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NTN Southeast Region Review 9/18/06 SE #2 Brentsville VA pulls just ahead of SE #1 Midlo VA boys in 5x2500m relay event, NTN birth still runs through SE #1 Eleanor Roosevelt Monday, Sepember 18th Brandon Miles, NTN Southeast Region Editor HIGHLIGHTS:SE #2 Brentsville VA boys taking close and exciting 2 second victory over SE #1 Midlothian VA in 5x2500m relay event SE #3 Trinity KY takes crushing defeats from MW #8 LaSalle OH and MW #9 Carmel IN and narrow loss to unranked Woodford KY SE #6 Chiles FL and SE #7 Smiths Station win easy as they sharpen up for Great American SE #8 Chapel Hill NC show flash of SAS Park greatness from '05 NTN team Without a solid #5, SE #9 West Springfield VA beaten up in Ohio Without #1 runner Lockhart, SE #1 Eleanor Roosevelt MD girls still win big at Brentsville Relays against SE #2 Midlo SE #4 Tatnall rolls to 110 point win in opener, 2 freshmen break into top 7 SE #7 Collins Hill GA reverses results in one week over SE #6 Parkview GA SE #9 Scottsboro AL and SE #10 Chapel Hill NC pick up easy wins BOYSBrentsville RelaysSaturday, September 16thBrentsville HS - 5x2500m Relay Nokesville, VA RESULTS: http://milesplit.com/meet/results/37450 (Courtesy of MileStat.com/https://va.milesplit.com) FEATURED TEAMS: SE #1 - Midlothian VA In an fun event for several teams whose seasons are typically very serious and intense week after week with Nike Team Nationals implications, the Brentsville Relays in Nokesville, Virginia was a step back and laid back environment for teams to compete in a spirited and fun manner. Last weekend's Great Meadows Invitational showed that top ranked Midlothian and second ranked Brentsville of Virginia are two squads that virtually mirror each other with Midlothian only winning by two points over the previously SE #6 ranked Brentsville squad. The opening team performance by Brentsville moved them up four places in the Southeast region's first in-season rankings to the #2 slot heading into their home event this past weekend. The battle was close again for the two teams as Brentsville and Midlothian found themselves out in front from the rest of the field for good on the second leg. Brentsville and Midlothian alternated the lead on legs after that with Ray Delgado giving Brentsville the lead after his second leg, Jonathan Mellis giving Midlothian the lead on third leg, and Henry Melius handing off to Brentsville teammate Adam Henken for the final leg with a roughly five second gap on Midlothian. However, Midlothian had on anchor 9:18 3200 meter runner Jason Witt as he caught up to Henken quickly on the final leg as he led Brentsville's top runner at 800 meters. The two battled for the remaining portion of the final leg as the two ran stride for until Henken pulled away with 200 meters left to give Brentsville the win and break their own course record from last year in 39:33. Midlothian crossed the line in 39:36 with Witt posting the fastest split of the night at 7:24 with Henken second fastest at 7:26. Coaches and athletes for both teams enjoyed the close race as the two teams will be joining together next week to represent the state of Virginia as they make the trek to Hoover for Great American on the same bus. Brentsville coach Rob Dulin's words on the battle between the two teams at Brentsville: "It was awesome to see both Midlo and Brentsville pushing each other so much during the race. As a fan of XC, I loved watching it!" Thomas Jefferson did compete but did not run their "A" team. In the battle of depth between three of the top four ranked teams in the region, Midlothian won the "B" race in 41:40 with Brentsville in second at 42:13 and Thomas Jefferson in third at 42:31, while Thomas Jefferson dominated the "C" race in 44:03 with Midlothian in second at 44:23. Both winning times were course records for their divisions. While Midlothian and Brentsville will be competing in Great American next weekend against many of the region's top teams, Maymont in two weeks is the next big meet for Thomas Jefferson. Trinity InvitationalSaturday, September 16thTom Sawyer State Park - 5K Louisville, KY RESULTS: http://milesplit.com/meet/results/37520 (Courtesy of KYTrackXC.com/https://ky.milesplit.com) FEATURED TEAMS: MW #8 - LaSalle OH SE #3 Trinity boys were dealt a crushing defeat at their home invitational at the hands of MW #8 LaSalle of Ohio and MW #9 Carmel of Indiana. The