the groove of things, but you can lose so much fitness from being out and injured,” Landis said. 

“It’s not even the last three months; every season adds up to this, every training block we build. With distance, we ran about 50 miles a week, and focused on a lot of things like sleep and hydration. I was dealing with lower back strain, so I was doing physical therapy. It was a lot of pressure to not sell the relay,” Boyce added. 

The stakes were high with the title state championship in reach, and the event of a relay is something that heightened the stakes even further, with all four runners reliant on each other for the win. 

“You’re not just running for yourself, you’re running for all three other guys. Compared to if you’re running for yourself and don’t do good, you’re just letting yourself down, but if I were to mess up, I’m letting my whole team down,” Landis said.

Despite the pressure of the meet, an already successful season gave confidence to the runners. Having been ranked second in the state, the team knew they were capable of the championship. 

“We thought, even a month before, that we were going to win. I trust in my team. I was feeling confident that they could do something good,” said Gordon, who led off the race.

“Especially for me, because I led off, I had to set the tempo for the team. It felt really exciting that we won, and we worked really hard for it,” Gordon continued. 

“This team has really improved this year, so we were confident. It wasn’t given to us, it was obviously going to be a dog fight and we were going to have to try our hardest, but we were pretty confident that we had a great chance to win,” Landis said.

“This year, we came in and knew we had all of the returning guys and knew we were going to do something big. We trained basically our entire year for it, and we’re just glad we got the job done,” said Herzi, who notably ran the last leg of the relay and earned his team the title of state champions at this meet in just his sophomore year.

“I started really early, and my whole family is runners; it’s engraved in my family. My whole running career, I’ve had the goal to win a state championship and thought how cool that would be. In Pennsylvania, it’s so competitive and so hard to win a state championship, so being able to do that meant so much. I try to stay as humble as possible, but calling myself a state champ is a pretty cool thing to say,” Landis added on how it felt for the team to win the esteemed goal of championships.

The championship marks the first time any of the runners have won the title, but it’s not the end of the road there. The team hopes to further continue track both during and past highschool, and noted the relationships the sport has helped to build.

“You’re giving your best every day around like-minded people. It goes off into other aspects of your life and makes you better,” Boyce said. 

“Our team is really close because of track, and it helps a lot,” Herzi added.

“I love track, because everyday, I go out there doing the best I can. It’s a sport where we’re giving one hundred percent every race and you’re seeing how far your bodies can take you. The team is such a family; we’re not just teammates, we’re a family together. Of course I want to run in college, but it’s also a way of life. It’s something that I’ll do past college and you can do to enjoy yourself. It lets me calm down and just be myself,” Landis noted.

The successful performance and remarkable time set by the team is one to be remembered, topping off success with the coveted title of number one.