Tons of strong battles are brewing for tomorrow's Norman Trzaskoma Invitational with Forsyth County rivals set to square off. The Norman Trazaskoma is where most Forsyth County teams will kick off their cross country seasons with a 2 Mile at Ivey Redmon.
Boys Varsity Race
On the boys side North Carolina's Preseason #1 and #3 runners are set to square off in what was an old CPC rivalry between Cameron Ponder (Mount Tabor) and John Tatter (RJ Reynolds). Tatter holds the better PR in 15:24 with Ponder's PR at 15:31, though Ponder has recently gotten the better of Tatter. The race will also feature Michael Moerk (Mount Tabor) who was also a sub 16 runner last fall and comes in ranked #14 in our preseason rankings. He's been a step behind Ponder throughout his career, but we'll see if he took a step forward this fall in closing that gap. Also Charles Pace (Mount Tabor) has been slightly underrated for Tabor over the last season and ran 16:10 as a junior.
Though Mount Tabor comes in as the team favorites due to a strong top 4, they don't have a 5th man and R.J. Reynolds is projected to score 7 runners before Tabor has a 5th in. We'll also see where West Forsyth and Walkertown boys stand coming into the season.
Girls Varsity Race
On the girls side the team battle looks to be the most exciting action of the day as Reagan, Mount Tabor and West Forsyth are projected 42, 48 and 49 points respectively. Reagan girls come is as the favorites with a strong 1-2 from Ainsley Cooper and Sophie Faircloth. Mount Tabor has a strong sophomore in Frances Whitworth who ran 18:54 as a freshman and had a very strong outdoor track season running 5:15. Faricloth should be the individual favorite after a 18:46 season debut at Providence last weekend. West Forsyth girls do have some strong freshman headlined by Bailey Reutinger and Elize Broce.
If the Titan's freshman are indeed the real deal I'd have them as the team favorites heading into the meet. Reagan had a strong showing at Providence taking 5th without Cooper running. We haven't seen anything from the Tabor girls this fall, but you can't count them out of putting up a fight for the team title. It's for sure going to be something to keep an eye on throughout the race, and every spot is going to matter!