LaSalle boys were coming off an opening upset at the hands of in-state rival and unranked Woodridge at the Midwest Meet of Champions last week and looking to prove themselves. They did just that in defeating a tough Carmel squad from Indiana by 15 points and decisively beating the Southeast region's #3 ranked squad Trinity by 101 points on their home course. The biggest blow came from Woodford County (143 pts) of Kentucky finishing seven points ahead of Trinity (150 pts) for third place in the meet as the finish was unexpected. LaSalle put four runners across the line before Trinity's #1, while Carmel had three. Trinity had three runners in the top 25 with Thomas Noel (15th, 16:36), Ethan Short (20th, 16:45), and Sean Darrow (25th, 16:47). The next three runners for Trinity finished close together in Brian Hancock (46th, 17:09), Bryan Henn (48th, 17:12), and Dane Flinchum (49th, 17:15). Trinity coach Chad Waggoner blamed himself for the team's showing in being distracted as meet director of the large event. "I take full responsibility for our poor performance (4th). As a coach my job is to instruct, teach, motivate, reinforce, and implement. However, hosting a meet that had over 1700 registered runners my attention was with the invite and not the team. I only would check in on the guys just before they went to the line so I could get meet tasks accomplished." With their coach occupied with directing the meet, the seniors on the team devised a race plan to go out tenatively with a 600 meter long hill in the final mile that can break runners that go out too fast. However, the race strategy backfired with the team going out too slow in a 5:26 first mile and the race leaders running just under five minutes. While moving up in the next two miles, the time difference between them and the runners from LaSalle and Carmel was too much to make up. Woodford County certainly impressed with their team performance as they were very solid up front with their top four finishers all under 17 minutes on the Tom Sawyer Park 5K course with Chris Rise (13th, 16:33), Jacob Kunt (16th, 16:37), Cullen Kuntz (26th, 16:47), and David Grieshaber (28th). They are not as a fortunate as Trinity in the depth department as Trinity put seven runners ahead of their #5 Andrew Baker (64th, 17:25), but looked strong up front in beating Trinity at every position from #1-4. Trinity will get a chance to redeem itself against some of the region's better teams in two weekends at Maymont with the likes of #2 Brentsville VA, #4 Thomas Jefferson VA, #5 Fork Union VA, #8 Chapel Hill NC, and #9 West Springfield VA. However, Woodford County as of now has bragging rights in the state of Kentucky. Event 3 Boys 5k Run CC Varsity Bale-n-Trail OriginalSaturday, September 16thBartram Trails HS - 5K Jacksonville, FL RESULTS: http://milesplit.com/meet/results/37328 (Courtesy of flrunners.com/https://fl.milesplit.com) FEATURED TEAMS: SE #6 - Chiles FL SE #6 Chiles still hold the title of tighest packed team in the region as they won the Bale-N-Trail meet in Jacksonville by 55 points over the #9 ranked 4A team in Florida and meet host Bartram Trail. Chiles had a time spread of 25 seconds existing between their top five with Chris Renneker (4th, 16:36), Daniel Miletich (7th, 16:39), Stan Reecy (9th, 16:46), Calvin Vannoy (11th, 16:47), and Zachary Andrews (15th, 17:01). Chiles #6 and #7 were not far off the pack with Aaron Massey (18th, 17:05) and Chris Lake (20th, 17:18) Coach Scott Gowan asserted that his boys were taking it easy as they head into one of their biggest meets of the season next weekend at Great American. 1 #925 Morales, Anthony Flagler Palm Coa 15:42.00 1 Panther InvitationalSaturday, September 16thSmiths Station HS - 5K Smiths, AL RESULTS: http://milesplit.com/meet/results/37659 (Courtesy of AlabamaRunners.com/https://al.milesplit.com) FEATURED TEAMS: SE # 7 - Smiths Station AL Smiths Station rolled to victory in their home invite as they put eight runners in the top 13 places to finish with a team score of 26 points. The #7 ranked team in the Southeast was led by race winner Spencer Ferguson at 16:04 on the 5K course with six of his fellow teammates also running under 17 minutes with Ricky Martin (4th, 16:16), John Neill (6th, 16:27), Jonathan Fischer (7th, 16:30), Nathan Prickett (8th, 16:35), Jay Moulton (11th, 16:44), and Andy Henderson (12th, 16:57). Moulton had been projected as the team's #1 runner, but missed the Clara Bowl two weeks ago when unranked Parkview of Georgia nearly upset the squad. However, in his return on Saturday, Moulton ran #6 on the team. The team's strength in depth though overcame Moulton running under the weather and Smiths Station coach Ron Peters was overall pleased with the team's performance. "Our strength will be in the power of our pack. I feel we do not have a weak runner in our top 7 when fully healthy. Our number 8 would probably be in the top 5 on most teams based on times I have seen right now on comparable courses." Smiths Station looks to have had several runners that have stepped up and look very sharp from their Clara Bowl performance as they head into Great American next weekend. Coach Peters' team is anxious for the meet as it is shaping to be a close race between the region's top teams. ""I do not think anyone will run away with this meet. It will come down to the team with the strongest top 5 and we are definitely in the hunt to prove we have it." 1 Ferguson, Spencer JR Smiths 16:04.00 1 adidas Raleigh InviteSaturday, September 16thSAS Park - 5K Cary, NC RESULTS: https://www.milesplit.com/meets/18891 (Courtesy of NCRunners.com/https://nc.milesplit.com) FEATURED TEAMS: SE # 8 - Chapel Hill NC On a modified course from last year's Great American course held at SAS Park in Cary that moved the start further back and the race finished on the uphill versus curving around for a downhill finish, the Chapel Hill boys put together another impressive performance at SAS Park. Last year, Chapel Hill really made a name for themselves with a third place finish at Great American as they ended up being one of the two teams from the Southeast to represent the region at Nike Team Nationals. One week earlier than last year and on a different course that may have been slower, Chapel Hill certainly took some big steps to try and make another NTN run this fall. Against the #4 ranked team in the state in Enloe from Raleigh, Coach Ron Olsen's squad won in dominant fashion with a 54 point margin of victory in a low team score of 33 points. Chapel Hill was led by race champion Taylor Gilland, who defeated one of the state's top returning runners in Dakota Lowery of West Johnston (16:08). Chapel Hill #2 runner Miles Rampel had an exceptionally strong individual race to place third overall in a time of 16:11 on the 5K course. Teammates Kent Pecora (6th, 16:35) and Jack Marshall (10th, 16:53) also finished in the top ten individually and under 17 minutes among a field of North Carolina's best. Peter Anderson rounded out Chapel Hill's top five in 13th place with a time of 17:02. While the course used at SAS Park on Saturday was not the same one used for the 2005 Great American Cross Country Festival, it was the same used at Chapel Hill's regional meet last year. Chapel Hill had a team average of 15:59 in the 2005 regional race, but their team average was brought down considerably with Jack Bolas and Ryan Workman posting swift first and second place times of 15:09 and 15:28 respectively. Rampel finished 11th in that same race with a time of 16:19, while Muir finished 19th in 16:37. It is important to note in the time comparision that the regional meet was run in late October with the adidas meet being a mid-September race. Muir, one of the top returnees from last year's team along with Rampel and Marshal, has been fighting respiratory issues that hopefully will be cleared up in time for Maymont in two weeks as Chapel Hill will be going up against their first real regional competition of the season. RANK COMP# ATHLETE NAME TEAM AVG MILE TIME SCORE Boardman Spartan InvitationalSaturday, September 16thBoardman HS - 5K Boardman, OH RESULTS: http://milesplit.com/meet/results/37546 (Courtesy of https://oh.milesplit.com) FEATURED TEAMS: SE #9 - West Springfield VA While barely in the top ten for the region, the Southeast certainly did not fare well against lesser ranked opponents outside of the region with Trinity beating defeat by huge margins by the MW #8 and MW #9 teams at their home invite and SE #9 West Springfield of Virginia finishing seventh in at the Boardman Spartan Invite in Ohio against no ranked opponents in Midwest region. However, the Spartans were competitive with the top finishing team Chardon (110 pts) if the meet was scored through for runners with race runner-up Mike Spooner (2nd, 16:01), Alex Martis (7th, 16:37), Leo Walker (25th, 17:08), and Loring Ross (30th, 17:11) as they would finish second as a team with 64 points behind race champions Chardon (49 pts) and well ahead of third place Massillon Perry (101 pts). However, in the real world of cross country meets being scored though five, a fifth runner finishing in 141st place overall killed any high team finish for West Springfield as they finished a distant seventh place with 205 points. Event 8 Boys 5k Run CC D1 Varsity Gwinnett County ChampionshipsSaturday, September 16thAbbott's Bridge Park - 5K Duluth, GA RESULTS: http://milesplit.com/meet/results/37541 (Courtesy of GATFXC.com/https://ga.milesplit.com) FEATURED TEAMS: SE Bubble - Parkview GA Parkview has the have the biggest bubble out of any bubble team in the region. Despite knocking off preseason ranked #9 Walton GA to start the season and nearly upset preseason #4 and current #7 Smiths Station AL and have their #4 runner almost beat current #6 Chiles FL's top runner last weekend, Parkview still finds themselves unranked. They sat out their #2 and #3 runners at Carrolton last weekend against Chiles based off a decision in the preseason by Coach James Tigue to sit out two of his most veteran runners in Josh Pinson and Marcelis Lynch to give several of his runners sitting outside of their top seven an opportunity to race the state course against tough competition. Pinson and Lynch were back this weekend for Parkview to compete in the Gwinnett County Championships, which they won by a 34 point margin over Collins Hill. Pinson's impact was clearly shown finishing right behind #1 runner Michael Winston (2nd, 16:00) in third place with a time of 16:03. Lynch, the team's usual #2 runner, struggled at their county championships in running #5 for the team and finishing 5th overall in a 23rd place finishing time of 17:04 as he has been hampered by a foot injury and exercise-induced asthma early this season. However, Pinson and J.J. Tonder picked up the slack with Van Tonder (7th, 16:37) finishing just ahead of teammate Brett Richardson (9th, 16:38). Richardson had finished right between SE #6 ranked Chiles' #1 and #2 runners last weekend at Carrolton. Parkview will be anxious to compete against Chiles again and other top ranked teams in the region next weekend at Great American with the team at full strength. 2 #460 Winston, Michael Parkview 16:00.57 2 Lee-Davis InvitationalSaturday, September 16thPole Green Park - 5K Mechanicsville, VA RESULTS: http://milesplit.com/meet/results/37455 (Courtesy of MileStat.com/https://va.milesplit.com) FEATURED TEAMS: SE Bubble - Hermitage VA The Hermitage boys may have finished a distant third to SE #1 Midlothian and SE #2 Brentsville last weekend at Great Meadows, but certainly have a team that is top ten ranked caliber in the Southeast as shown by their performance on the new and modified Pole Green Park course in which Hermitage and Midlothian will race their regional meet on in two months. At the Lee-Davis Invitational, Coach Joe Pardue's Hermitage boys won the team title with easy as they were led by race champion John Vial (1st, 16:29) and had five more top 15 finishers with Ben Hendrick (3rd, 16:52), Nathan Puckett (8th, 16:59), Kieran Lee (1st, 17:07), Walter Kidd (13th, 17:18), and Roger Cook (14th, 17:23). Next race for Hermitage will be the Maymont Cross Country Festival as there will be several teams on the bubble like Hermitage in Richmond on September 30th that will be looking to redeem themselves and upset some of the current ranked teams. Event 4 Boys 5k Run CC Large School Varsity GIRLSBrentsville RelaysSaturday, September 16thBrentsville HS - 5x2500m Relay Nokesville, VA RESULTS: http://milesplit.com/meet/results/37450 (Courtesy of MileStat.com/https://va.milesplit.com) FEATURED TEAMS: SE #1 - Eleanor Roosevelt MD Despite the fact that it is a 5x2500 meter relay event that has very little weight or bearing on the actual Nike Team National rankings, when you have four ranked teams from the Southeast region convering on Brentsville High School to compete in their under the lights relay event, there is bound to be quite a great deal of exciting competition and racing action to please any fan of the sport. The Eleanor Roosevelt girls proved they are still the top team in the region as they looked tough to beat in breaking their own course record time from last year with a time of 46:13 as they competed without one of their top