Halfway through the summer months, and unless you are running summer track races, time can be slow and boring. Speculation about the fall cross country campaign and talk about the what-ifs can fill our mind, so here is a list of the top 5 questions on the minds of fans across the state.
5) Will this be one of the fastest years in LA history? While stories of sub 15s and teams who averaged mid to low 15s abound from the old guard, it is hard to verify results, but one only needs to look and see that LA returns 22 runners at 16:08 or better and have 8 runners who have bested 9:45 that will be running the courses around Louisiana this fall. Could this be a multiple sub 15 year?
4) Will this be one the last years that public and private schools compete against each other in Louisiana? Despite the LHSAA calling the issue Select vs Non-Select, this is a public vs. private battle. In their infinite wisdom, the LHSAA had decided to divide the publics and privates into separate playoff brackets for football (the 5A private school bracket has only 10 teams in the whole division. You can lose every game and still make the playoffs) which is actually one of the most competitive sports of public schools. Actually, outside of the small schools (1A-3A), public schools win more often in football than the private schools. It is the Olympic sports that the private schools dominate. Last year, public schools won only 2 of the 10 cross country state championships from 1A and up. In the era of "everybody gets a trophy", one can only imagine that the precedent has been set to exclude private schools from public schools that the future of the format we currently compete under is in jeopardy.
3) Will Louisiana have any national class cross country runners? Zachary Albright of SPS has clocked at 9:14 but also has the speed to run a 1:55. We know his prowess on the track as evidenced by a pair of Emerging Elite All-American honors he accrued this past season but his cross country season was less prominent, yielding just a third place at state meet. If Albright looks to qualify for any major national competitions for cross he needs to build off the strength of his track season and look to run well under 15 minutes for the three mile this fall. On the girls side, the three girls who have a shot at making a splash would be Mia Meydrich of Dominican, Allison Ringle of Parkway, and Gabrielle Jennings of First Baptist. Jennings left the track season with best marks, clocking a 5:05 mile with Meydrich hitting a 5:07 in the 1600. Both girls finished the track season strong and healthy and hopefully it will lead to a strong fall as well. Ringle, who ran well but not on the same level as the other girls in track, could be strongest in cross country though, where she the highest returner in 5A, having bested Meydrich for second at the state meet in cross in 2012.
2) Can EHS boys team win their 18th in a row this year? Incredibly one of the longest winning streaks in the country has a great chance to continue, although there is some serious competition this year. Even with the departure of ace runner Christian Johnson and a couple others, EHS is loaded and will be ready to tackle challengers from STA. The Falcons only lose one runner from last years 3rd place squad and will be laden with seniors hungry for their first state championship. Will the maturity of the EHS runners prevail or with STA finally break the streak?
1) Can St. Paul's win 5A this year? Okay, so this isn't much of a question since SPS is widely considered the top program in the state by a wide margin, but SPS has entered the state championship the last two years as the favorites. Two years ago they struggled with the temperature in the race and were hit hard by dehydration, then last year West Monroe had the race of their lives to knock off SPS who actually had a fine meet themselves. This year the team returns a whole top 5 who has run 4:42 or better and a handful of runners who are 10 flat talents or better. The senior duo of Zachary Albright and DC Lipani should be ready to lead the team. The only team that looks to offer any depth remotely competitive to SPS would be the perennial powerhouse Catholic High who will lack star power going into this year (although, I fully believe that they will have some athletes rise to the challenge as usual). West Monroe could obviously surprise and be a very good team but the exit of half their varsity squad will make a repeat run very difficult.
Chaz Caiado is a coach at John Curtis Christian school in River Ridge and the head coach of Southern Athletics. You can email him at vpprotraining@gmail.com or visit his website at www.vpathletics.com