Thursday, October 18, 2007

I Will See Your Effort, and Raise You...

It looks as if the other conferences saw the results from Mid-Penns and decided to up the ante. Mid-Penns was a great race, but it was just the tip of the iceberg as to what was in store for the rest of conference championship week.

Where do I start?

At the Lebanon-Lancaster League meet, Vince McNally was unstoppable. He ran 15:02 for the victory. But let me put that in perspective, his next closest competitor ran 16:20. And yes, it was a record setting performance. Who's record did he break? None other than Craig Miller, the former Manheim Township standout who is now starring for the University of Wisconsin. He beat Craig's time of 15:19 from 2005. It is a great indicator of his fitness level, as Vince begins to make his final push to the end of the season.

At the Ches-Mont League Championship, Chris Aldrich began his final tune-up with a victory in 15:41, 20 seconds ahead of second-place finisher, Chris Bodary (Bishop Shanahan). Aldrich will have some competition next week at the District 1 Championship, as North Penn prepares to close out a great season. Aldrich is really rounding into form as his season is just getting underway.

New to the watch list this week is Natalie Bower. Bower won the Tri-State Coaches Association meet. Her winning time of 18:49 outdistanced the competition by 32 seconds. Bower will look to continue her streak of top-5 finishes at the state meet as she leads her team to a hopeful top-5 finish as well. Bower should definitely move up from her 91st place finish of a year ago. How high can she go? With the type of season she has been having she should get into the top 25. Watch Bower's post-race interview.

Carly Seymour continued their dream season as she and her team won the Laurel Highlands Conference meet. Seymour cruised through the 3 mile course in 17:07, 1:33 ahead of second place finisher, Sarah Strayer. Central Cambria won the team title with a score of 24 over Bishop McCort who tallied 82. Seymour stayed perfect on the year. Next up is the District 6 Championship.

Another newbie to the list is Meghan Lutz (Nazareth Academy) who was victorious at the AACA Championship with a fine time of 18:08, 47 seconds ahead of her closest competitor. Lutz will add depth to PA's strong contingent at the Foot Locker Northeast regional.

Germantown Friends and Max Kaulbach continued their dominance as they won the Friends School League Championships. They appear to be on schedule to make a serious run at the NTN regional on November 24th.

Next up: Districts!

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