21st Carlisle High School Invitational Preview (Edited)

EDITS MADE 9/26 @9:30AM
1. Tony Russell (WCH) will be making a college visit this week (I talked with him to confirm) and will not be racing. It seems as though the rest of WCH will be attending though.

2. After checking out the start list, Cardinal O'Hara's boys team will not be racing. This is a real shame as it would have been nice to see them going head to head with many of these teams, but they have run really hard twice in a row, so it's good for them to have a weekend off.

3. Malvern Prep's squad other than Jackson Hoey will not be attending. I'm not sure the reason for this, but we won't get to see again until Salenium.

4. Team rankings have changed for Saucony -- http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/251065-Saucony-Elite-50-2013-XC-Season/article/22395-Boys-HS-Team-Rankings-Week-2
--- That post brings up a great point that NA's avg was 16:33, just 8 seconds behind O'Hara and Henderson's from last season... and it's September. I'm shocked they're not being put in the top 12.

5. Patrick Reilly, Dallastown, (PA#25) will be attending and looking to improve on his fantastic season start when he blazed the Big Spring course in 16:05. It's a very difficult course and Vinny Todaro won it last year in 16:09 and continued his winning trend at this very invitational. Reilly will be looking to prove he's a top 15 worthy runner at this meet.

6. Sam Ritz of Germantown Academy (PA#14) will be in the Invitational, but not the championship race. I'd like to see how much he can push that as he opens up his season.

21^st Carlisle High School Invitational

Goodness gracious, I’m sorry for the long post. Every time I thought I was finished there was another team to write about. I hope you enjoy though! Tomorrow look for a write up on some strong A and AA squads around 9 pm. And then Friday will be a weekend preview for the other invitationals around PA. Now let’s get it started!

This has got to be PA’s biggest high school meet of the season. I’m not a huge fan of the Saucony Rankings on Flotrack, but there will be 3 of the top 25 teams in the nation along with a few of the region’s best runners. I’m really excited about both the team and individual competition at this meet. It’s extremely deep so expect a long post… it’s 2000 words…

Individuals:

This race should be absolutely blazing out front. Don Bosco Prep from NJ will be making the trip up once again this season, this squad is headed by Kyle Levermore who dropped a bomb in the 3200 last year at NJ MoC’s running 8:55. This guy is definitely more track oriented, but was 12^th at NXN Regionals last season. He is currently ranked #18 in the US.

Speaking of NXN Regionals, this meet will be the host of the NXN runner-up in Reiny Barchet(PA#5) who will be opening their season along with the rest of West Chester Henderson over 5k at this fantastic invitational. Team wise WCH is ranked 9^th in the nation as they look to prove themselves as legit national contenders after losing their #1 spot in the PA rankings. 

Carlisle’s own Zach Brehm (PA#10) will be racing for the victory and to prove he can truly play with the big boys on the trails. Another top PA guy will be travelling from out west, and that’s Brent Kennedy (PA#2) of Kiski Area. Kennedy hasn’t raced many invitationals this season, but you know he’ll be ready to roll for this meet as he looks to take down some of the top runners prove it’s his turn to win a state title.

Other people to look out for are Tatnall’s Jack Hagood and Stephen Garrett who ran 9:40 and 9:41 respectively to go 2-3 at the 18^th NJ Cherokee Challenge (3200m), but have PR’s of 9:12 and 9:15 at that distance in track. Both should be able to roll with this fantastic front pack.

So we’ve got 8 guys potentially fighting for first place including 5 guys in PA’s top 10, which sounds like a great meet to me!

Teams: This section will be split into 2 parts: The Elite teams and then strong PA squads

Based on Flotrack rankings from last week (I’ll update the post tomorrow if it changes) this race has US #9- WCH, US # 8 – Don Bosco, and US #20- Tatnall. Or if you like XCnation.com better then we’ve got US #6 - WCH, US #11 – Don Bosco, and US #18 Tatnall. Either way you split it these are 3 of the top 25 teams in the US and they’re truly elite, which means it’ll be a lot of fun for all of us to watch. I can’t say I know a ton about these other squads, but I’ll do my best to try and discuss how this could play out!

West Chester Henderson (US #9/US#6) – This squad will be opening its season like a division 1 school, which you rarely see in high school athletics. We’ll get to see how much this strategy will pay off. Remember last season that WCH didn’t look too hot at Briarwood when they got smoked by O’Hara, but by the end of the season they were right with them. So I’m not expecting them to be unbelievable right off the bat, but they should still be competing for the win. Russell and Barchet should be right up front in the top 8 of this race and behind them we get to see just how well the squad has developed. Returning from last year’s team are Alex Knapp (PA#41), Eric Stratman (PA#23), Seamus Collins (PA#28), and Kevin Moy (just missed list, but huge potential/upside). And these are just among others. They did lose Sam Haugh who placed 35^th @ states last season (quit) which hurts their depth, but then again they have ridiculous depth. This squad has tons of fire power just ready to be released.

