AAA
With the moving of North Pocono and defending district champion Matt Kravitz, the AAA title race is very interesting. Wallenpaupack has literally been WallenpauPACK this year and last. A year ago they stunned Abington Heights and North Pocono with a tight spread and grabbed the lone spot to states. This year they are poised to do the same thing behind Kolvek and Johnson. The team looked solid at Paul Short and has been improving steadily all year long. The two teams trying to knock them off will be Abington Heights and Hazleton. Heights has not raced much this year but hopefully will be at full strength behind their three key contributors: Ross, Molinaro and Ouellette (who I haven’t seen much of this year). Heights had the front runners a year ago to win the title, but didn’t have the pack to get the job done. This year they hope to get a strong contribution from Matt Barrett (I’m assuming the younger brother of Footlocker National Camp Tessa Barrett) at the 4 spot. Hazleton will try to beat Wallenpaupack at their own game. Hazleton has a nice pack with some good young pieces and will try and use a tight spread to get to stats. Houser and Cunningham are set to lead the way with young pieces like Malloy looking to notch a top 10 finish.
Ultimately, I think the Pack of Wallenpau will be too strong to overcome. The experience and confidence that comes with being the defending champs should be enough to get the victory. Individually, however, I think the race should belong to one of the Abington Heights duo of Ross and Molinaro. Both runners were solid at Pre States and ran well at Districts a year ago. Sleepers include Harvilla from Pittston and Lopez from Scranton.
1 Wallenpaupack 43
2 Abington Heights 50
3 Hazleton 64
1 Ross Abington Heights
2 Molinaro Abington Heights
3 Kolvek Wallenpaupack
4 Johnson Wallenpaupack
5 Lopez Scranton
6 Houser Hazleton
7 Harvilla Pittston
8 Ouellette Abington Heights
9 Cunningham Hazleton
10 Sein Wallenpaupack
11 Ward Scranton
12 Wacker Wallenpaupack
13 Malloy Hazleton
14 Gilpin Wallenpaupack
15 Barrett Abington Heights
AA
This is set up to be one of the best races of the week (although I feel like I keep saying this in every post, gosh it is going to be an exciting district week). Out front Scranton Prep is the clear cut favorite. They were a few good breaks away from winning states a year ago and now are looking to keep the title in the District 2 trophy case on November 1stagainst Grove City, Pottsgrove (or whoever comes out of D1), York Suburban and more. I really like the Scranton Prep squad; I think they have been solidly underrated all year. They have a strong pack with able front runners keeping pace out front. Kyle Perry is a top 5 type runner in this race and Evans, Burke and Brier all have the potential to break into the top 10 on the right day. Robinson, Sullivan and Nardone add nice safety nets to the top 4.
But the AA race will be very deep, especially out front, thanks to the addition of North Pocono and Lakeland. Both teams bring with them reigning district champs in Matt Kravitz and Nate Morgan as well as A state medalist Mark Arzie. That means this race will include the reigning district champs in A and AAA Cross Country as well as AA track (for the 3200m and 1600m and 800m). Dom Hockenbury is the big name out front. He asserted himself quite well with his 16:10 at Pre States and he is coming off a dominating15:44 at his league meet. That being said, I wouldn’t be surprised if Kravitz gives him a bit of trouble. Kravitz has great speed and ran sub 15:40 at Paul Short in his breakout performance of the year. Admittedly, I think it is also extremely plausible that Tidball and Morgan challenge Kravitz for the second spot. Tidball has had a consistently strong season and needs a low score to get his team back to states while Morgan is a 4:21 miler who finished in the top 5 at A states a year ago for Lakeland. This group of 4 should be fun to watch this week and should add to the very complicated AA top 10 individuals conversation.
(Just think about it: Hockenbury, Morgan, Tidball, Kravitz, Kachman, Skolnevich, Green, Hilverding, Shinn, DiContino, Noah Smith, Condloy, Gonoude, Wilt, Mears, Arzie, Simon Smith, Benka, Budnik, Maxwell, Lopez and I can keep going I assure you)
The individual race is going to be fantastic, but the team race should be extremely compelling as well. As mentioned, I expect a fairly comfortable victory from Scranton Prep, but keep in mind there are two state spots on the line and the second one is a real toss-up. Here is what we are working with:
Tunkhannock- The defending State Champs have pride on the line at this meet. Jack Tidball and Jacob Tozcko are big time low sticks out front, but there are some question marks behind them. Young Tidball and Grow will have to work hard to keep close to the Dallas and Berwick packs, plus Stonier will have to have a solid day at #5.