runners in Dominique Lockhart, who was sat out as a precautionary measure, but is training and will be ready to go later in the season. Midlothian finished 15 seconds behind in second at 46:28 with Lake Braddock pulling up in third in 46:56. Brentsville (47:21) was able to just hold off Westfield VA (47:22) for third place. While last year Eleanor Roosevelt came in under the radar to surprise everyone in the region and nation with their emerging distance squad, things are considerably different this year for Coach Desmond Dunham's squad. Eleanor Roosevelt was ranked #5 in the entire nation in the Harrier Super 25 by Marc Bloom and also ranked #1 in the entire Southeast Region for Nike Team Nationals after finishing 11th at NTN last December. Interestingly enough on Saturday prior to Brentsville Relays, Dunham had his girls meet with the sports psychologist of the NBA's Utah Jazz as well as several past Olympic teams in University of Utah professor, Dr. Keith Henschen. Whatever the doctor had told them earlier, it worked and psyched the Eleanor Roosevelt girls up for their opening meet of the season. Roosevelt was 16 seconds faster than their 2005 record time of 46:29 and had the fastest leg of the meet with Marika Walker posting a split of 8:52. Coach Dunham was very pleased with the way his girls ran in their first race of the season. "We definitely could have been stronger in some areas; however, for a season opener, we will take it! We were aggressive and poised and that's a great thing to see at this time of the season." If you insert Lockhart into the lineup with her 2005 time of 8:55, the #5 ranked team in the nation chops off 54 seconds. Teshika Rivers (9:06), Jennifer Redman (9:12), and Tyreka Arrington (9:12) all had solid legs to keep Eleanor Roosevelt up front. "We know that Lockhart remains the missing link, but the girl's really gave the effort to step up to fill the void," said Coach Dunham. Lake Braddock was actually more of a challenge than Midlothian was throughout much of the race as Lake Braddock coach Mike Mangan decided to front load with his fastest runners to distance themselves from higher ranked Midlothian and Brentsville and it paid off for the most part with Michelle Presley opening up in 9:13 and Christine Moore matching her in time at 9:13 as second leg as they are two of the three returnees from Lake Braddock's 3A state champion 4x800 meter relay squad from last outdoor season. Lake Braddock will not face any serious competition until they head down to Alabama on October 7th for the Jesse Owens Invite. Midlothian ended up running a second faster than the 2005 NTN Eleanor Roosevelt squad ran at Brentsville. Midlothian fell behind both Eleanor Roosevelt and Lake Braddock on the first three legs, but fourth leg Kathleen Lautzenheiser brought them up within five seconds of Lake Braddock as she handed off to anchor M.C Miller. Miller had a strong anchor leg, but the gap was too much to make up on Eleanor Roosevelt. Midlothian had a few injury issues as of late with two of their top returnees in Sammy Dow and Paige Johnston and Coach Dunham of Eleanor Roosevelt was fully aware of the challenge that Midlothian will pose to them later in the season when the two teams meet along with #3 Episcopal FL and #4 Tatnall DE at Manhattan in October. The Brentsville girls were probably the female equivalent of the Midlothian boys at the Brentsville Relays in facing teams with better speedsters to take advantage of the 2500 meter course. However, the Brentsville girls performed admirably as anchor leg Becky Stewart held off Wesfield's Tasia Potasinski for third place. Amelia Emerson also returned for Brentsville as she missed last weekend's Great Meadows Invite due to a funeral. Coach Dulin reported that Emerson actually beat Stewart in a team trial and the two are expected to push each other up front this season. Meanwhile, Brentsville's #2 runner during last track season in sophomore Maggie Gentry competed in her first week back to running from injury in the "B" race and is expected to race for Brentsville at Great American. Coaches from Eleanor Roosevelt, Midlothian, Brentsville, and Lake Braddock all shared the same sentiments that the Brentsville Relays should be treated as a fun event rather than one of NTN implications and they have no need to fear because the regional editor and committee share the same view. Lake Forest InvitationalSaturday, September 