Council Rock North Preview

Hi guys,

Last year Carlisle was the big name meet this weekend, but this year it’s looking like Council Rock North is the place to be. But Carlisle still has some names at it so if I have some free time later I will try to put together a Carlisle preview as well.

I’d like to congratulate Forrest on 300,000 page views! He’s done that pretty much on his own, Evan and I have only come on as writers recently. That’s a milestone and thank you to everyone who reads the blog and helped it get there.

Now onto some Council Rock North previewing:

Take a look at some of the teams attending:

Bensalem

Cardinal O’Hara (#2) (listed but I doubt it, can’t see why they’d run an A squad after Foundation)

Central Bucks West (#8)

Conestoga (#4)

Council Rock North (#10)

Council Rock South

Downingtown West (#7)

On the team side this looks like Conestoga’s race to lose if they are as good as they’re billed to be. That sentence has no malicious undertone, rather Conestoga has looked good at all of the shorter distances we’ve seen them at this year, so I think they’ll run well at 5k, but there’s always that possibility they’re a bit slow over the first hard 5k race. But the Marston-Nelson-Murray trio should be enough for Conestoga to just about put away the meet. If Conestoga falters, D-West will be there to jump on them for it. D-West lost to Conestoga by 52 points at the Cherokee Challenge, but most of the difference came from the 3 and 4 guys. So if Shaun Bullock and Charlie Barton can move up for D-West they will have a very real chance at winning the invite. Some sleeper teams to win it are Central Bucks West and Council Rock North. Both teams have looked good at recent dual-meets (I’m not sure of time credibilities) and have outside chances to beat Conestoga or D-West, CRN especially so since they are at home.

Here’s the picture on the individual side with my predictions:

1.      Andrew Marston (#6)

2.      Casey Comber (#13)

3.      Henry Sappey (#33)

4.      Seth Slavin (#31)

5.      Matthew Scarpill (Just-Missed List)

6.      Brian Arita (#36)

7.      Rock Fortna (Just-Missed List)

8.      Ryan Barton

9.      Killian Nelson

10.   PJ Murray

11.   Andrew Hanna

12.   Nick Cruickshank

13.   Brian Mass

14.   James Cooper

15.   Shaun Bullock

16.   Declan McDonald

17.   Joe Maguire

18.   Charlie Barton

19.   Alex Ramirez

20.   Sean Griswold

Leading the way I think is Andrew Marston. He’s looked great so far this season and I think is really breaking out even more this season. Comber’s also looked good and I think he will give him a challenge and stay close, but in the end I have Marston coming away with the win. Behind them I have Henry Sappey in third over Seth Slavin. Sappey’s been a surprise this year and I think he will continue to be so I’m picking him over Slavin. Then Matthew Scarpill has looked better and better this season so he comes ready to play and takes down 5^th. While this is Arita’s home course and he may be a bit low in my predictions, he’s just been solid but not great this season. Behind that group is Rock Fortna, Ryan Barton, Killian Nelson and PJ Murray. All are guys who have had good starts to this season and are looking to continue to build towards a strong finish. This meet obviously isn’t as star-studded as Foundation last week or Briarwood the week before, but there’s a good group of runners here and I’m looking forward to seeing what they can do.

-Cummings

P.S. There won’t be any Eastern PA Rankings for this week, but I’m thinking it might be fun to give it a cool name. My current idea is “Beasts of the East”. Let me know if you like the name or have a different idea.