Dallas- Dallas lost their entire varsity from last year, including state champ Dominic Deluca. Keep in mind, last year’s Dallas team did not make states. But somehow, this program has reloaded and find themselves back in state qualifying talks. Zardecki is one of their stars out front and is only a freshman. Sod and Zardecki will need to push the Dallas pack up towards the top 10-15. Borton, Culp and Wayndt will look to help out at 3-5. This team’s youth and lack of a true front runner in a top heavy field are the main concerns heading into district week.
Berwick- One of the most intriguing teams of League week were the Berwick Bears (I don’t know if that’s actually their nickname, but it sounds too good to pass up). Berwick stunned Dallas and Tunkhannock en route to a win at Eddy Narcz. They had a strong pack of guys and Gearinger proved he can be a great front runner. This team isn’t a traditional powerhouse and behind Gearinger there is a bit of a gap to their pack of Blass, Guareua, Fisher and Kimbell, but they have proven they can beat their main competition and they have a ton of positive momentum.
Lakeland- They peak at the right time year in and year out. This is an underrated program who will have to prove themselves now that they are facing the increased competition of AA. They have run some fantastic 4x8s on the track in years passed, but that takes just 4 solid runners. XC takes 5. That will be the biggest question for a small school like Lakeland. The Morgan and Arzie brothers are really strong pieces, but they are lacking the depth needed at the 5 spot to pull off an upset.
North Pocono- They have a fantastic front runner in Kravitz and a couple underrated studs at 2-3 in Benkosh and Haines. In AAA they had a realistic shot at sweeping the top 3 …but still losing the meet. In AA things will be more challenging at the front and the race will be bigger at the back. Much like Lakeland, the pressure will be on the 4-5 guys to help make an upset happen.
Ultimately, I’m betting on the defending state champs to pull this one out. It’s risky because they aren’t quite as deep as Dallas or Berwick, but I believe in the power of pride and tradition.
1 Scranton Prep 61
2 Tunkhannock 116
3 Dallas 133
4 Berwick 141
5 North Pocono
6 Lakeland
7 Coughlin
1 Hockenbury Lake Lehman
2 Kravitz North Pocono
3 Tidball Tunkhannock
4 Morgan Lakeland
5 Perry Scranton Prep
6 Tozcko Tunkhannock
7 Gearinger Berwick
8 Evans Scranton Prep
9 Arzie Lakeland
10 Benkosh North Pocono
11 Heid Valley View
12 Haines North Pocono
13 Sadvary Coughlin
14 Burke Scranton Prep
15 Zardecki Dallas
16 Brier Scranton Prep
17 McGuire Crestwood
18 Robinson Scranton Prep
19 Sod Dallas
20 Balbuena Coughlin
21 Arzie Lakeland
22 Hoda Holy Redeemer
23 Duffy Valley View
24 Sullivan Scranton Prep (6)
25 Sabol Lake Lehman
A
With Lakeland moving out to face the big boys, Elk Lake is ready to step in and dominate the team landscape for A. District 10 and 7 appear to be the powerhouses this year in A, but Elk Lake has hopes of competing for the state title as well. They need to bolster their fire power in the front and this meet should give them an opportunity to get some practice with that. I think Elk Lake will have a dominating win at this meet. It will be interesting to see if runners like Sherman can duplicate last year’s form. Bedell and Bell have been solid all season and should continue to deliver. I see Holy Cross as the other team advancing. They have a nice pack and some strong leaders in Struski and Shean, although they miss McGovern’s front running from a year ago (and Galassi before him). They still seem to be clear favorites for the number 2 spot in the district.
Dunmore’s Matt Murray had a fantastic run at the Pre State meet and appears to be the class of the field this year in A. I think he is one of the few runners who will crack the top 7 while not wearing an Elk Lake Jersey. Debrino from Forest City and Gadhoke from Wyoming Seminary are other individuals who hope to get individual qualifying spots to Hershey.
Here are my state qualifiers.
1 Elk Lake 22
2 Holy Cross 74
1 Murray Dunmore
2 Bedell Elk Lake
3 Bell Elk Lake
4 Oswald Elk Lake
5 Sherman Elk Lake
6 Debrino Forest City
7 Legg Holy Cross
8 Owens Elk Lake
9 Gadhoke Wyoming Seminary
10 Struski Holy Cross
11 Snyder Mmi Prep
12 Owens Elk Lake (6)
13 Westgate Forest City
14 Shean Holy Cross
15 Ortiz Mid Valley
16 Nally Mountain View
17 Mandarano Dunmore
18 Benscoter Elk Lake (7)
19 Gibbons Wyoming Seminary
20 Walsh Holy Cross
21 Malay Mmi Prep
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