This could very well be the biggest and best collection of runners our meet has ever seen. We have almost 20 of the top 50 runners competing here and that isn't including Lake Braddock's boys who all ranked very highly. With such great runners you are almost guarenteed fast times but that doesn't always produce great races. In our case though, it does.
All of these guys are not only fast but they are also amazing competitors and seeded very closely to one another. The other thing that makes this field great is that a lot of these runners are the type of runners who like to keep things close until the very end which should produce a great race. Do not be suprised if at the 4K mark we still have a pack of four runners dead-even. If things go down that road it is hard to stray away from picking Johnny Pace or Matthew Novak in that situation. If things start to spread out a little sooner, say 3500 into the race, then Seufer may be the best pick for you then. Regardless though, this is going to be one heck of a race and push close to Louis Colson's 15:21 course record (2013) and possibly Grant Pollock's 15:20 meet record set back in 2009 at Pocahontas.
Meet Page - Team Preview - Virtual Meet
Let's meet the top seven competitors in this race:
Johnny Pace (Westfield) 15:28 VA #4
Leading the way in the competition is Westfield's Johnny Pace. Pace has run 15:28 so far this year, DCXC, and continuously breaks 16 minutes in nearly all of his races. His last outing, two weeks ago, was up at Great Meadows for the Octoberfest Invitational. At Octoberfest he raced some great competition including Anteneh Girma and Matthew Novak. Despite the tough competition Pace pushed the pace and came down the stretch alongside Novak. Though he finished with the exact same time, he won in a photo finish.
All that being said, despite him having the fastest time among all these competitors, he will definitely need to bring his best race strategy Saturday as this race is going to be very close.