16thKillens Pond State Park - 5K Felton, DE RESULTS: Yet to be posted FEATURED TEAMS: SE #4 - Tatnall DE In their opening race of the season, Tatnall were convincing winners by a 110 point margin by placing five runners in the top nine places as they were led by race winner Juliet Bottorff (19:15). Complete results have yet to be posted anywhere by meet management, but Tatnall head coach Patrick Castagno was very pleased with the team's opening performance as he had two freshmen break into his top seven ahead of some of his other key returnees from last year in Kallie Fehr (20:30) and Megan Nortshield (20:58) on a tough 5K course a Killens Pond State Park. Bottorff's time was the third fastest all-time at Killens Pond and fastest ever by a sophomore. Senior Annie Castagno (20:31) had a solid opener to run fifth for the team as she missed the entire track season after a major knee surgery after Foot Locker Northeast to repair ACL. Tatnall's top returnee in Katie Kershner did not compete due to injury and is not expeced to return until October for Manhattan. Tatnall will have to go without their top runner at Great American next weekend when they face two of top three ranked teams in the region in Midlothian and Episcopal at Great American. Bottorff, Juliet 10 19:15 Gwinnett County ChampionshipsSaturday, September 16thAbbott's Bridget Park - 5K Duluth, GA RESULTS: http://milesplit.com/meet/19619 FEATURED TEAMS: SE #6 - Parkview GA The Collins Hill girls redeemed themselves after last weekend's close loss to Parkview at Carrolton with a 15 point victory over the SE #6 ranked team at their county championships. Putting three runners ahead of Parkview's top finisher Kansas Bayly (5th, 19:34) helped their cause with race champion Jackie Drouin (1st, 18:07), Erin Guglielmo (2nd, 19:11), and Allyson McGinty (4th, 19:34). Coach Hudson's squad also had a solid run in the #4 slot from Caitlin Coakley finising 8th and under 20 minutes in 19:53. Parkview was tightly packed and put seven runners ahead of Collins Hill's #5, but needed more front running to take down their in-state rival on Saturday. Event 1 Girls 5k Run CC Varsity Scottsboro InvitationalSaturday, September 16thJohn R. Esslinger Trail of Champions - 5K Scottsboro, AL RESULTS: http://milesplit.com/meet/results/37550 (Courtesy of AlabamRunners.com/https://al.milesplit.com) FEATURED TEAMS: SE # 9 - Scottsboro AL With five of the top nine finishers in their home invite, SE #9 Scottsboro AL girls were easy winners with a team score of 24 points as they were led to the line by race runner-up Emily Thompson (18:54) on their home 5K course. Their front three was especially strong with Thompson, Lacey Wright (3rd, 19:00), and Hannah Thompson (4th, 19:26). Haley Hancock (8th, 20:33) and Lauren Williams (9th, 20:41) rounded out their top five with top ten finishes. Scottsboro races next at Great American in a race they hope to represent the state of Alabama well with Great American's new location in their homestate. 1 KYSER, GWEN HUNTSVILLE 6:03.4 18:49.06 1 adidas Raleigh InvitatinalSaturday, September 16thSAS Soccer Complex - 5K Cary, NC RESULTS: http://milesplit.com/meet/results/37351 (Courtesy of NCRunners.com/https://nc.milesplit.com) FEATURED TEAMS: SE #10 - Chapel Hill NC The Chapel Hill girls continue to run away from the competition in North Carolina as they won by a large 76 point margin at the adidas Raleigh Invite with their top five runners finishing in succession from places four to eight with a time gap of 23 seconds with Kristina Witcher (4th, 19:47), Becky Johnson (5th, 19:59), Madison Stark (6th, 20:00), Anna Adams (7th, 20:01), and Beth Wollman (8th, 20:10). Coach Olsen's girls will get their first true test of the season in two weeks at Maymont against SE #1 Eleanor Roosevelt, #4 Tatnall, and #5 Brentsville. RANK COMP# ATHLETE NAME TEAM AVG MILE TIME SCORE |
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NTN Southeast Region Review 9/18/06 SE #2 Brentsville VA pulls just ahead of SE #1 Midlo VA boys in 5x2500m relay event, NTN birth still runs through SE #1 Eleanor Roosevelt Monday, Sepember 18th Brandon Miles, NTN Southeast Region Editor HIGHLIGHTS:SE #2 Brentsville VA boys taking close and exciting 2 second victory over SE #1 Midlothian VA in 5x2500m relay event SE #3 Trinity KY takes crushing defeats from MW #8 LaSalle OH and MW #9 Carmel IN and narrow loss to unranked Woodford KY |