 Tatnall (US #20/US#18) – This team will be traveling up from Delaware to get some big time competition. They just won the 18^th Cherokee Invitational in New Jersey over PA #10 and #9, quite easily. Their top 5 were all 10:08 or faster for 3200 on an XC course. Jack Hagood and Stephen Garrett will be like WCH’s top 2 in that they’ll be in the top 10 in this meet as well. Their #3 guy is XC only, but was 9:53 @ Cherokee. Their #4 Michael Flanagan ran 4:27/9:37 during track and #5 man, Henry Paul, is a 4:24 guy. This is definitely a squad to be reckoned with. Like Henderson it is their first 5k Invitational.

Don Bosco (US#8/US#11)- This is one of the top Prep schools in NJ year after year, but they are usually out shined by CBA (US#1/US#2). Kyle Levermore (Sr) broke out last season with a 8:55 3200 while Mike Higgins (Sr) is a 4:14 1600 man. Rob Townsend (Sr) is a 4:24 guy as well. Neither Higgins nor Townsend ran in Don Bosco’s first invitational, which was the Xavier Invitational in NY. This race is only 4k, but Levermore ran speedy 13 flat (Course Record) and was followed by Pat Sullivan (So), Zach Weland (Jr), and Connor Nicholson (so); these 3 had a 3 second spread running 13:36-:38. Both Weland and Nicholson were 17 flat guys last season who have broken out along with Sullivan who ran 9:44 last track season as a freshman. Once they get their other two senior studs racing this team will be extremely dangerous.

Now that we’ve discussed the elite squads across the nation we next get to talk about some other top PA squads we’ll be seeing at Carlisle. 

State College Area (PA#5) – SC solidified themselves as the 5^th best team in PA last week with a strong 3^rd place showing at Foundation. This squad as really nice depth and a solid spread 1-7 that helps them the bigger meets become. I really like what they have in Golembski and Adam’s as a 2-3 punch and I truly think Alex Milligan can be running with them for a 10 to 15 second spread 2-4 by the state meet which will give them a huge advantage. After that Matt Beyerle, Nick Feffer, Kevin Drago, and Eric Heatwole are fighting for not only the 5^th spot but a spot on this varsity squad as they had a 25 second spread between them this past weekend. I love this squads competition for spots and the potential it will have for them going forward.

Malvern Prep (PA#6) - I hoped to see these guys mix it up in some bigger invitationals with other top PA squads, and it seems like I’ve got my wish! Sadly they will not be running a majority of their varsity, so don't expect to see too much from these guys.

Downingtown West (PA#9) - This will be a huge invitational for DTW. They’ve got a crazy deep and young squad built 10 to 14 deep which is incredible to see. I have no idea who they’ll have in the top 7, but I’d love to see a 15 to 20 second spread again from this group. That’s their strength, putting 7 guys in front of other teams 4&5. They’ll have a couple teams in the top 15 gunning for their top 10 ranking, so they’ll need to be on their game. 

After these guys we get to see 4 teams battle to get from the top 20 into the top 10 in the state:

Carlisle: It’s their home invitational so you know they’ll be hungry and ready to roll. They surprised some people earlier this season, including myself, with a strong second place showing at The Spiked Shoe Invitational. They’ve got a great front runner in Zach Brehm (PA#10), but behind him is where the real magic can happen. Jon Carroll seems like a 4/8 mid-distance guy, but with a 4:30 1600 dual-meet PR he’s looking to prove his distance capabilities this season and he showed it early on. I’m excited to see how he develops at their #2. About 15 seconds behind him is a nice pack 3-5 that had only 13 seconds between them at Spiked Shoe in DeAngelo, Wisner, and Cavanagh (16:42-16:55). Not far behind them are two young men running 17:03 and 17:15 in Aguilar and Dennison. This team has good competition and a decent spread all around. If they can keep a 30 second spread 2-5 and Brehm continues to be a front runner this squad could jump into the top 10. Wisner is only a sophomore who ran 4:37 as a freshman, so he’s got some big upside as the season progresses.

Red Land: I really do like what Red Land has. Up front they have Aaron Lauer (PA#41) (Sr) and Zach Seiger (So) as a strong 1-2 combination. Seiger could be a breakout star, since we haven’t seen him race since PTXC but you know Lauer isn’t letting him go. 45 to 60 seconds behind these two studs is a trio of juniors. And when I say trio I mean a 7 second spread kind of trio. Wilkinson, Mills, and Stuyvesant will be battling in practice every day pushing themselves to close the gap with their top 2. This team is only 5 deep though as there is a huge drop off after them which could be an issue if an injury occurs. But can I just point out that Hunter Stuyvesant has an awesome name.

Cumberland Valley – This team lost so many guys, including their entire state runner-up 4x8 last season that I was unsure if they’d be able to reload, but not only did these guys reload, but they’re challenging for a top 10 spot in the state. It’s truly fantastic to see. They’ve got a lot of young guys and their spread 1-5 at The Spiked Shoe Invitational earlier this season was 34 seconds. If they can hold it around 30 seconds as these youngsters continue to improve then they could be really dangerous.

La Salle College HS – These boys will get to prove their worth as they attempt to claw their way into a top 10 placement in the state after losing 3 absolute studs last year. They did have to reload, but much like CV they have done so with some fantastic freshman and sophomores. This will be the meet to see exactly how good La Salle really is.

That’s all for Now Folks!

--ForrestCRN