Maggie Walker's Preseason Time Trial
Things are in quite a different place for the Green Dragons of Maggie Walker. They have a team well over one hundred and have yet to drop a 2A XC State Team Title. Though they race against small schools, this team and the talent they face in 2A is no joke, some of the best runners in the entire state will be in those two races.
Entering the season, with many returning from last year's state record low scoring performance are two squads who are very scary. Both teams should be solid locks for the team titles but the individuals on these squads are no joke either.
Even though both Ryan Buscaglia and Khloe Pointer enter the season with a XC state championship on their resume, they have higher goals. It should also be mentioned that both also looked phenomenal for this early in the season and completely better than a year ago.
This was especially true for Khloe Pointer who was the 2014 State Champion. She won in 2014 and was runner-up in both 2013 and 2015 but it was obvious something was wrong. After collapsing after nearly every race and brutal practicing, she was all smiles when she finally found out she was asthmatic.
"I never heard of anyone being so happy to find out they had asthma." - Coach Jim Holdren.
You could see it even in the time trial. She was in amazing shape and not even winded after clocking the 2.70 mile course in 16:16.1. Though she isn't quite back in her 18:01 shape, she is certainly way ahead of last year's shape and come the MileStat XC Invite, she could very well break through 18 minutes this season.
It should be noted that Pointer ran in the boys' section and Archana Shekharan took the girls top section in an equally impressive 17:41.9.
On the boys side of things it is Ryan Buscaglia returning both as the team leader and the fastest guy in 2A. He held off his teammate last season to win and might be holding off more teammates this year as well.
He entered last season having run 15:46 at Foot Locker his sophomore year but due to nagging injuries last season was unable to really put a full slate of meets together before the post-season.
This season looks to be very different with his scary fast time trial. Almost as scary as his 1:52 clocking in the 800 this past outdoor season.
That time shattered the previous Maggie Walker record of around 14:08 and was run at 5:09 pace. This is very impressive considering the lack of people around him and the amount of sharp turns this course has that adds at least a few seconds to each lap.