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Preview - Manhattan Invitational - 2013- DyestatPublished by
Top teams in East gearing up for Manhattan
Manhattan Invitational Entries
(08-Oct) -- As has been tradition for a majority of the last 40 years, the Manhattan College Invitational presented by Reebok promises to be a competitive and telling meet showcasing many of the northeast's top cross country talent. Ten Dyestat Top-40 ranked teams will be competing between the boys and girls races, as well as a number of highly touted individuals. Here's a preview of Saturday's 2.5-mile contest through historic Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. BOYS EASTERN STATES RACE With two-time defending champion and event record holder Edward Cheserek graduated and now racing at the University of Oregon, the Boys Eastern States race is well up for grabs. Though the individual battle up front will be intense, the team competition is surely the highlight heading in. New Jersey's Christian Brothers Academy won the team title in both 2011 and 2012, and enter Saturday's race as the overall favorite. Ranked second in Dyestat's National Top-40 poll only behind Gig Harbor (WA), the Colts have already seen success this season. In September, CBA put five runners in the top 15 at the Bowdoin Park Classic in New York, led by senior Mike McClemens and sophomore Blaise Ferro. McClemons won that contest in 16:02.29, though the big story was that all five scorers had a spread of 40 seconds. En route to winning last year's Manhattan Invite title, the difference from their first to fifth runners was 37 seconds. If CBA runs together this weekend, a third consecutive team title is surely within their grasp. Trying to break CBA's winning streak will be New York's Fayetteville-Manlius and Pennsylvania's West Chester Henderson. Ranked fifth and ninth, respectively, in the October 3rd Dyestat rankings, both schools are surely looking at last year's Manhattan Invite results with added motivation. In 2012, West Chester Henderson finished runner-up to CBA, scoring 200 points, while Fayetteville-Manlius wound up in fourth with 218. Both Fayetteville-Manlius and West Chester Henderson have standout lead runners who should play a factor in the individual race. As of Tuesday, senior Tony Russell of WCH was the top returning athlete from a year ago entered in the meet. Russell placed fourth overall in 2012 and has run 12:24.7 on the challenging course. For F-M, last year's runner-up Nick Ryan may be gone, but junior Bryce Millar is ready to step up and fill the void. In 2012, Millar was the top sophomore in the Eastern States race, placing seventh overall less than three seconds behind WCH's Russell. As is tradition, New Jersey's Don Bosco Prep is one of the top teams in the region yet again, and could earn a spot on the podium, just like they did in 2012 when they finished third. Senior Kyle Levermore might be one of the overall favorites heading into the race, but he is out for a couple weeks with an injury. Look for Syracuse signee Mickey Burke of Rush Henrietta to be at the front of the pack. Burke got his season off to a fine start with a 10-second course record at the McQuaid Invitational. Other teams that could make some noise towards the top are Liverpool (NY, #22 nationally), Tatnall (DE, #24), and St. Anthony's (NY). Number 23-ranked Palos Verdes of California is traveling more than 3,000 miles across the country to race on the historic course. Individually, seniors Thomas O'Neill (Middletown North, NJ) and Brian Cook (Pearl River, NY) are contenders, as well as Liam Mullett of Pingry and Josiah Hanko of Trinity Christian are ones to watch. Also, juniors Benito Muniz (Carmel, NY) and Stephen Garrett (Tatnall, DE) both finished in the top 15 as sophomores in 2012. GIRLS EASTERN STATES RACE The Girls Eastern States division will be a showcase race, as two of the nation's top teams in Unionville (PA) and Fayetteville-Manlius (NY) rematch just two weeks after facing off in upstate New York. On September 28, the second and ninth-ranked teams in the nation squared off at the McQuaid Invitational at Genesee Valley Park in New York, with Unionville coming out on top 45 to 79. Led by senior Courtney Smith, the Unionville squad comes into Saturday's race with confidence having defeated the annual powerhouse in F-M. Joing Smith out front for Unionville should be Olivia Young, Emily Fisher, Kacie Breeding, and Elizabeth Edwards. Fayetteville-Manlius will rely on Annika Avery, Alana Pearl, and Jenna Farrell. Pearl was eigth a year ago at Van Cortland Park. Don't count out the girls of Pennsbury (PA), last year's ninth place finishers at Nike Cross Nationals. With a very young team (one senior, one junior, and five sophomores), Pennsbury is eager to lace up the spikes after their race last weekend at Lehigh's Paul Short Run was cancelled due to adverse heat. As a sophomore last year, Pennsbury's Maddie Sauer was 19th overall; she has yet to run a major invitational this season, having missed the PIAA Foundation Meet on Sept. 21 with illness. Others to consider in the team competition are Assumption of Kentucky, which just won at Great American last week; New York's Suffern, Academy of Holy Names, and Liverpool. Junior Kaylee Scott of Academy of Holy Names was the final girl under 15:00 last year, timing 14:59.3 for 12th place. Additional contenders include New England standouts La Salle Academy (RI) and Champlain Valley (VT), as well as Oakton (VA). Vermont's Gatorade Track Athlete of the Year in Autumn Eastman is scheduled to compete; she finished a spot behind Scott in 2012. Heading into Saturday's contest, though, Elk County Catholic (PA) senior Kennedy Weisner must be considered one of the favorites. In 2012, Weisner came oh-so-close to taking the title, finishing less than two seconds behind Tatnall's Reagan Anderson. Anderson has graduated and is now racing for Vanderbilt, so the top returning honors go to Weisner. This season, she finished first in the Seeded Varsity A race at the McQuaid Invitational two weeks ago. Though Tatnall (DE) graduated three of their top four from last year's winning team, they do return Kieran Hanrahan, a junior who was tenth overall in 2012. More news
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