1A Mideast Preview
Boys
The top individual spot of the 1A Mideast is set to go to one of two people: Research Triangle's number one or Research Triangle's number two; Michael Swepson and Madison Daniel have run 16:03 and 16:04 this season, respectively. Having your teammate as your number one competitor can come with its advantages, so these two boys should have plenty of strategies at their disposal to ensure the race goes as planned. Twelve seconds behind the Research Triangle boys are Luke Bennett of Voyager Academy and Thomas Moore of Raleigh Charter. Bennett and Moore both have season bests of 16:16 and should be prepared to close out the top-4.
Saturday's 1A team competition should pan out nicely for Raleigh Charter, who is leading the virtual meet by a solid 19 points. Research Triangle should feel safe with their second-place ranking, but Voyager Academy's third place finish may be threatened by Woods Charter, who sits 7 points behind Voyager in the virtual scoring. Regardless of any shuffling of these four teams, it is safe to say that they will each earn their ticket to next week's state meet.
Girls
In the ladies' competition, there are three girls that are eyeing the regional title; Jade Ogilvie (Woods Charter), Hannah Zenker (Franklin Academy), and Gillian Scott (Raleigh Charter) all have similar times and are coming off of a conference championship where they all ran head-to-head. These girls know each other well, and I'm sure this is fueling their competitive mindsets. Ogilvie is currently ranked first based upon season bests, but the win cannot be determined until we see what each girl brings on race day. Grace Morningstar of Whiteville should also be able to hang tight with these girls.
Raleigh Charter and Research Triangle pulled away from the other teams in the virtual meet, and you can expect to see this play out just the same on race day. Placing each of their scoring girls in the top 25 is certainly what is setting these teams apart from the rest. Woods and Roxboro Community are also in line to move on to the state meet following tomorrow's competition.