Western PA Weekend Preview

This is usually a pretty quiet week for the west, but there are some meets that look to be shaping up to be pretty quick.  The Slippery Rock Invitational looks loaded this year.  It has never really attracted a lot of teams, but I guess some coaches are trying to make up for the fact that Tri-States is not being run at Cooper’s this year and they want their kids to see the course at least once before WPIALs.  The teams signed up include Fox Chapel, North Hills, Mount Lebanon, Canon McMillan, Grove City, Kiski, and Winchester Thurston to name a few.  The weather for Slippery Rock on Saturday is forecasted at a high of 63, which would be ideal for some quick times.

The individual battle looks to be shaping up to be pretty quick, 9 runners from entered teams have run 16:30 or under this season with another 9 under 17.  This meet rarely has more than 4 or 5 go under 17, so this should be exciting.  Out front Elias Graca and Jacob Heinauer look to continue their battle from last weekend at Red, White and Blue and should make for some quick times.  I, however, just cannot see Graca losing to Heinauer.  The Benka-Budnik duo of Grove City will look to get some low scores for their team, while Baun and Harris of Mount Lebanon will fight for points as well.  Will Loevner did not run at RWB, so hopefully we can see him out on the course this week alongside Landin DeLaney.  Griffin Mackey, a sophomore from Sewickley Academy went 16:11 this past weekend, so I’d look for him in the mix as well.  Kiski is in the line-up, so I hope we get to see Eric Kennedy make his debut after he didn’t run at RWB.

Top 15 Predictions:

1. Elias Graca, Fox Chapel - 16:19

2. Jacob Heinauer, North Hills - 16:27

3. Griffin Mackey, Sewickley Academy - 16:36

4. Eric Kennedy, Kiski Area - 16:36

5. Aaron Benka, Grove City - 16:38

6. Ethan Linderman, Canon-McMillan - 16:41

7. Ian Baun, Mount Lebanon - 16:42

8. Landin DeLaney, Winchester Thurston - 16:47

9. Will Loevner, Winchester Thurston - 16:47

10. Mike Burchlaw, North Hills - 16:49

11. Ryan Budnik, Grove City - 16:53

12. Colten Trimble, South Side - 16:56

13. Ian Harris, Mount Lebanon - 16:57

14. Zack White, West Allegheny - 17:00

15. Shane Burkhardt, Bethel Park - 17:04

The team battle has been dominated by Mount Lebanon over the past 4 years or so, with their winning margin being at least 60 in 3 of the past 4 years (they were not at the meet in 2012), so I would imagine they will win again this year.  North Hills will give them a run, but Lebo’s pack is just ridiculously tight this year.  Their top 5 at RWB came in within 22 places of each other while North Hills top 5 was spread out over 86 places.  Pack running wins races.

Top 3 teams:

1. Mount Lebanon

2. North Hills

3. Grove City

The Boardman Spartan Invitational in Boardman, Ohio usually draws a few PA teams.  There unfortunately isn’t a team list anywhere that I was able to find.  Milesplit wrote in an article a few days ago that North Allegheny will be attending this meet, so I would expect McGoey and Wharrey to fight for another 1-2 finish.  McGoey ran 16:00 last year and Wharrey did not race, so it will be interesting to see how they can place against Ohio’s top teams.  They took 4th last year behind Olentangy Liberty, Boardman and Louisville.  Louisville was a very young team last year, with 3 freshmen in their top 5, so I’m interested to see how NA can do against them.  The Boardman course is very fast and I imagine that Matt and Hunter can both run in the 15:45 range.  

The Forest Hills Invitational is also this weekend.  William Kachman of Bedford ran 15:49 at this meet last year to win by ten seconds and has already run 16:11 this year, so he should put on an impressive run this year as well.  He has the fastest PR in the race by 46 seconds, so I cannot imagine he will have a ton of trouble winning this meet in a fast time.

Those are all of the major meets in the western part of the state, hopefully we see a few more big performances!

Thanks for reading!

-Evan