1A Boys Preview
Bishop McGuinness carries the only championship streak of the afternoon session, having won the last three team titles. The Villains lost a ton to graduation, though, and they are not contenders to make the podium this year. Instead, it is their Midwest Region rival Walkertown that enters as the clear favorite to claim their first state championship (side note: since the Wolfpack has 4 seniors, there's a really good chance there will be yet another new team champion next year). To get the win, though, Walkertown will have to hold off two strong and evenly-matched teams from the Mideast. After winning their conference solidly, Raleigh Charter had to go to the tiebreaker to defeat Research Triangle at WakeMed last weekend, but only one of these two teams can make the podium if Walkertown runs to their potential.
Research Triangle does have the distinct advantage of having two runners who can contend for the individual title. Madison Daniel won the Mideast Region and enters as the favorite this weekend, but teammate Michal Swepson is capable of staying right with him. The same is true of Luke Bennett (Voyager Academy) and Thomas Moore (Raleigh Charter) - not only are all 4 of those guys in the same region, they're actually in the same conference! In fact, you can even include Jack Puryear (Research Triangle) in the mix, as he has also run under 16:30 this season. Under the right conditions, any of them could win Saturday, as the first four were within 6 seconds of each other last weekend. Kyle Rhodes (East Wilkes), Matthew Rogers (Walkertown), and Jake Baugher (Community School of Davidson) have the best chance to break up the NCAC domination of the individual resutls.